What price the music of an unsung master?

1968 was a year of upheaval. It was the year of sex and drugs and rock and roll and saw the assasination of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, the accidental death of Trappist monk and social activist Thomas Merton, the Tet offensive in Vietnam, the rise of the anti-war movement, the student rebellion that paralysed France, and the growth of the civil rights and women's movements. Stockhausen composed Stimmung, Hair opened on Broadway, the Beatles released their White Album and a Lindsay Anderson film put an African version of the Latin Mass at the top of the UK charts. Finally, as a reminder that history rarely repeats itself, but its echoes never go away, in October 1968 Tommie Smith and John Carlos made their controversial protest in support of the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) on the podium at the Mexico Olympics.

While society was in upheaval elsewhere Dom Charles was completing the remarkable work of art seen above in the Abbey church of the Benedictine community at Buckfast in a peaceful Devon valley. The huge east window (judge the size by the altar visible in lower foreground of my photo) is in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel at Buckfast Abbey. It uses the technique known as dalles-de-verre in which ‘tiles’ of coloured glass are chipped to shaped and laid mosaic-fashion in a matrix of resin. The window was made by the monks in the Abbey's workshop, and since its completion in 1968 windows have been made by the Brothers for more than 150 other churches using the same technique. One of the most recent commissions has been a window commemorating the New York firefighters who died in 9/11.

We had travelled to Buckfast to hear a concert of choral works by the unsung master Philippe de Monte. The music of this 16th century Flemish composer is very rarely performed today (although it is recorded), which is surprising as he wrote 1,073 secular and 144 spiritual madrigals, 45 chansons, 319 motets and 38 mass settings - eat your heart out Leif Segerstam! The intelligently planned and beautifully delivered concert was given in the Abbey church (Lady Chapel seen in my photo below) by the vocal ensemble Voces directed by Martyn Warren. There may still be many voices to a part in choirs in Devon and the men may still wear suits, ties and white shirts, but in other ways they are right up there with Radiohead. Here is an extract from the free programme book which included texts:

Concerts are normally free, allowing you to make your own decision about the contribution you make to the retiring collection. After expenses this will be split equally between the Abbey and the Voce music fund. Neither singers nor conductor take a fee. As a rough guide, a ticket for a concert like this would normally cost you at least £8, and we hope you will give generously with your money as the performers have given of their time in preparing and performing.


Masses of early music on iPods here.
My wife and I stayed in one of the Buckfast Communities splendid retreat houses on the edge of the monastic domain - recommended. Photos (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The magnificent Orthodox liturgy

I understood very soon that the magnificent, long and varied Orthodox Liturgy was the root and strength of the monastic day. It was the blazing fire at the centre of the house; its life and flame was the way of the house, all other activities led to it and in some way supported it - Jennifer Lash writes of her stay at the Monastery of Mother of God at Bussy-En-Othe, France in On Pilgrimage. A remarkable book by a remarkable lady. It is out of print but still available from remainder specialists, don't hesitate. On Pilgrimage (see cover below) is dedicated to another remarkable lady, Margery Kempe.

Now playing - Chants of the Great Lent and Holy Pascha sung by St Peter & Paul Choir of Minsk conducted by Irina Denisova. (Not generally available in West, sleeve above). Read about lots more sacred Orthodox music here.

Easter in the Orthodox Church is on April 27, 2008. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Early music's high Noone

Early music is more volatile than rock music. Hot new groups keep appearing, new personalities keep emerging, and early music has a dynamism that is noticeably absent from other parts of the classical music scene. One of the hot groups right now is Ensemble Plus Ultra under their director Michael Noone. Born in Sidney, Michael Noone studied at the University of Sydney and King's College, Cambridge, and specialises in Spanish Renaissance music. He is known especially for his work in the archives of El Escorial and the Cathedral of Toledo, and his CD Morales en Toledo featured here back in 2005.

