Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- John Tavener
Prayer of the Heart (1999)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Commissioned by One Little Indian Records for Björk
- tibetan temple bowls/monastery bell/str4tet
- voice
- 15 min
Programme Note
Prayer of the Heart was inspired by The Chain of Hope. This charitable organisation raises money for the treatment of heart disorders in children, including Marfan’s Syndrome, of which I am a sufferer.
The singer should sit on a low stool, bowing towards the heart. This facilitates the soul’s concentration, and its unification in ecstasy. The Prayer of the Heart is prayed ceaselessly day and night, awake or sleeping, because it has become at one with the beating of the heart... Silence, peace, sweetness of union with God... The Prayer is not usually sounded with the voice at all – it is silent. Therefore the music must be played and sung intensely, quietly, with no physical effort.
When you give yourself to this prayer, if you are, as far as possible, free from all distraction, and if the verse brings you to a state of ecstatic silence – be sure, you have entered the peace that you seek... You will find tears filling your eyes, and flowing down your cheeks... Then by grace, and for a moment, comes the plunge of the intellect into the heart... Then you are singing no longer with your own emotion or your own intellect, but with the eye of the heart in the intellective organ of the heart. This can save millions of souls, and change the world.
The Byzantine bell and large Tibetan temple bowl may be played by the singer. The pitch shown for the Byzantine bell is only approximate – another bell of similar pitch could be used. Prayer of the Heart should be sung in subdued lighting, perhaps by candlelight.
The recording of the heartbeat should sound very tenderly and quietly throughout. The speed of the heartbeat, which need not be synchronised with the music, must not exceed crotchet = 30
(ie aim for a pulse between crotchet = 25 and crotchet = 30).
The singer should sit on a low stool, bowing towards the heart. This facilitates the soul’s concentration, and its unification in ecstasy. The Prayer of the Heart is prayed ceaselessly day and night, awake or sleeping, because it has become at one with the beating of the heart... Silence, peace, sweetness of union with God... The Prayer is not usually sounded with the voice at all – it is silent. Therefore the music must be played and sung intensely, quietly, with no physical effort.
When you give yourself to this prayer, if you are, as far as possible, free from all distraction, and if the verse brings you to a state of ecstatic silence – be sure, you have entered the peace that you seek... You will find tears filling your eyes, and flowing down your cheeks... Then by grace, and for a moment, comes the plunge of the intellect into the heart... Then you are singing no longer with your own emotion or your own intellect, but with the eye of the heart in the intellective organ of the heart. This can save millions of souls, and change the world.
The Byzantine bell and large Tibetan temple bowl may be played by the singer. The pitch shown for the Byzantine bell is only approximate – another bell of similar pitch could be used. Prayer of the Heart should be sung in subdued lighting, perhaps by candlelight.
The recording of the heartbeat should sound very tenderly and quietly throughout. The speed of the heartbeat, which need not be synchronised with the music, must not exceed crotchet = 30
(ie aim for a pulse between crotchet = 25 and crotchet = 30).