Quo Nunc?

Quo Nunc?

What if the words sung in Gregorian Plainsong were secular, not religious? What if the words were nonetheless sung in Latin, in a space sounding like a cathedral, or a temple, thereby retaining the atmospherics and mystery associated with religious plainsong?

What if drums had not, for centuries, been more or less completely absent from Western European culture? What if huge, beautiful drums such as the taikos of Japan had always had a place in Western European music of the last thousand years or more?

What if a new, secular kind of Gregorian Plainsong were combined with the sound of those huge taiko drums?

This is something that Jonathan Kirby set out to explore and, with the help of Matthew Cann, is now able to demonstrate in recorded form:



Viam Tympani

    Overwhelmed by the troubles of this world
    Be still and hear your heart beat
             Follow the way of the drum
    Have courage, be not afraid
    But listen to the beat of your heart
    You need to have courage
    To understand the Language of the World
             Follow the way of the drum
    From the beating of your heart, as of a drum
    You will learn courage
             Follow the way of the drum
    Do not ask others
    What you wish to understand
    Rather, the answers are within
    If you dare to listen out for them
              Having followed the way of the drum
             Having followed the way of the drum