Young Turks Reportedly Turning to Orthodox Christianity

I hope many will find this video educational and inspirational.  In Russian with English sub-titles.  (Not long)




Direct link to video

An Admirable Choral Tone

At a time when good vocal production is little valued, the "Hour of Power" Choir under Donald Neuen evinces an admirable choral sound along with a quite stunning tenor soloist.







N.B.  I am sorry for an extended absence from this blog.  I notice that the hiatus began just about the time Donald Trump began threatening U. S. democracy.  No matter your politics, let us hope and pray the country will have a major change of heart and put music in the place of honor in our culture which it deserves.   

What Serious Church Musicians Will Be Studying: Duke Ellington

In watching the following video, it occurs to me that only racism would have kept this music from most Americans for fifty years.  Let this be the year of new seeing and new appreciation.  

The original and famous Duke Ellington Concert of Sacred Music at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, 1965, as broadcast by National Educational Television

A Bit of Twentieth Century History: the Revival of the Organ

Readers who may have stopped by here in recent months may have wondered what ever happened to the author.  The answer is I am still here but have been pre-occupied with other matters, including other blogs.  With this post I am happy to return here and to revive the discussion about the relevance of church music, along with its challenges.  


T he pipe organ is called the king of instruments for a reason.  But if we can't have kings in America, we need a different moniker.  Calling it the "President" of instruments won't do.  Maybe, for now, we can just call it God's instrument.  Well, perhaps that's not humble enough, but it is certainly a truthful description of so mighty and useful an instrument.

At the article linked to below, you can find a fine history of the organ revival starting with Albert Schweitzer in the last years of the nineteenth century on into the twentieth century including the post-war years in America.

Sadly, the author, Lawrence Phelps, is no longer with us.  We will need to pick up this subject later in order to provide a bit more history of the most recent years.

Still, the direction of American organ building, while not entirely clear, does seem to be heading in a very good direction -- one of greater clarity of tone as well as an appropriate richness of tone.  These are opposites, of course.*  I hope to have more to say about all this later.



The Organ Revival Movement Explicated


*For more on opposites in music I recommend the writings of composer Edward Green, some of whose work is listed here:  <  http://www.edgreenmusic.org/1-technique-beauty.htm  >.     

Still Here After All These Years

You blog author is still alive and well, although sometimes kicking and screaming. My personal life continues to develop and shouldn't be of much concern here. However, my new church job provides for a better selection of music coming from the organ console and this is certainly satisfying. Issues in church music remain but are beginning to be subsumed by a major greater discussion over the nature of the church itself. This discussion will have to develop further before it is clear where church music is headed next. I am continuing my research on these matters and expect to have more to say in the fairly near future. Best wishes for a safe summer. The CCM

9/11 Truth: Why Musicians Should Care

At this time I am continuing to read the important work of  David Ray Griffin* called The New Pearl Harbor Revisited. It was already apparent to me after thirty pages that there was sufficient question about the official story that a completely independent and new investigation was needed. Now, after many more pages, my feeling is only stronger: the official story is not now and never has been truly credible.


As a person of faith, I have had particular concerns. Being a creative individual, and musician, there has long been something in the eye of this beholder suspicious of the official line.  In the transcript linked to below, David Ray Griffin talks about some of these concerns.

The G. W. Bush administration put forward draconian cuts in social programs.  Arts programs certainly were not plentifully funded during his Presidency.  The War on Terror drained funds away from many needed social programs.  In short, this is the reason why musicians should care about the issue of what really happened on 9/11.

*former professor of theology
David Ray Griffin Article

Words of Hope for the World Now

As these last days of winter flow by and spring draws nearer, worry about the world economy is stronger than it has been in months.  Protests are erupted, especially in Portugal, as well as other places. 

It thus seems timely to reflect on the state of the world and the state of one's own mind, for these are indeed trying times.  His Eminence Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch, offers a message for Great Lent.  The opening of this message is below.  For the full message, click on the highlighted text at the end of this post. 


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Beloved brothers and sisters, children in the Lord,




The holy fathers, who arranged everything in an orderly manner, instituted a period of ascetic discipline and spiritual purification for forty days prior to the great feast of the Lord’s resurrection. This ascetic rule assumes the form of a limitation on foods through fasting, but especially an abstinence from evil. The saintly hymnographer characteristically emphasizes that a genuine and favorable form of fasting for God is the estrangement from wrongdoing, control of the tongue, alienation from anger, separation from evil desires, including gossip, deceit and swearing, restoration of justice, disengagement from passionate thoughts, fervent confession, cleansing of the conscience, “which there can be nothing more difficult,” refraining from “harmful passions, from envy and hatred, indeed from every wickedness,” shunning of “the mind’s perversion,” admission of transgressions. For “the Judge is close, at the door,” and he tries hearts and minds, since “He is everywhere present and fills all things.” (Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete)

Message for Great Lent