Compositional highlights

Laments for Constantinople - for medieval ensemble (2023)
Quintina - for choir and/or flute (2022)
Sound Installation - saxophone, medieval portative organ, electronics (2022)
Dieus sal la terra - 3 voices and medieval portative organ (2020)
greu m’es a durar - medieval ensemble (2019)
Ar em al freg temps vengut - medieval ensemble (2018)
subtiliorbeats - harp, celtic harp, drums, keyboard, electronics (2018)
se vous n’estes - soprano, mixed ensemble, electronics (2017)
bel m’es qu’eu chant - medieval ensemble (2016)
pentagon study - frame drum, ocean drum, udu drum (2016)
tintinnabulation - tubular bells, electronics (2013)
de souffle - 2 alto flutes, 2 bass flutes, percussion (2015)
arrwomb - tenor, bass clarinet, electric guitar, and vibraphone (2015)
the shadow of my soul - cello, piano (2015)
... par fumée ... - six voices (2015)
music for dancers - alto flute, bass flute, clarinet, percussion (2015)
representation of Capigliolo - marimba, electronics (2014)
Istar’s descent - 8 voices (2014)
recorder concerto - recorder, chamber orchestra (2014)
representation of nasa’s space sounds - vibraphone, electronics (2014)
the regent’s bridges - large orchestra (2014)
tintinnabulation - 2 vibraphones, electronics (2013)
inspirs - string quartet (2013)
mbube - choir (2013)
cinq inspirs - wind quintet (2012)
survol nocturne, Barbican - chamber orchestra (2012)
Eleevation - bass voice, harp (2011)
on the pavements - bass recorder, tenor recorder (2011)
nueeageuses - percussion quartet (2011)
halfway to st james - viola (2011)

DR. THOMAS FOURNIL

Artistic direction, Voice, Composition, Portative Organ, Hurdy-gurdy

Thomas Fournil is a Corsican composer-researcher, singer, and instrumentalist (hurdy-gurdy, portative organ, keyboards) working between medievalism, oral traditions, music archaeology, spectralism/spectrality, and technology.

He specialises in troubadour song and Old Roman chant, and explores how recent work in musicology, archaeology, and medieval literature, in dialogue with living oral traditions, can inform historically informed performance and experimental composition. He is especially interested in ornamentation, micro-intonation, vocal technique, variation, improvisation, heterophony, logogenetics, and questions of identity. His practice-based doctorate as a medievalist composer informs both his artistic work and his teaching, supporting approaches that welcome diverse backgrounds, skills, and learning styles, and enabling enquiries in postcolonial, non-modern, queer, and feminocentric fields. He also coaches pronunciation of Medieval Occitan, Middle French, Renaissance French, and Medieval Latin from Spain, Germany, France, and Italy.

Thomas is a Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and completed the Guildhall Artist Masters (Distinction) under James Weeks. His doctoral research developed practical applications of new medievalisms in music-making and pedagogy, and a meeting-point between spectral techniques and queer spectrality (thesis: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/35458/). He explores how medievalism can open concrete pathways towards decolonising conservatoire practices, and has spoken on these topics internationally.

His music has been presented at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Cheltenham Music Festival, Magpie’s Nest Festival, Brighton Early Music Festival, the EFG London Jazz Festival, and the Royal Albert Hall. His first sound installation for The London Festival of Contemporary Church Music introduced techniques to analyse and materialise a church’s sonic frequencies, leading to related works at Durham Cathedral and St Giles Cripplegate. Collaborations include Jordan Rakei, Holly Herndon, Florence & the Machine, Plus Minus Ensemble, EXAUDI, the Calder Quartet, members of Aurora Orchestra, Clavecin en Corse, and the choreographer Yanaëlle Thiran. He has taught at Brockwood Park School and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as a doctoral lecturer, and has led workshops across England and abroad.

MEDIEVAL MUSIC WORKSHOPS

Culture Counts Survey - July 8, 2024 - Workshop

90% of participants rated the workshop “Excellent”

Culture Counts Survey - November 14, 2025 - Workshop

100% of participants rated the workshop “Excellent”.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL COMPOSITIONS

Dieus Sal la Terra

Terza (top voice) . Elsa Hackett-Esteban
Secunda (middle voice) . Noémie Ducimetière
Bassu (bottom voice) . Dunja Botic, Eliza Oakes
Portative organ . Thomas Fournil

This piece is a contemporary reimagining of a Corsican paghjella, a UNESCO- protected endangered vocal tradition. Created in close dialogue with my Corsican and Occitan heritage, this piece is a woven map of endangered orality, medieval history and today's struggles for peace. It is a musical act of remembrance and solidarity.

Quintina

Flute . Ka Wing Karen Wong

The quintina is a concept, aesthetic, and sonic phenomenon theorised by Corsican and Sardinian singers. Sometimes called the voice of the ancestors, or the voice of the angel, it designates any audible fusion of harmonics resulting from just intonation. This sonico-poetic term merges consonance and transcendence as one synergistic composite. In Corsica, striving for harmony also means striving for communication with diverse sonic and spiritual ghosts. This piece is a spectral interpretation of Old Roman chant: it gives materiality to the memory of a tradition, leftover resonances gathered in the stones of ancient Mediterranean architectures. Simultaneously a negative and a positive outline, it represents an alternate dimension, a spiritual other.

Tintinnabulation for tubular bells & live electronics

Percussion . Peter Rayner

The electronics emphasise partials from the live sound following a tintinnabulation technique. This creates a very subtle cloud of resonance, gradually shifting towards upper partials. A second layer brings the highest, imperceptible partials down two octaves and slowed down, creating a raw chiming texture. The quasi-hidden use of Tintinnabuli, and the rather meditative quality of this composition present an intimate homage to Arvo Pärt. Poetically, the use of bells links back to Pärt’s interest in early music, while the instrument recalls “actual” tintinnabulation.

Concerto For Recorder . IIIrd movement (Chamber Orchestra)

Full concerto here.

Recorders . Caoimhe de Paor
Conductor . James Weeks

This work has been inspired by three Haiku, and several aspects of the poems influenced the form and content of the music. Each movement starts with a very short section aiming to recreate the spoken rhythm of its correspondent Haiku, and is then articulated following its particular structure and colouration. In this piece we explore a concerto aesthetic at the limits of anti-concerto writing, playing with the focus of attention towards the recorder to explore the softest, subtlest colours of the instrument.

tsuru no asobi
kumoi ni kanau
hatsu hi kana

it's play for the cranes
flying up to the clouds
the year's first sunrise

Chiyo-ni (1703-1775)

…par fumée…

Conductor . James Weeks
6 voices . EXAUDI

...par fumée... is a re-imagining of 14th century rondeau ‘Fumeux fume’ by Solage, in which smoke and smoking is a recurrent theme. I derived my pitches from the harmonic series of D, creating subtle microtonal harmonies and melodies. Like the original, the singing dissolves into hazy colours and elusive harmonies all within an extremely low register. Additionally the score follows the tradition of Ars Subtilior repertoire, with flowing rhythms and colourful notation.

TEXT

Fumeux fume par fumée
Fumeuse spéculation

Qu'antre fumet sa pensée
Tant qu'il ait son entencion

Fumeux fume par fumée
Fumeuse spéculation

TRANSLATION

A smoker smolders smokily
In smoky speculation

Thus he steeps his thoughts in smoke
Until he gets his way