Sacred Music—Divine Connection
How does sacred music deepen our connection to the Divine? David Rhodes, musician and songwriter, shares how sacred chants and music can quiet our minds, bringing us to a deeper connection with the Divine. David will be sharing music from his new CD, Door of My Heart that is a beautiful collaboration between David, Prabha Pacey and Barry Phillips.
David Rhodes is a composer, arranger, and pianist who draws inspiration from his classical training, work with jazz and fusion groups, study of world music and his immersion in the sacred music traditions of the East and West. David's recordings include the critically acclaimed Traces of Eden, Moonbirds, Fluid Days – Modal Improvisations, and Live in Concert: Elaine Kreston and David Rhodes. His acoustic palette includes piano, keyboards, harmonium, zithers, voice and percussion. He is also a composer for film production and theater.
WEBSITE: MoonBirdsMusic.com
GUEST COMMENTS: Thank you, Laurel, for the opportunity to reflect more deeply on my spiritual practice and musical journey. Your questions were very helpful in teasing out the beginnings and motivations for the music. It also brought home to me again the inner melding and mending that naturally occurs when we chant over a period of years. My own experience of greater opening and regaining lost parts of my psyche is evidence of that. Indeed that is a potent and haunting line in the chant Door of My Heart: "will my days fly away without seeing you my Lord?" The emotional impression of those words gave rise to melody and harmony. The alchemy of words together with music is recognized and taken in by the heart, and we are moved by it in ways we can't fully comprehend or explain. A mysterious kind of spirit medicine!
YOGA HOUR TEAM COMMENTS:I loved the focus on sacred music in this program. Something that we hadn't done before. David's love of music and sacred music in particular really came through in this conversation. Your discussion of how music and chanting in particular can move us inward, away from sense distractions, to the depth of our connection with the Divine gave us an understanding of how we can use this as a spiritual practice. The arrangements that were played give us a wonderful taste of the talent and devotion of David and his collaborators on this project, Prabha Pacey and Barry Phillips. I appreciated how they have brought modern language and musical arrangements to all of the music on this CD. Simple Gifts was such a beautiful song for this holiday time of year. I am used to Sanskrit chants but this American song is very heart opening. He Hari Sundara is beautiful and it was wonderful to hear the story about it. I didn't realize that He Hari Sundara is the original Sanskrit chant that Yogananda adapted to O God Beautiful. David, Prabha and Barry’s arrangement of that is amazing.
DR. TRUJILLO’S COMMENTS: I found all of the cuts that we shared from David’s new CD Door of My Heart to be so inspiring, particularly "O God Beautiful”, "Door of My Heart" and "Simple Gifts”. It’s one thing to discuss sacred music, and another thing entirely to experience it directly. I enjoyed discussing sacred music and how our devotion while chanting matters more than musical talent. I also appreciated discussing the one of the benefits of chanting is that it deepens our meditation practice by helping to turn our attention within. David mentioned the lyric from "Door of My Heart" “will my days fly away without seeing you my Lord?”, how thought-provoking and inspiring it is, and I entirely agree.