A different approach to Joys and Concerns Stones during Centering Music
I encourage you to arrive a little bit early to church this Sunday to hear some beautiful Centering Music from Pam and Leon (see below for more information about that music). If you choose to place a stone or two in the water as part of UUCC’s Joys and Concerns ritual, you’re invited to do so during the Centering Music, which will start around 10:10 and continue a little past 10:15.
Come, Sing a Song with Me!
I’m very happy to say that the UUCC Chancel Choir will be returning to regular practices next week on Wednesday, August 27th! Our Chancel Choir is open to all adults and high school youth who are interested, regardless of experience level. Rehearsals are at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday evenings in the Worship Center (Room 208), and professional childcare is available for any who need it. Next Wednesday, the choir members are hosting a welcome back (or welcome aboard) potluck picnic at 6:00 before the first choir rehearsal. The picnic will be on UUCC’s East Lawn, weather permitting, or inside in Fellowship Hall in case of rain. If you’re a first-time attendee, please be our guest for dinner – no need to bring anything. Any questions? Just get in touch with UUCC Music Director Mike Carney. I hope to see you next Wednesday!
Music Notes – Sunday, August 24th:
This Sunday’s musicians are Pamela Schenk, Leon Michaud, and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
Centering Music:
Theme from The Shape of Water – Desplat
Summertime – Gershwin & Heyward
Alexandre Desplat (b. 1961) is a French composer and conductor best known for his film scores, which already number more than 100. Desplat has received numerous accolades for his work, including 11 Academy Award nominations (winning two) and ten Grammy Award nominations (also winning two). Some of his best-known scores include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (parts 1 & 2), The King’s Speech, and The Imitation Game. Desplat’s score for the 2017 film The Shape of Water earned him the Academy Award for Best Original Score (his other win was in 2014 for The Grand Budapest Hotel), and his score for The Shape of Water also won the Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Critics Choice Awards for best score. Desplat wrote the soundtrack in six weeks, collaborating with the film’s director, Guillermo del Toro, and seeking out ways to reflect the motion of water with his music, as well as the themes of love and mystery that are central to the film.
“Summertime” is an aria written by American composer George Gershwin (1898-1937) for his opera Porgy and Bess, with lyrics by DuBose Heyward (1885-1940). Gershwin’s music incorporates elements of jazz, spiritual and classical music, which may be part of the reason this song has enjoyed such wide appeal. Since its 1935 debut,” Summertime” has been recorded by well over 25,000 different artists and groups and is one of the most enduring standards in the Great American Songbook.
Song: 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!”
Offertory Music: Prelude No. 2 in C Sharp Minor – Gershwin
George Gershwin composed his Three Preludes for piano in 1926, debuting them himself at The Roosevelt Hotel in New York City that same year. All three of these pieces are frequently performed and recorded to this day, but “Prelude #2 (Andante con moto” is the best-known of the collection, and it’s no understatement to say that Gershwin’s blend of jazz and classical elements in this piece changed the way future composers approached solo piano repertoire.
Song: Lean on Me
First released in 1972, “Lean on Me” was the first and only number one hit for R&B legend Bill Withers (1938-2020). In 1987, a remake by the reggae band Club Nouveau won Withers a Grammy Award for Best Song and made “Lean on Me” one of only a handful of songs to have reached #1 both in its original form and then later as a cover version. The song was notably performed by Mary J. Blige at the concert celebrating the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009, and is included in our Singing the Journey hymnbook as #1021.
Postlude: It Ain’t Necessarily So – Gershwin & Gershwin
“It Ain’t Necessarily So” is another song from Porgy and Bess, with music by George Gershwin and lyrics from his brother and lifelong collaborator Ira Gershwin (1896-1983). As with “Summertime”, this song transcended the opera of its origin and became a standard in its own right. “It Ain’t Necessarily So” has been recorded hundreds of times by a wide variety of artists, including Bing Crosby, Aretha Franklin, Oscar Peterson, and Brian Wilson, to name just a few.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director