chant of the sixth patriarch (satb)

Program Notes

According to Buddhist lore, the Fifth Patriarch proposed a poetry competition to determine his successor. The lowly, illiterate monk Hui-neng shockingly won the patriarchy, having asked another monastic to tran- scribe his poem on a wall beside the other poems. Huineng’s poem is a direct response to the frontrunning submission by the most esteemed scholar-monk of the monastery, Shen-Xiu, which read:

The body is the Bodhi tree,
The mind is like a bright mirror stand. Moment to moment, diligently wipe, To let no dust collect.

Reed Criddle

Following are audio and video clips of this piece supplied to us by the composer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3UJhx3r0t8&feature=youtu.be

https://soundcloud.com/reed-criddle-1/chant-of-the-sixth-patriarch-reed-criddle