Online Musicological Conference & Concerts: The Syriac Musical Tradition - An Eastern Heritage, Exchanges & Influences

THE SYRIAC MUSICAL TRADITION – AN EASTERN HERITAGE

EXCHANGES & INFLUENCES

ONLINE MUSICOLOGICAL CONFERENCE -  GENEVA, SALLE DE LA BOURSE AND AROUND THE GLOBE, 17-21 MARCH 2021

Organised by the Haute Ecole de Musique of Geneva and the Laus Plena Foundation

REGISTER AND ATTEND THE CONFERENCE FREELY ONLINE ON WWW.SYRIACMUSIC2021.ORG

ܝܽܘ̈ܒܳܠܶܐ ܣܽܘܪ̈ܝܳܝܶܐ ܩܰܕܡܳܝ̈ܶܐ

SOURCES & DEVELOPPEMENTS, CHARACTERISTICS; EXCHANGES & INFLUENCES BETWEEN TRADITIONS; PRESERVATION AND HERITAGE STATUS

This conference aims at being an opportunity for exchange and discussion among more than 20 specialists of the Syriac Musical Tradition or specialists of its influences and exchanges with other traditions. The intention is to review the existing status of works and to revitalize the current research about it. The conference is public and largely open to representatives of the Syriac communities, to HEM and partner Universities students, and to any interested person. Presentations given during the conference will be published. Several concerts are offered to illustrate the conference.

The topics to be discussed develop four streams of analysis:

Sources and development of Syriac Music

We will focus on researches made about the sources and about the historical and geographical development phases of the Music of the Eastern and Indian Syriac Churches, taking into account both the recent philological discoveries and the footprints that can still be found in the alive oral traditions.

Characteristics: Syriac octoechos, modes, tetrachords, composition principles of Syriac melodies

A common conceptual legacy of the various Syriac musical traditions and of other Christian traditions, the Octoechos appears to have obtained its shared recognition in Jerusalem between the 5th and the 9th Centuries, presumably drawing from preexisting elements. Many questions remain open about its relation to Arabic and Turkish makams, Persian systems, as well as about its role in the Byzantine, Gregorian, Georgian and Armenian repertoire. The role of the Syriac tradition in the birth of the Octoechos, as well as  the building principles of Syriac melodies, will be given particular focus.

Exchanges with and influences on other traditions

How did the acculturation of Syriac musical traditions operate during their displacement into other linguistic and cultural areas? Which other Christian and non-Christian musical traditions were influenced by, or have influenced the Syriac Music traditions during their migration? How are these musical traditions preserved or transformed in the diasporas that emerged due to the contemporary migrations?

Conservation and Syriac heritage status

The  political conflicts of the last decades and the related immigration have considerably weakened the Eastern Churches’ Syriac musical heritage. By which means, such as recording, transcriptions, etc., and by which methodologies can the conservation of the Syriac musical heritage and its transmission be ensured ? 

The conference will build the foundation for a research project of the HEM dealing with the conservation and the heritage status of the Iraqi Syriac Churches repertoire.

PARTICIPANTS 

Gabriel Aydin, Syriac Music Institute, USA

Dr. Sebastian Brock, Oxford, UK

Dr. Enrico Fink, Shemah School of Jewish Studies, Florence, Italy

Jalal Polus Gajo, Iraq, Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève

Dr. Prof. Mammoottil P. George, Orthodox Theological Seminary, Sruti School of Music, Kottayam, India       

Dr. Michael Henein, Egypt, St Kyrel Trust, UK

Nouri Iskandar, Former Directeur of the Institute for Eastern Music, Aleppo, Syria

Dr. Tala Jarjour,  King’s College, London, UK

Prof. Dr. Peter Jefferey, Notre Dame University, USA (TBC)

Prof. Dr. Elias Kesrouani, Lebanon

Prof. Fadi Lion, Iraq, Par. St Ephrem, Lyon, France 

Raed Koshaba, Iraq, Hildesheim University, Germany (TBC)

Dr. Toufic Maatouk, Université Antonine, Lebanon (TBC)

Violaine Trentesaux Mochizuki, Marquartstein Institute, Germany

Prof. Nida Abou Mrad, Université Antonine, Lebanon

Dr. Joseph Palackal, Musicological Society of India

Prof. Miled Tarabay, Pontificio Istituto di Musica Sacra, Rome

Prof. Dr. Luca Ricossa, Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève

PROGRAMME

THE SYRIAC MUSICAL TRADITION CONFERENCE, 17-21 MARCH 2021

Preliminary program

23 February 2021, subject to modification

All times are based on Geneva time (Central European Time, UTC+1). For other locations use the following conversion table: