Music Notes – Sunday, February 9th:
This Sunday’s musicians are The Treble Ensemble and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
Prelude: Good Enough – Morris
Postlude: We Choose – 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). Our postlude this Sunday is “We Choose”, another LEA composition which is about having courage in the face of adversity.
Song: When I Am Frightened – Denham
“When I Am Frightened” (#1012 in Singing the Journey), also titled “Then I May Learn”, was commissioned in 1999 by the First Unitarian Church of Dallas. Because of her lifelong commitment to working with and empowering youth, UU composer Shelley Jackson Denham (1950-2013) took the opportunity to write a piece based on children’s yearning for truth, respect, and engagement with adults. In keeping with a philosophy that “children are watching, what are they learning?”, the song is meant as a reminder that all children deserve and need compassion, acceptance, commitment…and that they often learn to both give and receive these essential elements of relationship through the simple act of observation. (includes material from uua.org)
Centering Music: Largo (II) from Symphony No. 9 in E minor (Dvořák, arr. Clough-Leiter)
Antonin Dvorák (1841-1904) was a nationalist Czech composer of the late Romantic period. His best-known work was his ninth and final symphony (Op. 95, B. 178), famously known as the New World Symphony because Dvořák’s composition was profoundly influenced by American folk music, particularly the melodies from Native American music and African American Spirituals he heard while traveling in North America. The second movement (“Largo”) of Dvorák’s 9th symphony features a lyrical melody, first played by an English horn solo, that borrows the Spiritual-inspired tune “Goin’ Home”.
Offertory Music: Creep – Radiohead, arr. Chase & Ponce
“Creep” was the first single released by the British alternative rock band Radiohead, and was included in their 1993 debut album Pablo Honey. The lyrics for “Creep” describe a person whose behavior has devolved into obsession and self-loathing, and the music is built around distinctive and unusual chord changes, which were influenced by 1972 song “The Air That I Breathe” by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood (Hammond and Hazlewood pursued legal action and are now credited as co-songwriters). “Creep” was not initially a commercial success when released in the United Kingdom, but after gaining airplay on alternative radio in the United States, it was rereleased about a year later and became a hit, rising to the top 40 in the U.S. and Canada, and making it all the way to #7 in the U.K. Although the band has since had many other hits, “Creep” remains their most successful single to date.
Song: There’s a River Flowin’ in my Soul – Sanders
“There’s a River Flowin’ in My Soul” is #1007 in our Singing the Journey hymnal. It was composed by Rose Sanders (b. 1945), who is a civil rights attorney, activist and creative artist living in Selma, Alabama. Ms. Sanders was Alabama’s first African American female judge, and she has co-founded and works to support many organizations which protect children.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director