Tír Na HiFi

As a devout [sic.] atheist, I find it entertaining that almost without fail on a Sunday morning I find myself in a fairly ritualistic process....

Coffee Machine on....
Hollandaise made....
A mass/religious music of some description playing...

this morning it was HvK and Bach's Mass in Bm....

I have my own pet theory....

Curiously, JB, replacing the coffee with green tea I mirror your ritual and have done for many years. The music JS Bach replaced catholic doctrine and dogma a long time ago for me. I firmly believe in taking time out for reflection and contemplation however and a dose of "religious" music is wonderful in this regard for me.

having attended high Anglican, my earliest exposure to classical music, other than air on the G string etc.. was the choral devotional works of Byrd, Tallis and Palestrina... although I listen to very little of that now....

jaybee wrote:having attended high Anglican, my earliest exposure to classical music, other than air on the G string etc.. was the choral devotional works of Byrd, Tallis and Palestrina... although I listen to very little of that now....

It is a pity that you do not listen to those composers any more. I find Palestrina's music in particular to be divine.

My love of gospel music confuses even me. Can I get an Amen?

Granted, good sir, with dispensation!

Ivor wrote:My love of gospel music confuses even me. Can I get an Amen?

And this day I have heard a thousand and one jingle-jangles. So wake up, people. Don't be lost when your time comes. Get yourselves ready, 'for the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night.' Amen!!

The Rev Cleophus James

Great thread.
As a devout 'unaligned' explorer,
My recent excursion into CM, particularly the state of mind/being required to open to or be opened by the music and what is conveyed, is similar to aspects of the experience of meditation or contemplation.
Meantime, the sunday morning ritual described above is familiar.

as Fergus will agree, my Sunday ritual has been very similar over the past four years; indeed in times past I have gained inspiration from Fergus' excursions through the Bach Cantatas which some of us have subsequently emulated.

over the past month however, it has been Bach's music for solo and two instruments which have caught my attention, whilst the religious music has been given over to Schubert:



although much of this was written when he was very young (such as the Stabat Mater in G major D.175 which I'm presently listening to), it nevertheless has an elegance and niave beauty which makes it well worth hearing, and which I will be concentrating on over the next few weeks, no doubt.

I used to listen to a Haydn Mass on a Sunday morning but of late I have tuned in to Tim Thurnston instead, in fact, I regularly hop out of bed before 8 a.m. to do so. It is a wonderful programme: http://www.rte.ie/lyricfm/gloria/