Dan Kreider argues against part-singing of hymns during church: The beauty of harmony isn’t wrong, and it doesn’t necessarily draw the mind away from the text… but it certainly can. If we are to be singing truth to God, to one another, and to ourselves, we have to consider anything that might distract us. Unison singing […]
Five minute experiment
Liz Garrett proposes an experiment: practice your music for 5 minutes every day for the month of June. That still leaves open the question about how much difference 5 minutes will make, of course. From one perspective, you’d expect it to be largely ineffective, as it is an absurdly short time. You’re hardly even starting […]
Choral music in Antioch
Journalist Kristine Aghalaryan discovers a choir in Turkey: The next stop on my journey through Turkey took me to the ancient city of Antioch (Turkish Antakya), founded near the end of the 4 century BC by a general of Alexander the Great. Antakya was annexed by Turkey in 1939. There’s a multi-national choir in this […]
Diversion of the day: pianist goes postal
Mischievous Mind, a blog dedicated to short stories, has one about a conductor: The conductor’s head snapped to the left to see what happened, his mouth falling open as Tim’s pale hands withdrew from the keys, grabbed at the lapels of his jacket, and yanked the jacket from his body. Loud gasps jumped out from […]
Too Bohemian for Wasilla?
Political commentator Joe McGinniss: The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reports today that the principal of Wasilla High School told members of the school’s symphonic jazz choir that they would not be allowed to perform the 1975 Queen song “Bohemian Rhapsody” because Freddy Mercury, who wrote it, was gay. In the face of student protests, and fearing ACLU involvement, the […]
Franchising choirs
A nonprofit group in Australia creates choirs as a tool to “enhance wellbeing, social inclusion, innovation and productivity”: THE story behind the beautiful harmony resonating through the halls of the Ashburton Baptist Church each week is almost as good as the music itself. Creativity Australia, a not-for-profit group that fights social isolation, turned to the […]