[Magdalen] End of an Era.

[Roger Stokes]

On 03/04/2015 19:28, Jim Guthrie wrote:
>
> Nowadays, that's for Steven King and Harry Potter, and schools and 
> churches don’t bother to teach music because it's a "frill." 
> Especially in the couch-potato evangelical churches where aside from 
> Just As I Am at the Altar Call and maybe Amazing Grace now and then, 
> music is something that entertains and requires no audience participation.

That sort of music can be even more exclusive than providing people with 
hymnal, etc when they arrive.  Today I went to the ecumenical Act if 
Witness in the town centre.  The steward who gave me the service sheet 
said I probably wouldn't need it as I would know all the hymns.  Well a 
quick glance told me I knew both the hymns, but not the three songs that 
were included.

I realised I could be in trouble during the first hymn as the Salvation 
Army Band put in a short drum roll between the third and fourth lines, 
even where it was against the flow of words, so we had  "... unlock the 
gate (drum roll) of heaven ..."  The music group was even worse (and not 
just because they were on a lorry but I could still feel the stones 
vibrating under my feet).  They would repeat verses and phrases, or go 
back to them again, presumably as the Spirit moved them.

It was a great relief to cross the street afterwards for a meditation at 
the foot of the Cross and the Good Friday liturgy where the hymns were 
sung as printed and to a regular beat.

Roger