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Album Details
- Artist: Santo Domingo De Silos
- Album: The Mystery Of Santo Domingo De Silos
- Label: Deutsche Grammofon
- Year of Release: 1969
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: charlesmartel on 2011-07-11
RecommendWho would ever have thought that Benedictine plainsong would manage to cross over into the mainstream? Well, in spite of the fact that this was as unlikely a musical success story as you could imagine, in some ways it is hardly surprising that it did. Yet this was seen as one of those novelties which for some reason caught on and became a big success. I often wondered what the isolated monks of the relatively small monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos in northern Spain actually thought of it all.
Anyone who has ever wandered around some of the great monasteries of Europe will have listened in awe to the chant of the monks at various prayer times. Simplistic beauty is the only way to describe it. The sound of male voices echoing through the cavernous halls of a Gothic monastery church brings with it a quality which it would be impossible and unwise to recreate in the studio. This truly is music which, if taken out of the architectural context for which it was intended, ceases to have the effect that was intended.
Although I am an atheist by conviction, I recognise that, throughout the Middle Ages, art, music and architecture all reached their apogee in religious expression. I may not share the belief in the divine, but I can quite understand the power and effect of religion when you can hear something as simply beautiful as this in the setting for which it was designed. This album, and its numerous successors, came out in the wake of the early Enigma work in which monastic style chanting was used to create a sometimes superb effect, witness the amazing “Sadeness”. Yet this music drew its inspiration and its form from religion. As much as it was about praising God through words, being shorn of everything except the purity of the voice in plain chant was in itself a form of praise to that same God. I am not sure I am capable of fully comprehending the devotion which would go into something like this, but I am truly glad there are those who can, for they have enabled an album like this to become a reality.
What is difficult, however, is to listen to too much of it at one go. It also requires the moment. Sadly, once you remove it from its context, it becomes hard to recapture that feeling which drew you to it when you first heard the chanting in that isolated monastery. I can sit through a service of this but not listen to the whole album on an iPod or CD player. It is as if it was designed only for the setting in which it was created, and anywhere else it loses some of its impact.
And there is only one true way to listen to it outside of a medieval church. Put this on loud, but not too loud, just loud enough to ensure that no other sound can be heard. Then turn the lights out, pull the curtains and block out every speck of light you can see. Now lie on your back with a bottle of wine and listen to this. You will be enthralled. It is uplifting and the sound will fill the room. If you could move all the furniture and carpeting out (especially the carpets) it would sound even better, mimicking (as far as is possible) the echoey sound of the monastery church. As the problem is that this can get a little samey after a while, that is why you need the wine. To ensure this sends you off quietly to sleep, a deep and peaceful sleep.
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