Music Notes – Sunday, March 29th:
This Sunday’s musicians are Gabriel Weeks, The Chancel Choir, and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
About Sunday’s guest musician:
Gabriel Weeks is an 8th grade youth from UUCC who has been studying piano for about 2 years. Gabriel is a multi-instrumentalist who also plays clarinet and flute. Some of his favorite musical artists are The Smiths, Mac Demarco, and The Beatles. Aside from music, a few of Gabriel’s favorite activities are cycling, basketball, and hanging out with friends.
Centering Music: Let It Be – McCartney
Released in 1970 as a single and then as the title track of The Beatles’ final studio album, “Let It Be” was written and sung by Paul McCartney, who has said that the inspiration for the song came to him in a dream. McCartney has also stated in many interviews that his use of “Mother Mary” in the lyrics was never intended to be religious but is instead a reference to his own mother, Mary Patricia McCartney.
Song: Winds Be Still – Wesley/Kimball
#83 in Singing the Living Tradition, “Winds Be Still” is a hymn that blends a 19th-century Methodist melody with a 20th-century UU text. The tune was written by English organist and composer Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876), who was the grandson of Charles Wesley (1707-1788), a prolific hymnist and leader of the Methodist movement. The younger Wesley named his tune “Lead Me, Lord”, which is still a much-beloved hymn in Methodist and other Protestant Christian churches to this day. In our hymnal, Wesley’s tune is set with words from Richard S. (Rick) Kimball (1934-2007), a UU educator and author who wrote and co-wrote many curricular materials for youth and adult RE programs, including Our Whole Lives: Sexuality Education for Adults.
Special Music: In the Quiet and the Stillness – Kalmer
“In the Quiet and the Stillness” was written by UU musician and composer Rosalyn Kalmer. The song was first published in 1995 by the Unitarian Universalist Musicians’ Network. The modified version of the song you are hearing this morning includes piano improvisations by Mike Carney.
Offertory music: Bright Morning Stars – Appalachian folk hymn, arr. Carney
“Bright Morning Stars” is an Appalachian spiritual that may also have roots in Irish or Scottish folk music. The exact origins of the song are lost to history, but it has become a popular choice in modern hymnals, including our own Singing the Living Tradition (#357), and has been recorded by many folk and popular artists, including The Seeger Sisters, The Wailin’ Jennys and Judy Collins.
Song: Wake Now, My Senses – Irish folk tune/Mikelson
#298 in Singing the Living Tradition, “Wake Now, My Senses” is a setting of “Slane”, an Irish folk song that is most commonly associated with “Be Thou My Vision” (which is also in our hymnal as #20). “Slane” is named for a hill in County Meath, Ireland, where St. Patrick’s lighting of an Easter fire – an act of defiance against the 5th Century pagan king Loegaire – led to his unlimited freedom to preach the gospel in Ireland. The words you’ll be hearing – and hopefully singing along with – this Sunday were written by the Rev. Thomas Mikelson (1936-2020), a UU Minister and native of Iowa who was also an educator and activist for racial justice and LGBTQ+ rights.
Postlude: In Unity – Barnwell
“In Unity” is a 1999 composition by Ysaye Barnwell (b. 1946), a UU songwriter, activist and former member of the a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock. Although written for a cappella chorus, “In Unity” employs vocal syllables in its middle section that are meant to imitate West African drums, bells, and other percussion instruments, creating a choral accompaniment that is complex and layered, both rhythmically and harmonically.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director