William Temple (Archbishop of Canterbury) told us a story about Sir Walford Davies, who was then Master of the King's Music.  He had been present on an occasion when Sir Walford was instructing an untrained choral group in hymn-singing.  He started them out with some familiar hymn which they bellowed forth with gusto to impress the Archbishop, and the musical effect was terrible.  But there was also present a small professional choir, and Sir Walford asked them to go through several verses of a completely unfamiliar hymn so that everyone could memorize the tune.  'Now,' he said, 'we're all going to sing this new hymn.  But one thing is absolutely important: you must not try to sing it.  Just think of the tune and let it sing itself.'  The result was such a marked improvement that he turned to the Archbishop and said, 'Isn't that also good theology?

• music
• education
• zen
• theology
• taoism
• tao