As
coincidence would have it I listened to this CD only days
after attending a lecture about the reconquest of Spain
and hearing a Spanish music (Christian, Jewish, Islamic) concert
by the venerable Waverley Consort. At first glance this disc
seemed to flow perfectly into the same stream of Iberian music
and history. But after I had listened to From Byzantium
to Andalusia, I realized that I was dealing with something
a little different. This CD represents a cross-section of
musical/religious cultures around the Mediterranean, including Spain,
but spreading a wider and less concentrated musical net than
the lecture and the concert.
For
those not up on their Iberian history, 1492 was not only the
year that Columbus discovered America, but also the year that
the Christian Spanish conquered the last stronghold of the
Moorish Muslims in Spain. This was more than a political event
as the Christian rulers Ferdinand and Isabella soon exiled
any Moors and Jews who were not willing to convert to Christianity,
in spite of previous promises to the contrary. The Moorish
rule before this had been tolerant of all non-Islamic faiths
and over time had evolved a syncretic combination of cultures
and religions that seems praiseworthy even today. While not
as tolerant, the Byzantine civilization at the other end of
the Mediterranean also presented a positive picture
of cultures living in harmony. A third example might better
known to fans of Szymanowski: the court of King Roger.
The
Oni Wytars Ensemble has been in existence since the early
1980s, a time when World music was almost an unknown concept.
Their specialty is music of the whole Mediterranean and of all the inherent cultures,
which is a very extensive charge, as they have demonstrated
by the variety of their previous recordings on Naxos. On this disc they try to demonstrate the commonality of musical style
in the area five hundred years ago, but end up displaying
a more common approach in their own performances than in the
music itself.
Of the fifteen tracks listed
above, we may divide them up for demonstration purposes as
follows:
Christian: Tracks 1-4, 8,
9, 14, 15
Arab: Tracks 5-7, 13
Jewish: Tracks 10-12
From
the Christian tracks alone we have music from Italy (Laudario di Cortona), Lebanon, and two different parts of what we now call Spain. The Jews and the Arabs are similarly
all over the map. Yes, if you close your eyes, you frequently
don’t know which tradition the music belongs to, but one is
left with more of a musical travelogue than with a picture
of a unique moment in Western history. The Mediterranean
is the main character here, not the various peoples of the
past.
The
research that went into this disc is well documented in the
program notes. The recording is excellent; though it seems
to be taken from a couple of live concerts. One would not
know it except for the applause. The individual performers
are very committed and very lively, though their performance
style tends to favor the Islamic part of the Mediterranean
equation at the expense of the Judeo-Christian. As a document
of the interpenetration of culture in this time and place,
the disc falls short because it spreads its net too wide geographically
at the same time that it applies a uniform style to a many-sided
world.
William Kreindler
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