How Gregorian Chant helped inspire me to be more environmentally conscious.
I was in the gym the other day, an inconsistent feat for me as I battle the bulge, and I was going at my fastest RPM on the elliptical. Techno music was blaring on the loud speaker, weights were clanking around, so I turned up my iPod, louder than recommended, and as if communicated to me by God, the spirit, my ancestors, the circuits from Apple, whoever, I was graced by the beautiful, sometimes haunting sounds of the Versija Chamber Choir singing “Agnus Dei.” Everything around me simply faded away and I was taken to another place. The piece itself happens to be one of my favorite works because of the passion of the text, however I have developed a new appreciation for it because of the parallel that I was recently able to draw regarding the environment. In that recording you have many voices working together, coexisting if you will, to achieve something greater. To preserve beauty and to pay homage to a great creation, whomever they believed to have created it. In this particular interpretation the words Agnus Dei are constant and the higher voices continue to climb higher in pitch and the lower voices continue to descend creating this balance among the constant that is amazing. It takes such precision to achieve such an effect as a choir and vocalist and they accomplish it perfectly.
As unusual as it may sound, I was truly inspired by this moment to reconnect myself to the environment, and despite the origin that we may believe it to have, to honor this creation and work together for something greater.
If you haven’t experienced chant I highly recommend that you try it out. Currently, the #1 album in the classical section of iTunes is “Chant” by the Monks of Cistercian Abbey Stift Heiligenkruez and it is amazing, especially “In Paradisum.” Enjoy.
I was in the gym the other day, an inconsistent feat for me as I battle the bulge, and I was going at my fastest RPM on the elliptical. Techno music was blaring on the loud speaker, weights were clanking around, so I turned up my iPod, louder than recommended, and as if communicated to me by God, the spirit, my ancestors, the circuits from Apple, whoever, I was graced by the beautiful, sometimes haunting sounds of the Versija Chamber Choir singing “Agnus Dei.” Everything around me simply faded away and I was taken to another place. The piece itself happens to be one of my favorite works because of the passion of the text, however I have developed a new appreciation for it because of the parallel that I was recently able to draw regarding the environment. In that recording you have many voices working together, coexisting if you will, to achieve something greater. To preserve beauty and to pay homage to a great creation, whomever they believed to have created it. In this particular interpretation the words Agnus Dei are constant and the higher voices continue to climb higher in pitch and the lower voices continue to descend creating this balance among the constant that is amazing. It takes such precision to achieve such an effect as a choir and vocalist and they accomplish it perfectly.
As unusual as it may sound, I was truly inspired by this moment to reconnect myself to the environment, and despite the origin that we may believe it to have, to honor this creation and work together for something greater.
If you haven’t experienced chant I highly recommend that you try it out. Currently, the #1 album in the classical section of iTunes is “Chant” by the Monks of Cistercian Abbey Stift Heiligenkruez and it is amazing, especially “In Paradisum.” Enjoy.
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