Music Notes – Sunday, April 20th:
This Sunday’s musicians are The Chancel Choir, The Treble Ensemble, and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
Prelude: Calypso Alleluia – Benjamin
Thomas Benjamin (b. 1940) is a celebrated UU composer and retired professor of music theory and composition. Dr. Benjamin’s music can be found several times in both Singing the Living Tradition and Singing the Journey. “Calypso Alleluia” (#1036 in Singing the Journey) is a layered composition whose three independent melodies can be performed consecutively or as a round in any desired combination.
Opening Hymn: #1000 Morning Has Come – Shelton
Jason Shelton is an award-winning composer, arranger, conductor, song and worship leader, workshop presenter, and coach. He served as the Associate Minister for Music at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville, Tennessee from 1998-2017, and is now engaged in a music ministry at-large, focused on serving the musical resource needs of UU (and other liberal) congregations around the country (from jasonsheltonmusic.com). “Morning Has Come” (#1000) is one of many contributions Rev. Shelton made to our Singing the Journey hymnbook. In the words of the composer, “This song was composed for and debuted at a morning worship service during a 2001 UU musicians’ conference at the Mountain in Highlands, NC. As the story goes, it had been rainy and gray all week long, but when the time came to debut this song, the sun came out and shone gloriously through the chapel windows. Ah, the power of music!”
Centering Music: Here Comes the Sun – Harrison, arr. Sharon
“Here Comes the Sun” is one of the most recognizable and iconic pieces of music recorded by The Beatles. The song was written by George Harrison (1943-2001) in the spring of 1969 while staying at the home of Eric Clapton. In interviews, Harrison indicated the song was inspired by his joy in reaching the end of a particularly harsh English winter as well as a feeling of hopefulness that he and his fellow Beatles would be able to set aside their differences and recapture their lost enthusiasm for making music together. Spring arrived right on time in 1969, but unfortunately, Harrison’s optimism about his band did not blossom. “Here Comes the Sun” was released on Abbey Road, which would be The Beatles’ second-last album before breaking up the following year. This Sunday, “Here Comes the Sun” will be sung by UUCC’s Treble Ensemble, performing an a cappella arrangement by Deke Sharon.
Offertory Music: You Are the New Day – David, arr. Knight
“You Are the New Day” was written in 1978 by Welsh musician John David (b. 1946) for his little-remembered rock group Airwaves. Although it was originally not much of a hit, the song was discovered and arranged by Peter Knight (1917-1985) for The King’s Singers, and the resulting recording and choral arrangement has become a standard of modern repertoire for choirs. In the composer’s own words, “The inspiration for New Day was quite simple; I had just had a major blow in my personal life, and was sitting alone late at night feeling very low, and watching an ominous story on the news about the very real possibility of nuclear war. “I started singing to the (hopefully) soon-to arrive New Day like it was an entity, that would rescue me from the depths. If the sun came up and the birds started singing as usual then I could believe that it really was the new day in which life would go on, and in which hope would survive.
Special Music: Be Ours a Religion – Benjamin/Parker
“Be Ours a Religion” (#1058 in Singing the Journey) is a musical response incorporating the famous words by Unitarian minister Theodore Parker (1810-1860). The setting we’ll sing on Sunday is by UU musician and composer Thomas Benjamin (see Prelude above for more about Dr. Benjamin).
Song: Sing Out Praises for the Journey – DeWolfe/Purcell
#295 in Singing the Living Tradition, “Sing Out Praises for the Journey” was written by UU Minister, author, and activist Mark DeWolfe (1953-1988), who was a staunch AIDS activist and Canada’s first openly gay minister. The tune DeWolfe’s words are set to was written by English Baroque composer Henry Purcell (1659-1695). Purcell’s melody is commonly known as “Westminster Abbey” and is an excerpt from a larger choral anthem called O God, Thou Art My God, written by Purcell in 1680.
Postlude: We Are the Ones – Reagon
“We Are the Ones (We Been Waiting For)” is a song about justice and empowerment, originally written as tribute to the women of South Africa. The words come from renowned Jamaican American poet, teacher, and activist June Jordan (1936-2002) and were set to music by composer, song leader, and activist Bernice Johnson Reagon (b. 1942) for Sweet Honey in the Rock, the afro-feminist a cappella group she founded in 1973.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director