I used to write a lot of very personal songs. Confessional stuff, bewilderingly specific and self-consciously literate. I grew out of it.

Now I write mostly church music. I still write original lyrics sometimes, but more often I focus on traditional liturgical texts, paraphrased or just straight up. I've been meaning for a while to record home demos of some of this material, so recently I decided to set a modest schedule. First I posted my eucharistic setting. Then when Advent began, I started a song-per-season thing that I'll continue into the spring.

I mention this today in particular because I'll also be putting up the odd psalm, general-purpose song or canticle—beginning this week with my setting of the Magnificat:

A blessed Advent 4, and a merry Christmas. If you'd like to keep up with my music, you can do so by following my Facebook page

Steve Thorngate

The Century managing editor is also a church musician and songwriter.

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