Ensemble Plus Ultra record for the enterprising Spanish Glossa label who are one of the few companies still placing importance on the design and presentation of their CDs. I am playing music from their new disc (beautiful artwork above) of sacred choral music by the 16th century Venetian Gioseffo Zarlino in my Future Radio programme at 5.00pm UK time on Sunday 20th January. Zarlino is best known for his great treatise, Istitutioni harmoniche of 1558, and is little known as a composer. His cycle of motets from the Song of Songs, Canticum Canticorum, uses Isidoro Chiari's 1544 translation. This reflects the aesthetic priorities of the Cassinese Congregation of Benedictines of which Chiari was an abbot. Cassinese churches had polished white interiors, clear windows, and a choir centered under the main dome. Among architects and artists who worked for the Congregation were Palladio and Correggio.

In Sunday's programme Zarlino's motets frame Luigi Dallapiccola's Canti di prigionia. Dallapiccola was born in 1904 and grew up as a supporter of the Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. But Dallapiccola’s wife was Jewish, and when the Italian government aligned itself with the German Nazis in 1936 he turned against Mussolini, and expressed his opposition in music. His masterpiece is Canti di prigionia which was completed in 1941. This is a hymn to all those who have been imprisoned for their beliefs, and it provides a fascinating companion piece to Zarlino's motet settings from four centuries earlier.

Now read about, and hear, masses of early music on iPods.
Listen on Future Radio at 5.00pm UK time this Sunday, January 13th in real time here (convert to local time zones here). An Overgrown Path podcast will follow. Windows Media Player doesn't like the audio stream very much and takes ages to buffer. WinAmp or iTunes handle it best. Unfortunately the royalty license doesn't permit on-demand replay, so you have to listen in real time. If you are in the Norwich, UK area tune to 96.9FM. Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

New music for an ancient instrument

This tympanum crowns the restored west front of the Romanesque abbey church of Vézelay in Burgundy, France, which we visited in September. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Vézelay was an important monastic and pilgrimage centre, and today it is still one of the four starting points for the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route. The Abbey is one of the great architectural achievements of the Romanesqe period, although a major fire in 1120 and other disasters forced extensive renovation in the nineteenth century.


The nave, seen above, dates from the third decade of the twelth century. Although it is Romaneque at its most glorious there are some other interesting influences. See my article on the Rüstem Pasa Camii in Istanbul to understand how the alternating patterns in the stones of the arches echo Islamic architecture, an influence that probably found its way to Burgundy from Muslim Spain to the south-west. The view below is from the apse looking back through the choir to the nave. The apse and choir are Gothic additions dating from the end of the twelth century, and the change of styles is clearly evident at the transept.

The abbey of Vézelay is a wonderful performing space, and you can hear a unique recording made there in my Future Radio programme this Sunday, November 11 at 5.00pm UK time. Takafumi Harada studied in Tokyo and Rome, and was professor of musicology at the University of Kochi in Japan. He has composed for radio, television, the cinema and rock bands. In 1993 he took monastic vows and joined les Fraternités Monastiques de Jérusalem based in Vézelay, and became Brother Damien. He has applied his musical talents to the celebration of the liturgy at Vézelay, and in particular he has worked to rehabilitate the kithara into liturgical music.

The kithara (cithare in French) was an ancient Greek member of the zither family, and in modern Greek a kithara is a guitar. It was used to accompany worship in Biblical times, but subsequently fell out of use. Brother Damien's revival of the instrument is not a dry musicological exercise. He has composed contemporary works for the kithara and monastic choir, and I will be playing some of these on my radio programme from recordings made in the abbey church at Vézelay. His compositions use Japanese and Buddhist themes as well as setting the Psalms, and his work has been supported by L'Association des Amis de la Cithare japonais who have sponsored a CD of his compositions Eveille-toi, cithre! (Arise, kithara!). It can be bought from the website of les Fraternités Monastiques de Jérusalem, where short audio samples are also available.

