The Power of Song

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Neil MacGregor focuses on a Kirchenpelz or 'church fur' - a sheepskin coat made in the late 19th Century in Transylvania, now part of Romania, for the German-speaking Saxon community there. This was not just 'Sunday Best': to wear this coat was to proclaim in public your allegiance to the Lutheran Church, and your identity as a Transylvanian Saxon. He also reflects on the importance and power of communal singing within the Lutheran Church and elsewhere: the German theologian and priest Martin Luther did not invent hymns or congregational singing, but he did transform them, making them central to worship as never before. Producer Paul Kobrak Produced in partnership with the British Museum Photograph (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.