“We don't think about Bach as being a church musician; he wasn't, he was a great musician who happened for a part of his career to be working for the church. We don't think about Byrd as a church musician, or Purcell as a church musician, or Victoria or Lassus, but all these people were right there, and they were ready, and they seized upon these new challenges. And solved them very well.”
“If I were to have my time again, I think I would like to be born a Lutheran. I am by baptism and confirmation am Episcopalian, although my present liturgical position is that of a high Methodist because I think the denominational barriers are coming down so fast. But Luther, I think, is the greatest church musician the world has ever known, ably aided and abetted by a young associate named J.S. Bach, and Luther it was who literally invented congregationalsinging. One of our problems nowadays is that the greatest musicians alive do not work for the church and a good many of them have no concern for the church at all. And this is why at themoment we are in danger of being flooded by acres of pure rubbish.”
Jan Tuin says