Takafumi Harada's compositions for the kithara will be coupled with an apposite work, Toru Takemitsu's From me flows what you call Time. This concerto for five piece percussion group and orchestra is built around a five note theme, and its preoccupation with the number five reflects the numbers symbolism in Tibetan Buddhism. This will be a fascinating programme, and I am almost certain that the four pieces for kithara that I am playing are broadcast premieres. Do join me at 5.00pm UK time on Sunday November 11 if you can.


Now read about columns of plainsong soaring upwards.
* Listen via the audio stream on Sunday Nov 11 at 5.00pm UK time. Convert Overgrown Path radio on-air times to your local time zone using this link. Windows Media Player doesn't like the audio stream very much and takes ages to buffer. WinAmp or iTunes handle it best. Unfortunately the royalty license doesn't permit on-demand replay, so you have to listen in real time. If you are in the Norwich, UK area tune to 96.9FM. All photographs (c) On An Overgrown Path 2007. Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

New music with a Benedictine habit

My love of Gregorian Chant started years back when I first stayed in L'Abbaye Sainte Madeleine at Le Barroux in France and heard the Benedictine monks singing the Holy Offices according to the scholarship of Solesmes. Once you've heard plainsong at 3.30 in the morning during Matins you never forget it! The two photos here were taken by me a few weeks ago when I visited the monastery again.

On this Sunday's Overgrown Path programme on Future Radio I will be playing a twentieth century Requiem which is closely based on the Gregorian original. Composers from Victoria to Ligeti have set the Requiem Mass, but the non-restored Gregorian funeral chants of the Roman Rite are rarely heard. To rectify this I am starting my programme with the Introit, Kyrie, Dies Irae, Sanctus and Agnus Dei from the Gregorian Mass for the Departed sung by the monks of l'Abbaye de Fontgombault in central France.

The recording I am playing is on the invaluable Art & Musique label. Unfortunately, their CDs are very difficult to find outside France. My copy was bought in the wonderful Abbey shop at Le Barroux the day I took the photographs here. You can buy the recording online from the shop. This is my sort of CD - the sleeve notes say the following: 'The recording sessions took place in the 12th century abbey church of Fontgombault on the cold and windy days of March 12-14 2001. One can hear a little of the windstorm in the background.'

Maurice Duruflé wrote his Requiem Op. 9 in 1947 for full orchestra and organ, and it is is closely modelled on the Gregorian original. In 1961 Duruflé made a revised version for reduced orchestra and organ, and it is this version I will be playing to give continuity from the austerity of the opening plainchant. In fact the transition from the plainsong to the Duruflé is so seamless the linking announcement almost seems an intrusion.

The programme will be broadcast at 5.00pm UK time on Sunday 21 October. Listen online in realtime only via this link. And after that windstorm in Fongombault it must be raindrops falling on my chant.


Listen to the Future Radio audio stream here. Convert Overgrown Path radio on-air times to your local time zone using this link. Windows Media Player doesn't like the audio stream very much and takes ages to buffer. WinAmp or iTunes handle it best. Unfortunately the royalty license doesn't permit on-demand replay, so you have to listen in real time. If you are in the Norwich, UK area tune to 96.9FM.

All photos (c) On An Overgrown Path 2007. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Happy new ears in an ancient monastery

My photos here were all taken at a remarkable event which brings contemporary music to a historic venue in the South of France. L'Académie de musique de chambre contemporaine (Academy of Contemporary Chamber Music) brings together young musicians from France, Germany and Switzerland to perform contemporary and specially commissioned works in the 14th century Carthusian monastery at Villeneuve les Avignon in Provence.


The Chartreuse du Val-de-Bénédiction (above) was formed in 1352 by a gift from Pope Innocent VI (who is buried there), and over 450 years became the largest and wealthiest charterhouse in France. After the 1792 Revolution the monastery, with its magnificent cloisters which can be seen in my photos, was dissolved, and fell into disrepair. In 1973, with funding from the French Ministry of Culture, the charterhouse was restored to house La Centre National des Ecritures du Spectacles. This is a cultural centre offering artist residencies, and has become a creative laboratory exploring new technologies in the performing arts, with artists occupying the cells instead of Carthusian monks.


