Who brought down the Berlin Wall? It was Polish trade unionists, Mikhail Gorbachev and his perestroika, Ronald Reagan and his Star Wars program, ordinary East Germans demonstrating in the streets and piling into the West German embassy in Prague, and of course Günter Schabowski, the Politburo member who read out that legendary note lifting travel restrictions -- "effective immediately" -- on the night of Nov. 9, 1989.

A new book published this week ventures to add another name to that list -- rock star Bruce Springsteen, who held the biggest concert in the history of East Germany on July 19, 1988, and whose rousing, passionate performance that night lit a spark in the hundreds of thousands of young people who saw him.

Springsteen attracted an estimated 300,000 people from all over the German Democratic Republic -- the largest crowd he had ever played to. They were hungry for change and freedom, and seeing one of the West's top stars made them even hungrier, argues veteran journalist Erik Kirschbaum in his book "Rocking the Wall,"

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Music • * Economics, Politics • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Europe • Germany

There are few things as annoying as being stuck on a tarmac — in a cramped, packed plane — for long periods of time. But when you have some of the members of the Philadelphia Orchestra on your flight, it could turn magical.

No, seriously.

It happened to passengers on a flight from Beijing to Macau, this week. They had been sitting on the tarmac for three hours when a quartet of musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestra pulled out their instruments and provided...[a wonderful diversion].

Read it all and please do not miss the video of what happened.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music • Travel

Christians disagree about music style as much as any other issue in the body of Christ. More than likely, you've experienced this firsthand. As I've already written, conflicts over music have been common through out church history. Christians have listened to and enjoyed all of kinds of music. But should they?.

In seeking to determine what is the right music for a church, it's important that we use biblical principles in our evaluation. That's not always easy—the Bible doesn't contain music notes. God never gives us His musical preferences.

While it may be difficult, I do believe it's possible to evaluate musical preferences using God's word. The following seven tests each relate to biblical principles that we can apply to our music to determine its suitability...

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Liturgy, Music, Worship • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Music • Religion & Culture • * Theology

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Spirituality/Prayer • * Culture-Watch • Music

A theology professor of mine liked to remind our class that everyone’s a theologian. I don’t think he meant that everyone’s a particularly good theologian or has something significant or meaningful to say. The point was that we should always be on the lookout for how people theologize, how they conceive of God in real life.

You may not find a more popular theologian right now than Macklemore. I doubt he’d be too keen on that label. But when the hip-hop chart topper isn’t busy thrift shopping with his producer Ryan Lewis, he seems fairly interested in the feasibility of God in human experience.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music • Religion & Culture • * Theology

[KIM] LAWTON: McFerrin says his Christian faith permeates everything he does. But it’s particularly evident in his new album, “spirityouall,” which includes his interpretation of classic African-American spirituals and several devotional songs that he wrote. The project honors the legacy of his father, Robert McFerrin, Sr., the first African American to sing a title role at the Metropolitan Opera. The senior McFerrin also released an album of spirituals, Deep River, in 1957.

[BOBBY] MCFERRIN: I never heard my father pray. I know that he got on his knees many times before he went to bed at night and prayed, but I always heard him pray whenever he sang these spirituals.

LAWTON: McFerrin says songs like “Every Time I Feel the Spirit” still resonate today.

MCFERRIN: I certainly try to pray them as I’m singing them. That’s important. And the hope is that when people hear these pieces that they’ll carry them home with them and then they’ll inspire them to begin a spiritual journey or to continue on it.

Watch or read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

Watch and listen to it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • Music • Theatre/Drama/Plays • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • History • Music • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • History • Music • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military

Google is set to introduce a subscription music feature to compete against fast-growing new streaming services like Spotify, according to several people briefed on its plans.

Google is planning to introduce the new service on Wednesday at Google I/O, the company’s annual conference for software developers. The subscription feature will be connected to Play, Google’s online media hub, complementing its download store and “locker” feature, which lets people store their digital entertainment collections in the cloud, according to these people, who spoke on condition of anonymity before Google’s official announcement.

News of the announcement first appeared on The Verge. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Blogging & the Internet • Music • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life

Most songwriters in Nashville want to get their songs on the radio.

Keith and Kristyn Getty hope their songs end up in dusty old hymn books.

The Gettys, originally from Belfast, Ireland, hope to revive the art of hymn writing at a time when the most popular new church songs are written for rock bands rather than choirs.

They’ve had surprising success.

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Liturgy, Music, Worship • * Culture-Watch • Music • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

The community of Roxbury had high hopes for its newest public school back in 2003. There were art studios, a dance room, even a theater equipped with cushy seating.

A pilot school for grades K-8, Orchard Gardens was built on grand expectations.

But the dream of a school founded in the arts, a school that would give back to the community as it bettered its children, never materialized.

Read it all (Video highly recommended).

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Art • Children • Education • Music • Urban/City Life and Issues

[Neil] Diamond flew his private jet to Boston. He showed up unannounced to Fenway about 30 minutes before start time, called the control room and asked if he could sing.

When the eighth inning came, Neil walked out in a Red Sox cap and the 35,000-strong crowd cheered. ''What an honour it is for me to be here today!'' Diamond told them. ''I bring love from the whole country.''

Then they sang along, out of sync to the backing track but that hardly mattered. Neither did the fact the Red Sox beat the Royals something to something else.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music • Sports • Urban/City Life and Issues • Violence • * Economics, Politics • Terrorism • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Australia / NZ

"The city that started the American Revolution is proving its strength by simply moving forward; NBC’s Katie Tur reports."

Watch it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Law & Legal Issues • Police/Fire • Marriage & Family • Music • Urban/City Life and Issues • Violence • * Economics, Politics • Terrorism • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

Listen to it all--wonderful and heart lifting.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music

Watch it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music • Science & Technology • * General Interest • Animals

[KIM] LAWTON: At Maundy Thursday services, music helps set the mood as Christians begin their annual time of mourning the arrest, prosecution and crucifixion of Jesus.

Thomas Tyler is in charge of worship and music at Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. He says it's spiritually important to sing the songs of grief before celebrating Christ's resurrection.

Mr. TYLER: We want to skip over the sorrow. We want to skip over the abandonment and go get our praise on. But, if you don't remember what he went through, then I feel your appreciation for the significance of that resurrection is marginalized.

Read it all or watch and listen to the video report.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Easter • Liturgy, Music, Worship • * Culture-Watch • Music • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

Watch it all--good things do indeed sometimes come from small towns; KSH.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Marriage & Family • Music • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

Listen to it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music

Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan were doing just fine as solo performers. Then one night, Ryan walked into a bar where Pattengale was playing.

"I heard Kenneth perform a song that he had written from the perspective of a dead dog, only very recently having been hit by a truck," Ryan says, wryly. "And it was that sort of uplifting material that drew us together."

Now, they're a duo: The Milk Carton Kids. They have been compared to Simon & Garfunkel for their close-harmony vocals and songs that are precise, softly uttered poems. And when they banter, they sound a bit like a long-married couple.

Read (or better listen to) it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music

The singers are Quire Cleveland under the direction of Peter Bennett. The words come from Psalm 47. For those of you who wish to see the Coverdale translation which Gibbons is using for the lyrics you may find it there.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • Liturgy, Music, Worship • * Culture-Watch • History • Music • * Theology • Theology: Scripture

For the past two decades, in a small town in southern Italy, a pianist and music teacher has been hunting for and resurrecting the music of the dead.

Francesco Lotoro has found thousands of songs, symphonies and operas written in concentration, labor and POW camps in Germany and elsewhere before and during World War II.

By rescuing compositions written in imprisonment, Lotoro wants to fill the hole left in Europe's musical history and show how even the horrors of the Holocaust could not suppress artistic inspiration.

You can read it but it is a must-listen-to it all entry. Stunningly powerful.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music • Psychology • Religion & Culture • Violence • * International News & Commentary • Europe • Germany • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Judaism

Watch and listen to it all--what a hoot.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Music • * International News & Commentary • Asia

At 87, the Rev. C.T. Vivian can still recall the moment, decades after the height of the civil rights movement.

As he stood to conclude a meeting in his Atlanta home, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. joined his activist colleagues in song, his eyes closed, rocking back and forth on his heels.

“There is a balm in Gilead,” they sang, “to make the wounded whole.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • Liturgy, Music, Worship • * Culture-Watch • History • Music • Race/Race Relations • Religion & Culture

He also felt a nagging tug, a pull toward something larger than himself. It was a bit odd, all things considered.

Not that he had rejected his faith. He’d just let it fade away.

“I got caught up in the world, and the teachings of morality in the Catholic Church didn’t really harmonize with that,” he says.

Then he read a few words that St. Augustine wrote around the year 398: “Restless is our heart until it comes to rest in thee.”

Read it all from the local paper.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic

Enjoy it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • Music • Young Adults

Ken Myers grew up in a conservative Christian household in Beltsville, Maryland, during the 1960s. When he was in tenth grade, two important things happened to him.

His high school music teacher introduced him to the music of Bach, taking eight months to teach Myers and the rest of the boys’ choir how to sing the motet Jesu, meine Freunde. And he fell upon a copy of the Saturday Review.

Saturday Review is pretty much forgotten today. (A number of people still remember Bach.) The magazine began in the 1920s and flourished in the postwar years. Its writers ranged widely over the arts, from music and literature to painting and drama, cultivating a readership of strivers​—​professional and college educated, if not brainy by nature​—​who were eager for self-improvement and a kind of intellectual diversion that was sophisticated and accessible. The magazine was edited by a windy polymath named Norman Cousins, a model of the kind of well-meaning and high-minded public intellectual they don’t seem to make anymore.

