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“The pure voices of
Ruth and Ana, woven in a musical tapestry of simple melodies and spirited
flowing harmonies, are so stunning that the listener’s heart cannot escape
feelings of peace and deep healing.”
— Pat Moffitt Cook-Director of the Open Ear Center (www.openearcenter.com)
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HARC: Inside Chants includes
settings of sacred chants from the Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Jewish
traditions. In many of the pieces traditional and newly composed chants
serve as ground for improvised counterpoint. Accompanied by piano,
medieval harp, tongue drum, flute, and guitar, HARC: Inside Chants is a
meditative experience crafted to move the heart to its innate state of
openness, compassion and peace. Click
here to hear selections from HARC You may purchase
Harc: Inside Chants from: CD
Baby
or
The Episcopal Book/Resource Center
212-716-6118 |
HARC is Ruth Cunningham and Ana
Hernández. Ana and Ruth have been
collaborating performers and sound healers since 2001. They have just completed
their first recording: HARC: Inside Chants. Their music makes use of texts from
Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, and Jewish sources and combines them with musical
traditions as far-flung as the joyous repetition of Indian Kirtan, the simple
harmony of Irish folk songs and the pure sound of medieval chant. In addition to
newly composed and traditional tunes, they enjoy creating improvised
counterpoint. They have facilitated experiences of healing sound and chant at
conferences, workshops, and concerts, and are often called upon to create
innovative liturgies. They have done workshops and liturgies for the American
Guild of Organists and for the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont among other
organizations. The work of HARC comes out of their individual practice and
experience with chanting and sacred sound, and their desire to share with others
the potential of sound and music to transform lives.
Click here to read more about the “Sound
As Prayer” workshops with HARC
| Ana Hernández is a composer and arranger of sacred music,
singer, and multi-instrumentalist. She leads workshops on the uses of
sacred sound and rhythm in prayer. Her greatest joys lie in helping people
to experience sound; the ways it touches our hearts, and its uses in
manifesting peace, compassion, and laughter. She has recorded her
arrangements with the National Cathedral Girls Choir and The Miserable
Offenders. A previous recording, Eternal Spirit, with Sr. Helena Marie,
CHS, has been popular with healing practitioners and spiritual directors.
She has also contributed the music track to the popular beliefnet.com
meditation ‘The Lord is My Shepherd,’ a meditation on Psalm 23 that can be
experienced online at www.beliefnet.com.
A few of her chants and hymns have just been published in the new hymnal
Voices Found. She is currently at work on a book about chant as a
spiritual discipline entitled The Sacred Art of Chant: Preparing to
Practice (Skylight Paths, Fall 2004).
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Photo by Jill Krementz
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“The arrangements for
the chants presents each one true to its essence (I don’t know this, I just feel
it), and in a way, they all strike me as musical mandalas - the circularity of
the chant brings forth an energy in the improvisation that creates a world of
its own. I listened to it every day for a month and every day I heard something
new in it. It really is a fantastic disc.”
— Peter Sykes (www.petersykes.com)
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