Ensemble Organum - Le Chant des Templiers

Ok, so I'm not much for Christian music, except the variety that has fiddles & accordions & banjos & other instruments of devilry, or screaming black people. Or at least some sort of mystery, and please keep it light on the preaching. And if you've been reading this blog a while, you're probably somewhat like me. But believe me, you do not want to pass on this. It is absolutely the most powerful, most mysterious, most gutwardly moving cd of chants I've ever heard. Hair-raising is the adverb. Like a feather and a sledgehammer rolled into one. I've always thought of latin as a logical language, but these chants blow it straight into the realm of post-apocalyptic riddlery of desperation. It feels like sticking a very sharp, very sacred knife into your lungs to force a gasp of air, which is actually a breath of wind, which is actually God.

It's like when you're a baby, laying in your crib, and the voice of the mighty one comes to you, and tells you you're going to live to see the death of all the world, and then rocks you to sleep saying "I know. I know little one. I know." And then you understand. Because you have heard, and you will never forget. Death is a mere point in the turning of the great wheel, and if midwinter isn't about resurrection, it isn't about anything. So if you don't think you'd like this music, it's especially important that you download it. And lock yourself in a room. And listen to this stuff on full blast. And when it's over, you'll be a changed person. And the look in your eyes will say "I know."

And even the Georgia Sea Island Singers won't be able to tell you any different. Because they're singing the exact same thing, in the exact same way, in a different iteration of the harmonic resurrection that is evolution, but don't let their skin fool you. These French singers have grain for grain every bit as much grit as the Sea Islanders, and every drop of mystique.

The Knights Templar were custodians of a secret. Though I cannot tell you the secret, I can tell you this: the Holy Grail is in this music, if you listen closely enough.

Crucem sanctam subiit,

qui infernum confregit,

accinctus est potentia,

surrexit die tertia. Alleluia.

Lapidem quem reprobaverunt

aedeficantes factus est

caput anguli, alleluia.

The Chant of the Templars
The Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in the twelfth century

It was towards the end of the second decade of the twelfth century that the idea of Hugh de Payns began to be realised: the creation of an Order of knighthood whose purpose was to guard the Holy Places and protect the many pilgrims who flocked to Jerusalem. In 1118 he obtained the assent of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Gormond de Picquigny. He gathered eight knights around him, and the undertaking was considered so important by Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem, that he granted them the use of part of his palace, what was left of the ancient Temple of Solomon. Thus the nascent Order took its name from its place of residence, and became known as Order of the Temple of Solomon.

This first period of the Order was modest and productive, it lasted until 1127. For these nine years, the Order’s membership remained fixed at nine knights. All were nobles, trained in the profession of arms, and this period – which might be described as a novitiate – was the crucible in which the specific spirituality of the Templars gradually took shape. The source of their spiritual consciousness is to be sought in the knights’ assiduous attendance at the Latin liturgy of the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. In 1128, when the Council of Troyes granted them a rule drawn up under the direction of Bernard of Clairvaux, their attachment to the liturgy of the Holy Sepulchre was clearly stated and became the distinctive and specific mark of their canonical condition. ‘You who have renounced your own will, and you others who, for the salvation of your souls, serve the Sovereign King with your horses and weapons, must with pure and pious longing follow Matins and the Divine Service in their entirely, according to the canonical institutions and the Uses of the regular masters of the Holy City.’

Over the next decade or so, the Order enjoyed a spectacular expansion: donations flooded in, and the Templars soon became key players not only in the Holy Land but also throughout Western Europe. Like all religious organizations, the Order of the Temple comprised two categories of brothers those particularly attached to the liturgy – and those charged more especially with the material tasks connected with the subsistence of the Order and its specific missions. However, even in times of war, the Templars were assiduous in their practice of the liturgy. During the siege of Damietta in the Fifth Crusade, a night raid by the Muslims was foiled because the Templars were celebrating the Office of Matins in the tent that served as the Order’s chapel. Thus were able immediately to repulse the attack. The Templars are often described as ‘soldier-monks’, but this term is improper, for it appear only in the nineteenth century. In ecclesiastical law the Templars did not have monastic status. Right from their origins, they were assimilated to the status of canons, taking as their model the Rule of St Augustine, with the obligation of scrupulously observing the liturgical order of the Holy Sepulchre. Nevertheless, although their activities did not permit them to hear the Office in its entirety, they were to say a certain number of paternosters at the hour of prayer in order to make up for their failure to attend the Office.

