Category Archives: Music

The Reich Stuff

Posted on 05/09/2026 by Jon Garvey

A few years ago my musician brother lent me a DVD of Steve Reich’s 2002 “film opera” Three Tales. I found it a profound experience, and since it appears to be on YouTube in full now, I’ll link it below for those who appreciate (or can come to appreciate) Reich’s minimalist music and the astonishing associated videography by Beryl Korot.

Posted in Creation, Music, Philosophy, Theology | Leave a comment

Temporal resonances

Posted on 11/04/2026 by Jon Garvey

I’ve just given my Stratocaster guitar to my granddaughter, having decided I’m unlikely ever to join another rock band. And in any case, I still have a Telecaster. It’s not a Fender Stratocaster, you understand, but a Japanese Tokai, though when it was made, in 1984, their quality was arguably better than the the CBS Fenders of the time, and certainly superior to Fender’s Japanese Squiers, one of which I bought in 1983, but was never entirely happy with.

Posted in History, Music, Theology | 2 Comments

Knowing God or hearing God

Posted on 16/02/2026 by Jon Garvey

The current Charismatic claim (but only since the particular flavour of that theology that came in with John Wimber in the 1980s) is that God speaks to us during prayer if we listen hard enough. My response, so far unrefuted, is that nothing in Scripture teaches this (and what is not in Scripture is, of course, unscriptural teaching). But the justification for it is that Scripture may have been jolly good for “then,” but we need to hear God’s word for now.

Posted in Music, Theology | 2 Comments

My YouTube shout-out

Posted on 14/08/2025 by Jon Garvey

I chanced upon a guitar auction video today,and discovered that it mentions me by name, in connection with my buying a guitar off Gordon Giltrap in 1984, and selling it back to him in 1993. It’s an interesting story, and for those who like guitars, an even more interesting instrument. Here’s the clip.

Posted in Music | Leave a comment

More on Christian music and church music

Posted on 07/05/2025 by Jon Garvey

Thanks to those wonderful YouTube chaps, I’ve just discovered the fascinating and surprisingly contemporary-sounding music of Pérotin, the thirteenth century composer of Notre Dame, Paris, who was the first to write choral music for four parts, eight centuries ago. I’m tempted to say I’ve developed Pérotinitis, as it’s such good stuff.

Posted in History, Music, Theology | Leave a comment

The use and abuse of music

Posted on 26/04/2025 by Jon Garvey

It has been truly said that modern revivals (of the Toronto Blessing sort, rather than the actual quiet revivals apparently going on in the UK or Iran) are not gospel revivals but music revivals. By that is meant that if you removed the loud and prolonged rock music from the proceedings, nothing would happen in the way of people falling on the floor, weeping, laughing hysterically and all the other features that convince people the Holy Spirit has turned up in force. I can well believe it.

Posted in Music, Theology | Leave a comment

Music, the universal language

Posted on 10/03/2025 by Jon Garvey

When I was at school, I borrowed a balalaika (souvenir of a Russian school cruise) from another kid, in order to play a self-penned song called Boris and his Balalaika, which used the only three chords I knew on guitar in 1969. I reckoned it couldn’t be harder to play on three strings than six, and would be more authentic for the youth club social.

Posted in History, Music | 2 Comments

Guthrie Govan – my part in his career

Posted on 21/11/2024 by Jon Garvey

Here’s a low-stress piece for a snowy day here in Britain. Looking on YouTube for a particular musician a year or so ago, I found a clip in which he was playing with a guitarist called Guthrie Govan. The guitarist was stonkingly good. In characteristic YouTube fashion the algorithms then kept offering me other clips demonstrating not only his astonishingly brilliant technique, range of styles, and sheer musicality (in these days of Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift), but his ability as a teacher. By all accounts he’s a really nice bloke as well.

Posted in Music | 3 Comments

Another song for you

Posted on 07/04/2024 by Jon Garvey

Here’s an old but remixed song I’ve just uploaded to YouTube.

Posted in Music, Theology | Leave a comment

Far-Right Now (the single)

Posted on 27/03/2024 by Jon Garvey

Still on a musical theme, here’s a bit of satirical fun I’ve just put up on YouTube. Enjoy it until the thought-police come round to get you.

Posted in Music, Politics and sociology | Leave a comment