Syriac Musicological Conference

In Geneva from 23 to 24 October 2020

Syriac Musicological Conference

The Haute Ecole de Musique (HEM) of Geneva (Department of Ancient Music and Department of Ethnomusicology) and the Laus Plena Foundation in Lugano will organize a Musicological Conference on Syriac music on October 23 and 24, 2020, probably with the support of additional sponsors. Syriac music is rooted in the culture of Mesopotamia, and is heir to the ancient, high musical traditions of these regions. The researcher, Poles Gajuo, who is supported by the Laus Plena Foundation for a Master's degree in Ethnomusicology at the HEM, will also collaborate in the organization of the conference.

In those two days on 23 and 24 October 2020, scholars and experts from the HEM and from various others parts of the world will meet and exchange their knowledge focussing on Syriac music. Among the topics to be discussed and analyzed are the sources and developments of the Syriac musical tradition, its specific characteristics, the influences it has received, and the internal exchanges that have taken place. Among the invited lecturers there will be both professors and confirmed experts, as well as some students specialized in Syriac music.

The conference will be inserted among the activities and academic proposals to the students of the HEM (Masterclass, Cycle of Conference) and the University of Geneva and Neuchâtel and schools with which they collaborate, but it will also be open to the public and to several special guests (the Syriac Communities and Maronites present in Switzerland and in other countries, ecclesiastical and diplomatic authorities of the respective countries, any other person interested). It is planned that the interventions of the lecturers will be published, and that concerts of Syriac music will take place, with a choir composed of Syriac and Middle Eastern elements as well as of local students, which, during the year, will form their ear and their voice to the Syriac eastern music (characterized among others by the use of three quarters of tone, and of frequent and sudden changes of rhythms). Perhaps it will even be possible to partially perform the Syriac Symphony for soloists, choir and orchestra, composed by Armando Pierucci on some of the most ancient traditional songs of the Syriac – Maronite tradition(s).

For the Laus Plena Foundation, besides the cultural purpose of the conference, the idea is also to rediscover the original sources of Christian Sacred Music. The Syriac tradition preserves the Aramaic language of apostolic times and probably also the original sounds of apostolic times, as well as the expressions of faith of when the Church was one and was happy to sing it with the poetry of St. Ephrem.