Alison Wells - Praise to Mañjuśrī

Khyentse Vision Project invited Alison Wells to create a piece of music to go with our metered version of the famous Praise to Mañjuśrī. Alison shares her background and process here:
“I have always loved singing. I joined a choir at 14 and started singing lessons at 17. When I met Rinpoche he said I should do a music degree, and I eventually did - majoring in classical voice. At my first group practice retreat in Australia Rinpoche talked about the importance of the chant being together. I’d experienced the power of group singing, so his analogy of joining forces to lift a heavy weight made sense. I’m interested in how music can help us individualistic westerners do that - e.g. it’s hard to find one note everyone is comfortable with, but maybe different notes that harmonize can still feel ‘together’?
For the “Praise to Mañjuśrī,” I’ve written simple lines with two or three notes each, for low, medium and high voices. The harmonies they create should feel familiar, even to non-musicians (for interested musicians - I used I, IV, V, and a sad minor (vi) chord at ‘clouded by ignorance in endless night’). I also played around with a drum machine, seeing a regular rhythm can help us keep together too.”

[@MariaDor-i2w]

Thank you🙏