After the crusaders took control of Jerusalem on 15 July 1099, the organization of the Latin liturgy was entrusted to the clergy of the Church of France, who took the Use of Paris as their chief model. The first preceptor of the Latin Patriarchate was a certain Anselm, a canon of Paris who shaped the Latin liturgy of the Holy Sepulchre. The manuscript […] dates from the third quarter of the twelfth century and comes from the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Having been purchased by the Duc d’Aumale in the mid-nineteenth century, it is now preserved at the Château de Chantilly. It is a breviary, written down when Parisian musical circles were just beginning to formulate square notation. All the vocal subtleties of the chant can be seen in it. In this respect the volume is quite exceptional, since few examples of French music from this period are still extant. Moreover, it contains a number of unique pieces, and others which are presented here in an unusual fashion. The musical notation of this breviary accurately reflects many decisive developments of its time, which were to have a profound influence on European techniques of notation down to the sixteenth century.

The French provenance of this manuscript is a precious indication, for we possess several concordant source of information enabling us to interpret the French notation of the twelfth century. It is necessary to combine the data provided by paleography with the art of making rhythm, which in religious chant has its own name, the tripudium. This essential element for understanding the rhythmic organization of the chant of this period has unfortunately not received sufficient attention from those who study the different types of plainchant. The way in which the theorists of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries describe the formation of the rhythmic architecture of polyphonic chant is a further fundamental element for deciphering this music.

[…] the antiphon Crucem tuam. Its text recalls the foundations of the Christian faith, centring on the resurrection of Christ, who by submitting to the torment of the Cross destroyed the infernal powers of death. This is the kind of multi-usage antiphon that could sometimes be sung outside the liturgical context in order to fan the flames of faith. It is followed by three chants for the Solemnity of the Transfiguration. The responsories Benedicat nos and Honor, virtus et potestas are taken from the Night Office, whereas the antiphon to the Magnificat comes from the Office of Vespers. The Feast of the Transfiguration was particularly observed by the Order of the Temple, which explains this solemn performance practice for the Magnificat, in which part of the antiphon is repeated every three or four verses .

Next comes the celebrated antiphon Media vita, sung for part of the year at Compline – the Office which leads up to nightfall – to introduce and conclude the Gospel canticle Nunc dimittis. This antiphon too was sometimes sung outside its liturgical setting. It was credited with magical powers, which often led the ecclesiastical authorities to control and limit use of it. After this, […] present the Kyrie chant, whose liturgical function, at the beginning of the Mass, is to exalt divine majesty, the only force capable of remedying the weaknesses and imperfections of the human soul. Once a year, the Kyrie was sung outside the Mass, to open Vespers for Easter Day. […] But the Kyrie could also be employed to fortify the souls of the combatants when an army deployed in order of battle. Here the chant alternates between monody and three-part polyphony, following the method of twelfth-century Parisian discantus as it has come down to us in the only extant work of Master Albert of Paris (precentor of the Cathedral of Saint-Étienne), preserved in the Codex Calixtinus: the Congaudeant catholici.

Then come two antiphons which set the spirituality of the Order in context. There is a frequent tendency to see the Templars only as warriors. This is to forget their fundamental condition as men of prayer, who took up arms only to defend peace and thus to allow mankind to hear the splendours of the Word of God. This is the meaning conveyed by the antiphon Da pacem domine in diebus nostris. It punctuates the recitation of Psalm 121, which conjures up all that Jerusalem at peace might reveal to men. Finally, just as each night before going to rest the Templars addressed a last invocation to the Virgin Mary, it is the great Salve Regina that concludes this brief survey of the liturgical life of the Order of the Temple. This antiphon, so wide-spread throughout Western Christendom, is presented here in an unusual form, with three verses which evoke the mystery of the Incarnation.

- Marcel Pérès



Ensemble Organum - Le Chant des Templiers
Manuscrit du Saint Sépulcre de Jérusalem XIIe siècle
Ensemble Organum - Marcel Pérès, dir.

