This Sunday afternoon! The Year to Save the Earth with UU composer, singer, and guitarist Jim Scott
Join us this Sunday, September 22nd at 4:30 p.m. in UUCC’s Fellowship Hall for The Year to Save the Earth, a new music and multimedia project from UU composer, singer, guitarist, and friend of UUCC Jim Scott (“Gather the Spirit”, “May Your Life Be as a Song”). Mixing powerful songs and beautiful projected images, The Year to Save the Earth takes us from grieving to celebration and from protest to positive vision for the planet. Jim’s lyrical melodies and outspoken poetry celebrate our beautiful, amazing, and fragile world. While facing the urgency of the environmental crisis, the program’s message is one of optimism with many invitations to join in the singing. These amazing songs challenge us to feel, to learn and to act!
Music Notes – Sunday, September 22nd:
This Sunday’s musicians are The Chancel Choir and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
Prelude: I Know This Rose Will Open – Grigolia
#396 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal, “I Know This Rose Will Open” is a 1989 composition by UU Minister and songwriter (and Northeast Ohioan) Mary Grigolia (b. 1947). Although short and simple, the song can be performed as an overlapping round, revealing multiple layers of texture and harmonic color like its namesake flower.
Opening Song: How Could Anyone – Roderick
Libby Roderick (b. 1958) is a singer-songwriter and activist from Alaska. Her song “How Could Anyone” (#1053 in Singing the Journey) was written in response to a friend in pain. It has been heard around the world, translated into many languages, and is reprinted in many books. The simple folk tune and words have been embraced by people with many types of pain, from AIDS orphans to cancer survivors and prisoners. The lyrics have been used for healing in many different settings, including churches, hospitals, shelters, rallies, weddings, and funerals. (includes material from uua.org)
Centering Music: Nocturne No. 8 – Poulenc
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) was a French composer and pianist, best-known today for his piano and operatic works and for his Gloria setting for chorus and orchestra. Poulenc had a somewhat complicated path to musical success: he showed musical talent at a young age, but was forbidden from studying music in college by his father, who expected him to take up the family’s business of manufacturing pharmaceuticals. Poulenc eventually followed his passion for music, and quickly gained respect as both a composer and pianist. Poulenc served as a soldier during both World War I and World War II, and was active in the French Resistance during the Nazi occupation of Paris, despite his vulnerable position as a prominent figure who was an openly gay man. Poulenc composed his Huit Nocturnes for solo piano between 1929 and 1938, publishing them together as a cycle. “Nocturne No. 8” is the best-known of these pieces, and Poulenc subtitled it ‘Pour servir de Coda au Cycle’ (To serve as Coda for the Cycle).
Offertory: Love Will Rise Again – Miller
American composer, conductor and performer Mark Miller believes passionately that music can change the world. He also believes in Cornell West’s quote that “Justice is what love looks like in public.” Mark’s dream is that the music he composes, performs, teaches and leads will inspire and empower people to create the beloved community. Mark serves as Assistant Professor of Church Music at Drew Theological School and is a Lecturer in the Practice of Sacred Music at Yale University (from markamillermusic.com). Of “Love Will Rise Again”, Miller says: “When Kris Lamb commissioned me to write a piece in memory of her brother, she shared that her brother was part of, and a supporter of the LGBTQ community, and asked that the piece celebrate the values of respect and inclusion her brother stood for…I began work on the composition in 2021, and the words ‘I won’t give up on you, don’t give up on me’ kept coming back to me. In the midst of the pandemic, I realized I was singing this song as much for me as writing it down for others…We will sing through the loss and overcome fear and hatred together, and that although it might seem vanquished for a time, love will rise again.”
Song: Break Not the Circle – Benjamin/Kaan
One of the best-known living UU composers, Thomas Benjamin (b. 1940) remains an active performer, educator, and composer. Many of his works can be found in our Singing the Living Tradition and Singing the Journey hymnals. Published both as a composer and an author and the recipient of numerous awards, Dr. Benjamin taught for many years at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music and also taught music theory and composition at the esteemed Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. Benjamin wrote the music for “Break Not the Circle (#323 in Singing the Living Tradition), setting words by Dutch minister and prolific hymn writer Frederik Kaan (1929-2009).
Postlude: Good Enough – Morris
“Good Enough” is a song about love and self-worth, written by award-winning performer and composer Lea Morris (b. 1978), also known simply as LEA. Born in Baltimore to a father who toured the world playing trumpet in the funk band Black Heat and a mother who dreamed of opera while performing with her siblings in the Jones Family Gospel Singers, LEA was singing on the pulpit of the Baptist church where she grew up as soon she could speak. When she discovered the acoustic guitar as a teenager, she began teaching herself to play by writing songs. LEA’s final year in high school in Germany at a classical conservatory, where she sang with the jazz ensemble Black & White and co-wrote with the British pop trio Indigo Wild. Having shared the stage with luminaries including Odetta, Mavis Staples, Dar Williams and Anthony Hamilton, LEA performs at a far-ranging array of venues, including arts centers, universities, festivals, places of worship and beyond. She performs solo and with her band, The Moment. (includes material from thisislea.com)
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director