New Style “Contemporvant” Worship Music: Do you like?
For “Proper” Christians….
I’m defo experiencing some serious growtivation right now….
Tags: Church Life
eChurch Blog
I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I utter words of sober truth.
June 30th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
Grim. But not as grim as the hideous worship music so many churches have adopted. Ghastly sloppy musak.
I love, love, love the old hymns. My choice of service is based almost entirely on whether or not they sing proper hymns.
June 30th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
I’m with you with the old hymns. To tell the truth my fav is at the Cathedral…
Did you manage to get away in the end?
June 30th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Yes, thanks. My 14 year old and I went to Hull. It was magnificent. Missed the Larkin festival, but went to the Deep, the gallery, the William Wilberforce museum – and much more. The weather was Mediterranean, and Hull’s a lovely, fascinating place.
http://www.thedeep.co.uk/ – brilliant. Has an amazing evolutionary timeline with fossils – 1 centimetre per million years I think… So interesting.
And the aquarium – moray eels the size of surfboards. Huge rays – coral reefs – even a dark tank where, enclosed in darkness, you see luminous fish flash.
I liked it quite a lot. You may be able to tell.
June 30th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Wonderful, wonderful, that’s just what I wanted to hear…
July 1st, 2010 at 12:12 am
What inspire’s some ,maynot appeal to all,it doesn’t matter!
July 1st, 2010 at 11:04 am
@Sophie and Webmaster
I do agree, the quality of the worship (and of course the Eucharist) is what I love most, it opens heaven itself.
I cannot sing, and wouldn’t want to offend God by trying! Yet with a choir singing, I can join in, from essense of my being in worshipping God with the saints.
In my opinion this is the most beautiful psalm and piece of music ever!.
Allegri: Miserere from Paletrina, sung here by the Tallis Scholars. (I’m just catapulted into the limial border of heaven and earth at the high C) Just stunning
Translation:
Have mercy upon me, O God, after Thy great goodness: according to the multitude of Thy mercies do away mine offences.
Wash me throughly from my wickedness: and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my faults: and my sin is ever before me.
Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified in Thy saying, and clear when Thou art judged.
Behold, I was shapen in wickedness: and in sin hath my mother conceived me.
But lo, Thou requirest truth in the inward parts: and shalt make me to understand wisdom secretly.
Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness: that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.
Turn Thy face from my sins: and put out all my misdeeds.
Make me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence: and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.
O give me the comfort of Thy help again: and stablish me with Thy free Spirit.
Then shall I teach Thy ways unto the wicked: and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.
Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, Thou that art the God of my health: and my tongue shall sing of Thy righteousness.
Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord: and my mouth shall shew Thy praise.
For Thou desirest no sacrifice, else would I give it Thee: but Thou delightest not in burnt-offerings.
The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt Thou not despise.
O be favourable and gracious unto Sion: build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness, with the burnt-offerings and oblations: then shall they offer young bullocks upon Thine altar.
July 1st, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Wonderful! I’ve always had a soft spot forAllegri’s Miserere and it was great to listen to it again.
But one doesn’t have to be religious to appreciate the sublime beauty of this. Indeed, as an atheist I count Faure’s and Mozart’s Requiem Masses as some of the most awe inspiring pieces , to which I often turn for inspiration or to be uplifted. Music is so extraordinary because it seems to go straight to our hearts and express emotions in a way that words cannot, and it’s incredibly personal as it seems that no two people experience a piece of music in exactly the same way.
But getting back to the glorious spoof… I always found myself rather embarrassed when new forms of music were brought into Church.
To me Church was all the more powerful an experience for being a predictable ritual with set rules and traditional hymns. It allowed me to open my mind and to meditate in a way I could not do elsewhere, and I always felt incredibly refeshed afterwards.
But equally, the words of many of the hymns were dire to say the least, born one or two hundred years ago, when the World and our horizons were very different.
To be honest I felt the same about Spurgeon’s sermons. Taken in context they were powerful pieces of oratory, but to my mind time has not been kind to them. Where are the Spurgeons of today? Actually I’d be interested in any suggestions.
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Hi Jim.
I do agree, one doesn’t have to be religious to appreciate the beauty of the divine, however, having said that I think the best argument for the existence of God is Bach
.
I like what CS Lewis, when speaking of music (my paraphrasing), suggests that music doesn’t speak of or about the divine, but music is a media through which God himself communicates to us. We enter into Him.
I think this can also be said for sacred spaces and sacred art, where the peace of God permeates.
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:12 pm
I know what you mean Caral. I think you’ve mentioned Bach before. I have to admit that it is almost inhumanly perfect!
I also think there are some sacred spaces which do indeed have an extraordinary aura, as if there is more than just stone and mortar. But it’s by no means universal. Each time I’ve been to Guildford Cathedral for instance, I have been utterly depressed by the complete lack of any emotion, and the sheer brutality of the design. From the outside it looks more like a power station than a place of worship, and inside is scarcely better!