Music Notes – Sunday, September 14th:
This Sunday’s musicians are The Chancel Choir and UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley
Centering Music: Wake Up and Dream – Hiromi Uehara
Hiromi Uehara (b. 1979), often known simply as Hiromi, is a Grammy-winning Japanese composer and pianist. Her music is usually categorized as jazz, but her compositions are also highly influenced by classical, new age, and folk music. Hiromi attended Boston’s Berklee College of Music, where she was mentored by jazz legend Ahmad Jamal. She is a perennial favorite on DownBeat magazine’s Annual Critics and Readers Poll, and she has performed at the world’s finest jazz festivals, including Montreux, Umbria, North Sea, Newport, and Monterey (includes material from hiromiuehara.com). “Wake Up and Dream” was released in 2016 on Hiromi’s tenth studio album Spark.
Song: Find a Stillness – Seaburg
#352 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal, “Find a Stillness” is based on a traditional Transylvanian hymn tune, with words by Carl G. Seaburg (1922-1998), a UU Minister and historian who spent several years as president of the Unitarian Universalist Historical Society and is responsible for seven of the hymns in Singing the Living Tradition, including #124 “Be That Guide” and #338 “I Seek the Spirit of a Child”.
Offertory Music: Does the World Say? – Pederson
Kyle Pederson (b. 1971) is a Minneapolis-based composer, lyricist, pianist, and educator. He was awarded the ACDA Genesis Prize in 2020 and the American Prize in Choral Composition in 2019. His work has been commissioned and recorded by All State/Honors choirs, and youth, church, college, and professional choirs around the world. Kyle enjoys working at the intersection of the sacred and secular, and his lyrics and music invite the choir and audience to be agents of hope, grace, and compassion in the world. Written in 2022, “Does the World Say?” is a choral anthem about finding your place and living into your true self, regardless of external pressures. Of this 2022 work, the composer says: “Too many times in my own personal experience, I allowed myself to be unduly influenced by the opinions and expectations of others. And as a junior and senior high teacher and coach, I saw this pressure play out daily on my students. And now as a father of young children, I watch as they, too, struggle with expectations the world throws at them. ‘Does the World Say?’ names a few of these pressures, hoping that by naming them they might hold a bit less power over us. The piece then affirms the importance and power of friendship–and the gift available to us to walk alongside somebody buckling under the weight of expectation to remind them that they are not alone, and to remind them that others do not get to define who they are.” (includes material from kylepederson.com).
Song: Wondrous Love – Folk hymn, words by Hart, arranged by Carney
“Wondrous Love”, often titled “What Wondrous Love Is This”, is an American hymn that is believed to have originated in southern Appalachia sometime during the late 18th century. We have no way of knowing exactly who wrote the melody or lyrics or when, but we do know that it was first published in 1811 in two different hymnbooks, A General Selection of the Newest and Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs Now in Use (published in Lynchburg, Virginia), and Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Original and Selected (published in Lexington, Kentucky). Today, “Wondrous Love” appears in the hymnals of dozens of denominations – including our own Singing the Living Tradition, where it is hymn #18. The words in our hymnal are a new interpretation of “Wondrous Love”, written by UU musician Connie Campbell Hart.
Postlude: I Am Willing – Near
Born in Ukiah, CA in 1949, Holly Near began singing in high school, and soon built on her performing career with acting parts on Mod Squad, Room 222, and The Partridge Family, and later as a cast member of the Broadway musical Hair. In 1972, Holly was one of the first women to create an independent record company, paving the way for other female recording artists like Ani DiFranco. Often cited as one of the founders of the Women’s Music movement, she not only led the way for outspoken women in the music world, but also worked for peace and multicultural consciousness. Another significant arena of Holly’s activism is the LGBTQ community, and in 1976 she became one of the first celebrities to discuss her sexual orientation openly. Throughout her long career Holly has worked with a wide array of musicians, including Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez, Harry Belafonte, and many others. She has received honors from the ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild, the National Organization for Women, and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; she was named Ms. Magazine’s Woman of the Year and received the Legends of Women’s Music Award. (from hollynear.com). “I Am Willing” originally appeared on Holly Near’s 2003 album Cris & Holly, a collaborative project with fellow folk artist and activist Cris Williamson (b. 1947). “I Am Willing” has since become one of Holly’s best-loved songs and has been performed all around the world.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director