Editing John Rutter (section)

==Influences==
Rutter's music is eclectic, showing the influences of the French and English choral traditions of the early twentieth century as well as of [[light music]] and [[Great American Songbook|American classic songwriting]]. Almost every choral anthem and hymn that he writes has a subsequent orchestral accompaniment in addition to the standard piano/organ accompaniment, using various different instrumentations such as strings only, strings and woodwinds or full orchestra with brass and percussion.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Preserving tradition |url=https://www.classicfm.com/composers/rutter/guides/rutter-facts-gallery/hymn-writer/ |access-date=2024-06-13 |website=Classic FM |language=en}}</ref> Many of his works have also been arranged for concert band with optional chorus.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bandmusicpdf.net/Catalogue8.html |title=Music of John Rutter |publisher=Bandmusicpdf.net |access-date=7 February 2019}}</ref>

Despite composing and conducting much religious music, Rutter told the US television programme ''[[60 Minutes]]'' in 2003 that he was not a particularly religious man, yet still deeply spiritual and inspired by the spirituality of sacred verses and prayers.<ref name="cbs">{{cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spreading-good-cheer/ |title=Spreading Good Cheer |publisher=CBS News |date=11 February 2009 |first= Rebecca |last=Leung |access-date=7 February 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4727014/The-carol-singers-shining-star.html|title=The carol singers' shining star|first=Michael |last=White|date=14 December 2001|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph}}</ref> The main topics considered in the ''60 Minutes'' programme, which was broadcast a week before Christmas 2003, were Rutter's popularity with choral groups in the United States, Britain, and other parts of the world, and his composition ''[[Mass of the Children]]'' (written after the sudden death of his son Christopher while a student at [[Clare College, Cambridge|Clare College]], Cambridge, where Rutter himself had studied).

In a 2009 interview, Rutter discussed his understanding of "genius" and its unique ability to transform lives—whether that genius is communicated in the form of music or other media. He likened the purity of music to that of mathematics and connected the two with a reference to the discovery made by the early Greeks that frequencies of harmonic pitches are related by whole-number ratios.<ref name="macfarlane" />