Multigen Pickup Choir this Sunday!
You’re invited to join our postlude this Sunday, which will be a simple and fun chant called “We All Fly Like Eagles”. I’ll lead the song, but I need some help from additional singers and drummers. If you’d like to be part of the song, there’s no need to come the church early or prepare anything in advance, just come forward and join in this Sunday after the benediction. All ages and experience levels are welcome, just don’t forget to bring your voice! Drums and shakers will be provided for all who want to participate in that way (or you can bring your own instrument if you prefer). I look forward to singing and drumming with you on Sunday!
-Mike Carney
Music Notes – Sunday, August 4th:
This Sunday’s musicians are UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley and The Multigen Choir
Opening song: We Celebrate the Web of Life – Carpenter/American folk tune
The words for “We Celebrate the Web of Life” (#175 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal) were written by UU songwriter and activist Alicia S. Carpenter (1930-2021). Carpenter authored no fewer than 10 of the songs in our ‘big’ hymnal, including “Here We Have Gathered” (#360), “Just as Long as I Have Breath (#6), and “With Heart and Mind” (#300). The melody we’ll use to set those words this Sunday was originally titled “New Prospect”, but soon took on the name of its best-known hymn setting, “O Land of Rest! For Thee I Sigh”. The tune appears three times in Singing the Living Tradition, as #70 “Heap High the Farmer’s Wintry Hoard”, #277 “When We Wend Homeward”, and as #299 “Make Channels for the Streams of Love”.
Centering Music: And Dream of Sheep – Bush
Kate Bush (b. 1958) is a British singer-songwriter and producer whose music is difficult to categorize, spanning genres from rock to pop to electronica to experimental art music. When her debut single “Wuthering Heights” reached #1 on the U.K. charts in 1978, Bush (then just 19 years old) became the first female artist to top the British charts with an entirely self-written song. Bush originally released “And Dream of Sheep” in 1985 as part of her fifth studio album Hounds of Love. It is also the first track of The Ninth Wave, a suite of seven interconnected songs that comprise the B side of Hounds of Love. About the song and its place in the larger work, Bush said “[The Ninth Wave] is about someone who is in the water alone for the night. ‘And Dream of Sheep’ is about them fighting sleep. They’re very tired and they’ve been in the water waiting for someone to come and get them, and it’s starting to get dark, and it doesn’t look like anyone’s coming and they want to go to sleep. They know that if they go to sleep in the water they could turn over and drown, so they’re trying to keep awake; but they can’t help it, they eventually fall asleep – which takes us into the second song.” (Kate Bush newsletter, Issue 18, 1985)
Offertory Music: I Love My Dog – Stevens/Yusuf
Written and recorded in 1966, “I Love My Dog” was the first single ever released by British singer-songwriter Cat Stevens (aka Yusuf Islam or Yusuf, b. 1948), appearing the following year on his debut album Matthew and Son. Stevens later acknowledged that he had borrowed the melody for his song from “The Plum Blossom”, a 1961 composition by American jazz musician Yusef Lateef (1920-2013). Stevens indicated that after his song rose to success, he told Lateef about his use of the melody and retroactively paid him royalties, and now officially credits Lateef on newer releases of the song.
Closing Song: O Brother Sun – St. Francis of Assisi/Anway
#1066 in our Singing the Journey hymnbook, “O Brother Sun” is based on a well-known poem by St. Francis of Assisi. Sharon Anway wrote these lyrics for the Feast Day of St. Francis and adapted them to the Scottish tune “Ye Banks and Braes” at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Cedar Falls, IA, where Sharon is director of Music Ministry and Composer-in-Residence. The St. Luke’s Choir debuted “O Brother Sun” in October of 2002 during that congregation’s annual St. Francis Day service. (from uua.org)
Postlude: We All Fly Like Eagles – Traditional
“We All Fly Like Eagles” is a traditional Native American chant that is thought to have originated with the Arapahoe people. This Sunday, the song will be sung and drummed by our Multigen Pickup Choir – all are welcome!
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director