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Rating: L'Ensemble de la Paix - Sister Marie Keyrouz - Harmonia Mundi, 1991
It's never easy to put into words the sensations that listening to a musical piece, or an entire work such as an album, a jazz suite, or a choral symphony, can evoke, especially when they impact you so deeply.
It's even more challenging to express oneself when the music is as rich in spirituality as that contained in this CD.
Briefly, because what really matters is the music, the Maronite Chant is the Liturgical Chant of the Maronite Church, a Christian Eastern rite mainly active in Syria and Lebanon.
As if following an ideal path of faith, the CD features an excerpt of Traditional Chants in Syriac or Arabic language from the Nativity, the Passion, and the Resurrection, dating back to the early centuries of Christianity.
Even in its joyful expressions (Nativity), the Maronite Chant is a melancholic song, which leaves the listener with a sense of unease, of incompleteness, suggesting the difficulties of a spiritual journey, whatever it may be and wherever it may lead.
In the songs of the Passion, there emerges a poignant restraint, all the more evident in the vocalizations and melismas of Sister Marie Keyrouz's intense voice.
In the instrumental pieces for Nay (a very ancient wind instrument), there emerges a plea for help to break free from a sense of absolute solitude.
There isn't a true sense of liberation even in the Resurrection, despite the chant becoming choral in the Halleluia or involving multi-instrumental sessions (Nay, Ud, Qanun).
Music so distant in time but perhaps so close to describing our own.
No matter what your faith is or if you believe in something, that is not the point. If you love music in its highest expressions, close your eyes and listen as long as you can. Sister Marie Keyrouz's voice will shake you from within…
Tracklist
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