santmat_mystic
2005-02-25 05:29:56 UTC
[Spiritual Awakening]:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SpiritualAwakening
{"Exploring the World of Spirituality, Comparative Religion,
Gnostic Gospels of Egypt, Hidden or Lost Scriptures, Mysticism,
Books, and Music"}
Mixed Media: Book Reviews, Website Reviews, Music Reviews
Music Review: Ultimate Chant
By James Bean
Copyright February 2005
CD Review: "Harmonic Meetings"
Genre: Chant, Sacred Music, Music for Meditation
Artists: David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir
Disc Number: 0 1371 14013 2 5
Label: Celestial Harmonies:
http://www.celestialharmonies.com
*JPG IMAGES of the CD:
Loading Image...
Loading Image...
In recent years, various recordings of sacred chant have become
quite popular. Albums featuring Buddhist Gyuto monks, Sufi and
Quranic Chant, Mongolian and Tuvan throat singing, Gregorian
Plainchant, Russian Orthodox, Greek, Armenian, Coptic, and Syriac-
Aramaic Chant have all become readily available. Out of all the
chant albums I've heard and given radio airplay to, there is one
that I think of as the ultimate chant album towering above all the
rest: "Harmonic Meetings", by David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir.
Recorded in the abby of Le Thoronet in France, Harmonic Meetings
represents harmonic overtone chant and sacred words from the
Abrahamic religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Of this
project, David Hykes writes: "As I began to research the musical
histories of these religions, it became apparent that musical
differentiations between them appeared in time as liturgies
gradually diverged. Until about 80 AD, Christianity was a sect of
Judaism. I became fascinated by accounts of the so-called jubilus
singing in which the congregation would improvise using sacred words
and syllables such as HALLELUIAH (Glory to God), sometimes even
leaving out the consonants and chanting open vowels. In my own work,
I've tried to experiment with words common to at least two of these
three religions. It is the harmonic content of the words which
interests me; singing pure vibrations......"
Because of his interest in "open vowel" chant, Hykes on this album
ends up resurrecting the sacred music of a FOURTH religion connected
with the Abrahamic tradition: Gnosticism. In various Gnostic,
Hermetic and Pythagorean Gospels found at Nag Hammadi in Upper
Egypt, such as the Gospel of the Egyptians, there are examples of
ancient Gnostic Vowel Chant. If anyone is curious as to what this
angelic and otherworldly chant sounds like, all they have to do is
listen to Harmonic Meetings by David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir. This
is probably the best modern-day example of Gnostic chant one could ever
find. ////////
A Re-Post of mine from April 30th, 2000,
SpiritualAwakening at Yahoo/Egroups/OneList
The closest thing to Gnostic Chant that I've found is the
album "Harmonic Meetings," by David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir,
on the Celestial Harmonies label. It's all overtone chant and
reminds me passages found in the Gospel of the Egyptians and other
Gnostic Gospels:
"aaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuooooooooooooo"
It sounds like a choir of angels -- not of this world.
These random combinations of vowels used in Gnostic vowel-chant and
other sacred Names can induce altered states during meditation
(contemplation). There are many examples in the Gnostic,
Jewish/Essene, Hermetic, Mandaean, Christian, and Sant Mat
traditions of mystics seeing heaven, or traveling through various
heavenly regions. Mystics have spiritual practices that induced
altered states. For instance, there's a description of certain
Hebrew hymns in the Dead Sea Scrolls as being "hypnotic,"
and "mantrac." Mystics in all these traditions, plus the Orthodox
schools on Mount Athos and the Sufis as well, have greatly valued
Sacred Names of God or phrases (Zikr, Jesus Prayer, Simran, Mantras,
etc..) that are to be repeated in contemplative meditation practice,
and it really works.
Having tried out many sacred names myself over the years, I give
Gnostic Vowel Chant great reviews as an effective approach that can
allow one to relax and "rise above body-consciousness." It shifts
one's focus away from the material world, blocks out conventional
thought -- the habitual, "running commentary" of the "monkey mind",
and allows one to catch a glimpse of the inner Light, the Light of
the soul, and begin one's own journey into Inner Space.
Gospel of the Egyptians:
"He who came forth from the silence,
while he rests in the silence,
he whose Name is in an invisible symbol.
A hidden, invisible Mystery came forth":
"IEOU"
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
..................
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii eeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeee
000000000000000000000 uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 0000000000000000000000..........
a
ee
iii
oooo
uuuuu
oooooo
uuuuuuu
aaaaaaaa
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iiiiiiiiii
uuuuuuuuuuu
oooooooooooo
uuuuuuuuuuuuu
oooooooooooooo
iiiiiiiiiiiiiii
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
ooooooooooooooooo
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
oooooooooooooooooooo
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
................
