Music Notes – Sunday, April 27th:
This Sunday’s musicians are The Chancel Choir, UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley, and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
Prelude: Ancient Mother/Morning Breeze – Native chants
This Sunday’s prelude combines two songs from our Singing the Journey hymnbook: “Ancient Mother” (#1069) and “Evening Breeze” (#1072). Both of these songs originated from or were inspired by Native American culture and music, and they can be sung individually or simultaneously as partner songs (as we’ll do on Sunday).
Song: For the Earth Forever Turning – Oler
#163 in Singing the Living Tradition, “For the Earth Forever Turning” (also known as “The Blue Green Hills of Earth”) is a song by American composer Kim Oler, who is primarily known for his work in television and on Broadway musicals. The arrangement you are hearing today is an adaptation by James Walker that was used in Missa Gaia (Earth Mass), a larger work released in 1982 by The Paul Walker Consort.
Offertory Music: The Peace of Wild Things – Szymko/Berry
Joan Szymko (b.1957) is an award-winning composer and conductor from the Pacific Northwest. With a catalog of well over 100 published choral works, her music is performed by ensembles across North America and abroad. In “The Peace of Wild Things”, Szymko creates a setting for mixed chorus and piano of the poem of the same name by American poet, author, and naturalist Wendell Berry (b. 1934).
Song: Blue Boat Home – Mayer/Prichard
A native of Minnesota, folk musician Peter Mayer (b. 1963) is a guitarist and songwriter who specializes in earth-centered music. UU congregations know and love Peter as the lyricist behind “Blue Boat Home”, which first appeared on Mayer’s album The Great Story and is #1064 in our Singing the Journey hymnbook. The melody Mayer set his inspiring words to is called “Hyfrodol”, a popular Welsh hymn tune credited to Rowland Prichard (1811-1887).
Postlude: Slender Young Birch – 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. But Dvořák was also an accomplished choral writer, composing larger works for chorus with orchestra as well as shorter standalone choral pieces. One such work is V přírodě (In Nature or Songs of Nature), Op.63 ; B.126, a cycle of five songs for unaccompanied mixed chorus composed in 1882. “Slender Young Birch” (“Vyběhla bříza běličká”) is the fourth song of the cycle, and is a joyful celebration of budding springtime.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director