The
Dominican Sisters of Mary, a monastic community near Ann Arbor, Michigan, came out of nowhere in 2012 with their best-selling album
Mater Eucharistiae. The album's popularity extended well beyond Catholic religious circles and landed the sisters on the likes of Oprah Winfrey.
The Rosary has the quality that made the first album take off: absolute, direct Midwestern simplicity of utterance. The bulk of what you get here is not music but spoken Rosary prayers, accompanied in the background by an organ and choral singing similar to what was heard on the earlier release. No attempt is made to add any musical elaboration or self-consciously mystical spirit to the texts, which are reproduced in the booklet along with a numbered diagram of a string of Rosary beads. At the end are a well-chosen "bonus" (it's not clear under what conditions you wouldn't get the bonus) trio of choral compositions, the last of them original to the choir itself. The appeal of
Mater Eucharistiae was that nobody had done anything remotely like it. The novelty may have worn off this time around, but those who found a religious simplicity in the earlier album will likely be happy to have more of the same. ~ James Manheim