At the heart of the cultural centre is the Tintel theatre, which is seen in my photo above. The Tintel was the refectory of the charterhouse, and was built more than 400 years ago with specific acoustic properties to allow the mealtime reading by a monk to be heard clearly anywhere in the dining room. The unique acoustics have been acclaimed by many contemporary musicians. These include Pierre Boulez who has performed in the Tintel with his Ensemble InterContemporain, and, conveniently, has built a summer residence to his own design in St Michel in the foothills of the Alps about an hour's drive away. The sound in the Tintel is truly outstanding. I was able to move around during performances, and the chamber musicians could be heard with remarkable clarity from anywhere in the auditorium. The hall does not have the resonance one expects from an ecclesiastical building, but instead the sound is very analytical without being cold - very Pierre Boulez in fact.


L'Académie de musique de chambre contemporaine is formed annually from musicians from Le Conservatoire national supérieur musique et danse de Lyon (Lyons, France) et the Hochschule für Musik und Theater de Hambourg und Landesmusikrat de Hambourg (Hamburg, Germany). The residency combined workshops, a seminar on contemporary chamber music titled 'Happy New Ears' led by Reinhard Flender, and three concerts in the Tintel. Improvisation is an integral part of the residency, and the young composers Stephane Borrel and Ruta Paidere worked with the musicians preparing specially commissioned works.


The photo above was taken at the opening concert which started with the musicians coming on stage to an improvisation prepared by Cornelia Monske. The other composers featured in the concert were Frederic Rzewski (USA), Emmanuel Nunes (Portugal), Alban Berg (Austria), Arne Nordheim (Norway), Philippe Gouttenoire (France), Fredrik Schwenk (Germany), and Ruta Paidere (Lithuania). France has an enlightened attitude, at a cost to the taxpayer, towards using public funding to foster the contemporary performing arts which includes the creation of IRCAM in Paris. L'Académie de musique de chambre contemporaine is another shining example of the positive results of that patronage. And the same patronage also helps to attract new audiences for contemporary music - all three of the excellent concerts given by L'Académie de musique de chambre contemporaine in the Tintel were free.


Old meets new will also be the theme of my Overgrown Path radio programme this Sunday (Sept 25) on Future Radio. The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in Germany has commissioned new works for period instruments from a number of contemporary composers using enlightened funding provided by the Siemens Arts Program. I will be featuring full length works by the English composer Rebecca Saunders and the German Benjamin Schweitzer in a concert that will also include a Baroque masterpiece, Bach's Brandenburg Conceto No 6. The programme is webcast in real time at 5.00pm UK time on Sunday Sept 25. Listen to it, and many more classical music stations, by opening the Radeo internet player via this link or via this audio stream, and click here for an internet radio user's guide.

Our recent visit to France had a Carthusian theme, and while there I read two fascinating new books about contemporary life in Carthusian monasteries. An Infinity of Little Hours by Nancy Klein Maguire (PublicAffairs ISBN 9781586484323) tells the story of five young men who join a Carthusian foundation in the 1960s, while Sounds of Silence (above) written using the nom de plume Father Benedict Kossmann (AuthorHouse ISBN 1420872915) is the story of a Carthusian who left the Order to marry and live in Florida. And then, of course, there is Into Great Silence.

Convert Overgrown Path radio on-air times to your local time zone using this link. Windows Media Player doesn't like the audio stream very much and takes ages to buffer. WinAmp or iTunes handle it best. Unfortunately the royalty license doesn't permit on-demand replay, so you have to listen in real time. If you are in the Norwich, UK area tune to 96.9FM. All photos (c) On An Overgrown Path 2007. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

How precious this human life is ...

