On An Overgrown Path

The power of music in the form of Gregorian chant first took me to Le Barroux outside Avignon many years ago and my earliest post about the monastery there was uploaded back in 2004. A number of return visits to Le Barroux and to other Catholic monasteries in France allowed me to explore the links between plainsong and mysticism . But those visits also brought me face to face with the connection between traditionalist Catholicism and right wing politics. So, after careful research, I published an article on Holocaust Day in January this year detailing the link between the right wing cleric Archbishop Lefebvre, founder of the controversial traditionalist Catholic Society of St. Pius X , and the convicted French war criminal Paul Touvier. When Decca announced that they had signed the nuns at L'Abbaye de l'Annonciation at Le Barroux in a bid to win the biggest classical popularity contest of all, Christmas number one, I wrote and broadcast in praise of the Gregorian c...

'When you hear the sound of nuns chanting, it's like an immediate escape from the challenges, stresses, noise and pace of modern living. You're given a glimpse of a secret world of peace and calm - Tom Lewis, Head of A&R at Decca Records My header photo shows the Abbaye de Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation at Le Barroux in France. The quote below it comes from Voices - Chant from Avignon , the official website of the new CD from the nuns of the Abbey. This album was released on Nov. 8 and Decca is hoping it will chart over the Christmas period. To achieve this the label are running TV commercials in the UK, which is very unusual for a classical release. The official Chant from Avignon website provides a great introduction to the album. But there are also some aspects of the nuns "secret world of peace and calm" not mentioned there that deserve to be shared. The Abbaye de Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation at Le Barroux, which was founded in 1979, is a sister...

'That inner spirit has been embodied very vibrantly in Benedictine monastic life and liturgy. This helps to explain the paradox of a music which when sung really expresses the spirit of silence; which with almost wordless vocalization really attempts to express the very word of God; which with the action of singing really is meant to be a vehicle of contemplation' - Abbot Marcel Rooney, O.S.B. The glories of Gregorian Chant, or "the mysticism of the octave" as Abbot Rooney describes it, have drawn me back again and again to the Benedictine L'Abbaye Sainte-Madeleine at Le Barroux near Avignon in France. The monastic community at Le Barroux are orthodox Catholics who celebrate the Holy Offices eight times a day in plainsong which respects the scholarship of Solesmes . This glorious liturgy is one of the reasons why I have stayed at the Abbey as a guest of the monks quite a few times over the years despite my discomfort with other aspects of Catholicism . As a resul...

But the idea of a normal person is a fantasy of the mind. Do you know any really normal people? I don’t. That quote from Buddhist monk and teacher Ajahn Sumedho is a useful reminder of the dangers of dualist judgements between normal and deviant. In the past I have been critical of the political deviance of the Benedictine community at L’Abbaye Sainte-Madeleine in Le Barroux, France, and the arrival of the new CD seen above gives me a chance to redress the balance a little. Le Barroux is far more than a monastery; it is an eclectic experiment that uses live audio streams and mobile apps to reach a global congregation, while at the same time revitalising the local area with a state-of-the-art olive mill - see my photo above - that services local smallholders, and a bakery that attracts customers from miles around. These monks certainly have the technology habit, and the candid shot below of one of their number administering last rites of the mechanical kind was taken from my b...

Just a few days ago I wrote about the sublime CD seen above of Gregorian Chant sung by the monks of L'Abbaye Sainte-Madeleine outside the village of Le Barroux in Provence; while  back in 2010 I discussed  how in small French villages where there are traditionalist Catholic monasteries, block voting by the religious community can be an important factor in elections. Which makes the result for Le Barroux in last Sunday's first round of the French presidential election interesting reading: Marine Le Pen (far right) 135 votes, Nicolas Sarkozy (centre right) 135 votes, François Hollande (centre left) 63 votes. In the small village of Le Barroux 469 people voted, a turnout of 89.33%. Wagner set the benchmark , and I continue to be confounded  by how people of intellect so effortlessly combine the sublime with the hateful . * Thankfully Marine Le Pen is now eliminated from the second and final round of the election on May 6. We will be in France then, coincidenta...

This sketch shows the Chapelle de la Madelène outside Bedoin in Provence. The earliest parts of the chapel date from the 11th century. In 1970 a Benedictine community of monks was established in the grounds of the chapel. As the community grew in numbers it went on to build the magnificent L'Abbaye Sainte-Madeleine five miles away at Le Barroux. The new monastery, which was consecrated in 1979, occupies a 75 acre site. It is built in a mock-Romanesque style and takes its visual cues from the chapel at Bedoin where the community was founded. Mock-Romanesque was not the most adventurous architectural style to adopt, particularly when the Benedictines at La Tourette to the north had retained none other than Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis to create their new monastery . But the conservative aesthetics of their new monastery are in line with the traditionalist views of the community at Le Barroux - let's not forget this is the religion that brought us Ferdinand and Isabella . I c...

