O Sing Unto the Lord: A History of English Church Music. Andrew Gant. 2015. 464 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: A freezing Saturday in February. A packed soccer ground in England. The match is tense. The ref gives a free kick. The crowd stamps and jeers and shouts, a song swells and stirs from the stands....
Do I regret the time I spent reading this one? No. Not really. But I do admit it included a LOT of skimming.
I think this one is all about expectations. What are YOUR expectations when picking this one up.
This one includes heavy doses of music theory, music history, history-history, politics, and religion. I was MOST interested in how the English Reformation changed music, church music. By far these chapters dealing with Henry VIII and his heirs, the development of the Book of Common Prayer, the translation of the Scriptures into English, and the back-and-forth of will English be Protestant or Catholic [or a bit of both] are the most interesting.
Perhaps scholars and/or scholarly musicians OR those raised in the Anglican church in Great Britain will find this one easier to read. There is a bit of disconnect. Plenty of name dropping of composers and musicians from many centuries ago. But with no context of WHAT those music pieces sound like, it fell a bit flat for me personally.
I am convinced that if this was a documentary with MUSIC to sample and visual aids (to help keep one engaged), it would be fascinating. If I can watch HOURS and HOURS on end of British documentaries on history and the royal family, surely I could watch hours about the church AND the history of music within the church. This one desperately needs actual MUSIC to make an impact with readers...unless you've studied this OR was raised in it.
Again, the book itself wasn't bad just very dry and scholarly.
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