Next Sunday afternoon: The Year to Save the Earth with UU composer/singer/guitarist Jim Scott
Join us on Sunday, September 22nd at 4:30 p.m. in UUCC’s Fellowship Hall for The Year to Save the Earth, a new music and multimedia project from UU composer, singer, guitarist, and friend of UUCC Jim Scott (“Gather the Spirit”, “May Your Life Be as a Song”). Mixing powerful songs and beautiful projected images, The Year to Save the Earth takes us from grieving to celebration and from protest to positive vision for the planet. Jim’s lyrical melodies and outspoken poetry celebrate our beautiful, amazing, and fragile world. While facing the urgency of the environmental crisis, the program’s message is one of optimism with many invitations to join in the singing. These amazing songs challenge us to feel, to learn and to act!
Music Notes – Sunday, September 15th:
This Sunday’s musicians are The Treble Ensemble, UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley, and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
Come, Come, Whoever You Are – Ungar/Rumi
#188 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal, “Come, Come, Whoever You Are” has been a favorite gathering song for many years in thousands of UU worship services and events. The words, welcoming all without condition or exclusion, are from the renowned 13th century poet and mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273). The overlapping round melody was written by poet, musician and UU minister Rev. Dr. Lynn Ungar (b. 1963), who currently serves as minister for lifespan learning and editor of Quest for the Church of the Larger Fellowship.
Open My Heart – Flurry
#1013 in Singing the Journey, “Open My Heart” is a simple round written by Henry Flurry (b. 1964), an award-winning UU composer, educator, and pianist based in Prescott, Arizona. Flurry has composed in response to commissions from the Atlanta Wind Symphony, University City Symphony, Camarata Singers, and others. He has also collaborated with various artists to create multimedia children’s software for many different publishers, including Disney, Scholastic, IBM, and Harper Collins. Flurry and his wife Maria regularly perform together as the duo Sticks and Tones. (includes material from henryflurry.com)
Holy Spirit – Denham
A native of Cincinnati, Shelley Jackson Denham (1950-2013) was a lifelong Unitarian Universalist, composer and performer. No fewer than six of Shelley’s hymns can be found within our two hymnbooks, including “When I Am Frightened” and “We Laugh, We Cry”. Composed in 1992 and published by the UUA, “Holy Spirit” is a gently introspective anthem for treble voices and piano, which will be sung this Sunday by UUCC’s Treble Ensmeble.
House Blessing – Brunner
David L. Brunner (b. 1953) is an American composer, conductor, and music educator who is primarily known for his work in the field of choral music. The New York Times has noted him as a “prolific choral writer whose name figures prominently on national repertory lists”, his work having been performed and recorded worldwide in venues as diverse as Royal Festival and Queen Elizabeth Halls in London, Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, EPCOT and Carnegie Hall, and at national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, the American Kodaly Educators, and the Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts, among many others. Dr. Brunner is professor emeritus at the University of Central Florida, where he served for thirty years as Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities. Written in 2004, “House Blessing” is Brunner’s setting of a traditional Bahai prayer for treble voices and piano. In the composer’s words: “The universality of this Bahai prayer connects us all in heart and thought. Its simplicity and sincerity are reflected in the gently curved gestures of the vocal melody.” (includes material from davidbrunner.com)
For All That Is Our Life – Rickey/Findlow
#128 in Singing the Living Tradition, “For All That Is Our Life” has been a favorite UU hymn for many years. The song resulted from a collaboration between composer Patrick Rickey (b. 1964), a California-based songwriter and church musician and Rev. Bruce Findlow (1922-1994), a British author, educator and UU Minister who wrote the lyrics.
La cathédrale engloutie (The Sunken Cathedral) – Debussy
French composer Claude Debussy (1862-1918) is considered to be the father of musical Impressionism, although Debussy himself disliked the idea of being categorized as a composer. Throughout his career, Debussy wrote music for a wide variety of performing forces, and his nontraditional use of harmony played a vital role in ushering in a new era of music at the turn of the 20th century. First published in 1910 within Debussy’s first book of piano preludes, “La cathédrale engloutie” (The Sunken Cathedral) is a quintessential example of musical Impressionism, where the composer uses musical means to arouse a non-musical idea in the mind of the listener. In the case of “La cathédrale engloutie”, Debussy is evoking the ancient Breton myth of a cathedral, submerged underwater off the coast of the Island of Ys, which – according to legend – rises out of the sea on clear mornings. The composer begins by employing open fifths to represent the sound of far-off bells, and then the overall dynamic, melodic, and harmonic arc of the piece reflects the idea of the grand cathedral rising out of, and eventually sinking back into the waves.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director