^{BY SIMON MUNDY | FIRST PUBLISHED 14 SEP 2025}

One of the great joys of Early Music is that there are still whole segments of its history that, after writing on music for more than 50 years, I know nothing about. So it was a pleasure to talk to Thomas Fournil about the group he directs, Idrîsî Ensemble, and one of their specialities: Old Roman Chant. My manuscript needs illuminating! Thomas was happy to help.

‘Old Roman Chant was the official liturgy of Rome until the 13th century; it is our oldest Greco-Latin tradition. In the 4th and 5th centuries, the liturgy was sung in Greek, as it developed from the Old Byzantine tradition. It was only notated between the 11th and 13th centuries, before it disappeared – though some Greek pieces survived, like our Oty Theos release on Spotify. What’s fascinating about these manuscripts is that all the ornaments are written out. They are not superficial, but part of the rhetoric and expertly crafted to the text. I believe this tradition is the missing link between late antiquity and the early medieval world, and it is integral to our heritage in Western Europe.’

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^{Idrîsî Ensemble performs Ότι Θεός (‘Oty Theos’) – Old Roman chant (4th-11th c.)}

Thomas Fournil comes from an unlikely place to become interested in this repertoire: Napoleon’s island of Corsica. It does explain, though, why he has approached the music from the perspective of how it developed from Mediterranean roots, including the mainland coast opposite his island where the Occitan language dominated. This outlook has shaped Idrîsî’s wider mission: performing endangered and UNESCO-protected traditions alongside early repertoire, letting them speak to each other to show how voices from the margins can illuminate our history. The singing and instrumental playing is very different from the habits that developed in cathedral choirs and 20th-century academic practice.

London proved to be the catalyst: ‘I was lucky to study at the Guildhall School before the fees rose in 2010, and before Brexit. The ensemble grew organically around London out of the Guildhall.’ Because the Guildhall as a conservatoire mixes all the variants of music, including jazz with its free ornamentation and rhythmic flexibility, Thomas was able to call on the variety of skills that could bring the possible sound of very early medieval practice back to reality. ‘I started Idrîsî Ensemble during my doctoral research. I realised that exciting new scholarship on medieval performance was not being put into practice. I needed singers and players willing to follow me down rabbit holes – to explore vocal techniques, microtones, ornamentation, improvisation. I did not want medieval music sung with purely classical voices. Performers from oral traditions are best suited to this repertoire, and it turns out, so are Jazz singers.’

The ensemble takes its name from the Islamic cartographer, Muhammad al-Idrîsî (1100–1165), who was born in Ceuta, educated in Cordoba, and invited to the court of Norman King Roger II of Sicily to reimagine what would become a revolutionary map of the known world. Among the instruments Idrîsî use are the medieval vielle, played by Lucine Musaelian (whose own exploration of Armenian traditions was featured on Continuo Connect earlier in 2025). Oliver Dover plays the kaval and the ney: the kaval, an ancient end-blown shepherd’s flute central to pastoral traditions across the Balkans and Anatolia; and the ney, a reed flute with roots in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, now central to Ottoman, Persian, and Arabic music. Konstantinos Glynos plays the kanun, a plucked zither found across the Mediterranean and Middle East. Thomas says, ‘the kanun resembles medieval instruments such as the psaltery, but is fitted with levers that allow microtonal adjustment while playing. Most medieval instruments are studied as a second instrument, but Konstantinos grew up with the kanun, bringing extraordinary musicality and virtuosity to our performances.’

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^{Idrîsî Ensemble performs ‘Ar em al freg temps vengut’ from 1773 – attributed to Azalais de Porcairagues, the earliest known trobairitz}

The last five years have not been an easy period in which to build an ensemble working with such unusual repertoire, Thomas explained. ‘COVID was really difficult. Our music takes a long time to put together, it cannot be prepared in isolation, but that is part of what makes it special.’ Today the challenges are different. As an ensemble based in London with players from across Europe, he says the group has had to navigate the added complexity and uncertainty brought by Brexit, particularly around touring – an issue that has lingered unresolved since the negotiations. Fortunately, ensembles such as Idrîsî endure, reshaping how European heritage is understood and performed, and bringing extraordinary vitality to the UK early music scene.

The Idrîsî Ensemble is touring this September through English cathedrals (Manchester, Leeds and Bristol), exploring a millennium of musical traditions in a manner that will feel very unfamiliar in those buildings now, but would not have seemed strange to their first worshippers, especially those coming back from the crusades. They will also appear at Union Chapel on 16 November as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival.