Monastic music that survived Henry VIII’s dissolution brought back to life | Choral music
Almost five centuries ago, a community of monks in the western country of England came together to sing and asked them to help their gods endure the difficulties of medieval life.
At the beginning of the 16th century, thanks to an extraordinary discovery of Henry VIII’s disintegration of the monasteries, the songs created by Buckland Abbey priests were playing again this weekend through the hills and forests of the Tavy Valley in Devon.
Themes are heavy – threats caused by disease and crop failures in order not to mention strong rulers – but the polyphonic style is bright and cheerful, a contrast with the mostly associated hymns with monks.
“This is an extraordinary rich, textured voice, Prof Prof James Clark said Exeter University HistorianWhile rehearsing in Buckland, the university’s chapel choir. “They all sing together, but they follow different melodies. This is a kind of melodic sound cacophony.”
Clark found music while researching Buckland Monastery for national trust. It was just a book – more monks that put forward the customs followed by the monks held at the British Library.
“I did not give much hope that Buckland Monastery would suddenly open up the lost world, Clar Clark said. But behind his book Buckland, he encountered some parchment leaves.
“These leaves contained pieces of dhikr-meters and show. Although there are more than 800 monasteries in the Middle Ages, you can count almost surviving music pieces.
“Tudor State scrapped the Latin worship and the lyrics and music that came with him were largely thrown. Most of these things disappeared. But there was pushed behind the book.”
Most of the book was written in the 15th century, but Clark was able to go up to the beginning of the 16th century with music. “This made it especially exciting because it carries us to the last generation monks of the medieval British tradition, which was there for a millennium,” he said.
He drowned with another Buckland document from the same period. “With extraordinary random, it turned out to be the contract of an organizer and the employment of the pirate.” His name was Robert Derkeham, and he was hired to heal the songs of dozen monks living in Buckland, and local children brought to tell the treble pieces.
In addition to worshiping God, Clark explained that the monastery is trying to influence the bosses by creating great music. “The monasteries were competing in a very crowded market for investment from the bosses,” he said.
“One of the strategies was to raise the music. Buckland bought expertise to turn it into a more professional thing that they could be a very irregular choir.
Derkeham has remained in the monastery for more than 15 years until it was closed and retired.
Clark said the text was dark. Biri He says that we can call an old covenant God. One invites God to defend his people;
Clark, “I love this feeling that you take us back to a moment. In our world, it becomes more difficult to grasp the medieval religion. I think this helps us to return to understanding that it is a sensory experience,” Clark said.
“If we will make these people who died 500 years ago as historians, we must understand the world as they see and experience.”
The book was borrowed to Buckland by the British library and can be seen in the monastery.
