Music Notes – Sunday, June 28th:
This Sunday’s musician is UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley.
Centering Music: 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.
Song: Heart Opening Song – Partain
“Heart Opening Song” is an original composition by UUCC Minister Rev. Randy Partain. In Randy’s own words: “In May of 2022, I attended the Spiritual Directors International conference in Santa Fe. Pat McCabe led a morning ceremony each day. One morning, she introduced a “heart-opening song” drawn from her Diné (Navajo) tradition. Participating in this beautiful communal song, the thought occurred to me that it would be wonderful to bring this song back to the congregation I serve. This thought was immediately followed by an awareness of how inappropriate this appropriation would be. So, in the open-hearted space of that morning’s plenary session, I conceived a more appropriate heart opening song in preparation for our summer series on Connection.” In 2025, Rev. Randy’s song was selected to be one of the first songs in the UUA’s Sing Out Love virtual hymnal.
Joys and Concerns Music: Gnossienne No. 2 – Satie
Offertory: Gymnopédie No. 1 – Satie
Postlude: Gymnopédie No. 2 – Satie
Erik Satie (1866-1925) was a French composer and member of the Parisian avant-garde movement of the early 20th Century. Satie disliked being labeled or categorized as an artist or as a person, and was known to refer to himself as a “gymnopedist” to defy those who attempted to pigeonhole him. His Trois Gymnopèdies, originally written for solo piano, were published starting in 1888 and were a clear departure from the Romantic Period music that was popular at the time, with their minimalist structure and deliberate use of unresolved dissonant chords. Satie’s friend and colleague Claude Debussy would later write orchestral arrangements of two of the three pieces, and Satie’s Gymnopèdies have also been arranged and recorded by many others, including versions for harp, jazz guitar, electronic instruments, and more.
Satie composed his first three Gnossiennes in the early 1890s and they were published in 1893. These pieces were even more experimental than the Gymnopèdies, frequently employing free time (music without time signatures or bar divisions) and further stretching the bounds of harmonic and rhythmic structure compared to most music of the time. Satie never explained his use of his invented term “Gnossienne” to classify these works, although two theories have emerged: many have speculated that the words is a variation of “gnosis” (‘knowledge’ in Greek), which is supported by the fact that Satie participated in gnostic sects in Paris at the time. Others claim it is a reference to a labyrinthian dance, and a similar term already existed in 19th-century French literature, describing Theseus’s victory dance upon defeating the Minotaur.
Song: Break Not the Circle – Benjamin/Kaan
One of the best-known living UU composers, Thomas Benjamin (b. 1940) remains an active performer, educator, and composer. Many of his works can be found in our Singing the Living Tradition and Singing the Journey hymnals. Published both as a composer and an author and the recipient of numerous awards, Dr. Benjamin taught for many years at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music and also taught music theory and composition at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. Benjamin wrote the music for “Break Not the Circle (#323 in Singing the Living Tradition), setting words by Dutch minister and prolific hymn writer Frederik Kaan (1929-2009).
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director