His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI's first audio album: sorry, it's not in English! And its not a Vatican initiative, nor did the pope record his works for the album! But he is on it!

(Scripturelink.net News)


Notation by Marc Aupiais

If one neglects the small print: Pope Benedict XVI has certainly seemingly played the role of a modernist within the church- at least so far as technology and communications are concerned. In another move, once again not actually by the pope: which has made the news throughout the world- and kept the church once again- in the media light- Pope Benedict XVI's voice is to be used in an audio product, in an initiative- ironically not taken by the Vatican, but by Multimedia San Paolo, an Italian Catholic media grouping, via Geffen / Universal- to release the work. The pope himself- is not recording an album- some recordings of the pope in general have been licenced by Vatican Radio- for the audio album of controversially of a mainstream western firm.

The Priests, an Irish group of Priests established that there was a ripe market for musical recordings of a Catholic nature, as did Pope John Paul II- when recordings of the former pope were also made into a record, and when his saying of the rosary had made waves.

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, will be heard singing chants, and Lauretan litanies, as well as voicing passages from the sacred scriptures, and prayers, on the album, which uses archive recordings. The album is to be recorded in five (5) languages. English speaking fans of the Pope's distinctive German accent will likely be disappointed: according to Reuters: the languages known to be in the compilation are: Latin, Italian, Portuguese, French and German.

The album, as mentioned: will be released by not so appropriate Geffen Records / Universal, known for artists like Snoop Dog and Ashley Simpson, Guns N' Roses, John Lennon, Aerosmith, and Nirvana. It is set to enter circulation on November 30th 2009 in time for the Christmas rush.

The album also features: The Choir of the Philharmonic Academy of Rome, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Perhaps out of tribute to the Pope's predecessor: The Late John Paul II, whose classical album was called: "Abba Pater", Pope Benedict's album is called "Alma Mater" (a reference to Mary) - and seems from reports to be focused on the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Whatever Colin Barlow, head of Geffen Records intends by publishing the work of Benedict XVI, proceeds from the album- reportedly: will go towards educating poor children with music education. While reports were vague: This likely excludes the profits likely to be made by Geffen.

The Pope himself has reportedly heard the recordings- and is reportedly pleased with the album's contents.


As for our sources:

Reuters news agency has written an interesting article on the matter, excluding some important information:

Reuters (Secular; Independent; British)

Their article is by: Cindy Martin, and Editing by Belinda Goldsmith

05 / 08 | August / 2009

http://us.mobile.reuters.com/mobile/m/AnyArticle/p.rdt?URL=http://www.reuters.com/article/musicNews/idUSTRE5740LR20090805

Bloemberg also covered the story earlier:

Bloemberg (Secular; Independent; American)

31 / 07 | July / 2009

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601092&sid=axgJVRMxSJcc

And AP (Associated Press) (Secular; Independent; American)

28 / 07 | July / 2009

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090731/ap_en_mu/eu_britain_pope_album

And

BBC World News (Secular; Governmental; British)

Their article is from- Colin Paterson, an entertainment reporter

31 / 07 | July / 2009

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/ents/top_stories/story8175321.shtml