Music Notes – Sunday, October 8th:
This Sunday’s musician is UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley
Opening Hymn: #1020 Woyaya – Amarfio, Amoa, Bailey, Bedeau, Osei, Richardson, & Tontoh
Primarily written by Ghanaian drummer Sol Amarifio (b. 1938), “Woyaya” (also known as “We Are Going” or “Heaven Knows”) is the title song of a 1971 album by Oisibisa, a group of Ghanaian and Caribbean musicians. The song was frequently heard in work camps throughout central West Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. The word “Woyaya” has no literal English translation but can have multiple meanings, as is the case with many scat syllables, which are a common feature in West African music. The arrangement of “Woyaya” used in our service (and appearing as #1020 in our Singing the Journey hymnbook) comes from Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Centering Music: Solace – Joplin
Scott Joplin (c. 1868-1917) was an African American composer and pianist who became known as the King of Ragtime for his popular tunes such as “Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer”. Joplin also composed a ballet and two operas, but never achieved recognition as a ‘serious’ composer, largely because of the racism inherent in the American cultural landscape during his lifetime. Composed in 1909, “Solace” (subtitled “A Mexican Serenade”) is more in slow drag than ragtime style and is the only piece Joplin wrote using tango rhythms.
Offertory music: Land of Romance (II) from Africa – Still
Born in Mississippi and raised in Arkansas, William Grant Still, Jr. (1895-1978) was an American composer whose nearly 200 works include five symphonies and nine operas along with ballet scores, chamber music, choral works, and more. An alumnus of Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, Still is sometimes referred to as the “Dean of African American Composers”, as he was the first African American to have an opera performed by a major opera company, first to have a symphony performed by a leading orchestra, and first to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, among many other achievements. “Land of Romance” is the middle section of a three-movement symphonic poem by Still titled Africa. Written in 1930 for chamber orchestra, Africa was later adapted for solo piano. This Sunday, you’ll hear UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley play an excerpt from this powerful work.
Closing Hymn: #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)
Postlude: The Human Heart – Flaherty and Ahrens
“The Human Heart” is a song written by lyricist Lynn Ahrens (b. 1948) and composer Stephen Flaherty (b. 1960) for their 1990 musical Once on This Island, which was critically acclaimed but had limited commercial success. Flaherty and Ahrens are also the songwriting team behind several other Broadway musicals, including Ragtime (1996) and Seussical (2000) as well as the 1997 animated film Anastasia, which was also adapted into a stage musical in 2017.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director
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