blog.sinden.org

I've mentioned him on this blog a number of times in the past.

He was a brilliant man. I always have the sense that I should be reading more of his work than I have to date, and in this his centennial year, I am resolving to do so.

In the meantime, I share with you this passage which I believe comes from Church Music and the Christian Faith:

The [church musician] is to exorcize as far as possible divisive attitudes and thoughts, and to celebrate that which is really the common music of as many kinds of people as possible. This is not pop or trendy music; it is not ephemeral, posturing music. It is precisely the "Old Hundredth," "Ye Holy Angels Bright" and "For All the Saints"–nobody need claim to be too cultured to respect those, and nobody does claim to be too uneducated to enjoy them. In choral and organ music, the trained musician knows where to find authenticity whether it is English Anglican, German baroque, verse-anthem, Howells, Britten, or the fine clear stream that is flowing through modern American music. The musician must not yield to pressure and set aside his knowledge and the conscience and discernment he or she has developed. Blessed, remember, are not the peace lovers, but the peacemakers.

Labels: Routley