Save the date: Linking Legacies concert rescheduled for May 14th
Be sure to join us in the UUCC Sanctuary at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 14th for Linking Legacies, a free concert celebrating the music of Black composers and performers with a connection to Northeast Ohio. Click here for more information about this very special musical event!
Music Notes – Sunday, April 9th:
This week’s musicians are The Chancel Choir and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
Opening Hymn: #1031 Filled with Loving Kindness – Hayes/Riddell
Based on a traditional Buddhist meditation, “Filled with Loving Kindness” was written in 2001 by UU Minister and Musician Ian Riddell (b.1968) for the installation of Rev. Mark W. Hayes (b. 1949) at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Centre County in State College, Pennsylvania. The song is #1031 in our Singing the Journey hymnbook.
Sung Meditation: #1011 Return Again – Carlebach
Written by Rabbi Shalome Carlebach (1925-1994, also known as Reb Shlomo), “Return Again” (#1011 in our Singing the Journey hymnbook) comes from a musical village that Carlebach founded in Israel. The Hebrew word “tshuva,” often translated as “repentance” during Yom Kippur, literally means “return.” This has a deeply spiritual sense of coming back to the source of our being to re-establish right relationship with yourself and others. (from uua.org)
Sung Meditation: Meditation on Breathing – Jones
#1009 in our Singing the Journey hymnbook, “Meditation on Breathing” is more of an interactive mantra and centering than it is a hymn in the traditional sense. There are three written parts in the score, but participants are also encouraged to improvise and branch off to find their own way within the group meditation. UU musician and songwriter Sarah Dan Jones (b. 1962) composed “Meditation on Breathing” in 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Offertory Music: Vieni Spirito Creatore – Berthier
French composer and organist Jacques Berthier (1923-1994) served as organist for the Church of St. Ignatius in Paris for over 30 years and wrote a great deal of sacred music for organ and chorus. In 1975, the brothers of Taizé (a monastic community in the south of France) charged Berthier to “write simple chants to be sung by the young folk who come every summer to Taizé from every part of the world.” Berthier’s resulting collection of simple, heartfelt music makes its true effect through calm repetition, and is intended as an aid to meditation. “Vieni Spirito Creatore” (Come and Pray in Us, Holy Spirit) is one of four Taizé songs written by Berthier that are included in our Singing the Journey hymnbook.
Postlude: Turn the World Around – Belafonte and Freeman
When legendary Jamaican-American musician, songwriter, and activist Harry Belafonte (b. 1927) was the guest star on a season 3 episode of The Muppet Show in 1979, he explained the inspiration for “Turn the World Around” before performing the song with various Muppets in African garb. Belafonte said: “I discovered that song in the African country of Guinea. I went deep into the interior of the country, and in a little village, I met with a storyteller. That storyteller went way back in African tradition and African mythology and began to tell this story about the fire, the sun, the water, the Earth”. Belafonte pointed out the whole of these things put together turns the world around – that all of us are here for a very, very short time. In that time that we’re here, there really isn’t any difference in any of us, if we take time to understand each other. The question is: “Do I know who you are, or who I am? Do we care about each other? Because if we do, together we can turn the world around.” Co-written by Belafonte with jazz performer and arranger Bob Freedman (1934-2018), “Turn the World Around” was first released in 1977 on Belafonte’s album of the same name. The song is also the final selection (#1074) in our Singing the Journey hymnbook.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director