Music Notes – Sunday, July 14th:
This Sunday’s musicians are Abs Burkle, Alicia Burkle, Ethan Levy, and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
About Sunday’s guest musicians:
Abs and Alicia Burkle have been members of UUCC since 2017. Abs is a rising Junior at Cleveland Heights High School where they participate in the Vocal Music Department and Drama Department programs. Abs sang with the Cleveland Orchestra Children’s and Youth Choruses from 6th-10th grade and enjoys performing in musical theater productions as well. Most recently Abs played the role of the Wicked Stepmother in Into the Woods and is currently rehearsing the role of Mama Bear for Shrek the Musical, both with Heights Youth Theater.
Alicia has been musical all of her life as well. She has been playing the piano and singing recreationally since she was a young child. As a young adult, Alicia spent 11 years as a musician in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard playing clarinet, piano, and singing. After having children, she completed her enlistment and has enjoyed singing and playing the piano on occasion here at UUCC over the past several years.
Ethan Levy is entering fifth grade at Moreland Hills Elementary School. He lives with his mother, father, younger sister, and their dog in Orange Village, Ohio. Ethan received his first violin on his seventh birthday and has been diligently practicing ever since. Ethan enjoys playing a variety of music, though most of all, Star Wars and Harry Potter. Ethan is a soccer enthusiast, and he dreams of meeting his hero, Lionel Messi.
Prelude: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee (Beethoven) and Judas Maccabeus (Handel)
“Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” (also known as “Ode to Joy”) is a familiar and well-loved melody, not just in Unitarian Universalist congregations (where it is #29 in Singing the Living Tradition), but in hundreds of concert halls and worship spaces around the world. The triumphant tune is from the final movement of Symphony #9 by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), and it is no exaggeration to say it is among the most famous melodies ever composed.
German-English composer George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) was one of the most important and influential figures of the Baroque Era. Although best known for his operas and oratorios such as Messiah, Handel wrote a wide variety of compositions throughout his long career, ranging from works for solo performers and duets to large-scale orchestral and choral works. The second half of this Sunday’s prelude is a violin-piano arrangement of the overture melody from one of Handel’s best-known works: the 1746 oratorio Judas Maccabaeus.
Opening Song: #347 Gather the Spirit – Scott
#347 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal, “Gather the Spirit” is one of the most familiar and well-loved hymns of our UU faith. The song was written by UU composer, performer, activist, and friend of UUCC Jim Scott (b. 1946), who also wrote and arranged several other songs found in our hymnbooks, including “May Your Life Be as a Song” and “Nothing but Peace Is Enough”.
Centering Music: Letter to my 13-Year-Old Self – Laufey
Laufey Lín Bing Jónsdóttir (b. 1999), professionally known simply as Laufey, is a singer-songwriter and music producer from Iceland. Laufey’s career began as a teenager when she was a finalist in the 2014 season of Iceland’s Got Talent, and a semi-finalist in the 2015 season of The Voice Iceland. Laufey’s career went international in the early 2020s when her albums Everything I Know (2022) and Bewitched (2023) received critical acclaim (Bewitched won Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the 2024 Grammy Awards) and charted in the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere. “Letter to My 13-Year-Old Self” is the second-last track of Bewitched, and in it, Laufey offers words of encouragement and love to her adolescent self, affirming that she is beautiful and worthy exactly as she is.
Offertory: It’s You I Like – Rogers
Born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Fred Rogers (1928-2003) was one of the most influential and significant figures in American television history. Rogers created and hosted the children’s television series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, which ran for more than 30 years, achieving both popularity and critical acclaim, particularly for focusing on children’s emotional health and for tackling complex issues such as death and divorce. Rogers’ remarkable career earned numerous accolades, including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award (1997) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2002). One lesser-known fact about Fred Rogers is that he was a classically trained pianist and composer, earning a bachelor’s degree in music from Rollins College in 1951. Written by Rogers in 1971, “It’s You I Like” became one of the best-loved songs featured on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and its message of affirmation and care still ring true today. “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and “Sometimes People Are Good” (both written in 1967) are two more of the over 200 original songs Rogers wrote and performed for Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
Song: #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)
Song: This Little Light of Mine
“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: God Help the Outcasts – Menken and Schwartz
“God Help the Outcasts” is a ballad from the 1996 Disney animated movie musical The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which was adapted into a stage musical in 2014. The song was written by two of the biggest names in American Musical Theatre. The music is by Alan Menken (b. 1949), known for composing the songs for many live and movie musicals, famously including Little Shop of Horrors, Newsies, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast. Menken is one of only nineteen EGOT members, meaning he has won at least one Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. The lyrics for “God Help the Outcasts” were written by multi-Oscar and Grammy Award winning composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz (b. 1948), who is best known for his work on Broadway musicals Godspell, Pippin, and Wicked.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director