The ancient texts express the musical realities of yesteryear in terms that are not familiar to us. We must learn the musical language of men of the past, but also their global way of expressing
themselves, their imagination, their daily lives and to represent how they themselves were in a process of memory. It’s not just about taking a score and playing it, but also about understanding the world that this music refers to.”
Marcel Pérès
Next workshop
From March 27 to 29, 2026 in Moissac (Occitanie)
These sessions explore the oldest forms of singing, whose writing has retained traces, from late Antiquity to the compositions of Hildegard of Bingen. Through these songs, a science of breath from a very ancient tradition is revealed. It will be approached from a concrete angle – as a musical gesture – through vocal and corporeal exercises, like a yoga of sound.
Workshop 80€….
Registration for year 2026 30€
This workshop is aimed at all those who want to sing, children and adults, whatever your musical level is and wish to participate in this memorial walk throughout the centuries.
Present in Moissac since 2001, the association Organum has developed, without interruption, an intense musical, social and historical activity. The action of Organum had begun in 1982 in close relation with the all new Cultural Centers of Meeting: Villeneuve les Avignons, the abbey of Sénanque, the Royaumont Foundation for the Progress of Human Sciences, foundation with which Organum collaborated for about fifteen years before settling in Moissac, hosted by a municipality open to the cultural development of its heritage treasures.
The approach of the Organum ensemble quickly integrated into the local fabric. Singing sessions, activities for children, three annual festivals, offer about twenty concerts per year, a dozen singing sessions that attract a very varied audience. There is no selection, these meetings are open to everyone and attract a local and international audience.
Organum considers heritage as a seed that is destined to germinate and reveal the life, energy, vision and relationship to the world that animated our predecessors. Heritage thus becomes a wonderful land to travel where it becomes possible to encounter the thoughts and energy that brought out the beauties that built our civilization.
The activities of the Ensemble Organum radiate throughout the world the knowledge of what is being built in Moissac. Deep links are thus created, spreading over the long term, between individuals, research centres, universities, ensembles or festivals. These links create a circulation of very varied thoughts, know-how and people. Each year the programming that takes place in Moissac continues or precedes deployments taking place in other places. The year 2026 will thus see the Moissac’s programming resonate with Rome (Italy), Elche, Granada, Salamanca (Spain), Poznan, Cracovie (Poland) Bogota (Colombia), Brussels (Belgium), Amsterdam (netherland), Montreal (Canada), Rabat (Morocco).
On the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of Ensemble Organum, in 2022, Marcel Pérès wrote:
“The project of the Organum ensemble could be summarized as follows: to bring back to the shores of linear time forgotten repertoires, transmit them through teaching, concerts, recording and book publishing, put them in relation with living traditions, deeply renew cultural action and practices and use the discoveries that arise to fundamentally rethink the processes of creation and transmission.
Besides a historical and technical approach to the music of the past, the practice of forgotten repertories reveals to us the metaphysical function of music. The architecture of sound is the sign of a relationship between man and his own destiny. At this point is surpassed the social and even cultural dimension of musical art, as man is challenged by the image of his supernatural destiny.
The different music styles should be perceived as so many sound icons, vibrating entities that invite the listener to immerse himself in an emotional experience of which words and sounds are only the sign. Thus was born in 2011 the motto of Ensemble Organum: To explore the driving forces of our cultural heritage.
