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Summer Solstice brings "The Heart Chant" to Rochester

The Pauline Oliveros Trust

The summer solstice is “Make Music Day,” which is being celebrated in Rochester and around the world.  If you’re downtown on Friday afternoon, you might notice a group of people standing in a circle with their arms linked. 

They’ll be doing the Heart Chant by composer Pauline Oliveros.  

WXXI's Brenda Tremblay previews The Heart Chant.

Community volunteer and activist Maggie Symington says Oliveros was an American artist who realized something strange about our modern lives. “We’re often not actually listening to the things that we’re hearing,” Symington says, “so it’s about deep listening.  It’s about being present in the moment and being mindful about what you’re hearing and the sound that you’re putting out.”

Maggie Symington
Maggie Symington

Pauline Oliveros originally created the exercise in response to the terrorist attacks of 9-11 and based it on her concept of “deep listening. “

Symington says the Heart Chant is pretty simple. “You get a bunch of people in a circle and everybody puts their right hand over their heart and their left hand on the back of the person next to them and you make a sound together,” she says.

It’s not necessarily music, though it can become musical, Symington says. “You feel the resonating of your own heart and you feel your neighbor’s heart resonating and you feel this connection to everyone in the circle.”

Monica Reifenstein, who’s co-coordinating Make Music Day performances, says she’s tried it and has felt a connection.  “There’s an oneness which is what they always talk about, but it’s true. “

Monika Reifenstein
Monika Reifenstein

She and members of Concentus Women’s Choir have been practicing it, and because they’re musically inclined people they try to harmonize.  But that’s not the goal, Reinfenstein says.  It’s supposed to just sound like a cacophony.

If you’d like to try Pauline Olivieros’ Heart Chant, arrive at the Liberty Pole downtown Rochester Friday afternoon a little before 5 p.m.  The chant will last at least half an hour.  You’ll be told what to do, and you can move in and out of the circle whenever you like.  There’s no musical training required.  Just your willingness to connect with others and to really, really listen. 

Watch The Heart Chant, recorded in California. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkovyT-iHE4

Copyright 2019 Classical 91.5 WXXI-FM

Brenda Tremblay bolts out of bed every weekday morning at 4:00 a.m. to present classical music on Classical 91.5 FM, streaming at wxxi.org. (The broadcast starts at 6:00 a.m. with birdsong, inspired by the BBC.) She’s an NEA Fellow who’s interviewed musical luminaires such as Renée Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, and Steve Reich. She also produces and hosts the RPO radio concerts and other local productions, and works with the Center for Public Affairs to create arts and cultural coverage for all media services. Her productions have earned three Gracies from the Association of Women in Radio and Television, many AP awards, and a national Gabriel Award.