Professor Dwight Reynolds (Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara)
Multilingualism and Multimusicality in the Medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean
People often sing in languages they cannot speak and often listen to songs in languages they do not understand. A statement so obvious it hardly seems worth mentioning, except that we rarely ask what the implications of this common human behavior are for cultural interactions over time and space. Through the process of contra factum, new words (often in a new language) are set to old melodies, and old texts are set to new melodies. The result is a complex network of lyrics and melodies criss-crossing the Mediterranean, being performed by musicians, and for audiences, who may or may not understand the language of the words. What can this fascinating situation tell us about cultural contacts and exchanges over time in the Mediterranean region?