Open Thread - Contemporary Christian Songs
Recently there was some discussion about contemporary music and its place in worship and in evangelisation.
So ... Happy Jack invites you to post 'modern' Christian tunes from Youtube in the comments and he will include them here. We can then review them.
To start, here's one HJ enjoys listening to - though not in Church:
(You Raise Me Up - Salah)
An offering from "Anonymous" - Gadjo Dilo?
("He's Been A Shelter For Me" Soul Stirrers)
Another from "Anonymous"
(Treorchy Male Pontarddulais Male Choirs - Tydi a Roddaist)
Three - make that four beautiful offerings from Maalaistollo
"Hark! What a Sound" - -Harmonious Choral
(LVHF 2021 | Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) Salve Regina F dur RV 617_Patricia Janečková)
(Patricia Janečková & Collegium Marianum - Christmas Concert 2020)
Neanderthal Èireannach offers:
I dunno what exactly counts as 'modern' here, but I just can't stop listening to the Soul Stirrers:
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/YmmAVEPjh-I?feature=shared
I guess "modern" depends on one's age!
DeleteYes, tis' Gadjo, and yes, I was pushing my (age-inappropriate) luck with that ;-) I'm not sure that I know anything very modern that I would like to recommend here, but I will think again.
DeleteChristian music reached its peak with Christmas carols. Everything after that (and quite a bit before it) is a terrible mistake. 🎅🏻🎄🎁
ReplyDeleteBah - humbug. Carols were the forerunner of modern pop music, so let's have your favourite one.
DeleteMy favourite piece of modern pop music? That's not really my genre, you know. I'm more an indie-rock gal. 🎸
DeleteCome now, Indie-Rock has a whole list of "praise - worship" music listed on Youtube.
DeleteThere is secular music and there is sacred music and it's dangerous to cross the streams. Then you just end up with a cringey version of what the secular world does better. See also, PowerPoint in worship, raves in the nave, middle-aged youth pastors in backward facing baseball caps.
DeleteThe only acceptable canon of worship music goes thus:
The Psalms ➡️ Byzantine/Gregorian/Plain chant ➡️ Christmas carols.
Lain locuta est, causa finita est.
No Bach, Lain? No Handel? Not even a single Mass by Palestrina?
DeleteI do enjoy playing Bach, Handel et al., but I think that choral music is more performance than worship music, inasmuch as they can't really be done without a competent choir (which was really what the more 'music hall' type of hymns in the 19th century were reacting against - they were written to be playable for the average church pianist and anyone could sing them).
DeleteI must also confess to sitting through many a choral evensong calculating how long it's going to take to get through it when the choir insist on signing every line five or six times...
As Emperor Joseph II says to Mozart in the film Amadeus - 'There are simply too many notes. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.'
Just in case anyone thought the Welsh hadn't written any great hymns in the last 100 years, here's Tydi a Roddaist (1938):
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/olN737pVL6U?feature=shared
Sad to observe that about 90% of the choir appear to be over 60 years of age.
DeleteI thought that ‘modern’ meant post-1485, but if we are to consider what has been produced in the last hundred years may I suggest the advent hymn ‘Hark what a sound’ to the tune ‘Highwood’ composed by Sir Richard Runciman Terry (1864-1938), described as ‘the most influential Catholic Church Musician of the Twentieth Century in Britain. He composed HIGHWOOD to accompany the hymn, ‘O perfect love, all human thought transcending.’ It was first set to ‘Hark what a sound,’ in the 1933 Methodist Hymn Book, since when it has become the standard tune.’
ReplyDeleteAs I have remarked previously, you now have to go to Africa for proper hymns, so here are Harmonious Chorale, Ghana, doing it well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSftV_DuJvQ
@Maalaistollo,
DeleteNot bad at all! (I have been hoping to visit Ghana for a whole now as the wife of the best man at our wedding is from there and is a wonderful Christian witness.)
