a lutheran church in berlin. once a week music lovers from all of the german capital gather here. the church is full every saturday that's unusual for us. and on the 12th mean every saturday it's time for new and song. this is the official it's refreshing it focuses me a kind of meditation what does but remember it's becoming a fiction part of my week stand because it's so beautiful release and for. this. new song is a short church service mostly sung at a very high standard for many it's a spiritual life when it's musical experience. when malak course of that there are

wonderful churches in the city and things happen there that some people can't even imagine. there's that it. was written. discourse events are spending is a vocal ensemble made up of professional singers. they perform for free on saturdays because they love the project it's a creative challenge every new song service is unique. it's going to. be this is. just.

cliquish or my usually get a score on the weekend before so we have time to prepare a lot of the 8 singers don't meet up until friday evening when they were harassed for 2 or 3 hours and then again from 10 on half past the next morning. and then it's time. to tell. what's special about noon song as many things as mainly it's enjoyable and it's free good performers good music and was in a beautiful church with live music performed by 8 good singers. the ensemble is the brainchild of conductor and quiet must as stefan show.

sevenpence belly is a choral ensemble of professional singers so we have 8 singers because the interesting music is often written for 8 voices this week so 8 is a very good number for this church. but of course a professional singers can't commit themselves to sing every saturday so we have a pool of 36 from which we can always draw 8 singers they consistently could hear the since. the church at home and so on and that since very modern. some people think it's beautiful others find it strange opinion and certainly differ but it has its own atmosphere the. new song is a form of check service but apart from a short reading there are no spoken words. everything is sung including the press

including the lord's prayer. i think that's very special because it can get you into a kind of contemplated flow. i think that's how religion was supposed to be. the current works come from the entire range of sacred christian music over the centuries from gregorian chants to contemporary pieces. for regulated services and for most amateur singers it would be too difficult the its great music that is often neglected for that reason but here it's being celebrated. the.

it all started with a few music enthusiastic in october 2008 now hundreds of people attend every saturday to enjoy the atmosphere and music of an inside. talk to me then i read about it on the internet i wanted to see it myself and count prince on for this is my 5th time here you know i come from you know you can try to come whenever i'm in berlin. the curator just complain that people aren't coming. down to help. because i love best that was the best thing to do is hold cultural events like this fantastic. stumbles in the funk originally i come from northwestern for various i studied sacred music in conducting and then i was assistant conductor for the berlin philharmonic choir from there i moved back to southern germany and talk conducting

record at that time i visited trinity college cambridge 20 college cambridge. and don't in 20 college cambridge groups i may have a wonderful mixed choir there mission. which i was able to see at work about on a limb do have to. guess derived from the english even song as we know it from churches and colleges in england stephanie shook approached our parish council in 2006 or 2007 saying i can imagine holding a musical midday press service here every saturday one that's not mr toughest so i was fascinated by this english even song tradition which attracts lots of visitors see it does in guns feel in colleges and covered it takes place in many colleges and cathedrals in england every day was it the music of the highest choral standard which sadly we have lost sight of here of course invites a lot of fun no wonder governors. are with.

this setting of some 20 by the grace italian renaissance composer to fanny to palestrina. like the glorious paintings from the sistine chapel palestrina his music brings the biblical texts to life with a wondrous mystical quality. in

addition to the choral music there's another attraction atones on plants that draws berlin is every saturday the street market. it's popular with weekend shoppers. intellectual and spiritual nourishment is just a few steps away. and the snow. will fall off before. it's too late to. come for my bike i'm going to run my balcony i can see

the people coming to new. gifts i see them streaming into the church kids hurrying up the stands. and once they're inside they encounter a peaceful atmosphere with a money efficiency and at the latest there is silence and says if people feel i can become ham i can take half an hour for myself by yes it's on. the. wall. you

can eliminate all kinds of people come to new song everybody is welcome one new song there was a little girl sitting on her mother's lap she was fastening. did you could see in her eyes how moved this very small child was that touched me profoundly. i can see how people are moved by what happens here. in the stuff and. what people experience as something unusual at once on plots was the norm in christian churches for centuries the idea that a church service should convey transcendence and that singing plays a crucial role. fewer than was it given his in a lot of the music we sing here was written by composers who had to produce music

almost every day for the church because they had a deep grasp of theology. and they brought their own personal experience into their music. and so keep do you think composition gives her a particular interpretation whole story told it's like a sermon that you don't comprehend rationally but emotionally it gets under your skin as it were. early it. was. 1 the. interest of all 12 flies and the word was made flesh variable in cattle factum

este a very. groomes remarkable text a very mysterious text does follow the word of god and you can read this text in various ways and it's as a mystery as an assurance as a joyful avowals or as a tremendous gesture of reconciliation with all it's of course a peace to all these and so this was a quality music the preceding the music like a sermon this consequent presents the whole mystery contained in this sentence. was.