“Everyone else in high school was discovering recreational drugs,” Myers told me not long ago. “I was discovering Norman Cousins.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Books • Music • Philosophy • Poetry & Literature • Psychology • Religion & Culture • * Theology

Fans of "Les Misérables" on film or stage may be surprised to know that not everyone in France was of good cheer when Victor Hugo published the book in 1862. The anticlerical set was especially offended by the pivotal role of the Bishop of Digne, who helped determine the course of the novel by resuscitating the soul of Jean Valjean.

As Hugo worked on the novel, his son Charles, then in his 20s, objected to the reverential treatment of the bishop. He argued to his father that the portrayal gave undeserved respect to a corrupt clergy, bestowing credibility on a Roman Catholic Church opposed to the democratic ideals that he and his father held. Charles instead proposed that the catalyst for Jean Valjean's transformation be a lawyer or doctor or anyone else from a secular profession.

The pushback didn't work. Not only did Hugo hold his ground, but he amplified the importance of Charles-François Bienvenue Myriel, affectionately known in the novel as Monseigneur Bienvenue (Bishop Welcome). The book's first hundred pages or so are a detailed chronicle of Myriel's exemplary life, showing that his intervention on behalf of Jean Valjean was part of a long track record and not a singular aberration.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Books • History • Music • Religion & Culture • Theatre/Drama/Plays • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic

In spite of tepid reviews from some film critics, "Les Miserables" is booming at the box office, and that financial success can in part be traced to a group of its biggest boosters: Christians, particularly evangelicals whom NBC Universal went after with a microtargeted marketing strategy.

The story in "Les Miserables" is heavy with Christian themes of grace, mercy and redemption. The line everyone seems to remember is "to love another person is to see the face of God.”

NBC Universal looked to capitalize on those components and promoted the film to pastors, Christian radio hosts and influence-makers in the Christian community.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Music • Religion & Culture • Theatre/Drama/Plays • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Evangelicals

Watch and listen to it all (the pictures of the chapel at about 1:09 and again at 2:22 are worth their weight in gold).

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Christmas • * Culture-Watch • Music

Listen to it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Christmas • * Culture-Watch • Music

Andy Statman stood in the narrow basement of an Orthodox synagogue improbably wedged among the boîtes and boutiques of Greenwich Village. He wore a plain blue suit and white shirt, and from his waist hung tzitzit, the fringes meant to remind an observant Jew of the 613 commandments. Twisting together the pieces of his clarinet, he ran through a glissando that seemed to corkscrew through the air.

Four rows of folding chairs were arranged before Mr. Statman, and in them sat about 15 people, several in yarmulkes, one an Australian woman whose music teacher back home had instructed her to find and hear Andy Statman. The basement’s shelves bore Talmudic volumes and Sabbath candlesticks, and the room was so chilly on this November night that nearly all the listeners had kept on their coats.

“This is concert probably, what, 6-something, 650?” Mr. Statman asked his drummer, Larry Eagle.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Judaism

Bach has quite a hoard of virtues. The rectitude is almost annoying: selflessness married to reason married to imagination married to lawfulness married to craft. Bach is a mirror to everything we would like to be; he is almost too good to be true, to be believed. But we believe in Bach on the evidence of the notes themselves. Having invoked fact, law, and logic, I think the larger and more precise term, the umbrella term, to sum up Bach’s mystique is truth. There is a lot of talk of truth and truthiness these days—the death of truth, a post-truth era, and a proliferation of fact checkers debasing the currency in which they pretend to trade. But in Bach’s case we are talking about a certain kind of truth, a necessary truth, even a divine truth, something unarguable. Bach allows us to deny our suspicion that music may be a tissue of lies, a sensory decadence. You cannot wander far into Bach discussion without the invocation of the divine, even in connection with his secular works: cue Beethoven’s “Well-Tempered Bible,” Lipatti’s remark that Bach was “one of the ‘chosen instruments of God himself,’” and Goethe’s observation that it is “as if the eternal harmony were communing with itself, as might have happened in God’s bosom shortly before the creation of the world.” Combine the feeling of divinity with the experience of Bach’s logic and system and you have an intoxicating combination, as if the Bible made perfect sense.

Closely following upon the invocation of God is the invocation of virtue: Bach is music’s claim to morality. Perhaps this last step is the most dangerous. It is a lot for music to bear, this conflation with truth, not to mention virtue. Arguments about Bach become proxy arguments about purity and authenticity. For some reason, people love to tell the story of Wanda Landowska saying to Pablo Casals, “You play Bach your way, and I’ll play him his way.” A memorable boast (and insult), but underneath it you can feel Bach’s truth getting carved up, subjected to territorial disputes. The certitude of Bach’s command of tones seems, like a virus, to infect some artists who play him.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Books • History • Music • * Theology

Although blind, [Albano] Berberi has played a musical instrument longer than he can remember. When his family still lived in Albania, 6-month-old Berberi began playing the keyboard. It wasn't Mozart, but his father told him he played the notes sequentially. At 18 months, he reproduced the music demonstration tape that came with the keyboard.

When he was a year old, the family moved to Greece, where he continued playing keyboard until his kindergarten teacher decided to introduced him to another instrument. They first tried the recorder during a trip to a music conservatory. But he found it "rather boring," and the two continued their tour of the facility in search of an instrument to pique his interest. A musician taking a break from rehearsals handed the young boy his violin. The instrument, built for an adult not a 5-year-old, hardly nestled under his chin. But it proved a perfect fit.

"It can be the sweetest thing or angry," Berberi said. "It's just a very expressive instrument."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • Health & Medicine • Music • Young Adults • * Theology • Anthropology

Lyrics:Now thank we all our God,
with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done,
in whom this world rejoices;
who from our mothers' arms
has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.

.

O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us;
and keep us still in grace,
and guide us when perplexed;
and free us from all ills,
in this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to God
the Father now be given;
the Son, and him who reigns
with them in highest heaven;
the one eternal God,
whom earth and heaven adore;
for thus it was, is now,
and shall be evermore.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music

The singers are Quire Cleveland under the direction of Peter Bennett.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music

Listen to it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Liturgy, Music, Worship • * Culture-Watch • Music

When 'Scandalous,' a musical about Canadian-born evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, opened on Broadway this week, it became the latest entry into the risky category of religious musicals.

With the exception of "The Book of Mormon," which swept the Tonys in 2011 and continues to play to packed houses, many Broadway musicals with evangelical themes have had dubious track records in recent years.

Perhaps hoping to tap into audiences that loved "Godspell" or "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Leap of Faith," based on the 1992 Steve Martin movie, ran only 19 performances at Broadway's St. James Theatre. "Sister Act," based on the 1992 Whoopi Goldberg movie, was more successful but didn't break any records.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Music • Religion & Culture • Theatre/Drama/Plays

Maybe because I lost power for almost three hours today, but I needed this--listen to it all. If you have a moment, here is a lovely 1993 NPR interview with her also.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music

Can you give us a sneak peek into the plot?

Son of a Gun presents an interesting mashup of music and narrative. And, from a story perspective, it's funny. It's a dark comedy with a serious arc to it. It addresses this question of family and how to hack your way through a life that can be filled with pain, and it asks where the redemption is in the midst of all of it.

Is it autobiographical?

The story emerged from my own life experiences. There are plenty of times where we would hit a roadblock in the narrative, like, What should we do next with this character or this thing? And I would say, "Well, here's what happened to me." And that would be the best dramatic solution to the problem. So there's times it's stunningly true to my own life, but, of course, I did not grow up in a family band. We were not from Appalachia. My dad didn't play guitar or sing. There were no duels anywhere. And so on....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music • Religion & Culture • Theatre/Drama/Plays

Imagine no "Imagine": it's easy if you are a crematorium with a moratorium on "unsuitable" songs for funerals.

Alongside its most recent survey on popular funeral music, the largest funeral director in the UK, Co-operative Funeralcare, has revealed that one in four funeral parlours has had song requests turned down by clerics. Among them is John Lennon's song, with its lyrics "Imagine there's no heaven"....

Huge numbers continue to ask for Frank Sinatra's version of "My Way". It has received the highest billing in each of the past seven surveys, and is requested at 15 per cent of all funerals. "Time To Say Goodbye", by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli, is next on the list, followed by Bette Midler's "Wind Beneath My Wings".

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • * Christian Life / Church Life • Liturgy, Music, Worship • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • Music • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

Placido Domingo is one of the most influential people in classical music. During a 50-year career, he's played more than 140 roles, conducted more than 450 operas, and won just about every award that a human being can win in opera and life.

Domingo has a new album of solo songs and duets with other singers, whose names might surprise you. Take, for example, his version of Shania Twain's "From This Moment On" — a duet with Susan Boyle.

Listen to it all (slightly over 9 minutes).

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music • * International News & Commentary • Europe • Spain

Among the 23 recipients of the MacArthur "genius" grants this past week: an economist, a mathematician, a photographer, a neuroscientist, and a Boston-based stringed instrument bow maker.

Benoit Rolland acknowledges that the violin reigns supreme as the star of the strings, capable of fetching millions of dollars at auction. But what about the bow? "A violin with no bow is not a violin, that's clear," says Rolland.

