This Sunday’s Musicians are:
The Chancel Choir and The Women’s Ensemble
Amy Collins, vocal soloist
Aaron Burkle and Alicia Burkle, percussion
Greg Hillis, Will Legare, and Max Michael, trumpet
Brendan Loeb and Brad Speck, trombone, Sam Russ, Tuba
UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
About Sunday’s guest musicians:
Greg Hillis serves as the Principal Horn of the Firelands Symphony Orchestra and Third Horn of the Lima Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared with the Cleveland Pops, Youngstown Symphony, and other area orchestras and is a member of Olympic Brass and the Diamond Brass Quintet. Mr. Hillis is the founder and executive director of Snowbelt Musical Arts Association and conductor of its Snowbelt Symphony Orchestra, Lake Effect Concert Band, and Blizzard Youth Winds.
Will Legare is excited to be playing trumpet today for UUCC. He was born in the UK and is a Canadian citizen, but spent his high school years in Northeast Ohio. Will is the Vice President of the Cleveland Pride Band and a member of the University Heights Symphonic Band. He routinely plays in pit orchestras for local theaters as well, most recently for a production of Hello Dolly! which featured Broadway’s Jennifer Simard and Emmy-winning producer Jeff Richmond. When Will isn’t busy playing music, he works as a Clinical Systems Analyst for the Cleveland Clinic.
Brendan Loeb is a freelance trombonist and teacher in the Northeast Ohio area. He has performed alongside and studied with some of the world’s most talented trombonists at festivals such as the Third Coast Trombone Retreat and the International Trombone Summit. An Akron native, Brendan earned a Bachelor of Music from Baldwin Wallace University, where he studied with Richard Stout. He received his Master of Music from West Virginia University, where he studied with Hakeem Bilal. Brendan can be found regularly performing with local groups such as The Akron Big Band and the recently formed Video Game Symphony.
Max Michael is a versatile multi-instrumentalist who plays the trumpet as his main instrument. He is a regular performer in local community theater musicals, where he joins the pit orchestra. He also plays the solo chair trumpet in the Swing Time Big Band, where he is a full-time member. In his day job, he is a software developer.
Sam Russ is a fifth year dual-degree student at Oberlin College and Conservatory, pursuing degrees in Tuba Performance and Classics. He has performed extensively with Oberlin Conservatory ensembles, and has performed across a wide variety of genres. A native of Midcoast Maine, Sam enjoys spending time outdoors running and kayaking. His teachers include David Saltzman of the Toledo Symphony and Dennis Nulty of the Detroit Symphony.
Cleveland native Bradley Speck holds a BA in Theatre/Dance/Music from Ohio University. He currently plays in and serves as President for the Cleveland Pride Band. Some of his recent performances include Parma Symphony Orchestra, Forest City Brass, and various pit orchestras throughout Northeast Ohio. Some highlights include playing trombone in the critically acclaimed production of Cabaret at Koliepie Stage in Cleveland Heights. Brad also works as a director and choreographer in the theater and concert dance world. When not playing his trombone (or tuba), he is a realtor with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, where he has the distinction of having starred in over four episodes of the hit HGTV show House Hunters.
Music Notes – Sunday, December 17th:
Prelude: A Christmas Quodlibet – Fasshauer
“A Christmas Quodlibet” is a 2015 composition for brass instruments by German composer and musicologist Tobias Fasshauer (b. 1966). A quodlibet is a type of composition wherein multiple melodies (often folk songs) are woven together in various combinations.
Opening Hymn: #226 People, Look East – French tune/Farjeon
The words for the now-familiar advent hymn “People, Look East” were written by British poet and author Eleanor Farjean (1881-1965), who is also the author of “Morning Has Broken”. Farjean’s setting was first published in 1928 in The Oxford Book of Carols under the title “Carol of Advent”, and is now found in hundreds of hymnbooks, including our own Singing the Living Tradition (#226). The melody, based on a traditional French hymn tune known as Besançon, dates to at least the late 19th century.
