William Byrd

William Byrd (1543-1623) was England's foremost composer during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. A pupil of Thomas Tallis, he served as organist and master of the choristers at Lincoln Cathedral (1563-73) and in 1570 was sworn in as Gentleman of the Chapel Royal. From the early 1570s onwards Byrd became increasingly involved with Catholicism, which, as the scholarship of the last half-century has demonstrated, became a major factor in his personal and creative life. He evaded persecution only on account of his acknowledged excellence as a composer.

Ludwig van Beethoven

In 1820 the composer Beethoven wrote his Mass in D Minor (Missa Solemnis). Despite writing such spiritually uplifting music, Beethoven was not a conventional Christian himself. However he considered his compositions to be inspired by God.

The Beatles

In 1957 16-year-old John Lennon met 15-year-old Paul McCartney at a St Peter’s Parish Church party in Woolton, Liverpool. Lennon’s band, The Quarrymen were performing at the do whilst Paul, who was baptized a Roman Catholic but was raised inter-denominationally was attending the function. Impressed by Paul's ability to tune a guitar and by his knowledge of song lyrics, John asked him to join his band as lead guitarist. They renamed themselves The Beatles and with guitarist George Harrison and drummer Ringo Starr , the Fab Four went on to dominate rock music and pop culture in the 1960s.
In 1966 John Lennon commented in an interview with a London newspaper, “I don't know what will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. We're more popular than Jesus now. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me." His comments created some upset in Britain but when a magazine got hold of the article in the United states a few months later there were mass protests from Christians in the Bible Belt area, Beatles records were burnt publicly and some concerts were cancelled. The Vatican also made a public denunciation of Lennon's comments, but in 2008 a Vatican newspaper belatedly forgave the Beatles explaining that he had simply been “showing off.”
In 1970, the same year that the Beatles split up, George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord reached number one in the US and UK pop charts. The song was an attempt to get radio listeners to chant “Hare Krishna” which he believed is a method of becoming one with God. During the late 1960s the four Beatles had shown an interest in Eastern religion and for a period were students of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation movement. Their attraction towards this belief helped make adoption of an Eastern religion a trendy thing among the young.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was the outstanding member of a family of German musicians who during six generations produced a continuous line of composers. His orchestral music includes 29 concertos including the six Brandenburg Concertos, 21 secular cantatas and a vast quantity of music for organ, clavier and stringed instruments.
Bach also produced a great deal of religious music, which include his Mass in B Minor, four smaller masses, a Magnificat, three Passions and 202 church cantatas. A devout member of the Lutheran Church, his sympathies lay in particular with the Pietist movement.
The German composer believed he could best serve his church and the people around him through his music. Bach defined music as "An agreeable harmony for the honor of God and the permissible delights of the soul." He inscribed the scores of his religious music with the letters “JJ”, (“Jesus, Juva” meaning “Jesus help”) at the beginning and “SDG” (“Soli Deo Gloria” meaning “to God alone the glory”) at the end.