A classical Christmas number one?


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 articles about Le Barroux On An Overgrown Path. A good starting point for a brief history of the monastic community there is this article. Header photo was taken by me on my most recent visit to L'Abbaye Notre Dame de l'Annonciation last December and is (c) On An Overgrown Path 2010. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk Also on Facebook and Twitter.

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