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    Following the discovery of the Cluny treasure,

a musical journey on the silk road,

in search of treasures and forgotten melodies...

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Claire Merigoux, direction and voice (France)

Jérôme Casalonga, voice, serpignola (Corsica)

Gianni de Gennaro, voice, fiddle,  nay, kaval ( Italy)

Martin Bauer, viola da gamba (France)

Samir Hammouch, qànun (Morocco)

Carlo Rizzo, Percussion, (Italy)

Taghi, Akhbari, voice (Iran)

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While in the Middle Ages and until the Renaissance, art music experienced a marked boom, what musical forms and traditions did we hear in the East?

 

What melodies resounded in the palaces of the Persian Empire, known as the cradle of oriental music?

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Although this question fascinates researchers and music lovers, it remained unanswered for a long time. Since oriental music is transmitted mainly orally, few written traces of these fascinating melodies are known, only from rare manuscripts, which shed light on very rich musical traditions, which have almost disappeared today.

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When we listen to these Eastern melodies, we cannot help but notice its surprising proximity to Western medieval music, in terms of rhythm, orchestration, instrumental configuration, melodic formation. ..

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These links and resemblances, like the treasure discovered in Cluny in 2017, testify to the almost permanent artistic relations and exchanges between East and West, through encounters, migratory movements, conflicts, religious inspirations.

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The objective of our project and to show this proximity between the music of the East and the West through the reconstruction of the sound traces of a traveling encounter which leaves Cluny to arrive in Isfahan, one of the silk roads.

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We bring a unique listening experience by opening a dialogue between experienced musicians and singers, who each and together ensure the reconstruction of part of this journey.  ODO restores the richness of multiple Western musical traditions to the heart of the palaces of the Persian Empire.

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A traditional Italian singer from Puglia, a Corsican polyphony singer, an Iranian singer, a French singer of ancient music, a viola da Gamba player, an Italian bowed fiddle player, a Moroccan qanun player specializing in Oriental music, a Italian percussionist...

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Our project offers a parenthesis, a blank page to write a story: to research and revisit the artistic heritage and to sound old music to make voices, strings and skins vibrate beyond the past, to highlight these forgotten melodies, real treasures.

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A dialogue between the East and the West at a time when the populations of these two worlds need it the most to overcome their current ethnic, religious, political and economic differences, to trust their artistic and cultural proximity which has brought them together since centuries.

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The Power of Music leads to openness, to Peace...

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