Music Notes – Sunday, January 26th:
This Sunday’s musicians are Eldreth, The Chancel Choir, and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
~~~ Be sure to arrive early, as pre-service music will begin around 10:10 this Sunday! ~~~
Prelude: It’s Been a Long, Hard Road – Eldreth
Centering Music: Seasons of Sorrow – Eldreth
Postlude: Take the Red Pill – Eldreth
These three pieces of music are all original songs by Eldreth (aka Eldreth McDonald), a familiar face – and voice – to UUCC members and friends. Eldreth is a singer/songwriter and guitarist who has been singing since preschool, playing guitar since junior high, and writing his own songs since high school. He sang in the Columbus Boys’ Choir while in elementary school and later with The Singing Angels. He sang in school and church choirs from an early age and played with several bands before he began to perform as a solo singer-songwriter. Eldreth has played in many venues, including the New Orleans Jazz Fest, the Summer Solstice Festival in Stonehenge, England, and in numerous social justice events and demonstrations across the U.S. He has opened for many other musicians, including Richard Thompson, Bunny and the Wailers, and Jimmy Cliff.
Song: #1051 We Are… (Barnwell)
#1051 in Singing the Journey, “We Are…” was composed by Ysaye Barnwell (b. 1946) for Sweet Honey in the Rock. “We Are…” was originally the last song in a suite that began with the lyric, “Lawd, it’s midnight. A dark and fear filled midnight. Lawd, it’s a midnight without stars.” Dr. Barnwell wanted to create a complete circle of experience, and so she wrote “for each child that’s born, a morning star rises…” This phrase is meant to establish hope, and it defines the uniqueness of each one of us. No matter what our race, culture or ethnicity, each one of us has been called into being and are the sum total of all who came before. In the composer’s words, “Each and every one of us stands atop a lineage that has had at its core, mothers and fathers and teachers and dreamers and shamans and healers and builders and warriors and thinkers and, and, and…so in spite of our uniqueness, we come from and share every experience that human kind has ever had. In this way, we are one. (from uua.org)
Offertory Music: We Are the Ones – Reagon
“We Are the Ones (We Been Waiting For)” is a song about justice and empowerment, originally written as tribute to the women of South Africa. The words come from renowned Jamaican American poet, teacher, and activist June Jordan (1936-2002) and were set to music by composer, song leader, and activist Bernice Johnson Reagon (b. 1942) for Sweet Honey in the Rock, the afro-feminist a cappella group she founded in 1973.
Song: We’ll Build a Land – McDade and Zanotti
“We’ll Build a Land” (Singing the Living Tradition #121) is one of the best-known and most beloved of UU Hymns. The song was written by Carolyn McDade (b. 1935), a self-described songwriter, spiritual feminist, and social activist, who is also the composer of other UU favorites like “Spirit of Life”, “Come, Sing a Song with Me”, and “Rising Green”. The words, written by Barbara Zanotti, are paraphrased from the Old Testament books of Amos and Isaiah.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director