Special Music: The Time Draws Near – Chilcott/Tennyson
And Peace on Earth is a 2006 cantata by British composer, conductor, and performer Bob Chilcott (b. 1955). Chilcott has enjoyed a lifelong association with choral music, as a chorister and choral scholar in the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and as a member of the King’s Singers. He became a full-time composer and conductor in 1997, and has composed a large catalogue of choral music. Chilcott has directed choirs in more than 30 countries worldwide and conducts many thousands of amateur singers in a continuing series of Singing Days. Since 2002, he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Singers and since 2019 the Principal Conductor of Birmingham University Singers. (from bobchilcott.com) “The Time Draws Near” is the opening movement from And Peace on Earth, and is a setting of words of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), excerpted from his larger poem In Memoriam A.H.H, written as an elegy for Tennyson’s Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam. Tennyson’s words are:
The time draws near the birth of Christ:
The moon is hid; the night is still;
The Christmas bells from hill to hill
Answer each other in the mist.
Four voices of four hamlets round,
From far and near, on mead and moor,
Swell out and fail, as if a door
Were shut between me and the sound:
Each voice four changes on the wind,
That now dilate, and now decrease,
Peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace,
Peace and goodwill, to all mankind.
This year I slept and woke with pain,
I almost wish’d no more to wake,
And that my hold on life would break
Before I heard those bells again:
But they my troubled spirit rule,
For they controll’d me when a boy;
They bring me sorrow touch’d with joy,
The merry merry bells of Yule.
Centering Music: Angels We Have Heard on High – French Carol, arr. Smith
One of the most beloved of sacred Christmas Carols, “Angels We Have Heard on High” started with a French folk carol known as “Les Anges dans nos campagnes”, which describes the chorus of angels singing in celebration of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. The arrangement for brass instruments and organ you’ll hear this Sunday was written in 2008 for The Cathedral Brass by Canadian trumpeter and composer Michel David Rondeau (b. 1948).
Offertory music: Good Day, Sir Christemas – Chilcott
This lively piece is the second movement from Bob Chilcott’s And Peace on Earth. The anonymous British text* dates back to at least the mid-15th century and has been set by numerous composers. To highlight the bright, bubbly lyrical elements, Chilcott sets “Good Day, Sir Christemas” for treble voices and uses a lively tempo with uneven meter, which seems to reflect the excitement of children who cannot sit still with the thought of the holiday in their heads. On Sunday, this movement from And Peace on Earth will be sung by UUCC’s Women’s Ensemble.
*Good day, good day,
My Lord, good day!
Good day, Sir Christemas, our king,
For everyone, both old and young,
Is glad and blithe of your coming; Good day!
God’s son so much of might
From heaven to earth down is light
And born is of a maid so bright; Good day!
Heaven and earth resound and swell,
And alle people here that dwell,
Of your coming they are full snelle; [are aware and glad]
Good day!
Of your coming the clerks find:
Ye come to save humankind
And of here balys [sorrows] them unbind;
Good day!
All manner of mirths we will make
And solace to our hearts take,
My seemly lord, for your sake. Good day, good day!
Special Music: This Endris Night – Chilcott
“This Endris Night” is the third movement from And Peace on Earth. Here, Chilcott sets an anonymous 15th-century poem which describes a quiet conversation between Mary and her newborn child. His setting is for choir with soloist, accompanied by piano and brass instruments. This Sunday, you’ll hear “This Endris Night” sung by UUCC’s Chancel Choir and soloist Amy Collins, accompanied by Karin Tooley and our guest instrumentalists. Here is the anonymous poem Chilcott’s setting is based upon:
This endris [other] night I saw a sight,
A star as bright as day;
And ever among a maiden sung,Lullay, by by, lullay.
This lovely lady sat and sung,
And to her Child did say:My Son, my Brother, Father, dear,
Why liest Thou thus in hay?
