The recovery and revitalization of Hispanic Chant
The RESOUND Project is an ambitious research endeavor dedicated to the recovery and revitalization of Hispanic chant, a unique and largely forgotten form of sacred music from the early medieval Iberian Peninsula. Despite its historical significance and potential beauty, Hispanic chant remains silent and inaccessible due to the complexities of its musical notation.
The challenge lies in how to approach a musical tradition that we cannot hear. The notation, unlike modern musical notation, does not precisely indicate the intervals between notes, leaving the melodies shrouded in mystery. RESOUND seeks to overcome this obstacle by employing cutting-edge technologies and innovative methodologies to decipher the notation, reconstruct the melodies, and recreate the sonic experience of this ancient musical tradition.
By combining the expertise of musicologists, historians, computer scientists, and acoustic engineers, RESOUND aims to unlock the secrets of Hispanic chant and bring its lost sounds to life.
Work Package 1: Data Compilation and Corpus Creation
This initial phase focuses on gathering and organizing the source material for the project. This includes:
- Creating a comprehensive digital corpus of Hispanic chant manuscripts, including high-resolution images and virtual restorations.
- Indexing and cataloging all chants and related documentation, such as historical and liturgical texts.
- Applying advanced techniques like Carbon-14 dating and proteomics to analyze undated sources and determine their origin and provenance.
- Developing an online platform for storing and accessing the digitized data, facilitating efficient research and analysis.
Work Package 2: The Melomics and Chant Recovery Lab
This core component of the project delves into the analysis of the musical data, aiming to:
- Adapt tools from genomics and bioinformatics to analyze and compare the musical sequences, identifying patterns and relationships between different chants and repertoires.
- Develop computational methods to decipher the ambiguous Hispanic notation, potentially unlocking the melodies hidden within.
- Conduct phylogenetic studies to trace the evolution and transmission of chants, revealing influences and connections between different musical traditions.
- Reconstruct the lost melodies of Hispanic chant, potentially bringing this silent repertoire back to life.
Work Package 3: Aural Reconstruction of Acoustic Spaces
This innovative aspect of the project focuses on recreating the sonic experience of Hispanic chant in its original context:
- Conduct acoustic studies of surviving pre-Romanesque churches in Iberia, virtually reconstructing their sonic environments.
- Develop auralizations, combining anechoic recordings of reconstructed chants with virtual acoustic models of historical spaces, allowing listeners to experience the music as it might have sounded in its original setting.
- Create interactive virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications, offering immersive experiences of the music and its historical context to a wider audience.
Work Package 4: Singing the Hispanic Chant
The final stage of the project centers on bringing the reconstructed music to life and sharing it with the world:
- Develop a historically informed performance practice for Hispanic chant, based on research findings and acoustic recreations.
- Perform and record the reconstructed chants, creating a modern interpretation that reflects the latest research and understanding of the music.
- Disseminate the project’s findings and results through publications, conferences, concerts, recordings, and interactive online applications, making the revitalized Hispanic chant accessible to a global audience.
The RESOUND Project represents a groundbreaking effort to unlock the secrets of Hispanic chant, offering new insights into the history of Western music and potentially transforming our understanding of this ancient tradition. By bridging the gap between cutting-edge technology and historical research, RESOUND aims to give voice to a silent musical heritage, ensuring that its beauty and complexity can be appreciated and enjoyed by audiences today and in the future.