"A lot of people, even some instrumentalists, in our younger years we believe that the violin is of paramount importance and the bow is just a tool," says Elita Kang, assistant concert master of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. "But the bow is just as important as the violin because that is our breath. That's how we draw the sound out of the instrument, so without a fine bow that's responsive and flexible and finely made, we can't express ourselves fully."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market

One thing that is often said of Dudamel is that he conducts music as if it had just been composed, without regard for what one critic termed "the accretions of past performances."

But that's part of the Rite's magic, the conductor says. "It's a hundred years later," he says, "and it's still so modern. Still, Sacre is new all the time. For me, that is the secret of the piece. I love to bring every line up. Sometimes, you listen to something very horizontal, but when you see the music in a vertical way — I'm talking about the line, every line in the orchestration — it's amazing. You discover new colors, you discover, 'Oh look, this is a very traditional harmony,' but then you see the details — and then every time it's different. I'm sure that this version will be completely different to the last one that I did.

"I think that the Rite is a symbol of the beginning of life," Dudamel continues. "It's beautiful because it's so natural. Of course, you have these crazy moments of wild dynamics, but at the same time you feel that the rhythms and the melodies are so natural. They're like this ancestral feeling of ... 'Wow, I think I have belief.' "

Read (or better listen to) it all (emphasis mine).

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music

By the time he put the finishing touches on the Rite of Spring in November of 1912 in the Châtelard Hotel in Clarens, Switzerland, Stravinsky had spent three years studying Russian pagan rituals, Lithuanian folk songs and crafting the dissonant sacre chord, in which an F-flat major combines with an E-flat major with added minor seventh. The rehearsal process wasn’t easy either. Stravinsky fired the German pianist and the orchestra and performers only had a few opportunities to practice at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, where the Rite debuted in May 1913. But the Russian born composer pulled it off, and his composition now stands as a 20th century masterpiece.

Stravinsky is one of seven eminent creators of the 20st century profiled by Harvard professor Howard Gardner in his 1993 book Creating Minds. The others are Pablo Picasso, Sigmund Freud, T.S. Eliot, Martha Graham, Mahatma Gandhi and Albert Einstein. One can debate the list but Gardner’s foremost conclusion is uncontroversial: creative breakthroughs in any domain require strenuous work and a willingness to challenge the establishment.

The psychology of creativity–both empirical research and popular literature for the lay audience–misses this. It reduces creativity to warm showers and blue rooms, forgetting that the life of the eminent creator is not soothing; it is a struggle–a grossly uneven wrestling match with the muses.

Read it all (emphasis mine).

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Music • Psychology • Science & Technology

Americans marked the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks Tuesday in familiar but subdued ceremonies that put grieving families ahead of politicians and suggested it’s time to move on after a decade of remembrance.

As in past years, thousands gathered at the World Trade Center site in New York, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa., to read the names of nearly 3,000 victims killed in the worst terror attack in U.S. history.

But many felt that last year’s 10th anniversary was an emotional turning point for public mourning of the attacks. For the first time, elected officials weren’t speaking at the ceremony, which often allowed them a solemn turn in the spotlight, but raised questions about the public and private Sept. 11. Fewer families attended the ceremonies this year, and some cities canceled their remembrances altogether.

“I feel much more relaxed” this year, said Jane Pollicino, who came to ground zero Tuesday morning to mourn her husband, who was killed at the trade center....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Music • * Economics, Politics • Terrorism

Listen to it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Music • * Economics, Politics • Terrorism

Earlier this year, NPR told the story of Teresa MacBain, a United Methodist pastor who had stopped believing in God. In March, when she just couldn't keep it to herself anymore, she told the American Atheists Convention that she was one of them.
Coming out as an atheist felt good. But when she got home to Tallahassee, Florida, she discovered that a video of her coming-out speech had gone viral. Her church and community shunned her.
I was saddened but not surprised. Many people attend seminary because they are seeking answers to serious questions about the faith. When they do pastoral care, those questions become sharper.
What really caught my attention about MacBain's story was this: "I miss the music," she told NPR. "Some of the hymns, I still catch myself singing them," she said. "I mean, they're beautiful pieces of music."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Atheism

France may be the most militantly secular country in Europe, but Paris's gospel scene is flourishing.

The choir sways and their orange robes sway with them. The conductor, packed in an ice-cream-white suit, urging them on, while out front the Reverend Jean Carpenter - moving quite possibly like nobody has ever moved before in this ancient church in the medieval heart of Paris - sings praise to the Lord.

The person who emailed to say I should go and hear her sing described her voice in one word - "Biiiiiiiiiiig".

She wasn't exaggerating.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Europe • France

"I'm actually not a music major. This is really a hobby that accidentally became a profession," [Alexis] Dawdy says. "I'm studying linguistics, and I'm 17 credits out from graduation. My goal is to do it debt-free, and this helps a lot. This pays for books and this pays for food."

Dawdy says she's encountered nothing but hospitality from her neighbors in Lansing.