it was. it's a church service i think it was st augustine who said he who sings prays twice adopt it. just booked upside is this the book of psalms is that the heart of noon song. set to music of course. the psalms are very poetic texts written from very personal experience. and these 150 psalms express every facet of life. from great rejoicing and happiness to questions addressed to god and out. hearing each week how these texts sound in various musical settings give structure to one's whole life to hear this constantly of the north what i find inspiring the

way has been organizing this almost every saturday for 10 minutes and has now become jaded. as one of the singers i always feel as though the new song we are currently performing is the important one. always sung with the same seriousness and the same conviction. stephens the conductor brought the new song idea from england. the former lutheran bishop of berlin brandenburg gave it its final liturgical form . he had the idea but he was ambivalent about whether it could be done in

a lutheran church in berlin. and if it wouldn't compete with the regular sunday service. and. only if issues like that troubled him. also of course the question would he receive support from the diocese and the parish. but the idea coincided with one of my views that we needed new initiatives to make people aware of how important worship is in christian life. as far as i know he didn't yet have the idea that it should be held every saturday at noon when the kindness. when we realized the cost it would involve if we had 8 professional singers here every saturday we were very skeptical and didn't have much faith in the idea that. we thought it would never get off the ground that it could never be financed and music budget was clearly inadequate if we could

give some support but certainly not finance it. but stephanie should have the courage to say i'm going to give it a try. the costs for 6 months. new song has been in existence for the 10 years now and to organize it for 10 years to struggle to battle with institutions with money so that somehow there's always enough to have this perseverance and energy and to do this flat out stefan does that's what makes the project live ready. i had great hopes of noon song that i had ideas about what it should be so from the moment we got started it exceeded my expectations. there were far more people than

i expected. and the noon song experience itself was far more intense than i had imagined. people say they experience peace when they sit quietly in this church and they are changed when they leave. and some say it opens them to god it was months before god.

the. 'd 'd as a new song isn't to provide a new song as a private initiative and i think that's fantastic when you have if you believe it's hell abraded it's 10 years anniversary in 2018 it's always wonderful 1st my thoughts float and when i come out i feel refreshed really curious white apart from any religious aspects. it's a great opportunity to come to this beautiful church with its glorious windows that were designed by adam frya who is also a world famous artist and theater director can flaunt on. this. includes has loads and loads i checked was consecrated in 1933 bills between

19311983 expressionist building it was officially designed by fritz herger actually it was designed by a jewish architect or sick levein who worked with her. and clubine also designed the knesset building after the war. then in 1903 an incendiary bomb struck the church and destroyed it completely except for the altar when it was rebuilt it was completely redesigned and its current beauty is that of a new design especially the windows by the director and set designer afam frya. by. the shop. and then listen to music. and after the noon song have a meal at the church. there is

a bowl of soup for those who want it and an opportunity to meet and chat. from the beginning of the catering was provided by a married couple from the parish. you can ensure we know most are so good your boy and it was his idea and i was immediately on his yesterday with him and i think it's important that people seek and find a particular spirituality that they don't get in a normal church service. well and i think a little get together afterwards rounds it off doing good for both the body and the soul because i pointed. it we were very enthusiastic from the start and it worked putting it mildly we're very proud of their strife. there's a special energy in this church every saturday. the diocese doesn't provide financial support but they are enthusiastic helping us the costs are paid mainly

out of the collection. and on some existing words so no the new song will only survive as long as there are people who attend the even the donations we receive every saturday don't cover the cost is completely songs that means a new song has grown into a wonderful edifice. but unfortunately the foundations are not firm miche ws on and it's built on a very thin rather brittle piles. newer readers only if people continue to be enthusiastic about noon song and donate can it continue again went this way. so the many visitors who come regularly each week work hard to make it continue as the few dozen survive taking con.

the. see here lord to deal of course there are people who come here because they are music lovers but for me it's the e.q. mmon is in my experience the christian community that i believe christians have

values to share. because well i can do that here so i couldn't that's kind of here too and that's far from followed it was evident from the beginning of us all and it's especially true in berlin you don't go to every church service has to be ecumenical must send out a message that everybody who is looking for a church service a word from god what is welcome what is fault is going to mean some inside of the new song form is able to unite catholics and protestants without any difficulty there are no contentious issues no biblical interpretation no you caressed as a single liturgy call form listening pray saying that characterizes new song and of course we can do that well with one another and of course people who don't belong to any church at all so welcome and i'm certain that some do come by. the.

it seemed doubtful at 1st that the idea would catch on. to 15 minutes of cars singing in the middle of the day has one more and more fun of this. here faith and music met in the spiritual experience called noon song. there's a snow but also for the whole one because it's a great challenge and a gift to see that what's so important to us because this is the activity to which we devote ourselves every week of but often also play such an important role in the lives of the audience least you can go in the street and few many people have approached me and said i came today because you were singing

a very interesting piece by palestrina for example is the no i don't have anything to do with the church i've left the church for god it's what i'll come again next week will. alex the singing was great toward us because when he died and then after a few weeks they said they had found their way back to a new form of spirituality and had begun to make their peace with the church of the physician or the air. if they're. going. to tear. their old. lead.

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