Peter S Pope

This morning on Radio 4's Midweek, Libby Purvis mentioned a very interesting character Peter S. Pope whose music had been discovered in some dusty old attic on the South Coast.

He was a Roman Catholic who had joined with the Exclusive Brethren in the 1940s. You can't actually join as there is no membership. He had a promising career as a musician and a composer but gave all that up for fellowship and did not compose again till he left the Taylorite Brethren in the early 1970s.

Of course, this sort of motivation is completely alien to the Libby Purves of this world who quite possibly have never had to give up anything yet alone hold anything so dear as to believe that it is worthy of giving up a career for.

Peter Pope did compose some tunes for hymns which are found in the Little Flock Hymn book. Some were published in the Little Flock Tunes supplements 1965. They are of a very high calibre.

Like Babette in Babette's Feast, Peter Pope had to make a living "in the world" but like Babette too, his artistic gifts couldn't be squashed or suppressed and even during those years among the Brethren, the quality of his powers of composition remained undiminished. They took flight again in 1970s and we can now hear the results in a new CD which is being released Heaven-Haven

Details are available from this link:

https://web.archive.org/web/20110131231438/http://www.wyastone.co.uk:80/nrl/main/6135a.html

There is a new wikipedia biography for Peter Pope

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pope_(composer)

How he will enchant the Angels