Friday 1 February 2008

Bits and pieces I read in this morning's paper

Sydney Anglican Nathan Tasker gets a good mention in this article about Christian music, from today's SMH. Meanwhile, a few whiny church musicians complain that it's all too lowbrow.

In other news, Australia gets its first 21 year old chess grandmaster. And euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke tries to spread the bad word in NZ.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the type of music we sing has as much to do with general musical literacy as with adopting styles from popular culture. Obviously, for communal singing in church, it has to be pretty much lowest common denominator for most to be able to participate.And its a good thing that all can partake.
I don't think your average Sydney evangelical would appreciate (or be capable of)singing through a Bach Cantata as part of the service (or any of those Tallis Scholar numbers.) In their day though, I'm sure many Christians were musically literate enough for this kind of music to be used in church. And no doubt in countries where there is a higher degree of musical literacy, there must be Christians today who do enjoy a good ol' Bach singalong.
If singing pop songs helps more people to engage with the gospel then so be it,but when there exists a whole body of quality church music out there why turn our backs on it?

Cathy

Cathy

Gordon Cheng said...

Well I agree and such music does still get a run at St Andrew's Cathedral too.

Funnily enough today was my first choir rehearsal for years. I went along to the Sydney Philharmonic for a bit of a singalong and had a lot of fun.

Anonymous said...

Oh, that's good to hear. The grapevine is not always reliable - I thought they'd chucked the baby out with the bathwater (if that's the correct metaphor).

Good to hear you are enjoying Philharmonia - I was a pianist there for several years. Brett is a wonderful director, full of energy and fun. His 'Intro to the Messiah' at the OH last December was a hoot.

Cathy

Cathy