Dean's Diary (From Worcester News)

Dean's Diary

8:33am Wednesday 18th June 2008

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I have had a protest about the Three Choirs Festival. Someone (living a hundred miles away from Worcestershire) is outraged that I will allow a concert of British film music in the cathedral.

Such people think that only ‘sacred’ music ought to be heard in a cathedral.

They want Ralph Vaughan Williams’ hymns to be heard there, but not his film score for that great war film, 49th Parallel.

They want William Walton’s canticles for evensong to be sung there, but not his music for The Battle of the Air.

It doesn’t occur to them that listening to the best of English film music might give some people a taste for the music of Vaughan Williams and Walton, and make them come back to the cathedral to listen to their church music.

People like my correspondent don’t want to spread enjoyment.

They want to keep it in the hands of a few.

They have forgotten the words of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, that the devil ought not to be allowed all the best tunes.

I am delighted with the Three Choirs Festival programme, and I applaud the organising committee for such innovative ideas as the concert of film music, which forms a bridge between the Three Choirs Festival and the Worcester Festival.

I hope readers of the Worcester News are booking their tickets.

There is an important point here. In the end, Christianity knows no distinction between ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’.

All the ‘secular’ world belongs to God, and can become ‘sacred’.

The central truth of the Christian faith, that God took human flesh, means that God has consecrated all ‘ordinary’ life.

So Vaughan Williams’ music for a war film can bring a person close to God no less than his tune for a hymn such as Come down, O Love Divine.

My angry correspondent told me that I would not be able to say a prayer before a concert of film music.

I have news for him.

I can, and I will.

And it will begin, ‘O God, who won’t allow all the best tunes to go to the devil…’