You too must contemplate your own death, meditate upon it, learn to understand and accept it. For only when you understand that life and death are not two opposites but only different sides of one reality, will you have no fear of death. For life is a candle which burns in the wind, its light can be gone in a moment. Death comes to all that lives. We must therefore never forget how precious this human life is, with its wonderful possibility of wisdom, which we should take avantage of before death ~ Tibetan Lama

+ In memory of Frère Ferréol (1959-2007) of the Benedictine Community of L'Abbaye Sainte-Madeleine du Barroux who has died in a tragic accident. The photo above shows the Requiem Mass held for him in the Abbey. Below is my translation from the newsletter of Les Amis du Monasterie, which also supplied the photos.

Throughout this tragedy the liturgy has been a huge consolation to us. The Requiem Mass is the crowning glory of choral music, and the Gregorian setting, with its economy of gesture and transcedental beauty, is its ultimate expression. Music has never been so noble yet so humble, with the plainchant underpinning the solemn text. The Requiem Mass tells us that although death is a terrible test, there is something better beyond it. The liturgy confirms our faith, and tells us that it is the peace beyond death that is most important.

Now playing - music from a green hill far away.
Lead quote from Touching Tibet by Niema Ash (Eye Books ISBN 190307018). The Liturgie des Défunts in the Gregorian setting sung by the monks of l'Abbaye Notre-Dame de Fontgombault is available on an Arts & Musique CD. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

France's right in retreat

Today's Guardian reports: 'Nicolas Sarkozy is not one to shut himself away. But he is planning to go on a three-day post-victory retreat to an isolated corner of France, perhaps a monastery'.

This would continue the interesting association between the Catholic Church and right-wing parties in France that I have written about here before. And, yes, I have been on retreat at a French monastery reportedly frequented by far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen. Which should give The Agonist something else to get wrong.

Into Great Silence

“In these letters I have often taken you on my holiday journeys: India, California and Venice. This time it is more of an inner journey which I would like to share. I write under the powerful impression of the film Into Great Silence, which depicts life in the Carthusian monastery of the Grande Chartreuse, in the French Alps, where the monks live mostly in solitude and silence. Some of you may well have seen it, so I will not describe the film, rather convey the feelings and reflections which arose out of it for me. Let me only say that I think it is a masterpiece of photography and film making, quite apart from being a profound experience which has transformed my life in many subtle ways.


In a world where strident noise, frenzied activity and constant stimulation are the daily diet, a film in which hardly anything happens for nearly three hours, with no dialogue, no commentary and no music (except Gregorian chant), is a considerable challenge. However, the queue snaking down the road in front of the Playhouse in Norwich on that winter Sunday afternoon was a striking manifestation of the thirst for something different. Everyone was surprised by this unexpected turn-out, not least the Cinema City staff who struggled to cope. And from start to finish you could have heard a pin drop.


A slow pace, images remaining on the screen for what seemed like minutes, a very strong sense of rhythm – the passing seasons made a counterpoint with the regularity of monastic life, its alternation of solitary prayer, study and community, punctuated by bells – created a spell. In the silence, the natural sounds of everyday living: echoing footsteps in stone passages, large wooden doors opening and closing, chopping wood, cutting cloth, drawing water, and plainchant singing, took on a particular poignancy.


I was struck by how unnatural our lives have become; in this monastery, daily activities are still closely connected with nature and all materials are natural: stone, wood and cloth; vessels are made of clay, tin or wood, not a sign of plastic! Walls are bare, objects are starkly simple and few, but there is not a trace of ugliness. I felt that these men, who live enclosed with no possessions of their own and very few choices, were maybe more free than us, who battle daily with a multiplicity of external possibilities (how many brands of biscuits on the supermarket shelves?) and believe that freedom is to have exactly what we want.


And I reflected on the power of silence, emptiness and the space between things. I have often noticed that what makes a great musician is the ability to breathe, to pause, to hold a note suspended. The inexperienced player tends to rush through, to get the notes right. But without the silence, there is no real music, just a dead sequence of sounds. Silence creates rhythm, and cycles, without which there is no life: as the old wise man in the Bible puts it: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven; there is a time to be born and a time to die; a time to break down and a time to build up; a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.”


