Hallelujah

Thanks to Bishop Alan for his blog on the Radio 4 broadcast on Sunday of the programme 'Hallelujah', an exploration of 'this most musical of words', by the composer Jocelyn Pook. In the space of just 30 minutes this was far reaching, with diverse musical interpretations, ranging from Handel to Stravinsky, including Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave; a great anecdote by Cohen about a working lunch with Bob Dylan; and a haunting improvisation by Jeremy Schonfeld, a Jewish cantor, based on Psalm 117. This formed the basis of a sublime piece that Jocelyn Pook composed, as the programme progressed, using the male voice of the cantor, joined by a female voice, in dialogue and unison, accompanied by a minimalist but sonorous string quartet arrangement.

You can listen to the whole programme on iPlayer, and download the piece on iTunes. As Alan says, '100% soul food'.