Read (or better listen to) it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • Music • Women • Young Adults • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Personal Finance

Marvin Hamlisch, the stage and film composer who created the memorable songs for "A Chorus Line," has died at 68. The composer died on Monday in Los Angeles after collapsing from a brief illness, his family said in a statement.

One of the most decorated composers in entertainment, Hamlisch had won a Tony Award, three Academy Awards, four Emmy Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Hamlisch was still active just weeks ago. In his role as lead conductor of the Pasadena Pops, he conducted a July 21 concert at the Los Angeles Arboretum with Michael Feinstein.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • Music • Theatre/Drama/Plays

Message from Canterbury (1944) from British Council Film on Vimeo.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • Anglican Identity • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • * Culture-Watch • Music • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Religious Freedom / Persecution

For better or worse, we're not the people we were when we fell in love with this music. I wrote a book about Christian rock in the '90s, and one thing that struck me as I was putting it together was just how important some of that music was to my generation in pointing us toward the things that mattered to us: authentic faith, honest humanity, artistic integrity. Those are good things. But going to a rock show when you're 18 and when you're 35 are very different experiences. Have you noticed, for example, that when you go to see a band like Weezer or Jimmy Eat World, the fans are still mostly the age you were when you started listening to them? Have you noticed that you think less about buying their new records, and more about who you used to be and how you felt when you first bought their records?

I'm really happy to see new material from some of my favorite musicians, but I know that I'm not the same person I was when I started going to rock shows in church basements. I no longer put band stickers on my car or wear their buttons on my jacket. I no longer listen to Christian radio or buy my music from Bible bookstores. But these are some of the people who taught me what I know about faith, hope and love—and I'll be forking over some cash this year to hear them do it again.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music • Religion & Culture

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Listen here if you wish [h/t Stand Firm]

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Listen here sung by the choirs of Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester Cathedrals during the Three Choirs Festival [choose Hi or Lo bandwidth]

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Listen to it all here if you wish [select Lo or High bandwidth]

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Listen here

More about this BBC broadcast here

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You find the the link for the whole June 16th service here; if you are pressed for time the Magnificat starts about 13 minutes in to choose but one piece.

For further information please go here.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • * Culture-Watch • Education • History • Music • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

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O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming.
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

--Francis Scott Key (1779-1843)

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Music • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

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Watch and listen to it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Music • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

What would it be like if you were 10 years old and composed a piece of music that was played by the New York Philharmonic? For a few New York City school kids, including one fifth-grader, it's a dream come true, thanks to the orchestra's Very Young Composers program.

Composer Jon Deak, who played bass with the New York Philharmonic for more than 40 years, says the idea for Very Young Composers came when he and conductor Marin Alsop visited an elementary school in Brooklyn several years ago.

"As we were going in, I saw all the children's art on the walls, which was so superior," Deak says. "I said, 'That's it, Marin! We've got to get kids to compose music on the level of this art right here, because look: Doesn't that look like a Picasso? Doesn't that look like a Paul Klee?'"

I caught this one yesterday morning running errands and it brought tears to my eyes. Read (or much better listen to) it all--KSH.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • Music • Teens / Youth • Urban/City Life and Issues

Watch and listen to it all.

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While most teenagers get ready to head to the beach or enjoy some other form of relaxation to celebrate Memorial Day, 13-year-old Colt Drew of Goose Creek has a heavier weight on his shoulders today.

He will put on his honor guard uniform, head to the James Island American Legion and play Taps at a Memorial Day service.

“He does an excellent job,” said David Coates Jr., a member of the honor guard based at the Goose Creek American Legion.

Coates recruited Colt because there’s a shortage of Taps players for military funerals and services, especially in the Lowcountry, with its heavy military population. Colt, who is home-schooled, is an accomplished trumpet player, and both his parents, Debbie and Mike Drew, were in the Navy.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Music • Teens / Youth • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military • * South Carolina

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This Saturday, 200 buglers will assemble at Arlington National Cemetery to begin playing "Taps," a call written 150 years ago this year.

Retired Air Force Master Sgt. Jari Villanueva, a bugle player, says he started out as a Boy Scout bugler at about age 12. He went on to study trumpet at the Peabody Conservatory before being accepted into the United States Air Force Band — where one of his duties over the next 23 years was to sound that call at Arlington National Cemetery.

The audio on this is fantastic and not to be missed (7 1/3 minutes).

Update: you can find a picture of Master Sgt. Jari Villanueva there.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • History • Music • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military

Songs of Praise is to remain Christian despite calls for it to be turned it into a multifaith programme, the BBC’s first Muslim head of religion has pledged.

Aaqil Ahmed said that it was vital that religious programming promoted “diversity” but insisted that Songs of Praise would always remain Christian.

Mr Ahmed’s appointment three years ago attracted controversy in some quarters and even complaints to the corporation.

Read it all.

