Chanting: the Sound of Spirit with Robert Gass

Program Description

The magic of chanting has a calming, awakening and sometimes even consciousness-altering mystery about it. From singing hymns together in church to learning nursery songs in kindergarten, we’ve all experienced the joy and resonance chanting can bring. In his early days as a rock musician, Robert Gass tapped into “the tribal music of the collective,” and went on to become the founder of Spring Hill Music, the foremost producer of transformational and chanting music in the U.S. Gass tells personal stories of how music can strike the common chord in all of us, and proves it with his own live rendition of “Why Walk When You Can Fly.”

Gass is co-author with Kathleen Brehony of Chanting: Discovering Spirit in Sound (Broadway 1999).

Topics Explored in this Dialogue:

• How music and chanting keep your inner fires burning
• The secret meaning of that popular childhood song “Old MacDonald had a Farm”
• How chanting can improve your health
• Are spirituality and activism compatible?
• Gassí experience of singing John Lennonís “Imagine” inside the Pentagon
• What makes chanting so powerful?
• Personal stories from Gassí work with Greenpeace and other organizations
• The unique challenges faced by leaders and famous people

Program Number: 2759              Host: Michael Toms               Interview Date: 2/9/1999