Talk:20th Century Church Light Music Group
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History of the 20th Century Music Group
edithttps://sites.google.com/view/20thcenturymusicgroup/home/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by AJHSimons (talk • contribs) 11:29, 16 June 2023 (UTC)
The Cambridge-based group was founded in the late 1950s by Beaumont and Appleford. Initially a private group of friends, it called itself the "20th Century Church Light Music Group". In this incarnation, it encouraged composers to write modern hymns; and several collections were published in the 1960s with Josef Weinberger.
In the early 60s, the group became an officially-constituted student society of the University of Cambridge, known as the "Cambridge University 20th Century Church Light Music Group", initially performing the above works at Great St. Mary's Church, Cambridge. From the late-1960s it operated as a touring troupe, performing a self-penned folk-rock oratorio, "A Folk Passion", by Lockley and Colley, in churches around the UK. This was later released in 1972 as an LP album (Reflection Records).
From the early-1970s, the student society was renamed the "Cambridge University 20th Century Christian Music Group", reflecting a changed emphasis to support a broader range of musical styles (not just hymns). The "20th Century" tag distinguished this society from another "Cambridge University Christian Music Group", which also performed as the "Icthyan Singers". The troupe toured around the UK, operating a folk-rock band and the Folk Passion ensemble.
From the mid-1970s, the society operated multiple student bands in the folk, folk-rock and heavy rock styles, used at different kinds of event. In the 1980s, the new wave/progressive rock band became pre-eminent and released two successful singles in the power pop idiom (Very Nice Records). In the 1990s, the group diversified into drama and later operated two bands in the indie rock and acid jazz styles.
From 2000, the student society changed its name to "Ark Cambridge" since "20th Century" was thought to be an anachronism. The last evidence of the society's existence comes from its no-longer maintained Cambridge University website in 2006.
The history of "20th Century" in its various incarnations has been collected from its former members, and was originally hosted on personal web-pages at the University of Sheffield. The official archive website of "20th Century" has now migrated to Google in 2023, due to the impending retirement of the Sheffield archivist. Please use this archive for all cited source material.