Year: 2006

Label: Ambrosie

Anon., Chantilly, musée Condé, ms XVIII b12
1. Antiphona: Crucem sanctam
2. Responsorium: Benedicat nos deus
3. Responsorium: Honor virtus et potestas
4. Antiphona: Te Deum patrem ingenitum / Magnificat
5. Antiphona: Media vita in morte sumus / Nunc dimittis
6. Kyrie Eleïson
7. Antiphona: Da pacem Domine / Psalm: Fiat pax in virtute tua
8. Antiphona: Salve regina

Oh, and if you want to hear any other weird early music, check out Música Medieval y Renacentista

Krishna Das - Live on Earth

Place your burden
at the feet of the Lord of the Universe
who accomplishes everything.
Remain all the time steadfast in the heart,
in the Transcendental Absolute.
God knows the past, present and future.
He will determine the future for you
and accomplish the work.
What is to be done will be done
at the proper time. Don’t worry.
Abide in the heart and surrender your acts
to the divine.
- Ramana Maharshi

Do you notice how similar that passage is to the gospel song "Take your burden to the lord and leave it there"? Maybe there's more common ground between Christianity and Hinduism than meets the eye. Similarly, if you look for a modern-day version of those ecstatic gospel services that I've served up this past week, you may find yourself in the practice of Kirtan Yoga, attending a chanting concert by Krishna Das.

In college, some friends I used to gather a couple nights a month in an outdoor enclave that provided cave-like resonance. We would sing together. Simple songs, mostly: spirituals, ancient English tunes in the round, and plenty of hippie-pagan-goddess songs. This may come as a surprise to those of you who see me as a cynical paleo-hipster; I donned that persona on other nights with other friends. I tended to oscillate between the warm waters of spiritual, loving grace, the consuming fires of artistic drive, and the dry fields of intellectual wit. It was a good way to balance life. One of my singing friends taught us all a bhajan (hindu devotional song) called Radhe Shyam. It was the most incredible thing I had heard, steadily building speed and intensity until we were singing with every bit of breath we had, nearly collapsing from the sheer joy of it. I remembered that song for years, until I happened to hear it at an Irish farm I was working at this summer. Needless to say, my host (who specialized in sound-healing) was surprised to hear me burst into singing along with this bit of background music over the dinnertable. Afterwards, I investigated and found this cd.

Now, if any of you have ever browsed a new-age bookstore or the new-age section of a record shop, you're likely to have seen Krishna Das cds. And that mere fact would rightly make you suspicious of their quality, expecting overly-soothing tempos and entirely unevocative synthesized soundscapes. And while sometimes Krishna Das falls prey of those wicked producer-tactics, for the most part he's the bright light for the whole genre. Especially on a live cd like this, the production is stripped to a minimum, so the instruments and voice can shine uninhibited.

But still, especially if you have prejudices against anything newagey or hare-krishnaey, you should give this a listen. But if you merely listen, you'll miss half the point. The best way to enjoy this cd is with a group of people all singing along to it. As example, take the following story:

A Holy Night With Krishna Das
May 14, 2004 | 4:32 p.m.

I'm a big fan of Middle Eastern and Asiatic music precisely because it's completely pure for me--I don’t understand a word of those languages. But I knew nothing of Krishna Das until I read Amy Cunningham's riveting interview with him in Beliefnet.

The story in brief: Long Island Jew meets Ram Das, learns about a guru in India. Goes there, gets knocked upside the head by the power of the guru’s love, starts chanting. He has a modestly pleasant voice, but man, does he have conviction to burn. The combination makes him a kind of star on the chanting circuit.

The promise of a magic experience is why, at the low point of our week, my wife and I found ourselves trying to sit cross-legged on the floor of a recycled church on New York’s Lower East Side. It was hot and sticky, and the room was full, and they were serving vegan dinners and selling meditation clothes, and to say I had some attitude about all this is to understate --- the prospect of group chanting took me back to teenage beach parties when kids sat around and sang "Kumbaya."

"Welcome to Bombay Weight Loss and Kirtan," Krishna Das began. "Here you can sing and lose weight at the same time."

So he was funny. A good sign. And he looked amused: close-cropped hair, wire rim glasses, a junior version of a Wilfred Brimley moustache. He picked up the harmonium. “Shree Raam Jaya Raam Jaya Jaya Raam,” he sang, then we sang with him, and I wish I could build some drama here, but the thing of it was: Liftoff was immediate.

That's partly because the music is in a lower register, so it works as directly on the spine as a great bass guitar riff. It's also because the music forms an instantaneous community--500 people singing together, in praise of God and the god in themselves. And, as Krishna Das pointed out, "The repetition of the holy names reveals a presence hidden within the heart. Something begins to happen that's very disturbing--we get happy."

