Edward Clark Photo: John Woike/The Hartford Courant

A Joyful Noise

When Edward Clark, A63, took over as minister of music for the First Church of Christ, Congregational, in Farmington, Connecticut, the country was in the thick of the 1960s. Fifty years later, he’s still at it, and his musical repertoire has evolved with the times, expanding beyond Bach, Telemann, and others in the classical canon to include treasures of world music, such as Argentinian tangos, Japanese and Scandinavian hymns, and chants from the Taizé community, an ecumenical monastic order in France. “Ed has a great sense of the church traditions, and yet an incredible openness to the demands of a new day,” the Reverend Steven Savides, the pastor of the church, told the Hartford Courant. Marilyn Collins, the church moderator, was straightforward about the effect on the congregation. Clark’s music, she said, “is the thread that opens people’s hearts to the word of God.”