This edition of Music Notes will cover both this coming Sunday (December 22nd) and Christmas Eve (next Tuesday the 24th). Scroll down for information on the music and musicians for both services.

Music Notes – Sunday, December 22^nd: 

This Sunday’s musicians are UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley and Rev. Randy Partain

Song: Let Your Soul’s Light Shine So Brightly – Morris

“Let Your Soul’s Light Shine So Brightly” is a new song by award-winning performer and composer Lea Morris (b. 1978), also known simply as LEA. Born in Baltimore to a father who toured the world playing trumpet in the funk band Black Heat and a mother who dreamed of opera while performing with her siblings in the Jones Family Gospel Singers, LEA was singing on the pulpit of the Baptist church where she grew up as soon she could speak. When she discovered the acoustic guitar as a teenager, she began teaching herself to play by writing songs. LEA’s final year in high school in Germany at a classical conservatory, where she sang with the jazz ensemble Black & White and co-wrote with the British pop trio Indigo Wild. Having shared the stage with luminaries including Odetta, Mavis Staples, Dar Williams and Anthony Hamilton, LEA performs at a far-ranging array of venues, including arts centers, universities, festivals, places of worship and beyond. She performs solo and with her band, The Moment. (includes material from thisislea.com)

Centering Music: A Rossetti Christmas – arr. Mark Hayes

A Rossetti Christmas is a piano arrangement by American pianist, conductor, and composer/arranger Mark Hayes (b. 1953), setting two texts from English poet Christina Rossetti (1830-1894). “In the Bleak Midwinter” (#241 in Singing the Living Tradition) is a lesser-known Christmas carol setting Rossetti’s words to a gentle melody written by English composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934). “Love Came Down at Christmas” is a musical setting of Rossetti’s poem of the same name.

Offertory Music: Still, Still, Still

“Still, Still, Still” is a Christmas song and lullaby that grew out of an Austrian folk melody. The carol was first published in 1865 but it probably dates back at least 50 years before that first publication.

Special Music: May I Be Light in You – Slack

“May I Be Light in You” is an original song of prayer by UU Minister Rev. Mykal Slack. Slack currently serves as the UUA’s Community Minister for Worship & Spiritual Care for Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU). He is also one of the co-founders of the Transforming Hearts Collective, an organizing ministry that helps to both co-create spaces of healing and spiritual resiliency for queer and trans/nonbinary folks and resource congregations in the work of radical welcome and culture shift. (includes material from uua.org)

This Little Light of Mine – African American Spiritual

“This Little Light of Mine” is an African American gospel song whose origins are unknown. The song first began appearing in church and school settings during the 1920s and 1930s. Interestingly, the first few known instances of the song being performed are scattered around the United States, from Illinois to Texas to Montana to Missouri, so we cannot even say with any certainty in which particular city or region the song originated. Today, “This Little Light of Mine” is sung all over the world and is found in dozens of hymnals, including our own Singing the Living Tradition (#118).

Postlude: Here Comes the Sun – Harrison   

“Here Comes the Sun” is one of the most recognizable and iconic of the many songs recorded by The Beatles. The song was written by George Harrison (1943-2001) in the spring of 1969 while staying at the home of Eric Clapton. In interviews, Harrison indicated the song was inspired by his joy in reaching the end of a particularly harsh English winter as well as a feeling of hopefulness that he and his fellow Beatles would be able to set aside their differences and recapture their lost enthusiasm for making music together. Spring arrived right on time in 1969 England, but unfortunately, Harrison’s optimism about his band did not blossom. “Here Comes the Sun” was released on Abbey Road, which would be The Beatles’ second-last album before breaking up the following year.