Music Notes – Sunday, May 10th:
This Sunday’s musicians are The Treble Ensemble and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
***Centering Music: Mother I Feel You – Martin
This chant was written in 1985 by Canadian folk singer and songwriter Windsong Dianne Martin (b. 1954) and is #1070 in our Singing the Journey hymnbook. In the composer’s words: “I was sitting with my friend David, looking out over the vast view of the Willamette Valley, wondering about the ancient roots of the area, talking about the original native tribes who lived there before the white settlers came. We became quiet and sat in meditation for a long time. I was shifted out of meditation dramatically when I became aware that I was singing the song Mother I Feel You Under My Feet, Mother I Hear Your Heartbeat. I sang it for a long time and was very moved by the experience. We hiked down the mountain and shared it with friends. It immediately became a chant that many people resonated with and wanted to learn and has since traveled around the world and been interpreted in many forms and languages.” (uua.org)
***This Sunday, all are welcome to join in singing and/or drumming along on “Mother I Feel You” beginning at 10:10! You can bring your own drum or shaker, or we will have plenty of instruments available for you to use as well***
Song: Mother of All – Irish Folk Song/Pope
“Mother of All” is based on an Irish folk melody commonly known as “St Columba”, which is familiar to many Christians as the tune of “The King of Love My Shepherd Is”. As #91 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal, this tune is set to words adapted from English poet and translator Alexander Pope (1688-1744).
Special Music: Songs My Mother Taught Me – Dvořák
Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904) was a nationalist Czech composer of the late Romantic period. His best-known work was his ninth and final symphony, famously known as the “New World” Symphony. In addition to symphonies and other orchestral works, Dvořák also composed operas, concertos, sacred choral works, and a variety of chamber music and art songs, which included Gypsy Melodies, a cycle of seven songs for voice and piano, composed in 1880. “Songs My Mother Taught Me” is the fourth song in that collection, and one of Dvořák’s best-known vocal works. This Sunday, you’ll hear a piano arrangement of that piece, written by German composer and arranger Max Laistner (1853-1917).
Offertory: Thus Spake the Mother – Dunphy/Ananda
Born in Australia and raised in an immigrant family, Melissa Dunphy (b. 1980) herself immigrated to the United States in 2003 and has since become an acclaimed composer specializing in vocal, political, and theatrical music. She first came to national attention in 2009 when her large-scale work the Gonzales Cantata was featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, National Review, Fox News, and on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show”, where host Rachel Maddow described it as “the coolest thing you’ve ever seen on this show.” Dunphy’s 2018 piece “Thus Spake the Mother” was commissioned by the William & Mary Society of 1918 for the W&M Barksdale Treble Chorus (Dr. Jamie C. Bartlett, director) celebrating 100 years of treble music making at W&M. (includes material from melissadunphy.com) The lyrics for this piece are excerpted from Snow-Birds, written by Indian poet, philosopher and professor Sri Ananda (1881-1945). Anada’s text is below:
Forward! Forward! Carry my banner beyond the Boundary!
Cross the ditches, break the hedges, and march unto the Beyond!
Soar into the firmament and pluck the light of the stars,
Dive unbreathing into the billows and seize the secret of the lightless sea,
Scan and control the mighty powers that lie hidden in the soul’s unfathomed deeps.
Nature will bring her long-saved treasures to serve and nurture you,
But you shall lead Humanity by the hand with gentle, ceaseless, sweet, unasking love.
Song: Our World Is One World – Taylor
#134 in Singing the Living Tradition, “Our World Is One World” was written by British author, poet and hymnist Cecily Taylor (b. 1930), who is most famously known for Contact, her 1972 collection of poetry.
Postlude: Oh Mama Bakudala – South African Folk Song
“Oh Mama Bakudala” is a traditional gathering song that has been sung by Xhosa women in southern Africa for generations. It is typically sung at the beginning of gatherings or celebrations as an invocation to the spirits of matriarchal ancestors. The song was recorded by the American women’s a cappella ensemble Libana on their 2000 album Night Passage: Invocations for the Journey. The Xhosa lyrics (‘Oh mama babe thandaza’) roughly translate to ‘Our mothers and grandmothers from way back used to pray’.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director