With Krishna Das, time bends, then stops. As it did, the room cooled a bit. Babies fell asleep, babies were carried out. As for vain, sophisticated, oh-so-clever me --- your Swami shucked his brittle shell and felt his heart beat with a roomful of strangers. And in that moment, peace prevailed. It was tangible. I mean, you could feel it.

You don't want to miss Krishna Das if he comes to your town.

-from belief.net
About Chanting:
Chanting (Kirtan) is a part of the path of Devotional Yoga.

"Chanting is a way of getting in touch with yourself. It's an opening of the heart and letting go of the mind and thoughts. It deepens the channel of grace, and it's a way of being present in the moment." - Krishna Das

When we see the beauty of our own being we are seeing the beauty of the Being that is the One of which we are all a part. And when we turn towards that One, love is the natural reaction of the heart.

God or Guru is an endless ocean of love truth and presence. First we may hear the distant roar of the crashing waves of the ocean and we're drawn to that sound. As we get closer, we can smell the ocean air and taste the sweet moisture. When we reach the beach and see the ocean for the first time, we're transfixed by the vastness and Beauty. We run and we dive in and enjoy the freedom that comes from this ecstasy. Finally we merge with that ocean of love and somehow find ourselves back on the shore, returning to ourselves so that we can share the experience with others.

Those that have returned have given us these Names of God. These Names are the sound of the surf of that Ocean of Love. They hold the power to help us find our way back to that ocean. We don't have to create anything; we don't have to manufacture any emotions or feelings. We can't make it happen. It already is. All we have to do is Remember. Everyone has their own path to this beach, to the Ocean, but we all wind up in the same place. There is only one...One.

The following is an excerpt from 'Pilgrim of the Heart' audio series by Krishna Das:

"The words of these chants are called the divine names and they come from a place that's deeper than our hearts and our thoughts, deeper than the mind. And so as we sing them they turn us towards ourselves, into ourselves. They bring us in, and as we offer ourselves into the experience, the experience changes us. These chants have no meaning other than the experience that we have by doing them. They come from the Hindu tradition, but it's not about being a Hindu, or believing anything in advance. It's just about doing it, and experiencing. Nothing to join, you just sit down and sing."

Satsang is where people gather together to remember, to turn within and find their own inner path to the One. When we gather together to sing like this we are helping each other find our own paths. We all must travel this path by ourselves because each of us is our own path. All these paths wander on in their own way, but in truth we are all travelling together and until the last of us arrives we will all keep travelling. So let's sing!
-from KrishnaDas.com

'And when he sees me in all and sees all in me,
Then I never leave him and he never leaves me.
And he, who in this oneness of love
Loves me in whatever he sees,
Wherever this man may live,
In truth, he lives in me...'

Bhagavad Gita, VI:30,31

Krishna Das's Guru, Maharaj-ji.
How can you not love a guy who embodies a monkey-god?

To me, the magic of chanting comes when you forget about everything else except chanting. Do it enough, and you'll forget about the division between yourself and your fellow chanters. Your heart opens and all of a sudden it's not about "I" and "You" anymore, not even about "them" or "we". This is a function of the experience of love, which is in essence the experience of oneness. I can't really explain, and it wouldn't do any good if I could because it's the experience that counts, not the idea. But lest you think this is some sort of yoga-induced insanity, listen to this credible source:

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us 'universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
- Albert Einstein

or this crazy guy:

“I salute the light within your eyes where the whole universe dwells. For when you are at that center within you and I am at that place within me, we shall be one.”
- Chief Crazy Horse, Oglala Sioux, 1877

But by all means, don't take my word for it. Give it a try. But don't hold back!


Krishna Das - Live on Earth (For a Limited Time Only)
Year: 2002
Label: Karuna

Track:
DISC ONE
1. Radhe Shyam (10:02)
2. Samadhi Sita Ram (11:32)
3. Shri Guru Charanam (5:59)
4. Three Rivers Hare Krishna (15:11)
5. Hanuman Puja (3:48)
6. Hanuman Chaleesa (8:33)
7. Sita Ram (7:25)
8. Jaya Bhagavan (6:43)

DISC TWO
9. Devi Puja (10:10)
10. Jaya Jagatambe (12:21)
11. Mountain Hare Krishna (15:00)
12. Namah Shivaya (11:56)
13. Rama Bolo (10:21)
14. Shri Krishna Govinda/Gopala (13:47)

Disc 1 | Disc 2, pt.1 | Disc 2, pt.2
mp3 192+vbr | w/ covers | 3 parts

Lyrics, credits and notes about the songs

and check out his tour schedule