Come, Sing a Song with…the Multigen Choir this Sunday!
Attention singers of all ages and experience levels (including those with no experience at all) – you’re invited to sing with the Multigen Choir this Sunday, December 21st. Here are the details:
- Who: Anyone and everyone who wants to sing – including you! All ages are welcome, and no experience is necessary.
- What: Singing two songs during our worship service this Sunday, December 21st.
- When: Meet at 9:45 to learn the songs, then we’ll sing during the service.
- Where: In the sanctuary.
- Why: Because singing together is fun and rewarding!
Get in touch with UUCC Music Director Mike Carney if you have any questions. I hope to see you Sunday at 9:45!
Music Notes – Sunday, December 21st:
This Sunday’s musicians are The Multigen Choir and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
Centering Music: The Time of Sacrifice – Hawes
Special Music: Arioso – Hawes
Patrick Hawes (b. 1958) is an award-winning British composer, conductor, music educator, and pianist/organist. He has composed for a wide variety of performing forces, from solo keyboard music to vocal and choral works to instrumental chamber music to full-scale operas and symphonic concertos. “The Time of Sacrifice” and “Arioso” are two segments of Towards the Light, a 10-movement suite Hawes wrote during 2006 and 2007 for solo piano, and then later adapted for orchestra. Towards the Light was commissioned by Classic FM and was chosen by that network’s listeners as the highest new entry in Classic FM’s 2007 Hall of Fame.
Processional: Winter Solstice Chant – Palmer
Phillip Palmer (b. 1980) originally composed “Winter Solstice Chant” for the 2003 Winter Solstice Celebration at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County, New Jersey. The song is #1063 in our Singing the Journey hymnbook.
Song: Longest Night – Scott
“Longest Night” is a Winter Solstice carol by UU composer, author and activist Jim Scott (b. 1946), who is also responsible for many of the songs in our hymnbooks, including “Gather the Spirit”, “Nothing but Peace Is Enough” and “May Your Life Be As a Song”. “Longest Night” is based on a traditional folk round with new words and piano accompaniment added by Jim.
Offertory Music: Turn Around – Prince
“Turn Around” is a Winter Solstice chant and partner song created by UU musician and composer Donia Prince (b. 1959), who is currently serving as music director for the Unitarian Church of Montpelier, Vermont. “Turn Around” is included in the UUA’s Sing Out Love virtual hymnal, and will be sung this Sunday by our Multigen Choir.
Song: As We Carry This Flame Forward – American folk song/King
The American hymn tune most commonly known as “Holy Manna” was first published in Columbian Harmony, an 1829 shape-note tune book compiled by William Moore, and the melody is usually attributed to Moore. Today, the tune appears in nearly every Christian hymnal (its most popular modern lyric setting is “God, Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens”) and is found in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal as the melody of #66 “When the Summer Sun Is Shining”. On Sunday, we’ll sing a new setting of this tune by Wesley King (b. 1988), a musician and composer currently living and working in Nashville. He is a three-time finalist in the Alabama Music Educators’ Association’s Young Composer Competition, and has composed in numerous styles, including several hymn settings. “As We Carry This Flame Forward” is included in our new Sing Out Love virtual hymnal.
Postlude: May I Be Light – Slack
This Sunday’s postlude, which will be led by the Multigen Choir, is an original song of prayer written by UU Minister Rev. Mykal Slack. Slack currently serves as the UUA’s Community Minister for Worship & Spiritual Care for Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU). He is also one of the co-founders of the Transforming Hearts Collective, an organizing ministry that helps to both co-create spaces of healing and spiritual resiliency for queer and trans/nonbinary folks and resource congregations in the work of radical welcome and culture shift. (includes material from uua.org)
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director