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I want to say thanks to all the folks who came out and helped us welcome Bishop Wright to Nashville. As the Square Pegs sang their songs last night, I couldn’t help but get a little misty-eyed. It was as if each of the songs was an offering, a gift given to a guest in welcome; a gift given to one who’s given to many. I was proud of my friends, proud of my community, proud of my church. And after Bishop Wright gave us his address, I was inspired to awe when he responded to the gifts of the community with songs of his own. He sang three songs: “Friday Morning” by Sydney Carter; a rewrite of the Beatles “Yesterday” entitled “Genesis” that he co-wrote with Francis Collins (leader of the Human Genome Project); and a rousing, passionate, show-stopping rendition of Bob Dylan’s “When the Ship Comes In.”

Read it all and do not miss the Vimeo video of Tom Wright singing Bob Dylan’s “When the Ship Comes In.”

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops • * Culture-Watch • Music

Set to a slideshow of nature pictures of Japan, Ireland, and Scotland. Listen to it all.

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Watch and listen to it all. The mandolin is just tremendous!

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What do you get when you combine faith, a sense of community, love of music, an experienced music director and a generous church facility?

You get the St. James Community Orchestra, founded last year by members of St. James Episcopal Church.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • * Christian Life / Church Life • Liturgy, Music, Worship • Parish Ministry • Adult Education • * Culture-Watch • Music • * South Carolina

The reports of the band playing “Nearer, My God, to Thee” [as the Titanic sank] were enthusiastically received. The gist of the song is that whatever hardships befall us, they can only serve to bring us closer to God. In terms of the Titanic disaster, the image was of people being dragged to the depths of the sea and yet, paradoxically, scaling the heights of heaven. It was based in part on the story of Jacob’s dream (Genesis 28:10-22), in which he sees “a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.” It may have been a particular favorite at the Bethel Chapel in Colne [where the band leader became a Christian] because Jacob marked the spot where he had the dream with a stone “and he called the name of that place Bethel.”

It was the best-loved hymn of Hartley and had been introduced to the Bethel Chapel by his father, Albion Hartley, when he was choirmaster. Ellwand Moody, Hartley’s friend [and fellow ship musician], told the Leeds Mercury in April 1912: “I remember one day I asked him what he would do if he were ever on a sinking ship and he replied, ‘I don’t think I would do better than play “Oh God Our Help in Ages Past” or “Nearer, My God, to Thee.”

It was also the favorite hymn of many in New York. President McKinley supposedly used the words as a form of prayer as he lay dying after being shot by the anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York, in September 1901.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • * Culture-Watch • History • Music • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

Bell-bottoms came and went and came back again.

But Dick Clark? He never left. With his toothpaste-ad smile and a microphone always ready, Dick Clark was a fixture in our pop culture for decades.

Maybe you hear his name and think New Year's Eve stalwart, or American Bandstand host, or "World's Oldest Teenager," a nickname he picked up from TV Guide years ago, but Dick Clark was much more than any of those single images.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Music

Since 1955, April 15 has signified Tax Day in the United States — a pretty tragic date in our minds. But prior to that, April 15 always marked an even larger tragedy: the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The famous shipwreck claimed almost 1,500 lives.

Of note to United Methodists is the fact that two of the members of the famed Titanic band were Methodists themselves.

A book by music journalist Steve Turner detailing the lives of the bandmembers cites the Methodist heritage of bandleader and violinist Wallace Hartley and cellist John Wesley Woodward, and speculates how their faith influenced their decision to play till the last.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Books • History • Music • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Methodist

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Take the two minutes to listen to it all from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Easter • * Culture-Watch • Music

Listen to it all.

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Listen to it all.

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Listen to it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Holy Week • * Culture-Watch • Music

Listen to it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Holy Week • * Culture-Watch • Music

Listen to it all.

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As a giant tornado bore down on his southwest Arlington church Tuesday, the Rev. Will Cotton led 82 children in day care singing Jesus Loves Me.

Windows broke, rainwater covered the floors, and winds ripped up trees and tore the roof off the St. Barnabas United Methodist Church early education center.

Later, even as Cotton sorted through his own wrecked home nearby, the tune didn't change.

"Even in the midst of this, we see the hope of Easter in the faces of all the people coming together, the neighbors rallying around each other," said Cotton, in his second year in Arlington after moving from blustery Lubbock.

"We take hope in the risen Christ. That is the very message of Holy Week."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Holy Week • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Children • Music • * General Interest • Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc. • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Methodist • * Theology • Pastoral Theology

Children from all UK regions and nations have the chance to sing for The Queen as part of the Diamond Jubilee Service of Thanksgiving this June at St Paul's Cathedral.

All boys and girls aged 10-13, who sing regularly in a church, school or other choir, are eligible to apply to join the choir, which will see auditions take place in regional cathedrals before 40 children are chosen to come to London for the service on 5 June.