So the French referendum has rejected the EU constitution, and the pieces of the jigsaw that make up Europe are once again thrown up into the air. Political bloggers such as Clive Davis are better qualified than me to analyse the implications of the "No" vote, but I cannot let the result pass without some personal comment. In a few days time I depart for my annual extended stay in France. It is a country I love, but also find deeply puzzling. The "No" vote seems to be more of a vote of no confidence in the Chirac government than a rejection of the new EU constitution. France is a fascinating mixture of traditionalism and extremism, and this is nowhere better illustrated than in the French attitude to religion. Although the national constitution makes France a secular state, Catholicism is still a strong force in society. I had written the post below a few days ago ready to upload while I was on the road south to the Vaucluse next weekend, but I am posting it today ...

Baroque runs riot in the chapel of the Penitent Blacks ( Chapelle des Pénitents Noirs ) in Avignon, as seen in my photos. Dating from the 18th century, the chapel was built by the co-fraternity of the Black Penitents of Mercy who tended to the material and spiritual welfare of prisoners in the city. Recently renovated by Avignon city council, the chapel is now the home of a contemporary co-fraternity of the Black Penitents. This was formed in 1983 to "pray for the souls of Purgatory and to be guardians of the traditional Catholic liturgy". Posters and flyers from the Fraternité Saint Pie X are prominently displayed in the chapel, promoting among other events a retreat to study "The spirituality of Monsignor Lefebvre". The Fraternité Saint Pie X (Society of Saint Pius X) was founded in 1970 by the right-wing cleric Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre in opposition to changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council and among its aims is the retention of the traditional Catho...

Recently I wrote and podcast about Universal Music's plans to chart a CD by the Benedictine nuns of L'Abbaye Notre Dame de l'Annonciation at Le Barroux in France (seen above) this Christmas. Chant from Avignon will be released on November 8th and there is a useful video (and audio samples - listen to that reverberation !) on Amazon . The video includes footage of recording sessions in the Abbey, complete with a male conductor. But unsurpisingly it makes no mention of past links between the monastic community at Le Barroux and the traditionalist Catholic Society of Saint Pius X and its ultra-right-wing founder Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre. In a fascinating twist it was a chart topping artist on the Philips label, now part of Universal Music, who also had interesting links with Monsignor Lefebvre and traditionalist Catholics in France back in the 1960s. Read the story here . * More on the political background to Voices - Chant from Avignon here. There are a number of arti...

John Cage's 26'1.1499" for a string player became a signature work for cellist and icon of the avant-garde Charlotte Moorman . She embellished Cage's original score by adding a section in which she set her instrument aside and played the body of a half-naked Nam June Paik as if it were a substitute cello. Considering Cage's reputation as an iconoclast, it is surprising to learn that he disapproved of Moorman's embellishments. In her definitive life of Charlotte Moorman , author Joan Rothfuss describes how "Cage and some of those in his immediate circle began to dismiss her interpretation - and her work in general - as overly concerned with self-presentation", and quotes Cage as saying "Paik's involvement with sex, introducing it into music does not conduce towards sounds being sounds". Today, classical music will try almost anything to reach new audiences, as can be seen from my header photo; a PR stunt for the 2014 BBC Proms so...

This 1972 Decca LP of the monks of L’Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes was the first recording of Gregorian chant that I bought, and in the eight years I have been blogging Gregorian chant has featured here many times, particularly as sung by the Benedictine community of Saint-Madeleine du Barroux . In 1972 the monks at Solesmes were speaking to the inner analogue with their LPs, but now their brothers at Le Barroux are speaking to the outer digital by streaming their Divine Offices online , complete with iPhone app for those seeking mobile spirituality. Le Barroux’s iPhone app is one of the more dramatic transgressions of set and setting , but it is symptomatic of a widespread problem. There is now, thankfully, a general understanding of how eco-systems mean that pollution in a stream can destroy life in a faraway ocean. But there is virtually no understanding of the workings of esoteric systems (eso-systems), as evidenced by the fallacy that a transcendental experience in a Prov...

In his Syrian travelogue The Street Philosopher and the Holy Fool Marius Kociejowski celebrates the two characters in the title as "non-mainstreamers". While others have appointed themselves as cultural commentators I prefer the roles of street philosopher and holy fool, so, accordingly, my recent travels enthusiastically embraced the non-mainstream. For the 1500 mile round trip to l'Abbaye Sainte-Madeleine in Provence I chose to travel by train rather than plane or car, which, thankfully, cushioned me from the kind of French driver captured in the header photo And my journey was rich in distinctly alternative experiences including the concert seen below; while I also took the distinctly non-mainstream decision to disconnect myself from the internet for the entire ten day trip. One of the many benefits of train travel is the non-mainstreamers it brings you into contact with. Seen below are the two delectable young ladies who sat next to me on the four hour high spe...