Chanting makes a comeback

It’s an important part of their lives now just as it was many years ago.

I’m talking about the Catholic monks in Vienna behind the hit “Chant: Music for the Soul.”

It’s an album of Gregorian chants that has become a crossover hit, surprising many, particularly after it surpassed Madonna and Amy Winehouse on the UK pop charts. It has become the top classical album in the UK and it was recently released in the United States.

Newsweek calls them “Vienna’s Newest Boy Band.”

This is what intrigues me about all of this.

According to a promotional release about the album, the monks submitted a tape to Universal Records after learning that the company had launched a contest for Gregorian chant. Universal had advertised the contest in Catholic papers throughout Britain.

Some people, video game enthusiasts in particular, may already know that chantlike melodies have hit the mainstream due to the popularity of the video game Halo. (I asked my 15-year-old son about this and he demonstrated this sound for me. Too much information … but I did ask)

Anyway, if you’d like more information about the album and the chanting monks, go online to www.chantmusicforthesoul.com.    

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor