Congregational singing, and other music links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• Congregational Singing: Can Musical Style Dilute This Ordinary Means of Grace? -- “Does the style clarify or dilute the main point, i.e., congregational singing...does the singing of the church get lost because the style is trying to do too much?”
• Future of Congregational Song -- “These resources are not official statements by The Center for Congregational Song, but rather interesting viewpoints by people living, working, and/or studying in the field of hymnology and congregational song.”
• Is Music a Separation Issue? -- “So a very simple answer to the question would be that no, music philosophy is not a separation issue of the same kind of level as heterodoxy or flagrant, known sin. But...”
• Is there no balm in Gilead? -- “The text is not a statement, but rather a rhetorical question.”
• “Like Pieces in a Puzzle”: Online Sacred Harp Singing During the COVID-19 Pandemic -- “The community of online singers is not identical to the community of singers who were active before the pandemic. On the one hand, many avid singers have not taken to online singing.”
• Shape-note singers keep an American tradition alive -- “That’s why you’ll hear people refer to this as the ‘class,’ and the ‘leader,’ and the songs as ‘lessons.’ Because this whole tradition came out of teaching music.”
• Sing to One Another -- “On this next Lord’s Day, I hope you will sing from the bottom of your heart with gratitude to the Lord as an act of worship. I pray that you will sing to your brothers and sisters in Christ as you lend your voice to building one another up as disciples.”
• The Center for Congregational Song web site -- “The Center for Congregational Song is the resource and outreach arm of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada.”
• ‘The Fruit of Our Lips’: A Cappella Praise through the Centuries (Part 3) --“…as late as the 19th century, Adam Blair could still assert concerning the Waldenses in their ancestral homeland, ‘no organ is used in the valleys, except in La Torre.’”
• The Sacred Harp Singing Community Perseveres During Pandemic -- “One of the beautiful things about shape note singing is it has a capacity to hold the full range of human emotion. And it’s often a balm in trying times.”
• There is no balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul -- “The other two texts that refer to ‘balm’ in Jeremiah likewise specify the failure of balm to heal.”
• West Texas Talk: Ryan P. Young -- “Marfa resident and Sacred Harp singer Ryan P. Young joins us to talk about the long tradition of Sacred Harp singing.”
• ZZ Top Bassist Dusty Hill Dead at 72 -- “We are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston, Texas.”