I’ve put together a medley of three bits from Detroit in a simple promo video. This contains the Overture to Act I, where Eddie Powell introduces the neighbourhood, the aria ‘Tear Down The House’ which ends of Act II and the finale to Act III ‘Evergreen’.

Evergreen is a mix of live tracks from rehearsals summer 2012 with a number of studio overdubs. You’ll note the vocal track has slightly different lyrics from the libretto.

There are a lot of sections with loooong notes. Hiiiiigh notes. Unfriendly to those who have to breathe to make noise. Whenever I get this stuff rehearsed it’s either with pros who tell me to what I can do with my chop destroying stupid parts (unless I open my checkbook—in which case they’ve never heard anything quite like it.) Or, I can get unsuspecting children.

God Bless The Future Of Our Children. Who Are Our Future.

The great thing about young people is that, despite what you may have heard, they will happily […]

British composer Sir John Tavener passed away yesterday. He will be greatly missed. The majority of Sir John’s music is of the choral Christian variety. You have probably heard his music many times; as background to lots and lots of new-agey TV shows and perhaps in some incense-laden massage or yoga studio. His Funeral Canticle is used in the opening of Terrence Malick’s ‘Tree Of Life’ and his music was played at Princess Diana’s funeral. As a tribute to his talent and skill I want to say a few words about the general state of Christian music to hopefully demonstrate why he was so special to so many of us.

Let’s start by admitting that the vast majority of Christian music (and religious music in general) has been, is and will continue to be absolute crap. At it’s best it can be as profound an expression of faith as any prayer, but let’s be honest: that case is the rare exception. No matter how good the […]