Linking Legacies concert is this Sunday, May 14th!
Be sure to join us in the UUCC Sanctuary at 1:00 p.m. this 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, May 14th:
This week’s musicians are UUCC Music Director Mike Carney, Karl Hunsaker, The Chancel Choir, and violist Christopher Jenkins
About Sunday’s guest musician:
Chris Jenkins, Associate Dean for Academic Support at Oberlin Conservatory, is an educator, administrator, and performing violist. At Oberlin, he is a Deputy Title IX Coordinator and Conservatory Liaison to the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, as well as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Musicology. He was Deputy Director and professor of viola and violin at the Barenboim-Said Foundation in Ramallah, West Bank, from 2013-14, and served as Dean of the Sphinx Performance Academy’s summer music program for minority youth. His international engagement has included performances and teaching in Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Israel, China, Colombia, and South Africa. In the summer of 2017, he served as a guest artist and teacher at the Afghan National Institute of Music in Kabul, Afghanistan. He is currently earning a DMA in viola performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a PhD in Historical Musicology from Case Western Reserve, where his work focuses on the music of African American composers. His alma maters include Harvard University, New England Conservatory, and the Manhattan School of Music.
Opening Hymn: #357 Bright Morning Stars – Appalachian Folk song
“Bright Morning Stars” is an Appalachian spiritual that may also have roots in Irish or Scottish folk music. The exact origins of the song are lost to history, but it has become a popular choice in modern hymnals, including our own Singing the Living Tradition (#357), and has been recorded by many folk and popular artists, including The Seeger Sisters, The Wailin’ Jennys and Judy Collins.
Centering Music: O virtus sapientiae (O Strength of Wisdom) – Hildegard von Bingen
Hildegard von Bingen (ca. 1098-1179), also known as St. Hildegard or Sybil of the Rhine, was a Medieval musician, abbess, mystic, writer, linguist, philosopher, and healer who was undisputedly one of history’s most remarkable women. Theologically, Hildegard managed to bridge the gap between Benedictine Catholicism and earth-centered mysticism, which is no easy feat in our modern world, let alone in the European society of nearly 1000 years ago when Hildegard was alive. Her music was far ahead of its time, employing large melodic leaps and complex melismatic passages, as well as dramatic mirroring of music to lyrics. Hildegard’s compositions are also remarkable in the fact that she wrote her own original texts rather than setting Psalms or other Biblical verses, and that she composed sacred music for women’s voices, both of which were highly unusual practices during the 12th century. “O virtus sapientiae” comes from Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum (Symphony of the Harmony of Heavenly Revelations), a collection of 77 original lyric poems, each set to music by Hildegard herself, believed to have been written between 1140-1160 C.E.
Special Music: Take Five – Brubeck
American pianist and composer Dave Brubeck (1920-2012) was once called a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress. Brubeck’s experiments with odd time signatures, improvised counterpoint, polyrhythm and polytonality remain hallmarks of innovation. (from davebrubeck.com) The son of a classically trained pianist, Brubeck pushed the boundaries of music, frequently blending jazz with elements of classical and world music. A Kennedy Center Honoree, a recipient of the National Medal of the Arts and a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, Brubeck was most famously known for his groundbreaking 1961 album Time Out, which included the jazz standard “Take Five” and would become the first jazz album ever to sell more than a million copies.
Offertory: Psalm 23 – McFerrin
Bobby McFerrin (b. 1950) is a celebrated American vocal jazz musician and ten-time Grammy Award winner. His choral setting of Psalm 23 was released on his 1990 album Medicine Music and is #1038 in Singing the Journey. In an interview with Omega Institute, McFerrin said: “The 23rd Psalm is dedicated to my mother. She was the driving force in my religious and spiritual education, and I have so many memories of her singing in church…I realized one of the ways we’re shown a glimpse of how God loves us is through our mothers. They cherish our spirits, they demand that we become our best selves, and they take care of us.”
Closing Hymn: May Your Life Be as a Song – Russian folk melody, arr. Scott
#1059 in our Singing the Journey hymnal, “May Your Life Be as a Song” is an adaptation of a Russian folk melody, created by UU composer, performer, activist, and friend of UUCC Jim Scott (b. 1946). Jim is also responsible for several other songs found in our hymnbooks, including “Gather the Spirit” and “Nothing but Peace Is Enough”.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director