Friends, today I upgraded the software that drives this blog, and it was mostly successful without disrupting any normal appearance or features. I am still working to restore the email notification of new entries for those of you that have subscribed.

If you discover anything that is broken or just plain odd, please let me know and I will do what I can to correct it.

Thank you for your continued interest in Celestial Counterpoint. If, at any time, you wish to unsubscribe but have difficulty doing so, let me know directly and I will take care of it internally.

Thanks,

Gordon

Today I’ve made the first public announcement of Celestial Counterpoint, directed to ministers, musicians, and other musically interested persons at Second Church. A few people have had a sneak preview, as I’ve been experimenting and developing the blog over the past few weeks. But now I’m prepared to open these pages to anyone who’s interested.

The target audience for these pages is the members and friends of Second Church, Zeeland. These pages talk about the music we use at Second Church, what goes into my selections, and things behind the music that might not be apparent to everyone. I’ll try to stay current with each week’s service notes. I also intend to fill out the pages with more salient information.

If this is your first visit to this blog, you might wish to take a look at recent posts as samples of what I hope to do on an ongoing basis. You may also check out the pages listed in the sidebar, where there is more information about Celestial Counterpoint and about the music at Second Church. (more…)

Welcome to the Inauguration of Celestial Counterpoint. For more about this site and its purpose, check out the page “About Celestial Counterpoint” in the sidebar.

In short, this is an attempt to share my thoughts about what influences the selection of music in sacred worship. There are many times that conversations after the services have given me the opportunity to relate some of the nuances of our music that might not have been apparent to the person in the pew. I’ll try to put some of those thoughts in here.

And here’s the necessary disclaimer: These are my thoughts; they don’t presume to make an official pronouncement about anything, and they don’t presume to speak for anyone else (although I’d like to think I’m not alone in these thoughts!).

I don’t expect that we’ll be able to do this every week. To be perfectly candid, that might be more of project than I could keep up with. But it’s worth trying this out to see what benefits and challenges lie ahead. Let me know what you think.