This lecture will be devoted to an unprecedented multi-disciplinary investigation of the endangered musical traditions of the Mekhitarist Order of San Lazzaro, Venice, in the context of the Order’s close cultural ties with the European mainland, changing aesthetics, and shifts in the interplay between orality and notation.
Collating mediaeval sources with transcriptions, sound recordings and remnants of the oral tradition, Haig Utidjian will trace the evolution of the chants over time and provide a coherent framework for analysis, reconstruction and interpretation—raising substantial challenges that transcend the milieu of the island.