Having looked at Lisa Lewis's notes to 'The Eye of Allah', about the
sources that RK used for his historical background, I decided to follow
up that church organ, since it bothers me every time. I'm talking about
the scene where the abbot and his guests listen to the Cantor rehearsing
the choir. I showed the passage to Duncan Feilden, an expert in early
music, and he confirmed that the hints that are given about the style of
the music are not consistent with what is now known about music in
medieval monasteries.
There were organs of a sort - there are Norman pictures of angels
playing a small instrument with a keyboard and pipes, but this is
hand-held, and it is pretty certain that any organ used in the
thirteenth century would have been small and only capable of single
notes, not harmony. It would not have been 'in the loft', as RK has it,
and it would certainly not have been capable of 'raging', nor of
expressing 'terror and warning' - which were not generally expressed in
medieval church music.
However, the research which has established this was not done until the
second half of the twentieth century - much of it only in the last
twenty years, so Kipling could not have known. What I'm wondering,
though, is whether his sources told him that nothing ws known, therefore
he felt free to make it up, or whether it simply did not occur to him
that medieval church music might be very different from in his day.
I find the question especially interesting having read, for the first
time, 'Proofs of Holy Writ', with the discussion between Ben Jonson and
Shakespeare about historical and geographical accuracy. The key question
there seems to be, 'Does it work for the audience it's aimed at?' The
choir rehearsal scene fulfils several important functions in the story,
and I feel almost guilty that I can't help finding fault with it.
Liz
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|