Music Notes – Sunday, July 12th:
This Sunday’s musicians are Dana Bjorklund, Lucy Carney, and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
About Sunday’s guest musicians:
Dana Bjorklund discovered a love for the French horn in 2017, finding resonance in its mellow and dark tones. Dana plays a range of music from classical to contemporary, and is a member of the Euclid Symphony Orchestra. Alongside her obsession with the French horn, Dana enjoys spending time with Linda Coulter, her spouse of 31 years and their dog Raj. Her friendship with Lucy Carney began with their careers first as directors of religious education, then librarians, and now musicians. They are excited to be sharing their music with the UU Congregation of Cleveland.
Lucy Carney began making music at a young age, playing the piano for school choirs and singing with her family in Grafton, Ohio. She met our music director Mike Carney when they were both studying at the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music, and she has served as piano accompanist for many of Mike’s groups (including the UUCC Chancel Choir) as well as playing and singing for others, including her longtime friend Dana Bjorklund.
Centering Music, Joys and Concerns, and Offertory: Sonatina for Horn and Piano – Gipps
Ruth Gipps MBE (1921-1999) was an English composer, conductor, performer, and music educator. She primarily composed smaller choral works and chamber music, but also wrote a number of symphonies, concertos, and tone poems for full orchestra. She founded both the London Repertoire Orchestra and the Chanticleer Orchestra and served for several years as chairwoman of the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain, now known as The Ivors Academy. Gipps also had a distinguished career as an educator, serving on the faculty of both Trinity College London and the Royal College of Music. In this Sunday’s service, you’ll hear Dana and Lucy play each of the three movements from Gipps’s Sonatina for Horn and Piano (Op. 56), one of her better-known chamber works, written and published in 1960.
Song: Reeb Benediction – Riddell
The Reeb Benediction (also called The Reeb Children’s Benediction) was written in 2007 by UU Minister and Musician Ian Riddell (b.1968). It is a simple and sweet parting song, so named because it was originally sung at the James Reeb UU Congregation in Madison, Wisconsin – named in honor of Rev. James Reeb (1927-1965) who was murdered in Selma, Alabama in 1965 for his role in supporting the Civil Rights Movement.
Song: Woyaya – Amarfio, Amoa, Bailey, Bedeau, Osei, Richardson, & Tontoh
Primarily written by Ghanaian drummer Sol Amarifio (1938-2022), “Woyaya” (also known as “We Are Going” or “Heaven Knows”) is the title song of a 1971 album by Oisibisa, a group of Ghanaian and Caribbean musicians. The song was frequently heard in work camps throughout central West Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. The word “Woyaya” has no literal English translation but can have multiple meanings, as is the case with many scat syllables (a common feature of West African music). The arrangement of “Woyaya” used in our service (and appearing as #1020 in our Singing the Journey hymnbook) comes from Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Song: We Will Carry Each Other – Austenfeld
Soren Austenfeld (b. 1993, he/they) is a singer, voice educator, music director, and composer. He is currently the Music Director at First Parish in Malden, Universalist in the Boston area. Written in 2023, “We Will Carry Each Other” is a song of solidarity and hope, its lyrics drawing inspiration from the composer’s conversations with UU colleagues and friends. “We Will Carry Each Other” was included in the Service of the Living Tradition at the 2024 General Assembly.
Postlude: Scherzo (II) from Serenade No. 1 in D Major – Brahms
German composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was one of the most important figures of the European Romantic Period. Brahms wrote both instrumental and vocal music in a wide variety of forms, from symphonies and major choral works to a plethora of chamber music for many different combinations of instruments and voices. Completed in 1858, Brahms’s Serenade No. 1 (op. 11) was originally composed for string nonet and then adapted by the composer for full orchestra the following year. This Sunday, you’ll hear an arrangement of the second movement (Scherzo) of six from Serenade No. 1, arranged for French horn and piano.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director