Honors College, Subiaco Abbey to Host 'Songs from the Camino' Concert

Artwork by Leigh Caruthers Prassel

Songs from the Camino

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Every road trip needs a soundtrack. In the Middle Ages, on the storied pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, those tunes would be sacred music chanted by monks and catchy cantigas sung by the faithful making the long trek to the cathedral of Saint James.

Music lovers with a penchant for time travel will want to attend “Songs from the Camino,” organized by the University of Arkansas Honors College in partnership with the Department of Music in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. The concert will feature the renowned Schola Cantorum choir, directed by Stephen Caldwell, assistant professor of music and director of choral activities, and a new group, the World Music Ensemble, directed by Nikola Radan, a composer, flute player and instructor in the music department.

“Songs from the Camino” will be performed twice. Both concerts are free and open to the public:

6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2, Honors Student Lounge, Gearhart Hall 130, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Presented as part of the Honors College House Concert series, this performance will take place in the warm intimacy of the Honors Student Lounge. A light reception will follow the concert; please RSVP and come early to reserve your seat.

7:15 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, Subiaco Abbey, Paris, Arkansas. Following evening mass at Subiaco Abbey, the monks, students, and friends from the community are invited to experience the medieval repertoire in the soaring spaces of the Benedictine monastery. No RSVP necessary.

Sacred Masses, Pop Tunes and a Hurdy Gurdy

The concert will feature an eclectic mix of sacred and popular music associated with the Camino de Santiago.

“The Cantigas de Santa Maria were the popular music of the time, sung by pilgrims on the road and by the fire at night,” Stephen Caldwell said. These tunes will be accompanied by the 10-piece World Music Ensemble, which includes percussion, flutes, cello, violin, guitar, horns and medieval instruments such as the hurdy-gurdy and the santoor, “which comes from Persia, now Iran,” said Nikola Radan. “The santoor came with the Moors to the Iberian Peninsula, and troubadours adopted it.”

Schola Cantorum will also perform sacred music such as motets by Sermisy and Peñalosa, movements from the 14th century Messe de Toulouse and Pérotin’s monumental 13th century Viderunt Omnes, an early example of polyphony, where singers perform different parts simultaneously.

“Pilgrims stopping at cathedrals for mass would have heard these,” Caldwell said. “So, we have a nice mix of popular music sung by pilgrims on the Camino, and sacred music that monks would have sung at cathedrals along the way.”

Interpreting music originally composed in the 13th and 14th centuries with minimal notation is not without challenges.

“The music doesn’t show rhythms or meter; we take the liberty to interpret,” Radan said.

“It was cat scratches at best, and lit by a single candle. How did they do this?” muses Caldwell.

The Musicians & the Concert Series

Schola Cantorum, in its prestigious 59-year history, has performed on the Today Show, at the Vatican and at the White House Rose Garden. Membership is highly selective and includes undergraduate and graduate students from every college on campus. The choir tours nationally and internationally giving around 15 concerts each academic year.

The World Music Ensemble has emerged from a new chamber music class that explores world music traditions ranging from West African drumming to medieval Portuguese ballads. In addition to traditional ethnomusicology, the course focuses on high-level performance in non-Western traditions.

The Honors College House Concerts series was launched in 2014 and has featured a wide range of artists, from opera singer (and honors alumna) Sarah Mesko to a collaborative tribute to Nina Simone. The series is held in the Honors Student Lounge in Gearhart Hall, a beautifully appointed room that provides a comfortable setting for these intimate concerts.

About the Honors College: The University of Arkansas Honors College was established in 2002 and unites the university’s top undergraduate students and professors in a learning environment characterized by discovery, creativity and service. Each year the Honors College awards up to 90 freshman fellowships that provide $72,000 over four years, and more than $1 million in undergraduate research and study abroad grants. The Honors College is nationally recognized for the high caliber of students it admits and graduates. Honors students enjoy small, in-depth classes, and programs are offered in all disciplines, tailored to students’ academic interests, with interdisciplinary collaborations encouraged. Fifty percent of Honors College graduates have studied abroad – three times the national average – and one hundred percent of them have engaged in mentored research.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs.