Sunday 10 March 2013

Gregorian Chant: Tranquility


According to Wikipedia, if you want to calm down, "conventional wisdom" prescribes Gregorian Chants:
In 2008, the Cistercian Monks of Austrian Heiligenkreuz Abbey released the CD Chant – Music for Paradise, which became the best-selling album of the Austrian pop charts and peaked #7 of the UK charts. In the US, the album was released under the title Chant – Music for the Soul and peaked at #1 on the Billboard classical charts.
It became conventional wisdom that listening to Gregorian chant increased the production of alpha waves in the brain, reinforcing the popular reputation of Gregorian chant as tranquilizing music.

When you follow the link to Alpha Waves, Wikipedia says this: 

Zen-trained meditation masters produce noticeably more alpha waves during meditation. This fact has led to a popular trend of biofeedback training programs for everyday stress relief.

So, when we listen to Gregorian Chants, we get more alpha waves and when we have more alpha waves we can be as calm as a Zen master meditating.  
Here is a link to a  video of a chant from the Cistercian Abbey Stift Heiligenkreuz in the Vienna Woods and there's a link to the Abby's website if you're interested in learning more.




The Gregorian Chants are not the only chants that are reputed to help us relax. If you search on YouTube, you can find all kinds of other chanting and they're all supposed to help us meditate, relax and become peaceful. 





Chanting is really just singing together. When people chant at a protest or at a soccer match or hockey game, they're definitely not trying to calm everyone down. Singing together is powerful for the singers and for those listening. I know that from singing in a choir and at church and at sports events.


The Gregorian chants and the Tibetan chants that people listen to when they want to relax are spiritual and have their own special power. 






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