Words and Silences Out Today!

It’s hard to imagine almost exactly five years have passed since I first walked into the Thomas Merton Center to explore archival recordings there. I’m so glad I did.

I hope you can take a listen. You can do so on all of the streaming services. Or you can listen and buy both digital and physical items (CDs, chapbook) at Bandcamp. Plus, it's a "Bandcamp Friday," which means that Bandcamp waives their cut, which is pretty cool.

Note: the bonus instrumental version of the album is only available on Bandcamp, and comes with the original version (either digital or CD). A review from Richard Allen at A Closer Listen really liked the instrumentals, and heard them in ways I didn't anticipate. I like what he had to say: "Harnetty's work is an engagement, not only with thought and voice, but with intonation and emotion."

And, here is a nice quote from The Wire (UK): “Harnetty frames Merton's humane eloquence with discreet and dignified music, realized on piano with a brass and reed quartet. The monk's voice remains vital and apt; the settings are just right.” — The Wire (UK)

NEW VIDEO: "BREATH, WATER, SILENCE" LIVE AT MERTON'S HERMITAGE

Performing on Merton's front porch.

Here is a live solo performance at Thomas Merton's hermitage at the Abbey of Gethsamani in Kentucky. Recorded in June, the piece "Breath, Water, Silence" features an archival tape of Merton talking about the Sufi mystic Ibn al-‘Arabî. Merton is preoccupied with breathing and water, which permeate each aspect of the piece. Here's some of Merton's dialogue:

"More morning sounds, a bright morning. The sound of water dripping in the bucket is to be heard beside the wren and the other birds out there. Uh, for Ibn al-‘Arabî, water is the most appropriate symbol of life. He says, 'The secret of life is in the act of flowing peculiar to water.' The watery element is, for him, the most fundamental element.

Of course what he’s saying there, he’s simply expressing an intuition, of dynamism, movement and becoming in all things. A sense of vitalism and life in everything. Corresponding to his idea of God’s mercy breathing into everything. Of course the breathing would suggest that air is the most subtle element as some of these other metaphysicians would have said.

In any case, for him water symbolizes the life that runs through everything. And to be immersed in water is a baptism in life, to be baptized in life. I would say that would be a very good symbol of the hermit life. To be totally baptized in the silence and the flow and the reality of life and thereby to know the full reality of existence."

Remarkably, while I was performing a storm came in, echoing the very words Merton is speaking about on the archival recording. We shot it in one take, and about halfway through, the trees began to sway and the sky darkened. The wind's white noise eventually took over the recording.

It all looked and felt pretty ominous. The door slammed shut. At one point I thought, "Should I stop?" (I'm glad I didn't.)

I finished, and took a deep breath. And then videographer Kevin Davison and I had to scramble to bring the cameras and audio recorder in from the rain, just in time.

Later, I showed the video to Thomas Merton's friend and fellow monk, Brother Paul Quenon (he was the person who gave the tape recorder to Merton to use in his hermitage; none of this would have been possible without that small spark of creative generosity, I'd say). After watching, Paul said, "Now that's a real 'Merton moment'!"

And of course I think he is right.

Thank you for following me as this project has unfolded (it takes a long time!). Next month, we'll premiere Words and Silences at the Wexner Center for the Arts here in Ohio (on November 9). Join us!

Happy listening —
Brian