I’ve found the following excerpt on meditative singing from the book “Prayer For Each Day” by the monks of Taizé, to be helpful:
Singing is one of the most essential elements of worship. Short chants, repeated again and again, give it a meditative character. Using just a few words they express a basic reality of faith, quickly grasped by the mind. As the words are sung over many times, this reality gradually penetrates the whole being. Meditative singing thus becomes a way of listening to God. It allows everyone to take part in a time of prayer together and to remain together in attentive waiting on God, without having to fix the length of time too exactly.
In the Selah service, the use of meditative choruses from Taizé and others like it greatly enhance the use of traditional hymns, instrumental compositions, readings from Scripture, Celtic prayers and silent prayer.
November 27, 2006 at 11:01 pm
It seems that most of the Taize songs are written in a minor key. Is there something about the minor key that is particularly conducive to meditation? If that is so, is there a place for the other modes, like dorian or mixolydian? Weren’t non-major and -minor modes used in traditional chants?
February 8, 2007 at 5:47 am
Actually, there seems to be a variety of major and minor keys used in the Taizé material. Your comment is probably based on the fact that several of the songs that I use from Taizé in Selah and on my recordings are in a minor key! I think the same goes for traditional sacred chant, too. Major and minor keys as well as a variety of modes have been employed to go with the particular Biblical theme that is being portrayed. For a concise presentation on Gregorian chant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_chant