There is a new book coming out that I am eager to read about composer James MacMillan.
He talks about his work composing music for use in his local congregation here:
Another interview on this topic, in which he discusses (among other things) the search for the sacred in modern music, and the capacity of music to explore the mysterious without and beyond words, setting music apart even from other arts in the sense to which it transcends and is separate from the “thingness” of everything else in our world:
In an era in which there tends to be an enormous gulf between “world-famous musician” and “church musician,” it is really striking and impressive to see this world-renowned composer, who wrote music for the visit of the Pope, also writing for weekly use in his own church.
Some of his famous works are sacred music, such as his St. Luke’s Passion and St. John’s Passion.
Also about religious music, the Progressive Christianity website shared a link to a blog called Forward Faith which is dedicated to progressive Christian music. That’s not Christian progressive rock, but music for churches that reflects a progressive theological and ethical stance.
For those interested in prog rock, there was an interesting recent piece about a classic Gentle Giant album:
Also of possible interested, a while back the University of Durham undertook to revive the work of two great composers associated with Anglican choral music as well as much else, namely Parry and Stanford.
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