Back to Glasgow last night – to the Episcopal Cathedral for the second time in a weekend. This time it was to go to the launch of a new collection of music from the Iona Community. Well, actually, it was a collection of quite old music from the Iona Community, but stuff that has not been published already. Rather oddly, the book did not seem to have been printed yet, though there was a CD available. Launching hymn books without them actually being available seems to be a theme in Scotland at the moment.
There was music to join in with and music to listen to. A collective of Wild Goose people sang and John Bell waved his arms in the air. There was a also a ceilidh band who had been brought in to give some of the pieces a “folk edge”. They only really got going when they were playing fiddle tunes. Sadly the audio was so badly mixed that it was hard to hear what they were singing about at the back of the church.
However, it was a good night – lots of good material that I could imagine using. The best of the songs included a dreamy set of beatitudes, some good responses and a subversive one all about God’s mind being ever changing. This last one was set for voices with sultry clarinet and slinky piano – a very noir sound, truly the lowlight of the evening.
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