Without the pauses, the breathing space, the in-between times, there is no harmony, no creation, no unfolding of life. It is not by chance that language has the expression “a pregnant pause”. All creative change needs this space for reflection, this empty time when the old way of being is no more, and the new is not yet. We ignore this at our peril, and our culture, which constantly rushes into action, does not seem to be able to produce any viable, durable change, only vacillation between extremes.”

Aude Gotto writes in the Spring newsletter of the King of Hearts Centre for people and the Arts in Norwich. Into Great Silence is released on DVD in the UK on May 23, and on October 23 in the US. Now read Aude writing about India.

All the stunning images are stills from the film by director Philip Gröning. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Dialogues of the Carmelites

Dialogue 1: The Order of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is an enclosed Catholic Order founded in the 12th century by Saint Bertold on Mount Carmel, Israel, with the bretheren taking their name of the White Friars from their distinctive white cloaks. Increasing tension between East and West forced the Order to move to Cyprus and Sicily in 1238, and they were in England two years later. In 1250 a Carmelite Priory was established on the banks of the River Wensum in Norwich immediately opposite the city’s magnificent Norman cathedral.

The monastery was suppressed in 1543, the property was divided up, and over the intervening centuries virtually all traces of the priory have disappeared. But the presence of the Carmelites lives on in Norwich. The thoroughfare leading across the river from the cathedral and law courts is known as Whitefriars, and my photograph above shows the bland office building called Carmelite House on the far side of the bridge. This was built on the site of the monastery in 2003, and is where my day job is based. Clearly visible in the foreground is the only remaining fragment of the original Carmelite monastery. This is an arch from one of the two anchorite houses that were built in the grounds of the priory, and my heart lifts each morning as I pass this medieval fragement on my way to modern mayhem.

Dialogue 2: Speaking of mayhem, Francis Poulenc based his 1956 opera Dialogue of the Carmelites on historical events that took place in a Carmelite convent in Compiègne during the French Revolution. In the opera the French authorities dissolve the convent, and the nuns take a vow of martyrdom. In the immensely moving final act the nuns march to the scaffold singing the Salve Regina, and this changes to the hymn Deo patri sit Gloria (All praise be thine, O risen Lord). The opera was composed between 1953 and 1956, and during this period Poulenc suffered a nervous breakdown, reputedly due to his identification with the suffering of the nuns.

Dialogue of the Carmelites is one of the peaks of 20th century music theatre. It expresses profound psychological and religious insights through a musical language accessible to anyone familiar with Poulenc’s more popular works - if you know his Organ Concerto you will feel at home from the first bars of Scene 1 . There is extensive use of recitatives, and these contrast with some wonderful choral settings including the Ave Maria (Act II, Scene II) and Ave verum corpus (Act II, Scene IV). The opera is well served in the catalogue by the excellent Opéra de Lyon recording on Virgin Classics with a stellar cast under Kent Nagano.

At budget price this re-release is quite unmissable, and it helps reinforce Poulenc as a major 20th century composer. These words from the website of the composer's publisher are worth reflecting on - "Like his friends Honegger and Milhaud, he had the courage to resist the serialists’ diktats and remain true to himself. Now that the serialist terror has passed, those of us who love Poulenc’s music can hold up our heads in the most sophisticated company."

Dialogue 3: No serialists' diktats here, but I am a sucker for historical reconstructions which add colour and variety to potentially arid expanses of early music. In 1707 Handel visited Rome, and he was commissioned to provide music for the festival of Our Lady of Mount Carmel celebrated annually on 16th July. No information survives on Handel’s contribution, but Andrew Parrott has made a hypothetical reconstruction combining Handel’s music with Carmelite psalm settings, and all five antiphons are chanted before their respective psalms. This is a gorgeous 2CD set, wonderfully performed by the Taverner Consort and Players directed by Andrew Parrot, with balance engineer Mike Clements providing wonderfully airy sound in St Augustine’s, Kilburn. Highly recommended as a mid-price reissue from Virgin.

