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.” 

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Krishna Das Interview

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

An Exclusive Interview by Llew Smith and Annie Stopford.

 

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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.”

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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.

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