The Believers: 60s Christian pop (radio play)

The Saturday Play yesterday on Radio 4 was The Believers, by Frank Cottrell Boyce, set in Liverpool, 1963. The Merseybeat boom is about to take off. And with it, The Believers, a Christian pop band determined to spread the Word. If only they were all singing from the same hymn sheet...

You can Listen again for the next six days.

Virtual book: Handel’s Messiah

For many people, listening to Handel's Messiah is part of their Christmas ritual. The British Library has recently added Handel’s Messiah (from the draft score of the composer’s most famous work), using the BL's 'Turning the Pages™' system to view great books and magnify the details.

Sing Hallelujah

Sing Hallelujah is a nationwide project which encourages people to find their voice and discover the joy of singing through Handel's famous "Hallelujah Chorus". Sing Hallelujah is a project from the BBC, led by BBC Radio 3, and English National Opera (ENO).

Everyone from beginners to established choirs is invited to learn the Hallelujah Chorus, with the help of the BBC and ENO, and encouraged to perform the work during November and December 2009 to help mark the 250th anniversary year of Handel's death.

Hymns - ancient or modern?

In this week's edition of Sunday, Roger Bolton discussed the good and the bad of church music with Stewart Townend and Nick Page (author of Now let's move into a time of nonsense). You can listen again here (between 28 and 34 minutes into the programme).

Songbirds 'sing from hymn sheet'

The BBC reports that songbirds "learn to sing from a hymn sheet in their head", according to a new study. Swiss researchers have studied Zebra Finches and believe the birds use different regions of the brain for this: one for an internal recording of how the birds ought to be singing and another area which seems to enable the birds to identify mistakes in their songs. The research could also shed light on how humans learn to speak.

Christmas albums

Christmas music remains a huge staple in the Christian music industry, and Christianity Today reviews 20 new album releases from a diverse array of popular artists.

Hitting the high notes on Snowdon

Forget concert halls and theatres: three cellists have scaled new heights to perform their music.

This is a wonderful news story about a trio of cellists who climbed Snowdon, carrying their heavy instruments on their backs and then played together at the top. It was the latest mountain in their challenge to play at the top of the highest peaks in the UK and Ireland. The self-styled "extreme cellists" have so far raised over £3,000 from their mountain music challenge, which will be donated to a spinal injury charity and mountain rescue organisations.

Blake's "Jerusalem" banned

If your nationality means that you celebrate / note St George's Day, then you may be saddened to hear that Blake's Jerusalem has been banned by a leading British church.

The Patron Saints website is a useful resource should you want to find out a bit more about St George, or indeed the other British patron saints.

Health warning: This blog post was written by a Scot, who is unimpressed by both St George and Jerusalem.

God’s riches at Christ’s expense

I've had a couple of lengthy car journeys earlier this week, listening to the album The Best of Stuart Townend Live as I drove. I kept hitting replay on this track: Lord I'm grateful (Grace). The full lyrics are here and, while it is a fairly boisterous song to have running through your head in Holy Week, the words offer a concise summary of the Good News of Easter:

Freely given, but bought with priceless blood,
My life was ransomed at Calvary.
There my Jesus gave everything He could
That I might live for eternity.

‘Cause it’s grace!
There’s nothing I can do
To make You love me more,
To make You love me less than You do.
And by faith
I’m standing on this Stone
Of Christ and Christ alone,
Your righteousness is all that I need,
‘Cause it’s grace!

The Strange Parallel World of Christian Pop

Earlier this week Paul Bayley investigated The Strange Parallel World of Christian Pop on Radio 4, which talks about the emergence of Christian pop music back in the 60 when "a few of the faithful were dabbling with the devil's music". Although they never got much airplay, "some of the music was surprisingly good - and now it's being rediscovered by fans of 60s psychedelia". In fact some rare recordings made by Christian pop groups from Britain during the 1960s and 70s have become collectors' items. You can use Radio 4's Listen Again feature to catch it until a week after transmission.

Dogs enjoy classical music

If you want your dog to behave then it seems the answer could be found in playing them a blast of classical music, one charity has found. Fascinating research from The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association reveals that Guide Dog Trainers have discovered that dogs love Classic FM. The discovery was made after the digital radio manufacturer, PURE, donated six radios to each of the four Guide Dogs' training schools. The Association was seeking to provide a more relaxed atmosphere within the Dog Care Department for the dogs while they were at rest, as part of an environmental enrichment project. The trainers tried a range of radio stations and Classic FM produced the best results: "leaving the dogs chilled out and ready for a new day’s training!"

Significant anniversaries

Two significant anniversaries have fallen this week: on Tuesday it was 300 years since the birth of Charles Wesley and today is the 200th anniversary of John Newton’s death. How much poorer the Christian church worldwide would have been without these two men......

Messiah: still going strong after 265 years

The Guardian discusses why Handel's Messiah has lasted so well:

"Messiah represents Handel's direct, personal response to the Bible, but the pacing remains essentially operatic. He was always an opera man, anxious to tell his story dramatically. The overture brilliantly sets the mood for the rest of the parts, filling us with a sense of hope and lightness. Then Handel launches into the sublime Comfort Ye, which calms everyone down. It's Handel saying: "I'm going to make you listen, because this is a long story." He takes you into another world and has this ability to uplift people, then calm them, before taking them up again. As a result, Messiah never fails."

Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord

We've been privileged in the past week to attend two different music events (not concerts as audience participation was very much encouraged!). Last Friday four Infusion-ites listened to Ian White in the surroundings of Loughborough Parish Church (great acoustics for an acoustic set!). Ian has just released a new album, Psalms Revisited, with a mix of old and new settings. Then on Tuesday we attended the first night of Christian Praise 2007 - tremendous singing and great musical settings of of solid songs. The choir clearly had a great time too, and I always enjoy picking out familiar faces.

Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord Ephesians 5:19

Loughborough Musicians

A number of (some ex-) Loughborough people I know have put their music on the web – maybe you will recognise some of these names.

Steel String, regulars on the Dorset folk scene are former Loughburians Sarah and Phil Muir, plus one of their Dorset mates. Sarah’s brother Simon Faulks, vocalist and guitarist, has been playing the blues locally for as long as I can remember. I had a good bop to the songs on his myspace site…

Stuart Wood, percussionist (and now author of Friendship is a Verb) has not only put together a site with loads of hints and tips for drummers, but that also has some great samples from his album Soundscapes.

Then for a chillout, there is the acoustic guitar folk of (still-resident-in Loughborough) Ben Heap from the Well Church, or my colleague Gerry’s band Northern Quarter, who you may have heard play at the 3 Nuns or the Valkyries.

Don't forget to switch your speakers on!