Dialogue 4: Although the Carmelites left Norwich more than four centuries ago the Order flourishes today in Quidenham, just 30 miles to the south. A Carmelite monastery was established there in 1948 by a group of nuns, and the photograph below was taken by me in the grounds last autumn. in the 21st century the nuns follow the Carmelite Rule in a balanced regime of prayer, work, intellectual study and recreation. This is an enclosed order, and the nuns only leave the monastery because of illness or for family reasons. The offices are celebrated with plainsong settings of the psalms, and the Carmelite nuns in Quidenham demonstrate the resilience of this remarkable Order in the face of the terrors portrayed so powerfully in Poulenc’s opera.


For more inspiration take An Overgrown Path to There is a green hill far away called Taizé
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The world's oldest active monastery

St. Anthony's Monastery (Deir Mar Antonios), which lies at the foot of Al-Qalzam Mountain in Egypt, was founded in 356 AD, and is the oldest active monastery in the world. The monastery is Coptic Christian today, although over its many years it was often multi-faith, housing monks of several different Christian religions. Saint Anthony the Great (251-356) was an Egyptian Christian saint, and one of the leaders of the Christian monks known as Desert Fathers.


Exceptional wall paintings and icons are a feature of St Anthony's Monastery. For centuries the wall paintings were obscured by grime, but a joint project between the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the American Research Center in Egypt has restored them, as the photo above shows. One set of the paintings is attributed to the Coptic master Theodore, while others are of Byzantine origin.

Now, read about a setting of the Greek Orthodox Akáthistos Hymn by a contemporary composer.
Image credits. Header from MyWay Travel in Norway, well worth visiting for a lot more wonderful photos. Wall painting from TourEgypt.net. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dotuk

Celebrating with Palestrina's Missa Brevis

I managed to catch Choral Eucharist in St John's Smith Square yesterday lunchtime. Built in 1728 St John's Smith Square is one of the finest examples of English Baroque architecture. It is located within a few minutes walk of all the government departments and the Houses of Parliament themselves. Although still used as a church St John's is now best known as a concert and recording venue. Many famous records have been made there, most notably by Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. The church has glorious acoustics, and its location in a quiet square helps keep the background noise down.

The service today was sung by Cantandum directed by Gilly French, with Rosemary Field organ. The celebrant was the Rev. Jennie Hogan. Here is the music:

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina - Missa brevis
Cristóbal de Morales - Ecce virgo concipiet
Louis Vierne - Etoile du Soir
Marcel Dupré - Lumen ad revelationem

* As well as being one of my favourite Renaissance musicians, the composer of today's anthem, Cristóbal de Morales, provided the inspiration for a celebrated album made by saxophonist Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble. The ECM CD Officium takes its title and first track from the Parce mihi domine from Morales' Officium defunctorum. For more on this read Officium live - a triumph of music theatre.

* The powerful painting above is one of twelve panels by the Australian artist Alan Oldfield inspired by St Julian of Norwich's revelations. The originals hang in St Gabriel's Chapel, All Hallows Convent, Ditchingham. For more on St Julian read Medieval mystics with musical connections.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Listen - fulfil!

Listen. Benedict deliberately chose this word as the beginning of his Rule. It also is the first word that strikes us when the Rule is read on January 1; and it stands as a kind of theme for every year. Benedict starts without preliminaries and addresses the person directly. The last word of this sentence forms an inclusion together with the first word: 'Listen - fulfil!' The entire verse describes this listening with its fullest sense.

Aquinata Böckmann OSB quoted in The Monastic Way, Canterbury Press ISBN 1853117579. Now follow the monastic way to Columns of plainsong soaring upwards.
Aquinata Böckmann is a member of the Benedictine Missionary Sisters of Tutzing, Germany. Image of Saint Benedict (detail of Crucifixion) by Fra Angelico, 1441-42, from Convento di San Marco, Florence. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

A Very Happy Christmas To All My Readers

Church attendance, baptisms and religous marriage vows may be on the decrease, but the Holy Spirit is at work, with a great spiritual awakening in Europe that goes beyond institutional structures. There is in general an increased awareness that we are spiritual beings with an invisible dimension that demands our exploration and understanding. The yearning for the sacred is universal, and love, the highest of all human and divine expressions, is the crown jewel of spiritual life - Stafford Whiteaker.

