Saintly sentiments for sister cities: Rose Ensemble to tour Tours tribute

This February, the Rose Ensemble performs music related to Tours, France — a Sister City of Minneapolis — in a concert showcasing the work of Israeli musicologist Yossi Maurey, who has reconstructed and transcribed medieval prose, chants, and poems dedicated to St. Martin of Tours.

Jordan Sramek — the Rose Ensemble's founder, artistic director, and acting executive director — first met Yossi Maurey in 2000, and they became friends. In 2004, the St.-Paul-based ensemble showcased Maurey's work, performing the chants for the first time in centuries, according to Sramek. For the premiere, a delegation from the Tours visited Minneapolis. "It was a wonderful opportunity to introduce ourselves to the folks of the sister city program," Sramek said.

Ten years later, the Rose Ensemble is revisiting the St. Martin recital, which resulted from years of detective work by Sramek piecing together bits of text and music. Sramek calls Maurey's scholarship "mind boggling," since the musicologist had to search for sources all over France and literally piece them back together.

St. Martin was known for cutting his cloak in two and giving half to a beggar, as well as for being a conscientious objector to Roman army conscription. He lived from 316 to 397 C.E.; a millennium later, he was one of Christendom's most widely venerated saints. According to Maurey, the music was copied in the Middle Ages: some in the 13th century and some in the 14th century. "Many of the pieces are coming from manuscripts in the municipal library in the city of Tours," Maurey said.

In some cases, Maurey not only transcribed the music, but spent a good deal of time reconstructing the music as needed. The music, which was mostly copied in monasteries and churches, often doesn't have an exact relationship between the words in the music. "They knew the music by heart," Maurey said. "It served as a record of the music they already knew. Not many sang from the written music."

In some cases, "someone scribbled the words in the margins, but never actually put the two together," he said.

According to Sramek, the St. Martin concert is core to the Rose Ensemble's program. "This is about as typical as its gets," he said. "It represents our mission especially because of the amount of work and research involved."

Since the Rose Ensemble premiered the St. Martin recital in Minnesota in 2004, they've also travelled to Tours multiple times — including the following year when they performed the St. Martin concert, and then to the Early Music Festival in 2008. Tours is one of 10 sister city programs that Minneapolis has all over the world, aimed at fostering business relationships as well as educational and cultural exchanges.

Christina Selander Bouzouina, the executive director of Alliance Francaise of Minneapolis/St. Paul, said former mayor Sharon Sayles Belton first signed the sister city agreement with Tours over 20 years ago, and that as an organization, Alliance Francaise has been a partner in the program, offering support to the Minneapolis and Tours Sister Cities Association (MTSCA), a volunteer-run organization aimed at strengthening the cultural and economic ties between the two cities.

Sramek said that the program itself isn't a result of the sister city relationship, but "the sister city [relationship] is a great way to advance a number of components of the program," he said.

"To be perfectly frank, Minneapolis doesn't have the means that Tours does to help foster the program," Sramek said; this time around, there won't be a delegation from Tours that will hear the program. However, Selander Bouzouina said that Alliance Francaise plans to notify their members of the concert. Gail Beske, the President of the Board of MTSCA, said the organization hadn't determined how they might be involved with the upcoming concert, but said they have provided support for the Rose Ensemble in the past, and have recently been involved in supporting other Minneapolis-Tours projects.

The Rose Ensemble will present the program in Duluth (February 13), St. Paul (February 14), and Minneapolis (February 15-16). In addition, Yossi Maurey will give a free lecture on February 10 at Merriam Park Library in St. Paul at 7 p.m. and in Courtroom 317 of Landmark Center on February 12th at noon.

Sheila Regan is a Minneapolis-based writer. She writes frequently for the Twin Cities Daily Planet and City Pages, among other publications.

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