It all started with the CD release simply titled "Chant." Listeners who had never before encountered early music were now encouraged to relieve stress and meditate to the medieval prayers of the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos. Taking chant for spiritual awakening a step further, soprano Norma Gentile combines chants of Hildegard von Bingen with Tibetan singing bowls, voices from the audience, and other sounds in her live performances of this sacred music.
And then there are some artists more interested in recreating a historic ambience rather than a historic performance. New age multi-instrumentalist Lisa Lynne says of her album Maiden's Prayer "I wanted to make this record sound like my living room, when we were all sitting together making music with pillows on the floor...I imagine that's what they did in the 15th and 16th centuries, too..."
A very different attempt to make early music more accessable to the modern ear was made in 1994 on the recording Officium by The Hilliard Ensemble and saxophonist Jan Garbarek, who improvised over historically-informed versions of vocal pieces performed by the Hilliard Ensemble.
When a few researchers pointed to listening to classical music as a way to encourage brilliance in infants, recordings intended to stimulate the brain with compositional formality were produced, such as Baby Mozart, and Baroque Garden for Concentration, released by the Arcangelos Chamber Ensemble.
The combination of early music with natural sounds such as rainfall, waterfalls and birdsongs is yet another approach to connecting the old with the new. The Chacra Artists released a CD entitled Pachelbel with Ocean Sounds, intended to accompany medidtaion and relaxation.
Though undeniably popular, Chant was not the only album to record a more modern take on Gregorian chant. Boys' choir Libera performs on the CD release of chant with added instrumental accompaniment entitled Luminosa.
Listen to "Voce Me," performed by boys' choir Libera:
Our new release of the week is from Música Ficta. Esa Noche Yo Bailà contains festival and devotional music from 17th century Peru.