I have been following the Harmonious Chorale Ghana on YouTube for about 6 years. Having discovered them, I have also branched out to quite a number of Ghanaian choirs, as well as some from other African nations.
DeleteOne important figure in Ghana, both as regards Christianity and Music, is Ephraim Amu (1899 – 1995): in his surname, the stress is on the second syllable. His Wikipedia biography:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephraim_Amu
Here, again sung by the Harmonious Chorale, is his song “Yɛn Ara Asaase Ni” which is widely regarded as the unofficial national anthem of Ghana:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K90Lmbpd5PQ
To ‘Anonymous’: if you manage to visit Ghana, mention of his name should give rise to much interesting conversation.
Thanks for this information and the links. Ghana appears to be unusual among African nations in having enjoyed a comparatively stable (by African standards) post-colonial life. The pastor of my former church was a Ghanaian Asian who attributed this to the effects of the East African Christian revival of the 1940s and 1950s.
DeleteWhile YouTube offers liberal helpings of dross, it is interesting how once you start following a particular line of interest its mechanism comes up with related videos that can widen and deepen that interest. In that way:
(a) I have come to appreciate Vivaldi’s sacred vocal music, of which I was previously hardly aware (over-exposure to The Four Seasons having discouraged me from considering him), such as: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1MgtTI8mGM&list=PLRkXgEtCqIyXdRs4pixfReBb0Xosd4bIK&index=145
(b) And I have also come to value eighteenth century Czech Christmas music (which, if the pieces are considered to be carols, might even satisfy Lain’s acceptability criteria), such as: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEhlzmy8FAM&list=PLRkXgEtCqIyXdRs4pixfReBb0Xosd4bIK&index=127
The Czech Christmas music is very pleasant, and some of the woodwind accompaniment reminds me of Tudor carols. I shall allow it. ✅
DeleteMuch obliged, Ma’am. As you earlier seemed to acknowledge the virtues of Handel’s music and here find acceptable Jana Semerádová’s playing of the transverse flute (which sounds like something from the DEI agenda), if you have an hour and a half to spare you might enjoy Collegium Marianum’s performance of Handel’s Acis and Galatea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zNxWvQXJpY
DeleteIt’s imaginatively staged in an authentic baroque theatre and in places very funny, putting all that eighteenth-century nymphs and shepherds stuff in its place. I certainly prefer it to Irish National Opera’s version, which is set in a pub, with the performers dressed in donkey jackets and wellies.
English is not the first language of any of the singers, so for better comprehension it’s helpful to have the libretto: http://opera.stanford.edu/iu/libretti/acis.htm
Thank you kindly. I'm on the road currently, but I will certainly make time to watch that. I'm always happy to expand my musical horizons, although I don't think I'll be seeking out the Irish National Opera's version!
DeleteI'm afraid that I must correct my previous comment. My fitful memory has now reminded me that the pastor in question was from Kenya, not Ghana, so ignore what I wrote about Ghanaian stability.
ReplyDeleteCardinal Peter Turkson is still, I believe, the only Ghanaian cardinal. Back in the Benedict days his name used to crop up from time to time on lists of potential successors, but we don’t hear much about him nowadays. Maybe his age has something to do with that. He’ll be 80 in four years’ time.
DeleteI once had an interesting conversation with a Ghanaian Franciscan. He belonged to the “Custodia” of the Holy Land and was the manager, if that’s the correct term, in charge of the large pilgimage site at Capernaum, including the 1980s church with its doughnut-shaped interior that stands above the ruins of St Peter’s house.
https://www.custodia.org/en/sanctuaries/capernaum
Thanks for the link. I found the video provided on the site very interesting!
DeleteI'm sorry to see that Maggie Smith has died. A recent (i.e. made in the present century) film of hers that I have greatly enjoyed watching several times is Keeping Mum. She is the real star of the film, with Rowan Atkinson and Kristin Scott Thomas in supporting roles, though that's not what it says on the posters. R.I.P.
ReplyDelete