Next Thursday, March 28th – free classical guitar concert in our sanctuary!
Come join us next Thursday, March 28th at 7:00 p.m. for a free classical guitar performance by Suvan Agarwal, an award-winning graduate student at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Mr. Agarwal will be performing works of Bach and Schumann. More information is available at this link – I hope to see you there!
Music Notes – Sunday, March 24th:
This week’s musician is UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley
Opening Hymn: #300 With Heart and Mind – Schein/Carpenter
#300 in Singing the Living Tradition, “With Heart and Mind” is a hymn that juxtaposes a centuries-old chorale melody with a contemporary text. Originally known as “Machs mit mir Gott”, the tune was written by German Baroque composer Johann Schein (1586-1630) and later harmonized by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). This melody has been set to numerous texts and published in over 25 hymnals of various denominations. In Singing the Living Tradition, the tune is paired with a 20th-century text by UU songwriter Alicia Carpenter (1930-2021). “With Heart and Mind” is one of 10 hymns in Singing the Living Tradition that were written or co-written by Ms. Carpenter. Some of her other contributions to our hymnal include #6 “Just as Long as I Have Breath” and #360 “Here We Have Gathered”.
Centering Music: Metamorphosis Three – Glass
Offertory Music: Metamorphosis Two – Glass
A native of Baltimore, American composer Philip Glass (b. 1937) is one of the most influential musicians of the last 50 years. Due to his frequent use of sparse instrumentation and repetitive elements, he is often classified as a minimalist composer, but Glass himself has rejected that label, feeling it does not take his full range of compositional language into account. Although he often uses modern rhythmic and harmonic elements, Glass’s music typically follows organized patterns of formal structure that would not be out of place in the music of Bach or Haydn. Glass composed his five piano compositions titled Metamorphosis 1-5 in 1988, and has stated that these works refer to and were inspired by the 1915 short story The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka.
Closing Hymn: #121 We’ll Build a Land – McDade and Zanotti
“We’ll Build a Land” (Singing the Living Tradition #121) is one of the best-known and most beloved UU Hymns. The song was written by Carolyn McDade (b. 1935), a self-described songwriter, spiritual feminist, and social activist, who is also the composer of other UU favorites like “Spirit of Life”, “Come, Sing a Song with Me”, and “Rising Green”. The words, written by Barbara Zanotti, are paraphrased from the Old Testament books of Amos and Isaiah.
Postlude: Changes – Bowie
Born David Robert Jones, David Bowie (1947-2016) was a British musician, actor, and songwriter who was undoubtedly one of the most interesting and significant figures of popular culture in the 20th century. Bowie helped to pioneer progressive rock, glam rock, and electronica, and his iconic style and stagecraft were as influential as his music. He was one of the most successful musical artists of all time, selling well over 100 million records to date, including 11 #1 albums. Bowie was a six-time Grammy Award-winner, and received numerous other accolades, including a Saturn Award, multiple BRIT and MTV Music Awards, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. “Changes” was originally released on the 1971 album Hunky Dory, and is widely regarded as one of Bowie’s greatest songs, appearing on Ultimate Classic Rock’s list of the “Top 200 Songs of the 1970s”, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, and on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director