GUIDELINES FOR  OM CHOIRS

I would like first to offer some general guidelines for OM Choirs around the world, followed by the words of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on OM, and then, to share some of the experiences of various members of the OM Choir, and lastly to speak of the lines I quote each week, before we begin each OM, often from Savitri but also from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother to help raise our consciousness to its highest heights.

Mother gave us no road map of the New Music, no instruction manual, but told us to sit in a circle and have no preconceived ideas of what might come down. As a frequent and intensive reading of Savitri can lead us to feel the overhead influence in the work of other poets, so too a deep and concentrated listening to music can sometimes reveal strains of the descent of the New Music.

Here is a portion of a letter from Anie:  :” Mother said "There is a new music, just above the head,  waiting to come down and it is looking for the right Instruments (meaning people) to bring it down". She told us to begin singing but with no preconceived ideas about how it would manifest. She also asked us not to use any instruments - just voices. We would sit in a circle, there were no words, just syllables. One person would start singing, another would add something and so forth. We experimented like this for a long time . . .”  Anie also writes: It is a very wonderful thing that you have revived this activity that was encouraged so strongly by the Mother more than 30 years back.”

The difficulty, as often is the case, is in the mind.  No matter how high the inspiration of the greatest composers of earlier times, be it Bach, Beethoven, Mozart  or Sunil, we must take great care not to allow the mind to fall into already established patterns and repeat the music of the past but open to that which is seeking descend establish itself on earth and in us.

The tendency toward harmonic resolution is very strong and may be a greater sign of the aspiration for human unity than the thousands of books and treatises written on the subject in all the long history of the race. We have heard on many occasions, even when the OM Choir had nearly fifty people in attendance, that all dissonances beautiful though they might be, tended towards harmonic resolution, an collective soaring of note building upon note, chord upon chord, not unlike the architecture of the temples of India.  Yet, even in the dissonances there was an underlying  harmony. 

Composed music is fixed unless improvisation is indicated.  The music of the OM Choir is fluid, ever changing as voice after voice opens to the divine melodies and harmonies above the head.  Especially moving are the voices of the young adults with their purity of tone blending with the richness of the sound of elder sadhaks and sadhikas, many of whom sang to Mother many years ago and continue their music today.

We begin by humming so there can be no straining or injury to the vocal chords.  Humming also helps with the essential work of blending and uniting us as one sound.  We work on the various parts of the body that are involved in singing, the position of the tongue, jaw, proper use of the diaphragm, and correct breathing so that there is no strain in the upper body.

I believe the most important realization of all Om Choirs is to recognize that we are one body, one holy body called to earth at this time to help ring down the New Music of transformation in us and to heal and transform the earth.  One day I pray that there will be OM Choirs throughout the world and we shall know the power of OM.

1. In the OM Choir there are no wrong notes, but we must go deeper and deeper to open to the descent of the New Music. All are welcome, even those who have no voice or have difficulty hearing or reproducing a note.  Formerly I was very strict and allowed only those who could sing and wanted to help bring down the New Music, but now Mother has widened me and the OM Choir is open even to those who would like to sit in silence in its atmosphere and be immersed in the New Music.

The OM Choir is not a venue for singers to show off the beauty of their voice or to show how loud they can sing. The OM Choir is a collective prayer that these sacred bodies, called by he Divine to play a role in the creation of the New World, may be used as instruments for the Divine to send down the New Music, a transformative music through the power of OM, for OM has the power of effectuation and can heal and transform and infuse the cells

of the body with the New Light and through the body into the earth.

The New Music is not a music of the East or West and difficult though it may be, especially  for musicians, we must break the mental modes of judgement of good or bad, dissonant or discordant to allow the New Music to sing us.  The mind has no capacity to judge the New Music and only the Divine can know the sincerity of our collective aspiration.  Even when we hear strong dissonances they are only preparing the possibility of a greater harmony.

In each OM we sing something new descends so both the mind and the ego must be left outside the door.  Focus, deep inner concentration, awareness of the soul to your right and to your left and then extending your consciousness to include all assembled in the OM Choir is the best way to achieve the deeper listening.

We sing three OM’s seated and the last OM standing, when the body is in the most receptive position.  Lastly, what as come to me is the necessity of the inner listening, leaving the mind and the ego outside so that we may realize the unity that already is.  This and the experience that the human soul always moves towards harmony.

For more information on the New Music please visit the website, sriaurobindoashram.info where you can read a series of articles I have written over a number of years.