The potential buyer of an album of Gregorian chant has many choices, some of which have even reached top chart levels. But this one by the Monks of Norcia, a Benedictine group (said to make great beer) whose monastery is located near the original home of St. Benedict in Nurcia, Italy, stands out in several ways. First there is the program: chant recordings tend to bifurcate into new agey relaxation exercises on one hand and involved scholarly exercises on the other. Monks of Norcia bring a group of chants on a single subject, Mary, with the different types specified (mostly antiphons and responsories): this gives the music content and focus without bogging down in detail. Second, the monks themselves are very fine singers; this is plainly an institution with a long musical history. Third, Universal does an exceptional job with the sound, recorded at the monastery itself and communicating the feeling that the singing is made to fit the place. And finally there is something common enough in places where chant is a living tradition in use, but exceedingly rare on recordings: the monks perform not only chants from the "classic" Gregorian tradition, but more recent works including one original (Nos, qui Christi iugum, track 31). All these factors combine to produce a chant recording that can fulfill a meditative function but that adds an immediacy of content that takes the music out of the purely meditative realm.
© James Manheim /TiVo