The Atmosphere and Experience of Chant

The true glory and pride of chant music is for me most realized in the context of its conception, that is, in a cathedral. When listening to the music, it takes on a whole new quality of majesty and serenity if the space of a cathedral is reproduced on the recording. The sound is able to grew, augment, fill, and finally slowly die away in a peaceful echo.

A personal experience convinced me of the power of chant music in houses of worship. Over the summer I visited Europe for 2 and a half months. While there I visited over 10 of the major cathedrals of Europe. Each was astounding in its own right, but the serenity of the experience was complicated by talking, camera shots, tour guides, and so forth, except in one. In the Cathedral of Notre Dame of Paris, there was hardly in whisper in the entire structure. I attribute this to the chant music that is perpetually performed in the building. A sense of reverence and quiet was tangible throughout.

Something that chant has been able to isolate for me as a musical quality is the appreciation of space as it relates to sound. Especially considering the stone surfaces of the interiors, the sound was able to fill up a gigantic space with little effort, and great expressive abilities became available.