My sweetest bird, thus ’tis required,
Though Thou be King veray.
But nevertheless I will not cease
To sing, By by, lullay.
The Child then spake in His talking,
And to his mother said:
“Yea, I am known as Heaven-King,
In crib though I be laid.
For angels bright down to me light,
Thou knowest ’tis no nay,
And for that sight thou may’st delight
To sing, By by, lullay.
“Now tell, sweet Son, I Thee do pray,
Thou art my Love and Dear—
How should I keep thee to thy pay
And make Thee glad of cheer?
For all Thy will I would fulfill—
Thou knowest well, in fay [faith]
And for all this I will Thee kiss,
And sing, By by, lullay.
“My dear mother, when time it be,
Take thou me up on loft,
And set me then upon thy knee,
And handle me full soft.
And in thy arm thou hold me warm,
And keep me night and day,
And if I weep, and may not sleep,
Thou sing, By by, lullay.
“Now sweet Son, since it is come so,
That all is at Thy will,
I pray Thee grant to me a boon
If it be right and skill.
That child or man, who will or can
Be merry on my day,
To bliss Thou bring—and I shall sing,
Lullay, by by, lullay.
Special Music: Put Memory Away – Chilcott
The fourth movement from And Peace on Earth is “Put Memory Away”, a lush choral/instrumental setting of words from English poet Elizabeth Jennings (1926-2001). In this carol, Chilcott uses close harmonies and gently flowing rhythm to bring us into the manger to experience the mystery of birth and rebirth. Jennings’ words are:
Put memory away. Today is new.
Carols and bells ring out and take the year
Into their power. They cast out pain and fear
For everyone and you.
Put memory away. Soft sounds are rocking
A newborn child laid in a cradle made
For animals to eat from. Grace is said.
A child puts out a stocking.
Put memory away and watch a world
Grown almost still because a baby can
Convince us he is born of God and man.
The world’s no longer old.
Put memory away. Tonight is Now.
And new as children’s hopes and old mens eyes
Soon Kings will come and they are rich and wise
But to a child will bow.
Put memory away and have no fear.
A star is shining on a joyful sight.
A young girl’s Child is born to us tonight
And casts out pain and war.
Closing Hymn: #238 Within the Shining of a Star – Angebrannt/Lehman
#238 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal, “Within the Shining of a Star” is a sweet and simple Christmas carol with words by Robert S. Lehman (1913-1997), a UU minister originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, and music by Betsy Jo Angebrannt (1931-2018), who was a UU pianist, music educator, choral director, and composer of songs and musicals. As a composer and arranger, Ms. Angebrannt is responsible for no fewer than seven hymns in Singing the Living Tradition.
Postlude: Run, Shepherds, Run – Chilcott
The upbeat and rollicking “Run, Shepherds, Run” is the fifth and final movement of And Peace on Earth. Although the text* comes from 16th-century Scottish poet William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585-1649), Chilcott’s setting calls upon the modern musical styles of gospel, rhythm & blues, and rock to drive home the joy and wonder experienced by those who have witnessed a miracle. Our Chancel Choir and instrumentalists will be joined by UUCC pianist Karin Tooley, Aaron Burkle on drums, and vocal solos from Amy Collins and Leon Michaud. This is music to get you dancing in the aisles!
Run, Shepherds, run where Bethlehem blest appears,
We bring the best of news, be not dismayed:
A baby there is born, more old than years
Amidst Heaven’s rolling heights this earth who stayed;
In a poor cottage inned, a virgin maid,
A weakling did Him bear, who all upbears,
There is He poorly swaddled, in a manger laid
To whom too narrow swaddlings are our spheres:
Run, Shepherds, run, and solemnize His birth.
This is that night — no, day grown great with bliss,
In which the power of Satan broken is;
In Heaven be glory, peace unto the Earth,
Thus singing through the air the angels swam,
A cope of stars re-echoed the same.
Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth!
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director