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The Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf has experienced an amazing cultural renaissance in the past decade.  Nobel Prize-winning Irish author Seamus Heaney's new translation in 1999 captured worldwide interest, and four general release film versions of the tale appeared in its wake.*  In 2007, two other cinematic adaptations were added to the interpretive mix,Beowulf: Prince of the Geats, an all-volunteer film project, and the SciFi Channel'sGrendel.  

Alongside these modern reincarnations comes a vision of how the poem may have been performed a millennium ago.  On Saturday evening, February 28, at 8 p.m. in Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, noted medieval music practitioner Benjamin Bagby will tell the tell of Beowulf and Grendel, accompanying himself on a reconstructed 7th century harp.  Presented by The Friends of Chamber Music as part of its Early Music Series, Beowulf will be performed in Anglo-Saxon with English supertitles.  Those who have seen this elsewhere have described it as "captivating" and "unforgettable."  

Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon epic dating from sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries, was most likely part of an oral tradition before it was written down and codified.  Bards, the singing poets of medieval Europe, may well have performed the story to their own musical accompaniment.  Bagby, in his version, follows the bardic practice and has created his own music based on the inherent properties of medieval epic song.   Just as one can learn an older literary language, so has Bagby acquired fluency in the musical language of the 11th century.  His familiarity with the intricacies of the era's distinctive measured meter, from the smallest discernable units to the overarching shape of an entire work, serves as the foundation for his interpretation.  Above a virtually imperceptible underlying metrical scaffolding, Bagby employs various types of vocal utterances to bring the tale to life.  Audience members will encounter plain and heightened speech, sung melodies, and numerous other vocal sounds, including whispers, moans, barks, shouts, and even screams. The "singer of tales" takes on all the dramatic roles in the story, including that of narrator, and, as a single performer, offers a musical-theatrical monologue that engulfs and engages the audience. 

Bagby also includes an element of improvisation in his telling of the tale, just as singing storytellers would have done in the Middle Ages.  While the set pieces, the main parts of the epic, remain largely unchanged from performance to performance, the material that separates them is continually modified.  An element of freshness is thus always present. 

Benjamin Bagby is one of the premier figures in medieval music circles.  Known as both a scholar and a performer, he co-founded the group Sequentia, one of the leading medieval ensembles, in 1974.  Currently based in Paris, he is on the faculty of the Université Paris Sorbonne-Paris IV, where he teaches in the master's program for medieval music performance practice.  Bagby will offer a "question and answer" session after the performance.


 The Friends of Chamber Music
Beowulf by Benjamin Bagby
Saturday, February 28 at 8:00 p.m.
Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral
13th and Broadway, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-561-9999 or online at  www.chambermusic.org 


* These include 1) Beowulf (1999) directed by Graham Baker, who set the story in a "Mad Max"-type universe, and starring Christopher Lambert; 2) The 13th Warrior (1999), directed by John McTiernan and based on Michael Criton's The Eaters of the Dead; 3) Beowulf and Grendel (2005), directed by Sturla Gunnarssson, filmed in Iceland, and starring Gerard Butler; and 4) Beowulf (2007), a computer animated version directed by Robert Zemeckis with a script by Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman that features Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother. 

By William A. Everett

Classical Contributor (Past writer)

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