An achanter, or anti-lyric singer, is a singer who can sing, but who has chosen not to sing, or who is prohibited from singing, while performing on stage. The result is called achant.
Typical of the Great Period, the phenomenon of anti-lyric singers (also known as enchanters) has now completely disappeared.
Here is a brief history, in the form of a portrait gallery.


Hubert Tornani Protta, the lover of the origins

This still poorly understood case of non-vocality is exceptional in the context of the Birgoudelie of this period, so little inclined to vocal arts in general (except bel canto, but it is not an art), and who preferred by far loop pianos, not from Orfilien Samazouilh, but pale copies made at Orfilien's competitor. But let's move on. It is undoubtedly because of the general indifference, discretion and silence which characterizes the Birgoudelian musical art of the time that by reaction, the alyric movement appeared, and in a marginal zone of the Birgoudelie of the south : the Pugli-Puglo.
Tornani Protta, a Jewish mother and an unknown father, a shepherd by trade, was illiterate and spent most of the year on the mountain with his animals. He inhaled the wool of his sheep during the winter to warm up, which caused him asthma attacks as violent as repeated. He treated himself by first using invocations to Puranjali the God of the shepherds in this region, an invocation made up of complicated rites: soaking naked in a pool of sheep's blood recently slaughtered, then using sterilized needles sting your throat while reciting the rune alphabet very quickly. Then, when this operation is carried out at a sustained and prolonged rhythm, it is necessary to mentally establish lists of objects starting with certain letter chosen at random. The effectiveness of these conjuring rites is such that we find them from the south of Birgoudelie to the north of Transsylvania, but rather among the priests, who we know to be players, in this area of ​​the globe. However, Hubert Tornani Protta lost his voice, by dint of singing with open throat, forcing on already sick vocal cords, and one day came to be able to express himself no more than with prolonged and coughing groans. He was therefore forced to codify his groans by drawing in the wet earth all the letters of the alphabet and repeating them associated with a chosen rail. He quickly arrived at a vocabulary sufficient to support a small conversation, with various inspirations, exhalations, coughs, clearing of throats, etc. All that was missing was the sung aspect, if I dare say so. This one appeared when Tornani Protta felt the need to re-dance his old ballads. They came naturally to his mouth in his new vocality. The alyric song was born.


Yokono Namiura

Member of the very closed club of imperial singers of the island of Yagakaino Toibe, Namiura is the only one who left the palace (defying the deadly ban). But if he was spared, it was also because he made a vow of complete silence. This is how he invented the radical alyric song, one that not only is totally inaudible, but also totally invisible, since the face and the body must be completely neutral, non-suggestive. So it was happening behind a curtain, and completely silent. His admirers flocked, it is said, "like the wind carries the cloud which embraces the Moon". In this demanding technique, we therefore owe him the pathetic tales of the musical slavery that reigned on the island of Yagakaino Toibe, gathered in the collection Yabati Nokkomotanase. Rich with 23 songs and beautiful illustrations designed, this collection and also the only one to offer a notation that cares about comprehension by a third party: the complete immaculate whiteness of the pages, the total absence of speech, information and flourishes in the purity of the non-text makes it a far unmatched example.
There is little to see between the technique of Tornani Protta and that of Namiura, were it not the bases of alyric song: certainly the total absence of the vocal cords, codification of inspirations-breaths, but the use of the different parts of the speech apparatus to develop a new language is accomplished in the opposite direction.



Golden age
John Lion Cub of Mornay
Born in the ruined Lyon nobility, he began to sing on fairgrounds early. His two noses allowed him a particularly fluid and silent continuous breathing. We owe him a particularly abundant double-nose repertoire, in which we will quote Breathe, do not breathe, song with three half-voices, and Since you are so beautiful, for mixed and silent bass choir.



Suzanne Froutsou


"She will be better at the brothel, hold on!" It was to this remark from her father that Suzanne Froutsou (née Giselle d'Ambert-Minville, and dead Ernestine Anloi-Anloi) owed her career as a lyric anti-singer.
At the brothel run by Madame Nicolle, at the corner of rue des Francs Bourgeois, it was a tradition not to speak, not to make noise, in order to preserve the sacred aspect of the place, and the meditation of customers . However, collective demonstrations existed, and to entertain customers, in between, variety numbers followed one another. Suzanne Froutsou not having a beautiful voice, and being rather accustomed to expressing by giggling, she developed her almost silent art free from any harmful influence. His non-voice was exceptional, his development of breath very extensive, which allowed him an extended expressive register, and this of course! without ever vibrating his vocal cords! She excelled in melodramatic songs, which she improvised on stage.


Anatole Gourmet


Dead on the forehead, this child of the ball knew John Lionceau well, it even seems that his two sexual organs were the cause of violent arguments between the two friends. Gourmet did not sing much, preferring to make a fortune in women's salons where his fantastic properties guaranteed him a comfortable income. Anatole Gourmet discovered his avocal talent by scouring his rifle. The singular noise of friction gave him the idea of ​​imitating it, which made his fellow students laugh. Little by little, he managed more and more discreetly to imitate the ambient noises, until he was able to immerse his listeners with their eyes closed in turn in the jungle, the desert or the Camargue forest, all in silence absolute, complete!
It is said that he had no equal in alyric romance.


The silent exploitation of the enchantment: from myth to slavery.


Gifted in business, the young Philipol, son of Philipol, understood above all the interest of the exploitation of the channels for musical ends.
He therefore installed small orchestras made up of heavy horns and buzzing organs, which he walked slowly, with dignity, on the canals of his city. Shortly after, and faced with the success of the business, he extended the summer evenings with moving processions of enchanters, the discretion of which ensured a peaceful rest for sleepy residents. Besides, ruthless entrepreneur, he had the reputation of organizing rehearsals on the boats themselves, and after a few false notes repeated with too much negligence, the sentence was no longer expected: a little dip in the caiman river, and the enchantment disappeared forever, uttering abominable silent cries. The practice became known, and soon it was common to see a crowd of onlookers on the shore watching for the moment when the enchantor, taken of stress, or too tired by his eight children (each enchanter has eight children, it is a rule to be part of the corporation of the enchanters) or exhausted by the numerous concerts and performances that he had to accumulate to support a living say an expensive wife for example; so the moment when the enchanter, opening his mouth to the infinite, lets out a false note whose very silence shatters the air and crushes Philipol's ears. Quickly, the offender, despite his pathetic posturing, finds himself tied up by his colleagues and splashes, only his audible since the start of rehearsal, his heavy and nervous body waddles, in the hope of reaching the shore before being devoured by reptiles; vain hope of the rest since he would have reached the shore, the public would have made him feel the taste of water by some tonic kick.
It is said, and this is undoubtedly an exaggeration, that Philipol made his success on this cruel selection, and that his talents as head of enchanters could not be more doubtful. There is nothing more to verify such an assertion, Philipol having accidentally fallen into the water, and no one came to his aid.


The decline of the enchanters: the school of Franginos


On the Greek island of Franginos was born the school of alyric song known as the school of Franginos-Coupelle.
The singers were recruited as children, and followed a demanding apprenticeship according to the Tornani Protta method. A cup was at their disposal to spit and drink if necessary. This cup became the sign of recognition of the pupils of the school of Franginos at the time of the great repression of the enchanters by the lyricists.
The lyricists (who will eventually win) will push the alyrics to expatriate themselves or to become lyricists (the supreme shame!). It is the decline of the enchanters, whose last bursts will shine in distant lands, beyond the reach of the lyrics.