Put one foot in front of the other, and Lead with Love! UU songleader, composer, and activist Melanie DeMore will lead a free all-ages community sing at UUCC on May 18th!
We are proud to be welcoming Oakland-based songleader and composer Melanie DeMore to UUCC later this month! Come join us at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 18th for a free community sing, open to all ages and experience levels. Melanie will also be co-leading our worship service at 10:15 a.m. on Sunday, May 19th.
Music Notes – Sunday, May 5th:
This Sunday’s musicians are The Chancel Choir, The Women’s Ensemble, and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
Opening Hymn: #366 Heleluyan – Muscogee (Creek) song
#366 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal, “Heleluyan” (Hallelujah) is a folk song from the Muscogee Creek hymn tradition, believed to have originated in the early 19th century. In a 2014 story on NPR’s All Things Considered, Dr. Hugh Foley, a fine arts instructor and Native American history professor at Rogers State University in Claremore, OK, explains more about this music:
“We’re talking about a pre-removal music that happened in the early 1800’s and was a combination of African spirituals, Muscogee words and perhaps some influences from their ceremonial songs and then all that being started by the Scottish missionaries who bring in Christianity and their own singing style. All three of those merge into what we now know as Muscogee Creek hymns which are a unique musical product in American and world music history.”
Centering Music: Hallelujah – Cohen, arr. Lawson
Canadian artist Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) was well-respected and honored both as an author and as a musician. Cohen enjoyed only modest success as a performer, but his lasting influence on the world of music is for his songwriting. Among other honors, Cohen was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and received the ninth Glenn Gould Prize. First recorded by Cohen himself in 1984, “Hallelujah” is now undoubtedly his most famous song, partially due to it being featured on the soundtrack of the hit movie Shrek in 2001. “Hallelujah” is one of the most widely covered songs ever written, having been performed by well over 300 other artists to date. The a cappella arrangement you’ll hear on Sunday was written in 1995 by Philip Lawson (b. 1957) for The King’s Singers.
Offertory Music: Alleluia – Mozart, arr. Daniels
Exsultate, Jubilate (K. 165) is a motet by renowned Classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). The well-known setting of “Alleluia” is Exsultate, Jubilate’s fourth and final movement, composed in January of 1773 shortly before Mozart’s 16th birthday. The arrangement for treble voices and piano which you’ll hear on Sunday is by American musician and composer Jay Daniels.
Closing Hymn: #1050 Jazz Alleluia – Benjamin
Thomas Benjamin (b. 1940) is a celebrated UU composer and retired professor of music theory and composition. Dr. Benjamin is a frequent contributor to both Singing the Living Tradition and Singing the Journey. “Jazz Alleluia” is Dr. Benjamin’s modern spin on the chord changes from the well-known Canon in D by Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706).
Postlude: Dance Alleluia – Freed
A native of New Jersey, American composer and performer Arnold Freed (1926-2019) wrote music for film and television, as well as instrumental chamber works and choral music. Freed’s 1971 “Dance Alleluia” combines several independent melodies and rhythmic patterns to create a musical tapestry of celebration, reflective of its one-word lyrical expression: “Alleluia!”
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director
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