The image is of a copy of a 16th century portable icon from the Monastery of the Transfiguration at Meteora, Greece. Stafford Whiteaker has been a member of a Christian monastic community, and is author of the Good Retreat Guide.

For more on spiritual awakening take An Overgrown Christmas Path to There is a green hill faraway called Taizé
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

November Woods by a brazen romantic

Photograph above taken at the Carmelite Monastery, Quidenham, Norfolk on November 18th 2006 by Pliable.

Now playing - November Woods (1917) by Arnold Bax, performed by the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Bryden Thomson (Chandos LP ABRD066). Bax described himself as a 'brazen romantic', so you won't find him on Sequenza21. His life and music were informed by literature and nature, and he drew on Celtic and Nordic mythology for inspiration. November Woods is a close companion to two other Bax tone poems, The Garden of Fand and Tintagel.

The legends of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table are linked to the Cornish castle of Tintagel, and Bax's eponymous tone poem is available on one of my nomination for the greatest records of the 20th century. This EMI recording was made in No 1 Studio, Abbey Road with Robert Kinloch Anderson producing in 1967. The coupling is one of the great 20th century symphonies, Vaughan Williams 5th, the score of which was completed in 1943, and is dedicated to Jean Sibelius 'without permission'. Both works are conducted by one of the great 20th century conductors, Sir John Barbirolli. As you may have guessed I recommend it. Also recommended is Bax's autobiography Farewell My Youth. Sadly it is now out of print, my copy is of a 1949 edition and expect to pay quite a high price if you find a copy.


The words on the crucifix at Quidenham in my header photo are: Wanderers stay and think of me here a while, how I hung on the cross so that thou could come to me. This message is reflected in Vaughan Williams' magnificent 5th Symphony which draws on material from his 1951 opera The Pilgrim's Progress which in turn was based on John Bunyan's 17th century allegorical novel. There is a classic EMI recording of the opera with Sir Adrian Boult conducting, and John Noble singing The Pilgrim. It was made in London's Kingsway Hall in 1972 with exemplary sound from the legendary producer and engineering team of the two Christophers - Bishop and Parker. My webname, Pliable, comes from one of the characters in Bunyan's novel. I have been married for 30 years today, and my wife thinks it significant that Pliable was one of the two residents of The City of Destruction in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The other was Obstinate.


That mention of The City of Destruction brings this Overgrown Path through more November Woods to its final destination. The two photographs above were taken yesterday as we walked through the campus of the University of East Anglia to the Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts to view their magnificent Francis Bacon exhibition. Bacon shared Celtic connections with Bax, and was born in Dublin in 1909, although he spent much of his creative life in London. The exhibition focuses on Bacon's work from the 1950s, and quite stunning it is. Just as even the very best audio system cannot realistically reproduce an orchestral fortissimo from a recording, so Bacon's paintings cannot be done justice on the printed page. They must be seen in the flesh. Some are massive, black statements from the City of Destruction, but others, by contrast, celebrate with colour Bacon's love of van Gogh and travel. And those contrasts brings me the end of this Path. It has travelled from the enlightenment, through romanticism to the modern, and is a reminder, if we neeed one, of how fortunate we are to live in a society of contrasts that can embrace equally Bunyan, and Bax, and Bacon, and beyond.

* Listen to a 43 minute BBC audio programme on Vaughan William's Fifth Symphony -

* For more recordings of Bax, Vaughan Williams and their contemporaries take An Overgrown Path to Treasure trove of 20th century composers

Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

There is a green hill far away called Taize

This Overgrown Path takes us from England through Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France, to the vineyards of Burgundy and on past Cluny where a spiritual revolution started a thous