Christian Music

Post by **Lalaith** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:51 pm

[Note: I split this off from the Bag End thread "44"; feel free to change the title, Lali. - VtF]

I'm playing "In Christ Alone" this Sunday for church. I've got my pennywhistle cleaned and ready to go. (I don't want to play it for your funeral, though, unless it's 50 years from now!)

Post by **Alatar** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:07 pm

Funny, I'm looking at some of the Getty's stuff for Easter. Power of the Cross for Good Friday I think.

Post by **Lalaith** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 5:21 pm

We're playing (singing) that this Sunday, too. When we sing it as a choir song, I have the solo at the beginning. Love it!

(Our choir version has stronger chords than the congregational arrangement, though both are good.)

Post by **Pearly Di** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 5:37 pm

Lalaith wrote:I'm playing "In Christ Alone" this Sunday for church. I've got my pennywhistle cleaned and ready to go. (I don't want to play it for your funeral, though, unless it's 50 years from now!)

Yeah, I think I'd share that sentiment, Lali.

Although in 50 years I'll be 96.

Getty & Townend have become the sort of John/Paul partnership in contemporary hymnody.

Kind of.

I like the ballady feel of their songs.

Post by **Alatar** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 5:44 pm

Keith and Kristyn Getty are touring over here soon. I might try to get to one of them...

Sat 20 Jun 2009
In Christ Alone: Waterfront Hall, Belfast

Sun 28 Jun 2009
Caird Hall, Dundee, Scotland, UK

Sat 11 Jul 2009
to Fri 17 Jul 2009
Keswick Convention, UK

Sun 19 Jul 2009
to Fri 24 Jul 2009
New Horizon, Coleraine, N. Ireland

(Feel free to split the Christian Music stuff into another thread V, seems to be enough interest!)

Post by **Lalaith** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 2:55 pm

Alatar, if you can manage to go you really should. I don't think you'd be disappointed. I'm still kicking myself that I didn't go hear them when they were singing at a local Christian university.

Di, I think you're right. What makes them rather unique in modern Christian music is that they have preserved a hymn-like feel to their music. IOW, you have the traditional Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus pattern. Only the occasional modulation really makes it any different, and that's only as you compare it to music from the Baptist hymnal. If you look at modern arrangements of hymns a modulation is often thrown in between V2 or V3 or V3 and V4.

So I love their music. (I love all kinds of music, so it's not that I'm a traditionalist. I'm not a contemporist (new word?) either. I want good, quality music, no matter the style.)

But I love what they have done for modern hymnody.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8welVgKX8Qo (In Christ Alone)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPIn26-a ... re=related (The Power of the Cross, video taken from The Passion, so you are warned before you watch it.)

Post by **Alatar** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 3:17 pm

We're also looking at a lot of Paul Baloche stuff. I really love what he does with open chords on the guitar, and with percussion.

We're planning to do "All the Earth Will Sing Your Praises" on Easter Sunday.

I'm not gone on the verses, but the chorus is really strong, so we'll probably just do the chorus twice, as an Entrance Antiphon. (all of this is coming from what you sent me btw!)

You lived, you died, you said in three days you would rise
You did, you're alive
You rule, you reign, you said you're coming back again
I know you will and all the earth will sing your praises

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8rY7dwwqYs

We're also considering this Amy Grant song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-EGzskcdp0

and Resurrection hymn, by Getty

http://www.worshiptogether.com/songs/so ... iid=564799

Post by **Pearly Di** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:43 pm

Good old Amy Grant!

I like a lot of contemporary worship

Here's 'You never let go' by Matt Redman. I really love this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=e ... re=related

Found this lovely song the other night. 'In your arms' by the Oslo Gospel Choir:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=e ... mifWiP7iEg

And I also like the traditional

'Miserere', Allegri's setting of Psalm 51, by Kings College Chapel Choir

(Sorry the sound and the quality of the film isn't better, but at least it's KINGS! )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZL3POaA ... re=related

Shorter version from Belfast:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED-TKKRapBI

The woman soprano does well but there's nothing quite like the pure quality of a young boy's voice hitting that top C.

I like John Tavener a lot, whose music is wholly inspired by his Russian Orthodox faith. His music is not to everyone's taste -- lots of dissonant chords and harmonies -- but I find it really profound. Here is his glorious 'Song for Athene' from Princess Diana's funeral at Westminster Abbey, sung beautifully by the abbey choir. This piece sends shivers down my spine. Tavener composed it for a young friend of his who, like Diana, was killed in a car crash. The BBC guy will shut up after a few moments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II_QgNkG5jg

Post by **Elentári** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:04 pm

Di wrote:

'Miserere', Allegri's setting of Psalm 51, by Kings College Chapel Choir

Now you're talking!
[Sorry, I guess Crucifer and I should start our own thread

]

We have a tradition of singing this every Holy Saturday evening with our choir - and I usually sing the alto line in the concertina or soloist quartet. My eldest son sang Sop 1 last year, (top 'c' but his voice is on borrowed time now as he's nearly 14, so this year he's sing Sop 2.

