Every few years, a chant recording comes along that captures the public imagination; in late 2022, it was this one by soprano , which made classical best-seller charts. What is happening when this occurs? Are listeners projecting mystical ideas onto music that, in its own time, had a specific and local meaning? The chants by the abbess , which she wrote herself, honored local saints and the like; they're not particularly mystical. Yet there is more to the phenomenon than projection. She was arguably the first composer to shape music to text as deeply as she did, and her music was expressive in ways beyond other music of the time. doesn't always differentiate the various narrative and lyrical expressive modes found in the nine chants recorded here; she sticks with a consistent, pure tone, but this works, inasmuch as she is one of the few singers to perform 's chants solo. An hour of this music for solo voice is a challenge, but is up to the task. Doing it this way probably isn't "authentic"; it was for groups of nuns to sing, though, for a modern audience, it does bring out the unique qualities of 's music. has a pure voice that one can get lost in as the album proceeds, and many listeners are going to do exactly that. ~ James Manheim