Northcutt Lecturer Will Focus on Music as an Expression of Faith

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Episcopal priest Dr. Carl Daw will present "If You Mean It, Sing It" as this year's Northcutt Lecture presented by Baylor's School of Music.

The 25th annual Northcutt Lecture will be at 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, in the Meadows Recital Hall in the Glennis McCrary Music Building on the Baylor campus. The event is free of charge and open to the public.

Daw's lecture will "touch on a variety of issues concerning the importance of music for expressing what is significant in our personal lives and in matters of faith," he said.

"Daw is one of the most important American hymn text writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries," said Dr. David Music, professor of church music at Baylor.

Daw is a writer who served as the executive director of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada from 1996 to 2000. He is an adjunct professor of hymnology and curator of the Hymnological Collections at Boston University.

The Hymn Society "is devoted to research in hymnody and encouraging the writing and use of congregational song," Music said. "This will be an opportunity for the public to meet a 'real, live' hymn writer."

His participation in the Hymn Society "confirmed my commitment to the cause of congregational song, and expanded my appreciation of how many rich styles of singing there are," Daw said.

Daw's most widely known hymn text is "Like the Murmur of the Dove's Song."

The Northcutt Lecture in Church Music was established in 1985 by LeGrande and Cassandra Northcutt of Longview, Texas. It brings major scholars in the philosophy or practice of church music to Baylor's campus.

"I am honored to be added to the distinguished list of men and women who have given Northcutt Lectures in the past," Daw said.

Glennis McCrary Music Building is at 110 Baylor Ave.

For more information, call Baylor's School of Music at (254) 710-3991.

by Susie Typher, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805