Next year we're pushing for change and want to do Lotti's "Crucifixus" - takes your breath away...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmCp26GmR50

Post by **Crucifer** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:56 pm

Oh yes, the Lotti is fabulous, Elen!

We're doing Tavener's 'Funeral Ikos' for Maundy Thursday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtCtmKsSv5g

We did the Allegri a few weeks ago...

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 7:50 am

Thank you, thank you all, so much, for posting those links!

What gorgeous music. So much to explore.

I loved the Tavener. I've been listening to Russian Orthodox music for years now: the incredible power of the massed male voices, and as my son (a singer) pointed out, the unusual strength of the deep bass, an Eastern thing, make listening to it like listening to a storm at sea, or echoes from the depths of the earth.

Now in Lent I'm listening again, a lot.

Your links here have given me some leads for things I really want to hear more of. I would love a thread that discussed this kind of music. I can't sing a note—but I can hear.

Post by **Elentári** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 8:39 am

Thanks, Crucifer - I hadn't heard the Tavener, but shall pester our choir director now

It is so hauntingly beautiful and spiritually moving, very accessible in its simplicity.

Post by **Crucifer** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:26 pm

Totally. It just repeats itself! The lines have no strange intervals, and even when it breaks into harmony, the lower two lines simply mirror the top two lines! The Alleluia is a bit different, I'll grant you, but simple!

Post by **Elentári** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 9:31 pm

Update on the Lotti - would you believe it, our MD got it out at choir practice last night (no, the music!

) and announced that he wants us to perform it on Palm Sunday.

Ok...no sweat, at least some of us did it about 3 years ago

Post by **Pearly Di** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:25 pm

The Lotti seems really difficult.

'The Lamb' by John Tavener. William Blake's poem set to music. Such purity, so moving:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyBp9hrz ... re=related

I love, love, love Palestrina:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jYg1ntLgDY

That was by Harry Christopher's Sixteen, one of the finest chorale groups around. Here are the equally wonderful Tallis scholars singing Palestrina's Nunc Dimittus

(very nice quality video, and what an amazing church! It looks Italian):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4VoKso5 ... re=related

'Spem in allium' by Thomas Tallis, 40-voice motet. It is absolutely extraordinary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMz7ufLN ... re=related

The words:
"I have never put my hope in any other but in you, O God of Israel who can show both anger
and graciousness, and who absolves all the sins of suffering man Lord God,
Creator of Heaven and Earth be mindful of our humiliation."

Well, I introduced the traditional choral music into the thread and I do adore it

but I hope to post more contemporary stuff as well. It's a completely different approach to worship but it means a lot to me.

So for Lali and Al, here's the excellent Revelation gospel choir from last summer's Last Choir Standing on BBC1. It's a pop song by Take That but this lot sing it with real passion, it's just lovely:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=e ... PBmFwBSGb0

(As ever on YouTube, the comments thread is nuttier than a fruitcake: it's best not to read. The comments on the classical music threads were no better, by the way!)

I love this song, 'I know your name' by Michael W. Smith:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR6-wLBT_Yo

I've always really liked John Michael Talbot's music. Franciscan dude:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-EqB91j ... re=related

It's not trendy, but I don't care. It's simple, and beautiful.

Post by **truehobbit** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 1:24 am

Prim wrote:I've been listening to Russian Orthodox music for years now:

Well, it's not male voices only, but very beautfully Russian, too - we did some pieces from Rachmaninov's "All Night Vigil" for our concert a month ago.

Apparently one of the most famous ones of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nslZmvphDs

We're planning to perform them once more in a month or so, as a charity concert for the victims of the archive collapse.

Post by **Crucifer** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 3:31 am

The Lotti is difficult, Di. Very very much so. It's been pulled from a CD I was on and at least 3 services I sang in.

truehobbit, the Troparion you posted is the most famous because it's the easiest.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 7:35 am

I always love seeing a post from you. hobby!

I haven't had a chance to listen to the link because I'm working on a laptop with horrible tinny sound instead of in my lovely office—we have a puppy who needs company and can't be trusted upstairs yet. But I hope to hear it tomorrow. I know that there is Russian choral music with women's voices, and it's gorgeous. I just have a weakness for the subterranean sound of the all-men's choirs, especially the ones that are actually composed of monks..

Post by **Elentári** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 8:20 am

I love Palestrina too, Di! I hadn't heard any of the Nunc before, so thanks for posting that.

We performed the "Deposuit potentes" from his Magnificat last weekend in the RSCM Sussex Area Festival, and I'm hoping our choir will do the whole Magnificat in the Autumn. I sang it about 25 years ago at school and have always loved it. Unfortunately I couldn't find any clips on YouTube

We also regularly sing the Angus Dei from his Missa Aeterna Christi Munera in services.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 4:32 pm

Re the Magnificat: are these two not the right one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HYmSjeQbr0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4La4UVA ... re=related