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Highly Rhythmic Chant in Christ's Own Language
In the mountains of Lebanon, monks still chant the liturgy in Syriac, a form of Aramaic, the language Christ spoke. Fr. Toufic Maatouk, a monk of the Antonine Maronite Order, conductor, and scholar of Maronite chant, joins me to explore one of the least-known chant traditions in the Christian world.Why is Holy Week a season of joy rather than lament for the Maronites? How can about 125 melodies carry an entire liturgical year? And what is the "neutral third," the note that sits between major and minor and can be heard as either Western or Arabic? Fr. Toufic explains the roots of Maronite…
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