Music.....again

As everyone knows (if you don't, I don't know where you've been), I LOVE music. Any type of music, I'll give anything a play once and I'll buy an album because I hear an like one song. As it's been my birthday recently I had from friends and family iTunes and Amazon vouchers for the purchase of music/books. Here's a little insight into my recent purchases and some of my favourite tunes at the moment........it's not my top 5 or top 10, because to scale my musical tastes and favourites into such a short list would be doing everything else a dis-service. Instead, I listen to music depending on my mood. And at times the music I'm listening to is incredibly eclectic to even be able to try to start to categorise. As a result, I have a constantly evolving playlist on my ipod of 'current favourites'. I think it has about 200 songs on there at the moment!

And so, here are some of my purchases and favourites. Some of the special ones with videos........I hope you enjoy them.

Brooke Fraser: Albertine
Biffy Clyro: Only Revolutions
Lissie: Catching a Tiger
Marina & The Diamonds: The Family Jewels
Paramore: Brand new eyes
Wakefield Cathedral Choir: Music for Holy Communion















Paramore: Ignorance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH9A6tn_P6g&feature=channel

Book of Common Prayer

It's been a strange 10 days - one of highs and lows. Plunging the emotional depths as well as rising to as far as I can guess is heaven on earth. Most of which, I can't write about here and in the public domain (nothing sinister, trust me). Those close to me have been part of that and I praise God that I have such supportive family and friends.

Last weekend I was with my friends at STETS in Salisbury where, in the wonderful setting of the Cathedral Close, we had the most beautiful weather. The focus of the weekend was on the youth and young and my group was on the rota to lead evening worship, based on the Book of Common Prayer (BCP). Initially, we thought that actually leading BCP evening prayer would be 'easy'; straight from the book, lifted off the page stuff, not really requiring too much thought. However, as we reflected, exchanged emails and unpacked it, it wasn't going to be so easy. How could we reflect something of the theme of the weekend in Evening Worship which used the rich language of the 17th Century; and language that the young of today certainly don't use.

Lots of people talk of the language of the BCP having it's place - but this talk being used negatively. However, I bet these are the same people that enjoy Shakespeare and the other rich traditions we have that date back. Why on earth shouldn't worship just be about the language of today? So (and I have to come clean here), I turned, as I so often do, to music. What could we do to enjoy the richness of the language but mix it with where we are today? That great juxtaposition of ancient and modern - and ensuring that people were able to reach God in this short act of worship.

I suggested a number of pieces of music to my group. We went through some stuff on my ipod. Listening carefully to words, music and the whole 'ambience' of songs. And these were secular songs, not religious. We then also decided that the place for the hymn would be taken by playing a piece of music. These were the pieces we chose:

1. Before the prayer




2. In place of a hymn



3. After the prayer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skUJ-B6oVDQ



I think it worked well. And I hope those there were able, through both the music and the words to connect with God. The feedback was good. The only negative was that people couldn't make out the words - a bit of a downside, but I don't know how important that is in this context.

My conclusion? I've banked this one - and would very much like to try it with a group of young people and see what we can come up with at some time in the future.


and as a PS: next time I do this, I would also show the videos - they all connect and, in my view, having just watched them make the lyrics even more powerful.