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SpiritualAwakening
{"Exploring the World of Spirituality, Comparative Religion,
Gnostic Gospels of Egypt, Hidden or Lost Scriptures, Mysticism,
Books, and Music"}
Mixed Media: Book Reviews, Website Reviews, Music Reviews
Music Review: Ultimate Chant
By James Bean
Copyright February 2005
CD Review: "Harmonic Meetings"
Genre: Chant, Sacred Music, Music for Meditation
Artists: David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir
Disc Number: 0 1371 14013 2 5
Label: Celestial Harmonies:
http://www.celestialharmonies.com
*JPG IMAGES of the CD:
Loading Image...
Loading Image...
In recent years, various recordings of sacred chant have become
quite popular. Albums featuring Buddhist Gyuto monks, Sufi and
Quranic Chant, Mongolian and Tuvan throat singing, Gregorian
Plainchant, Russian Orthodox, Greek, Armenian, Coptic, and Syriac-
Aramaic Chant have all become readily available. Out of all the
chant albums I've heard and given radio airplay to, there is one
that I think of as the ultimate chant album towering above all the
rest: "Harmonic Meetings", by David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir.
Recorded in the abby of Le Thoronet in France, Harmonic Meetings
represents harmonic overtone chant and sacred words from the
Abrahamic religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Of this
project, David Hykes writes: "As I began to research the musical
histories of these religions, it became apparent that musical
differentiations between them appeared in time as liturgies
gradually diverged. Until about 80 AD, Christianity was a sect of
Judaism. I became fascinated by accounts of the so-called jubilus
singing in which the congregation would improvise using sacred words
and syllables such as HALLELUIAH (Glory to God), sometimes even
leaving out the consonants and chanting open vowels. In my own work,
I've tried to experiment with words common to at least two of these
three religions. It is the harmonic content of the words which
interests me; singing pure vibrations......"
Because of his interest in "open vowel" chant, Hykes on this album
ends up resurrecting the sacred music of a FOURTH religion connected
with the Abrahamic tradition: Gnosticism. In various Gnostic,
Hermetic and Pythagorean Gospels found at Nag Hammadi in Upper
Egypt, such as the Gospel of the Egyptians, there are examples of
ancient Gnostic Vowel Chant. If anyone is curious as to what this
angelic and otherworldly chant sounds like, all they have to do is
listen to Harmonic Meetings by David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir. This
is probably the best modern-day example of Gnostic chant one could ever
find. ////////
A Re-Post of mine from April 30th, 2000,
SpiritualAwakening at Yahoo/Egroups/OneList
The closest thing to Gnostic Chant that I've found is the
album "Harmonic Meetings," by David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir,
on the Celestial Harmonies label. It's all overtone chant and
reminds me passages found in the Gospel of the Egyptians and other
Gnostic Gospels:
"aaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuooooooooooooo"
It sounds like a choir of angels -- not of this world.
These random combinations of vowels used in Gnostic vowel-chant and
other sacred Names can induce altered states during meditation
(contemplation). There are many examples in the Gnostic,
Jewish/Essene, Hermetic, Mandaean, Christian, and Sant Mat
traditions of mystics seeing heaven, or traveling through various
heavenly regions. Mystics have spiritual practices that induced
altered states. For instance, there's a description of certain
Hebrew hymns in the Dead Sea Scrolls as being "hypnotic,"
and "mantrac." Mystics in all these traditions, plus the Orthodox
schools on Mount Athos and the Sufis as well, have greatly valued
Sacred Names of God or phrases (Zikr, Jesus Prayer, Simran, Mantras,
etc..) that are to be repeated in contemplative meditation practice,
and it really works.
Having tried out many sacred names myself over the years, I give
Gnostic Vowel Chant great reviews as an effective approach that can
allow one to relax and "rise above body-consciousness." It shifts
one's focus away from the material world, blocks out conventional
thought -- the habitual, "running commentary" of the "monkey mind",
and allows one to catch a glimpse of the inner Light, the Light of
the soul, and begin one's own journey into Inner Space.
Gospel of the Egyptians:
"He who came forth from the silence,
while he rests in the silence,
he whose Name is in an invisible symbol.
A hidden, invisible Mystery came forth":
"IEOU"
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
..................
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii eeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeee
000000000000000000000 uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 0000000000000000000000..........
a
ee
iii
oooo
uuuuu
oooooo
uuuuuuu
aaaaaaaa
eeeeeeeee
iiiiiiiiii
uuuuuuuuuuu
oooooooooooo
uuuuuuuuuuuuu
oooooooooooooo
iiiiiiiiiiiiiii
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
ooooooooooooooooo
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
oooooooooooooooooooo
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
................