Those who focus on the doom and devastation in Revelation are prone to completely overlook the remarkable amount of singing in the book. Here’s a famous piece that uses words sung in the chapter we’re up to today in my class on Revelation:
http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.1.swf
All the singing is a pointer to a major theme of the book, namely contrasting the heavenly worship of God and the Lamb with the earthly worship of the beast (i.e. emperor worship). Christian identity in this period was particularly focused on worship, in particular the refusal to participate in kinds of worship that were felt to be integral to the fabric of Roman society.
What other settings of words from Revelation to music, or songs that include words from Revelation or offer an interpretative retelling, are you familiar with? Here are two others (from very different genres):
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/mGtxT0DG3LY?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/JWOaXAiCSCA?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0
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