Category: Music

Naked Voice

by Ellen Oak

A DOOR OPENS – I first encountered the early chant of the western church in a music history course at Swarthmore College.  Professor Peter Graham Swing introduced the topic with descriptions and interpretations of the chant as a precursor to polyphony. But my mind could not travel with him.  I had fallen in love with the chant at first sight, and desired to stay.

For singer, composer and conductor Ellen Oak, the practice of Christian chant has been a way of life for over 30 years. In a poetic and passionate article, Oak shares her knowledge and experience of this mystical tradition, and her own development of a long disused practice rooted in the chanting of the ancient Hebrews and other near-eastern peoples.

(Image © 2012 John Teti Sr, lightsongstudio.com)

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Silence

THE BREATH IS PRECIOUS

 
It was written in beautiful Persian calligraphy and was placed above the door of the old Tehran khaniqah. I first noticed it when I was a child: sokout dam ghanimat ast, “silence: the breath is precious.” 

Krishna Das Interview

On Kirtan, what makes music sacred, and his inspiration from Neem Karoli Baba

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Sain Zahoor

PAKISTAN’S MYSTIC OF MUSIC

“There are people who walk the earth as if they have walked upon it for centuries. Sain Zahoor is one of them.”

Parvathy Baul

RENOWNED BAUL SINGER SHARES HER MUSIC WITH SUFI

Parvathy Baul is a singer, painter and storyteller from West Bengal. She is both trained in the Baul order and studied visual arts at the Kala Bhavan University at Shantiniketan.