Rob Howe asks:
>I am preparing materials to investigate the function of Ensemble
>Organum within a general contemporary music-culture.
Are they well-known enough within "general contemporary music-culture"
to have a defined function? I'd suggest not.
>Why do we tend to equate value with authenticity?
We don't, do we? Some people do, but I think it's a matter of
being seduced by rhetoric. More rhetoric is flowing the other
direction now, and the "consensus" I see among interested amateurs
is that "authenticity" (which people are learning doesn't really
exist) is basically orthogonal to value.
>The ethnomusicological practices of the group are somewhat elusive to
>unearth. Does anyone have any views on these, even if not with respect
>to their subsequent application to the performed music?
I think they are interesting ideas.... I like the way that Ensemble
Organum will take chances and try new things, even if I am rarely
entirely pleased with the result. If we're talking performance,
rather than musicology, having ideas and being innovative is crucial
to maintaining the momentum which HIP presently has. In another
forum, we have taken to calling Peres the "mad genius" and I think
the label fits.
>Also, to what extent do we think that Ensemble Organum's approach has
>affected the performance of other early music
I have not seen an effect, although I expect there will be one down
the road. The idea of mixing traditions is certainly highly
significant to contemporary composition in art music.
>Does the addition of the ison drone in the recording of Roman Chant
>make it more 'accessible' to an audience outside the specialist
>classical listenership?
No, I don't think it does. If we look at the most popular recordings
of similar music, such as the Monks of Silos or the Hildegard discs,
we don't generally find this drone approach. For the marginally
informed listener, if anything, the approach makes the performance
more perplexing and consequently less popular.
Todd McComb
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