If It Be Your Will
by Douglas FarrowThe famous Montreal poet and songster, Leonard Cohen, died earlier this week. Continue Reading »
Dylan’s Nobel in Perspective
by Stephen SchwartzThe Swedish Academy has a strange idea of what “the great American song tradition” is. Continue Reading »
Suzuki Method Uberparenting
by Betsy VanDenBergheSpiritually as well as emotionally, childhood years require not only joy and nurturing, but also suffering and growth, if the young person is to face adulthood maturely. And fortunately (or ironically), our musically obsessed phase never ended up shielding my kids from anything. Continue Reading »
Learning to Play
by Elizabeth C. CoreyMy piano tuner is well over eighty years old. Each time I call him, I fear I’ll learn that he has died. So far he is still with us, though at each visit a little more white-haired and frailer than before. I worry that he will hurt himself when he lies under the instrument or takes out the . . . . Continue Reading »
Alone in the Garden?
by Richard J. MouwOn Evangelical hymns: Can I really sing about a relationship with the Lord that is so joyous that no other person has ever experienced it? Doesn’t this go beyond the bounds of hyperbolic spiritual enthusiasm? Continue Reading »
Music Man
by Peter J. LeithartReaders often find the opening chapters of 1 Chronicles stultifying. These pages contain list after list of names, with occasional mini-biographies thrown in to break up the monotony. Chronicles is hardly the first place we turn to for deep insight into human nature. Yet the fact that Chronicles . . . . Continue Reading »
Songs of Exile
by Alexi SargeantWhere has all the dark Christian music gone? It doesn’t take much listening to notice how blithe and breezy popular Christian music has become. At the data journalism site FiveThirtyEight, Leah Libresco has run the numbers and found that the lyrics of recent Christian hits skew towards life, . . . . Continue Reading »
Christian Pop, Minus the Pep
by Eve TushnetDoes your soul need a lay-me-down instead of a pick-me-up? Harrison Lemke's Fertile Crescent Blues is a deep Biblical meditation expressed through feel-bad indie music. Continue Reading »
Beyoncé and the Fertility of Forgiveness
by Leah Libresco SargeantThe most screenshotted sequence in Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade is “Hold Up.” After discovering her husband’s infidelity, she walks down the street smashing storefronts with a baseball bat, finally crushing a row of cars in a monster truck. Viewed alone, the song seems like a simple . . . . Continue Reading »
No Apology for Bach's Theology
by Nathaniel PetersAs the cantor of Leipzig, Bach was responsible for composing music for Sunday services, which produced reams of choral music, mostly cantatas. Because of this, it would be difficult to find a composer who wrote more sacred music. Like Victoria and Bruckner, Bach’s works stem from his own devotion. But more than any other composer, Bach uses complex music to articulate theology. . . . Continue Reading »
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