Voices - Benedictine Nuns Of Abbaye Notre Dame De L'annonciation (2010)

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Voices - Benedictine Nuns Of Abbaye Notre Dame De L'annonciation (2010)

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The Nuns of the Abbaye de Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation, from a remote region of France near Avignon, won a worldwide search to find the world's finest female singers of Gregorian Chant. The search took in over 70 convents, including communities as far afield as North America and Africa. The Nuns' album will feature the most ancient form of Gregorian Chant, which the sisters sing eight times a day, and was the first music ever to be written down. The nuns’ album, Voices – Chant from Avignon, was intended for release before the Pope’s visit to Britain in September, but will now be released in November.

Composer: Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble: Benedictine Nuns Of Abbaye Notre Dame De L'annonciation

Reviews: The sisters of the Abbaye Notre-Dame de l’Annonciation live a life that is remote and cloistered. They have chosen never to leave the stone abbey set in acres of green hills in Le Barroux, an hour and a half’s drive from Avignon in Provence.

Although they are not strictly a silent order, they can only speak when it is absolutely necessary. They get up at 4.45am for their first prayer which is sung. The sound is as ancient as the hills that surround them.

They are separated from the world by a grille. You cannot talk to them except through bars, yet the purity and beauty of their singing cannot fail to touch you, transport you even.

Says Tom Lewis, A&R for Decca Records: “Our objective was to find a sound that doesn’t sound like anything else and that can make you feel something that you’ve never felt before. It’s a total experience.” The search took in over 70 convents in 15 countries after an advertisement had been placed in the Catholic, National and French press asking for help from anyone who could help find their new singing nun stars.

The singing sisters know nothing of the exact nature of the world’s troubles, yet they pray for us all through song. They don’t know politics. Yet they feel never far away from anything because of their closeness to God. They live by the Holy Rule, which is a rule of silence and seclusion. As well as singing they work, making christening robes, bookbinding, marmalade, jam, wine.

It’s an era where non-enclosed orders find it hard to find postulants, yet here the youngest postulant is 19 and there are several postulants in their early twenties who want to live a life ordered by God and ringing bells. The sisters range in age from 19 to 88.

Mother Abbess has a deep crackle of a laugh and a warm chocolaty speaking voice. She looks at least ten years younger than her 44 years. She has glowing nun skin that shows no stress, only a life removed from the world and connected to it by song and prayer. She’s a forceful personality. How could she give up her ego, her self, her sexuality, her possessions, her family and friends ? And her own free will.

She says, “It’s a paradox: obedience is freedom.” She joined the monastery in her early twenties. “After the age of 30 we can’t accept postulants. It would be too difficult for them to take the vow of obedience. None of us enter the monastery to sing, but singing takes on an importance because it is also prayer.” They pray in this way five times a day. The oldest nun is 88 and has to be helped to walk, but they all unite in song and it feels very holy.

After a while you don’t notice the bars that separate them from the world because they communicate so intensely with the eyes. They always defer to each other when answering a question, but they have very definite ideas about the recording process.

They need to be with a producer they trust, who respects the way they live. They are a closed order, which means they don’t go out and no one crosses the line, not a photographer, not a camera unless the sisters them selves take the pictures/ make the movie. They are strict about where recording equipment can be placed. Dentists and doctors make visits to them and only in a real emergency would they be allowed to leave. There are sisters from Hungary, Poland, Australia and the United States. Their day is extremely ordered. Prayer, study, work and more prayer. There is only 40 minutes recreation a day. The first 20 minutes of which they can walk around the property, and the next 20 minutes they are allowed to talk with the other sisters. Their families may visit them, but they may never visit home, even if there is a family crisis or illness.

They are pristine, but they are far from stuffy. Lurking beneath Mother Abbess’ formidable presence is a showman. She says, “When I took the habit my family couldn’t believe it. My brother-in-law said ‘I thought you were going to be in the theatre.’ I always liked performing. My father wasn’t surprised though; he knew it already.” Giving up family is a huge sacrifice, not only for the sisters but for the family that they are leaving, at least initially. Mother Abbess says, “All of the parents have now come round, they are very happy. They now feel close to all of the sisters. It’s like they gained more family.”

Not all emotions can be packaged neatly and smoothly. Mother Abbess says, “There are certainly hard times.” But the hard times are something that these sisters seem prepared for. It’s all part of their devotion which seems unstoppable. A few of them talk about a very distinctive call from God to come to this monastery. Once they have felt that in their being it seems that nothing, no lover, no mother, father, sister, brother, could stop them. “Of course it’s not for everybody,” says Mother Abbess. “You have to be very comfortable with yourself to do this. You have to be self-reliant and self-contained; otherwise the cloistered life is too much for you.”

“It’s not an escape where people can run to. It’s the opposite. It’s a search for yourself and God. We all felt a call at different ages. With me I felt a first calling aged about five.”

Mother Abbess is warm and intellectual, commanding. Not at all meek. Just many of the paradoxes that weave themselves in and out of their daily lives.

They don’t use mirrors. They avoid any close-up photography, except in profile. Solos are at random and are not chosen on merit because the sisters are about the community, not individualism. They take pride not in themselves, but in the power and beauty of their prayer. They have singing teachers: Mlle Claire Leroy, professional singer instructs vocal technique. And for Gregorian chanting they are instructed by M. Claude Pateau, director of the International Academy of Holy Music.

“We do everything in our power to make sure that the song of our prayers is as beautiful as possible. Our whole life led by sisterly love and meditation on the word of God also contributes to the beauty of this song, the unity of voice and our understanding and adaptation of inspired texts.”

She stresses that no gift for singing is required to be admitted, yet the sound is note perfect and beautiful. Mother Abbess says, “You have to therefore look elsewhere than in a love of singing for the reason we seek to perfect every song.”

“It is not a love of music that induces someone to give up everything and devote herself to a life of singing and praying, which is the Benedictine way. It is not about the song but He that we are singing about. The Person we gave up everything to become close to.”

“For us singing is a privileged way to meet and love the crucified and resurrected Lord. For Him we experience solitude because even a great love cannot entirely fill the human heart that is made for the infinite.”

“We would like to say to Great Britain and then to the rest of the world that Decca Music makes us able to speak by means of Gregorian chanting. We want to send a message to our contemporaries, one that is most needed. A message that God loves us madly. And in Jesus we can find the meaning of life and return this love. It is a message of infinite joy which alone can cure the mortal sadness of our times.”

Mother Abbess sounds even more poetic in French. It is Mother Abbess’s passion and determination, as well the beauty of the singing, whether it is instilled by God or man, that attracted Decca.

After a long search hearing nuns singing all over the world they chose these nuns. Says Tom Lewis: “The Abbaye de Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation represents everything about modern life that you could escape from. And they are quite simply the best singers.

“We looked at nuns in Boston who have a Facebook page and are very media friendly. But almost felt as if they were too accessible. We listened to African nuns in London and they sang African hymns. Although they were amazing it didn’t transport you to another world.

This is ancient and mysterious and you hear that in the record. It’s intriguing why these women would make the choice to wholeheartedly cut themselves off from the world. It’s the ultimate mystique.”