Surrender and a new beginning
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Surrender and a new beginning

“I am in awe of the poetic power of the scriptures, how you can’t approach the subject of God without metaphor.” So writes Bono late in his wide-ranging and engaging memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story. The artist cannot tell his story, or the remarkable story of U2, apart from Christian faith, or apart from…

Co-creating an EP with God and community
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Co-creating an EP with God and community

What does community look like for creatives in the church? We asked Ruth Chan, a Toronto singer-songwriter musician and artist. Chan’s artist name is “Heather is Growing,” and she is releasing her first EP, Heather is Growing on April 28th. Christian Courier talked to Chan about her songwriting journey ahead of the EP release.  Chan:…

Fantasia in D Minor
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Fantasia in D Minor

It’s late on a Sunday afternoon and I’m lying on our living room floor as our youngest practices piano – Mozart’s Fantasia in D minor. It’s nearing the end of the piano lesson year, so Esther knows and plays the piece well at this point. It is an astonishingly and achingly beautiful piece of music….

A quick look at Kevin Max
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A quick look at Kevin Max

Less commercially successful than his former dctalk bandmates TobyMac and Michael Tait (now of Newsboys fame), Kevin Max has always been a black sheep in the Christian music industry. Recently in the headlines for identifying as an “exvangelical,” Max has been using his distinct voice and eclectic style to make some of the most interesting…

The Sound of Community
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The Sound of Community

“Good morning, friends! It’s great to see so many faces today.” So begins the daily music singalong sessions with musician (and friend) Mendelt Hoekstra on Zoom. Mendelt creates connections for adults and youth with developmental disabilities across Ontario. Participants attend from their group homes, independent living dwellings and classrooms. Rachel and Janneke attend while at…

Harmonious encounters
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Harmonious encounters

This month’s theme is “duet,” which to me as a musician means singing. Duets can involve turn-taking, harmonising, or counter-melody, and each produces a different effect for the listener. How do voices work together, complementing or contrasting each other to create something greater than the single voice can manage? As well as a musician, I…

We need worship music, not music worship
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We need worship music, not music worship

When I say the word “worship,” what pops in your head? You might hear an organ playing a familiar tune or remember your mother clutching her hymn book, harmonizing to “Come, Thou Fount.” Alternatively, you may envision a full band on a stage, with colourful lights and a bass so heavy you can feel it…

Made for Flourishing
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Made for Flourishing

I play flute; my sister Joanna plays violin. We find that duets written for different instruments rarely share the melody. We’ve become adept at swapping parts. Bowing marks become creative suggestions for my breathing and Joanna lowers those soaring flute melodies by an octave. Not all duets are created equal. In our relationships large and…

Radical Hope
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Radical Hope

At 76 years old, Bruce Cockburn is one of Canada’s most decorated musicians: 37 albums, 13 Junos and a recipient of the Order of Canada. As Cockburn makes his way around North America for his 50th anniversary tour (second attempt, due to covid), one of his encore songs may catch listeners by surprise. “When the…

Thought I heard…
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Thought I heard…

Long ago, I was sleeping in on a Saturday, half-listening to CBC radio when a folk song came on, “Thought I heard a red-winged blackbird / red-winged blackbird on my road.” This was repeated twice in the refrain. As the singer went on to sing a verse, then the same refrain, again and again, soon…

Patterns

Patterns

“Time keeps on slipping . . . into the future” (“Fly Like an Eagle,” Steve Miller Band, 1976). Have we lost a year? The pandemic has disturbed our patterns and sense of time. Immanuel Kant argued that the human mind imposes structures of time and space. The Biblical creation account depicts time and space as…

Review of ‘Harmonize the Moon’ by Michael Feuerstack

Review of ‘Harmonize the Moon’ by Michael Feuerstack

What’s getting me through is Harmonize the Moon, a new album from Montreal songwriter Michael Feuerstack. Feuerstack has refined his trade through a catalogue of excellent albums with an expanding set of musical tools (even two records’ worth of other people singing his songs), but the pandemic has reduced his sonic palette to the essentials:…