c. 2007 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) The Grande Chartreuse, the Carthusian monastery featured in the very classy Zeitgeist film “Into Great Silence,” was founded by a priest, St. Bruno, who got his bishop fired.
St. Bruno, with the help of the clergy and ultimately the pope, essentially led a revolt against the corrupt and violent bishop of Reims, France, in 1077. The grateful clergy wanted Bruno as their bishop, but he was having none of it. He removed himself to a life of prayer and silence, a few years later moving to French Alpine wilderness near Chartreuse with several companions.
His followers _ there are 18 houses of monks and six of nuns _ live today in silent solitude.
Bruno’s silence, or any silence, is hard to find today. Take banks. At Citibank, customers in the 1,000 U.S. branches are captive to custom-canned music from PlayNetwork, the folks who also sell music to Starbucks and Hooters. To be sure, some banks are quiet: Bank of America says most of its 5,700 retail branches have no music. At JP MorganChase’s 3,071 branches, only about one-third play Muzak.
This might not be the kind of music you’d expect from the folks who gave us elevator music. In addition to wordless classical and jazz, Muzak titles include “Rock Show,” described as a “broad mix of mellow acoustics, hard rock and southern rock styles” aimed at baby boomers. There’s also “Metro,” which promises “Downtown cool for urban sophisticates … from the worlds of trip-hop, electronica, underground pop and R&B.”
But don’t blame Muzak, PlayNetwork, DMX or other sound purveyors; they’re just supplying what banks and other companies ask for. The choice of background music is very much about corporate personality. Citibank, for example, last year changed its musical lineup to feature a mix of adult pop/R&B/80s. The bank said it wanted something more contemporary.
Sadly, very little of this encourages thought. All the major background music suppliers have products that recall the dentist’s offices of old, but the science of suspending silence is aimed precisely where the dollar hits the sales counter. Some stores want to encourage impulse buying, or recall a fashion fad or color. Some play music much too loudly, so parents will just send their teenage children in with credit cards. Others are mixing scent with sound, to enhance whatever mood they want you in.
Are we risking a national epidemic of Attention Deficit Disorder. Is it not time to slow down and listen to the quiet? With our senses constantly assailed by smells and sounds, how can we think when working, playing, even banking?
Perhaps this is why “Into Great Silence” is such an underground hit. The movie’s monks live day by scheduled day watching, hearing, even smelling nature. The spectacular mountains near the Grande Chartreuse glisten, and the sound of a bee becomes a chorus to creation. We sense this is a place where we can smell the freshness of the trees and feel the movement of the air.
The monks chant great words to great music. Every sense is heightened, it would seem, for their quiet search for God.
St. Bruno walked away from daily commerce in a century filled with problem bishops and debaucherous clergy. Of course, most of us cannot live like Carthusians, nor would we want to. But we can learn from them. There is much to be said for having silence _ just a little silence _ in which to think about the projects of the day.
(Phyllis Zagano is senior research associate-in-residence at Hofstra University and author of several books in Catholic Studies.)
KRE/LF END ZAGANO625 words
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