Watch and read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Children • Music • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

With the crack of baseball bats across the land, the singing season for Americans is about to begin. At ballparks from Saint Louis to San Diego, people will stand during the seventh-inning stretch and belt "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." They will feel the pleasure of singing a bouncy, easy song with thousands of other fans. They will be cheered by the sunny lyrics, even if their team is down. They will lose themselves in a bond stretching around the stadium, a few minutes of carefree unity.

And when the season's over, that'll be it until next spring.

Adults in America don't sing communally. Children routinely sing together in their schools and activities, and even infants have sing-alongs galore to attend. But past the age of majority, at grown-up commemorations, celebrations, and gatherings, this most essential human yawp of feeling—of marking, with a grace note, that we are together in this place at this time—usually goes missing.

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Watch the whole thing.

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Illuminating God’s message of grace in popular culture, including in television shows like “Downton Abbey” and others like “Friday Night Lights” and “Parenthood,” is the cornerstone of Mockingbird, which strives to connect Christianity with everyday life.

Through mbird.com, contributors, including Zahl, analyze film, music, television, literature, social science and humor, dissecting the contents through a Christian understanding.

“We are not trying to cover popular culture,” said Zahl. “But we are trying to reach people through both conscious and unconscious parallels in good art.”

Read it all and do go check out the website.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Art • Blogging & the Internet • Books • Movies & Television • Music • Theatre/Drama/Plays • * Theology • Apologetics • Pastoral Theology

Alain de Botton, the British pop philosopher whose new book Religion for Atheists has made him the friendly face of modern godlessness....said if you walked into a modern university and asked to study the humanities in order to find meaning in life, “the people in charge would immediately dial the number of the insane asylum, and you would be taken away.”

He said the message of the secular world is that life is simple, and the only people who need help are stupid people who read self-help books.

He set his own views against the “virulent strain” of atheism that sees religion as “not just false but wrong, ridiculous, malign and corrupt,” epitomized by Christopher Hitchens’ claim that “religion poisons everything.”

Read it all.

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Watch and listen to it all. LOL.

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Yes, the band 30 years ago was U2, and its mysterious second album was called "October." Both were surrounded by clouds of rumors, which I explored in a News-Gazette column on Feb. 19, 1982. What I needed to do was meet the band before its Feb. 23 concert in Champaign-Urbana.

Luckily, the 20-year-old Bono was willing to discuss "Gloria" and "October." Describing that interview, the reference book "U2: A Diary" notes: "Although the band have gone out of their way to avoid talking about their faith up to this point, they speak candidly now."

That column ran on March 5 and it apparently was the first mainstream news piece in which Bono and company discussed their faith.

Read it all.

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The album that I did three to four years ago happened right after my husband went through surgery for a brain tumor. So a lot of the ideas that I was writing about then were just very fresh, about how do we worship in the midst of trials. So fast forwarding a few years later, a lot of things have changed. A lot of things have gotten better with his health, and a lot of things have not. We pray for God to bless us, but what does it look like when I spend four or so years praying for healing for my husband that never comes? I feel like we’ve kind of gotten to a place of having to make a choice. Are we going to judge God based on our circumstances that we don’t understand, or are we going to choose to judge our circumstances based on what we know to be true about God? Not that I choose the right thing every day, but I’m learning that every morning when I wake up to choose to trust God.

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I don't think much of a lot of contemporary Christian music, but this song is a glaring exception. I thought of it in part because it was done during the offertory at worship this morning where I serve (Christ Saint Paul's, Yonges Island, S.C.) Take the time to listen to it all and to take in some of the circumstances that led to the writing of the song--KSH.

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She told ABC's Diane Sawyer in 2002: "The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy."

Houston tried to stage a comeback with the 2009 album I Look To You, but things fell apart when a concert to promote the album was clearly off-key.

Broadcaster and music journalist Paul Gambaccini described Whitney Houston's voice as "the template for female vocal performers for the last 30 years".

But in the end, he told the BBC, she became the victim of a "self-administered decline" and, sadly, threw all it all away.

Read it all.

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Whitney Houston, the multimillion-selling singer who emerged in the 1980s as one of her generation’s greatest R & B voices, only to deteriorate through years of cocaine use and an abusive marriage, died on Saturday in Beverly Hills, Calif. She was 48.

Her death came as the music industry descended on Los Angeles for the annual celebration of the Grammy Awards, and Ms. Houston was — for all her difficulties over the years — one of its queens. She was staying at the Beverly Hilton hotel on Saturday to attend a pre-Grammy party being hosted by Clive Davis, the founder of Arista Records, who had been her pop mentor.

Ms. Houston was found in her room at 3:55 p.m., and paramedics spent close to 20 minutes trying to revive her, the authorities said. There was no immediate word on the cause of her death, but the authorities said there were no signs of foul play.

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