In Toulouse: Traditional Occitan Music and Danse

Students in the four-week Language and Culture Program returned to the classroom for the first day of their second week on program after a weekend « en famille ». Over the weekend, some students enjoyed a trip to Mediterranean beaches or to the nearby Pyrenees Mountains while others stayed home and watched their host « brother » or « sister » play « foot » (soccer). Still others enjoyed an outing to the beautiful Place du Capitole in the center of old-town Toulouse. 

After a typical morning in French class, where students learn French, in French, from native-language teachers, they venture into town to practice what they have learned in the classroom through community conversations with local Toulousains. After lunch and some down time to hang out with their friends, it is time for the daily excursion.

Today students visited the Center for Traditional Occitan Music and Danse (COMDT). Students enjoyed a workshop on traditional Occitan instruments which resemble bagpipes and clarinets. A young musician, who only two years ago was a student of Occitan music and who is now a professor at the COMDT, explained how the traditional instruments are constructed from boxwood and leather, typically goatskins, and a reed, and then played a musical excerpt on each instrument. Students then created music themselves with their voices: they worked with Ann, who had them singing in Occitan and dancing in circle within minutes of the start of the workshop.

Students hear Occitan spoken on a daily basis on the metro, where each stop is announced first in French, then in Occitan. They also see the dual language postings on street signs throughout the city center.

The goal of the COMDT is to preserve the traditional Occitan language and culture through music and danse. Occitan music is designed to get people dancing, and today, that is just what students did: danced and sang in Occitan with their new friends from all over the US.