Save the date: next Sunday, August 15th, UUCC will host two special guest musicians, who will play during our outdoor service and also will play pre-service music beginning at 10:30 on the lawn. Our guests will be April Sun, piano and Ann Yu, violin. Check out the August edition of The Hawk for more information about Ann and April and this special musical treat!
Music Notes – Sunday, August 8th:
This Sunday’s musicians are Becky Burns; Abby, Alicia, and Astrid Burkle; and Molly and Sophie Watkins
Chimes: Selection from 32 Studies by Carl Czerny
Carl Czerny (1791-1857) was an Austrian pianist, composer, and music educator. Although he composed in a wide variety of forms, he is now best remembered for his piano works, especially his training exercises, which are still widely used today. As a child, Czerny was a piano student of Ludwig van Beethoven, and Czerny later trained many celebrated pianists himself, including Theodor Leschetizky and Franz Liszt. On Sunday, you’ll be hearing Czerny as played by one of UUCC’s up and coming young musicians, Sophie Watkins.
Opening Hymn: #188 Come, Come Whoever You Are
#188 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal, “Come, Come, Whoever You Are” has been a favorite 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.
Centering Music – “Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart” – Henry Smith, arranged by John F. Wilson
“Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart” (also known simply as “Give Thanks”) is a 1978 composition by Henry Smith (b. 1952), partially based on “Canon in D” by Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706). Smith wrote the song shortly after graduating from seminary during a time of personal crisis. Smith and his wife sang the song at their church in Williamsburg, Virginia, where it was heard by a young soldier who shipped off to Germany shortly thereafter and sang it for his fellow soldiers and for native Europeans. Unknown to Smith, the song gained popularity overseas and was eventually recorded and published with an indication of ‘composer unknown’. In 1986, Smith heard his own song on a cassette tape shared by a friend, contacted the record company, and the rest is history. This Sunday, “Give Thanks” will be played by Becky Burns on piano.
Meditation Response Hymn: #346 Come Sing a Song with Me
#346 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal, “Come, Sing a Song with Me” is a well-known and beloved hymn to many Unitarian Universalists. The words and music were written by Carolyn McDade (b. 1935), a self-described songwriter, spiritual feminist, and social activist. McDade is also the composer of two other UU favorites: “Spirit of Life” and “We’ll Build a Land”.
Offertory: Rainbow Connection – Williams and Ascher
“Rainbow Connection” is a song written by Paul Williams (b. 1940) and Kenneth Ascher (b. 1944) for the 1979 film The Muppet Movie. The original recording by Jim Henson (as Kermit the Frog) reached number 25 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Over the years, it’s been performed and recorded by a plethora of artists, from Judy Collins to The Chicks to Weezer, among many others. Earlier this year, “Rainbow Connection” was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry. This Sunday, the song will be sung by Abby and Astrid Burkle, accompanied by Alicia Burkle on piano.
Closing Hymn: #318 We Would Be One
This Sunday’s service will close with a favorite hymn of many UUs: #318 “We Would Be One”. The hymn is built around the Finlandia melody, borrowed from a 1900 tone poem of the same name by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). The words we’ll be singing this Sunday were written by Unitarian minister Samuel Anthony Wright (1919-2016) for Unitarian and Universalist youth at their Continental Convention of 1953-54. Matching the sentiment of the hymn, that event resulted in the youth of our two parent faiths merging to become the Liberal Religious Youth of the United States and Canada, nearly 10 years before the official creation of the Unitarian Universalist Association in 1961.
Postlude: Simple Gifts – Joseph Brackett, arranged by Stephen DeCesare
“Simple Gifts” is one of the most familiar and beloved American songs ever written. It was originally composed as a ‘dancing song’ in 1848 by Joseph Brackett, Jr. (1797-1882) for the Shaker Settlement of Gorham, Maine. The song remained relatively unknown outside of the Shaker community for nearly a century, but it entered the American mainstream in 1944 when Aaron Copland (1900-1990) prominently featured the melody (which Copland had discovered in a Shaker songbook borrowed from his local library) in his orchestral suite Appalachian Spring. “Simple Gifts” is also #16 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal and is a beloved song in many UU congregations. The arrangement of “Simple Gifts” you’ll be hearing on Sunday was arranged by American composer and arranger Stephen DeCesare (b. 1969), and interweaves Brackett’s well-known tune with various melodies by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). This Sunday, “Simple Gifts” will be sung by Alicia Burkle and Molly Watkins with Becky Burns on piano.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director