duggup

Artist: Sister Marie Keyrouz
Website: www.keyrouz.com/engindex.html
Track Name: assorted samples
Playback: flash
Download?: No

You may wonder about this but don’t be surprised if you are drawn into the music too. Sister marie Keyrouz is a Lebonese nun, living in Paris. She is a renowned musicologist who specialises in Christian spiritual music.

Much of it is a repertoire of chants from Syrian, Maronite, Melkite, Byzantine and other Christian traditions. She performs these ancient sacred songs making their complexity seem effortless. Her vocal embellishments are quite remarkable and her grasp of the microtones that fall between the western 12 tone system of music is not my usual area of comfort – yet the music has me intrigued.

In the service of her musical studies she has assembled 40 like minded singers and musicians and together they comprise the Ensemble for Peace. Her website has this to say:
When Lebanon was being shattered by bombs (1984) and its greatest need was peace, Sister Marie Keyrouz was living in Beirut and dreaming of doing something to fight against her country being torn apart by the so-called religious war, by intolerance, the decline of culture and the disregard for all that was sacred.

This is what made the nun, a musician, call on all her colleagues, from all the religions and rites of Lebanon, to gather around holy music and try to defeat the evil and ugliness of war with all that was spiritual and beautiful – and that was the inception of the “Ensemble for Peace”.

I’ve found a video which is part interview and part performance which while sadly having very poor sound quality is still an interesting fusion of east meets west with her ensemble performing with the Ensemble Orchestra of Paris. May not appeal to everyone but recommended listening.