The fields of research

Hymns

This research field has developed as a result of reflection on the hundred years since the separation of the Church from the State; it encompasses the themes of the sacred, the collective, the religious, of articulation at an ideological level. A comparison with the practices of other nations is also possible. It is a topic to be explored in the medium rather than the short term.

The voice and the sacred in the baroque era

One of the themes of the founding symposium, this research topic may be practically applied to the Centre's activities. A particular resonance was found in 2005 with the theme of the castrati, coinciding with the 300th anniversary of the birth of Farinelli. Not that it is always necessary to fall in with current commemorative trends, but this particular voice exercised a grip on the collective imagination which can be felt even to this day. Why is this such a fashionable subject? We can partly associate it with the thinking on flamenco, where the more the voice is imbued with history, the more beautiful it is.

The representation of the tragic

With a masterclass on the Leçons de ténèbres, it seemed interesting to compare the baroque and contemporary representations of the tragic. What does the enjoyment of music and the enjoyment of violence mean? This can also be a means of reflecting upon the ambivalent nature of music as much as of the sacred.