meredith monk & seed sound mantras

I was lucky enough to be in residency at the MacDowell Colony with Meredith Monk in February. During that time Meredith recorded Porch Song, which she often uses as a warm up before her performances, for the Mantra Trailer. She authored Porch Song about 16 years ago while staying in the southwest. Her voice moves through different resonating points within her body for each repeated phrase. Meredith also talked with me about the idea of mantra and authentic voice. She emphasised the physical nature of the seed sound vibration as being the key to the spiritual mantra's transformative power. In her opinion language often gets in the way of finding the seed sound of authentic voice.

When people can't think of words they want to repeat for their mantra I encourage them to try a seed sound mantra. The instruction is to play with a simple repeated sound, by modulating pitch, texture, rhythm, resonating points within the body, personality, age, etc.

Meredith Monk is teaching two workshops this summer on voice, Voice as Practice: Instrument of the Heart at Zen Mountain Monastery; and Dancing Voice, Singing Body with Pablo Vela at the Omega Institute. Find out more more about Meredith Monk. She's an amazing artist and an amazing human being.