Comments on: But I Don’t Sing

By: GUNNY HARTMAN

GUNNY HARTMAN — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 06:26:00 +0000

Brent, good thought provoking stuff, even inspired me to blog about it as well.

By: Dan Trabue

Dan Trabue — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 18:34:29 +0000

Excellent point and an excellent cause to rally around. Let’s all sing and make music!

One of my favorite singers at my church was a little ol’ lady whose voice was just a raspy whisper. When she sang (which she did from her chair, as she had a hard time walking), we all leaned in to hear her singing, “come and go with me to that land, come and go with me to that land, come and go with me to that land, where I’m bound…”

And we cherished her songs. They were the opposite of polished and professional, but they had a truth and integrity that the most polished performer could never match.

Miss Anna has since gone on to the Lord, but we still cherish the memory of her singing and tears still come to my eyes anytime we sing that song.

By: Brent Jeffrey Thomas

Brent Jeffrey Thomas — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 16:30:56 +0000

Pastor, I enjoyed this post, and agree. A few years ago I had the rich pleasure of attending a hymn singing festival in north Wales, a fundraiser to help the families of four lost fishermen. The hymns were passionately thunderously, harmoniously sung by everyone around me, in English and Welsh. A force. A force of redeemed nature, like the ocean. Our culture, even the Christian American culture,have religiously pushed the idea of turning every single thing into a commodity, as far as such things can be pushed. As a visual artist/portrait artist I’ve striven to resist this by keeping my print and original prices very affordable,(a craftsman’s fee instead of an “artist’s” fee), compared to the amount of effort, time, and thought I put into each work. The culture in general is pushing, advising, demanding that one price ones services as high as possible, to get ahead, make a name, etc.. A corporate art gallery chain that I used to work for used to call serious works of art “product”, without blinking an eye. Christian culture is as guilty of this mindset as the general culture. Syncretism. Our worship can become,sadly, akin to punching a time card. Our utmost is for the highest pay. I think that the Purgatorio website was good (fun) medicine for curing such syncretism. That website surely made me think twice about every move I made (one of my works was once semi-scathingly critiqued there, but… a good test by fire). I wish that Marc Heinrich would start it up again, come back from hiatus.

By: Chris Hubbs

Chris Hubbs — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 15:58:39 +0000

Brent, thanks for these thoughts. I read Levitin’s book earlier this year and really enjoyed it. I have often been down through a similar thought path to yours here; it’s good to see someone flesh it out.