Chant as Local Knowledge

This chapter is the second of two that focus on local forms of music knowledge. After the previous chapter dealt with written sources on Syriac chant, this one pursues analytical tools for understanding local conceptions of modality through ethnographic observation of the process of oral chant practice. It tackles the problematic questions of whether Syriac chant submits to an eightfold system, and whether its eight groups have a modal nature. By addressing contested issues, such as music theory and transcription, the chapter argues that understanding music involves understanding overlapping forms of knowledge, not only in how music is organized but also in experience and judgment. Perceptual and analytical modes of knowledge intersect with experiential knowledge in various ways. Localized nuances of the aesthetic reside in such intersections, and they arbitrate between how sounds are organized and used, and how modality is felt and explained.