Where has the time gone? A friend pointed out that I have not written for some time and now classes are over and the campus is almost empty of students. All I can say is that it has been an exceptionally busy couple of months filled with papers, rehearsing, chant exams, and the initial work on my thesis. My thesis is now my focus. My goal is to create a pedagogical tool that includes information on the chant of three major religious traditions and an accompanying compendium of chant. This is a piece I will use when I graduate. I will be holding workshops and teaching chanting meditation as a spiritual practice.
Chant is both ancient and modern. Chant is also universal in that most religious or spiritual traditions use sacred chant as an avenue to connect with Spirit or the Divine. The practice of chant in this postmodern era has moved well beyond the confines of its original religious and ritual contexts. I will write about this contemporary movement in my thesis project, which is evident in the Taize chant movement, the Jewish Renewal Movement, and the huge Western interest in Kirtan (Hindu devotional chanting). And the artists devoted to bring chant to the world through concerts and recordings are impressive and growing. Dr. Robert Gass has been recording world chant with his chant choir Wings on Songs, since the 1970s. Jai Uttal has been leading Kirtan along artists with artists like Wah, Deva Premal and Miten, Krishna Das, and so many others.
I first became interested in world chant one early morning in 1998 when I began to spontaneously sing the chants of my own tradition during my middle-of-the-night meditation. I had started my meditation practice about four years before and loved the stillness of the "wee" hours. When I added chanting, that is, the repetitious singing of a short song or phrase, to my practice, something inside shifted and I found myself in an expanded state-of-consciousness. Since that time I have been attending workshops, listening to and learning all types of chants. It became my passion and an avenue for combining my love of singing and my pursuit of all things spiritual.
And now, I can hardly believe it, but I am entering the third semester of an MA in Ritual Chant and Song at the University of Limerick's Irish World Academy of Song and Dance and I have no less passionate then when I started. I have spent the year learning about and how to sing Gregorian chant, and I have had opportunities to delve more deeply into the history and context of Jewish chant, to participate a workshop on Georgian chant, attend the service at a Mosque in Dublin to hear the beautiful chant of the Imam andith extensive research and review of the existing literature. I will explore several traditions in some depth and I will also look at several themes universal to these traditions, such as gratitude, love, and peace. I will be writing in my thesis about the transformative and healing nature of chant. I am very excited about this project and when I am done I will continue to work with groups of people and individuals to share the powerful experience of chant.
I will also be performing. There is a rich and diverse repertoire of chants. If you are interested you can start with the CDs of Robert Gass through Springhill Publishing. Look up Deval Premal and Miten or any of the artists I have mentioned. And if you have any suggestions please leave a post on this blog. I want everyone to understand the power of chant to transform our lives and bring us peace. That is what it has done for me. As I continue my work on my thesis I look forward to sharing with you lists of books, CDs and websites that you may find of interest. Feel free to share with me. I will be most appreciative!
I leave you with a poem about chant that I wrote in response to a statement Robert Gass made during the first chant workshop I attended in 1999 at Omega Institute. He stated that there was no short definition of chant. I have to admit that I was challenged by this and I tried to come up with one, but Robert Gass was correct. Chanting goes well beyond the repetition singing of a sacred phrase. As far as I am concerned everything is chanting. The following poem is part two of my definition of chant.
More Thoughts on Chanting
All of nature chants.
All of nature is a chant.
We are one big chant.
As each bird sings it’s beautiful, unique melody;
as each cricket plays its violin limbs;
as each river rushes; each brook babbles;
each ocean wave roars and laps as it unites
with the particles of sand on the shore;
each is chanting a unique tonal quality
that combines as a joyous universal symphony of sound.
Each leaf of every plant that twitters in the wind is
dancing and singing a silent prayer of delight.
Each rock in its invisible motion is humming OM.
Every minute atom that oscillates in timelessness
is chanting the ecstatic chant of life.
The whole world, indeed the whole Universe,
is pulsating with chant.
This is all about one big chant.
The Universe was created in sound and
is sustained in sound.
Source is one infinite vibration of love, light, and bliss.
We must all begin to really listen,
to listen to everything around us.
Listen to our own hearts
beating with the rhythm and harmony of life.
In our purest unadulterated states, with effortless ease,
we are One with the Universe.
May we all chant with pure intention.
May we all chant for love, harmony, and peace.
Love from Glocca Morra
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