jwilzewske: Trio Mediæval: Dark Winters, Mythical Thinking, and the Duty to Invent

A principle that is characteristic of both mythical and musical thought is that which is referred to as ‘calculus of combinations’. According to this principle, myth consists of distinct elements or ‘mythemes’, which the narrator of a myth—like any speaker of a language—may combine by obeying certain rules, thus creating mythical stories and utterances. The same principle can be found in folk music as well. ...Folk-melodies reshape and transform themselves everywhere. ...[Only fragments] have survived in the memory of the people. It is due to this fact that the melody includes numerous tonal irregularities.”
— Eero Tarasti, p.45.

Trio Mediæval’s performance yesterday (02 December) at Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Kansas City was exceptionally good. The weather outside the filled-to-capacity cathedral was freezing, and the audience deeply appreciated the Trio’s warmth and charm.

It isn’t often that we think of medieval singing and jazz improvisation at the same time. But, in fact, much of the charm derives from improvisational qualities of the Trio’s performance. The ‘tralling’ (mouth-singing, of rhythmic nonsense syllables); the ornamentations and microtonal shadings they applied to various figures, especially in solo passages; the antiphonal and aleatoric effects they used in several songs as they sang, dispersed in different locations within the cathedral sanctuary and, walking, converged on the central altar platform; the atmospheric effects by guest percussionist Birger Mistereggen, who simulated blustery gales, drifting snow, sea blown against a rocky shore, wind clacking icy branches together, cows in a mountain meadow, animals in the stable, etc.—all of these were delivered in an engaging, extemporaneous, dramatic manner. The improvisational effect is more evident because the Trio does not rely on sheet music during performances: the entire recital is done from memory.

If as a child you were ever thrilled by a parent or grandparent who told you bedtime stories from memory, confabulating new and exotic features on the fly, that is the spell-binding effect that you can expect from Trio Mediæval’s singing. It is a spell of clan and family, longing and belonging. Etymologically, ‘tralling’ → ‘thralling’ → ‘enthralling’ → ‘enthralled’ : the listeners who were these songs’ original target audience were induced to be ‘in thrall’ to the clan elders/chieftains/society whose songs these are. No mere artifacts, these folk songs were ancient normative generators, anchors, and enforcers of cultural identity, family identity, individual identity—the songs were a means for the continual inculcation and (re-)invention of identity, desire for community, and belonging. Ethnomusic-archy!

In fact, that inventive quality is a fundamental aspect of traditional Scandinavian skaldic poesy. The nominal sketch, characters, sequence of events, and so forth are there. The framework of the story must be respected, but the storyteller who recreates the story is obliged, aesthetically, to personalize and revivify it in the retelling. Each time the story is retold, the storyteller must extemporize and breathe fresh life into the story. Considerable dramatic license is granted for the performers to embellish and resequence, to repeat or return to subplots or vamp and emphasize some feature of a character or location, some interaction between characters that bears some special relevance to members of this audience on this night’s retelling. Trio Mediæval’s improvisations are just like that: faithful, conspiratorial, storytellerly improvisations.

After all, this historically-informed performance (HIP) practice is serious ethnomusicology, but it is not museum conservation of static texts. The music is continually evolving. The Trio focuses on individual performers and the insights gained from them about learning how to arrange and sing this traditional material, and performing such folksongs in public. The Trio’s website notes some of those who have preserved this oral tradition, from whom the Trio has derived some of their arrangements of these tunes. Although a first-rate singer or Hardanger fiddler may take up tunes (‘slattar’) from other performers past or present, it’s incumbent upon a new performer to add something of her/his own whether it be different ornamentation or varied rhythms or new ‘mouth sounds’. It would be banal to slavishly reproduce what has been done before. It would be ‘bad form’ and aesthetically false. Conservation is not sufficient for authenticity. It’s essential that skalds/singers contribute something new and diverting each time. True also of the folkmusic and stories of Finland, Iceland, and Sweden. Think of Eddas and sagas; think of Kalevala.

In this concert we were reminded that myth and music are two forms of discourse that are interrelated, as Eero Tarasti and others have written. Trio Mediæval reveals to us precisely and vividly how they are related. Bravo!

I f music has its own place in all reflections on culture, it [holds this position of power] by the stakes it represents. Music is indeed never insignificant. It is simultaneously a strong and unifying means of communication and a revealer of identity within the abundance of models that characterise a society.”
— Laurent Aubert, Music of The Other.

jwilzewske

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Trio Mediæval: Dark Winters, Mythical Thinking, and the Duty to Invent

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