I am mystically into chanting. It is such mysterious music..
Either in Rastafari chanting Nyabinghi drum and prayer, or now in the Orthodox Christian chants, I am in love with prayer as music. It is such a soothing spiritual meditation, and personally, I also chant and sing all my own prayers, following the melodies of the Tewahedo tradition to which I have been so indoctrinated.. it is truly beautiful music. also, perpahs the oldest continuous musical traditions are prayer, be it Christian or Buddhist or Hindu, chanting is ancient, it is the presrveation and perserverance of previous generations..
what chants/prayer do you like as music?
Rastafari Nyabinghi 'Burn Down Babylon' ( I-man can't live with out burning fyah on my hand drums, one of the most powerful gifts I was ever given musically or of any other kind was my first nyabinghi hand drum.. my elder sistren taught my the drum beats and the melodies, last groundation i-man helped to seal it up on the Akete drum)
Ethiopian Christian 'Yared's Hymn' entitled Tensa'e Emutan (Christ Rose)
Tewahedo Ethiopian Se'at (the horologium latin vespers)
Latin Vespers Book of the Hours
Byzantine/Greek Orthodox chant
Buddhist chant (some monks chanted this in the parking lot of a restraunt by my house around new years, it was so out of place it only enhances its mystical vibe)
Russian Orthodox Chant
Gregorian chants
Hindu chant
even those good ol negro spirituals
Steal Away
all the sacred religious texts, the Bible, the Qu'ran, the Vedic writings and the various Gitas, the Buddhists texts, the fucking Qabbalah, all of these are old world chants, they are songs.
music is a powerful medium for spiritual energy, it brings a religious text or prayer into action, living, powerful.. its a shame that protestants have lost the tradition with their lame and terrible renditions of
hymns ..