- For the August 2023 episode of In a Manner of Speaking, Paul talks to Jill Purce, the doyenne of harmonic overtone chanting, which is often called polyphonic overtone singing, or singing two or more notes at the same time. Paul and Jill discuss all aspects of this unique art.
Jill is recognized globally as the pioneer of both the sound and the ancestral healing movements. In the 1970s, she introduced the teaching of overtone chanting throughout the world, along with the spiritual potential of the voice for healing and meditation.
In the early 1970s, she lived and worked with German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, exploring music’s spiritual dimension. She learned overtone chanting in the Himalayas with the chant master of the Gyutö Tibetan Monastery. Jill practiced Dzogchen from 1978 with the late Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche.
In the last 40 years, she pioneered both her workshops, Healing Voice and Healing the Family and Ancestors, the latter a unique combination of family constellations, chant, and ceremony.
Jill is the author of The Mystic Spiral: Journey of the Soul. Her recordings include Overtone Chanting Meditations and The Healing Voice. She lives in London with her husband, Rupert Sheldrake, and their two sons, musician Cosmo and author and biologist Merlin.
For more information about Jill, visit HealingVoice.com.
Several YouTube clips are excerpted under the copyright doctrine of fair use in this podcast. Below you will find the entire clips:
Nestor Kornblum, Amazing Grace
Harmonic Choir, Hearing Solar Winds: Ascending and Descending
Jill Purce: Overtone chanting in St. Paul’s Cathedral
Five female overtone and throat singing experts
Now available from Jill Purce:
Online Family Constellation Workshop, September 22 -24, 2023.
London Non-residential Week Intensive, October 28 – November 3, 2023.
Online Healing Voice Workshop, October 21-22, 2023.
Jill’s two albums: Overtone Chanting Meditations and The Healing Voice.
(Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major BMV 1007 Prelude (by Ivan Dolgunov) is courtesy of Jamendo Licensing.)
