Ambience/ASMR: Medieval Monastery (Scribe's Chamber) & Gregorian Chant, 4 Hours

For Diane.

List of Sounds:
the bubbling & trickling of a spring-fed stream that meanders the monastery grounds, summoned forth from the living rock by an ancient, sainted abbot and regarded thus as holy
songbirds who greet the sun with an ever-constant, ever-new canticle of praise
wind that is gentle but too brisk to be a breeze, moving over and through the fields, trees, cloisters, and chapels -- invisible yet tangible, like the divine, life-kissed exhalation from which Adam first drew breath
the quadrupedal & avian lay-brothers and lay-sisters, devoted with equal monastic fidelity to their noble simplicity of service: sheep grazing upon hillside meadows of late-summer flowers; cows lowing in distant stables, awaiting the milking hour; oxen bearing increasingly brimful carts through mid-harvest fields, as scythes mow before them; chickens pecking through swaths of stubble for stray grains & succulent insects
equine passersby trotting through the vast pastures and woodlands of the monastery grounds, neighing and whinnying their greetings
the tolling of the venerable Black Tower bell (at 05:22), whose earliest peal & knell first announced Christianity to an unacquainted land
the Latin Mass sung by a small monastic choir (from 08:27 through 01:05:33)
the recitation of the Latin Rosary by several monks in unison (from 01:21:47 through 01:43:14, and 03:18:58 through 03:40:25 -- although prayer beads were originally known as "paternosters" in the early medieval period, the Ave Maria came to replace the Pater Noster as the most common prayer recited on devotional beads, beginning around the 12th century)
the Latin Mass sung only by a priest and acolyte (from 02:06:57 through 02:57:57)
footsteps echoing through cavernous halls of wood & stone; aged timber doors that groan on aged hinges; the creak & rasp of thick-beamed floors darkened by shuffling, buffing leather through centuries of silent monastic tread
a toiling scribe turning pages of parchment
the subtle scratch & scrape of a quill pen that copies text in perfectly intent Carolingian minuscule; the expert carving of a feather (its quill hardened first in hot sand) into the ideal ink-drawing tip; the quick scratching-out of sporadic errors with a small, keen blade
gesso painted into the sinuous sweeps of decorative letters; gold leaf applied with a puff of the scribe's breath; superfluous gilding brushed away in delicate, mindful strokes
grinding soot from oil-lamps with a mortar & pestle to produce pigment for black ink; mixing the pigment with gum arabic, the sap of the acacia tree, traded from distant Egypt; dissolving the thickened pigment into water, shaken together in cork-topped glass bottles
the meticulous preparation of parchment for illuminated manuscripts, beginning as mere humble hide: with the transformative skill of the artisan, it is stretched, scraped, cut, folded, rubbed, and dusted in readiness to receive divine word
glass ink-bottles and ceramic ink-pots clinking softly as they are perused; the faint scuff & slide of ink and tools across a desktop smoothed by the touch of many hands
the almost-imperceptible shifts & rustles of the scribe's woolen tunic as he copies, embellishes, and stirs ever-so-slightly in his austere wooden chair

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Question: What is an ambience video?

Answer: Pleasant, soothing background images & sound for relaxation, study, play, or work; gently occupies an anxious or unfocused mind without causing unwanted distraction; creates a comfortable, inviting atmosphere; personalizes sparse, colorless, or impersonal environments; enlivens spaces where we live or work alone; fills silence with more subtlety, ease, and warmth than music or TV; offers softly dynamic "rainbow noise" instead of monotonous white noise; enhances interior design & personal style by turning screens/screensavers into live photographic displays.

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