Music and Choir Program Calendar

The Choir rehearses on Thursday nights from 7:00 to 9:00 and sings every other Sunday, with small ensembles and solos often performing on "non-choir" Sundays.

Any member of the congregation is more than welcome to offer their musical talents for any service. Just talk to Nick or any member of the choir, or send Nick an email.
We'd love to hear from you!

Past Year Reflections: Sonance

The word "Sonance" refers to the sounds in music not associated with the music itself. This series of articles explores and expounds upon what makes the music of our church happen; the whirr of logistics, the thread of thoughts-- "the hum of mighty workings."

I would like to take this, the final newsletter of the church year 2010, to list and comment on a few of my favorite pieces of music the choir and I have sung this year. I suspect a few are your favorites too, judging

by the wonderfully positive responses I've gotten from many of you. It means so much to me to have members of our community specifically approach me to tell me they enjoyed the music, or even better, to ask me more about it and where to get a recording. As I've said before, many of the following acts have been writing verita-ble UU Anthems for years--they just don't know it! Thank you all, and I hope this helps.

"Brand New Colony" and "Soul Meets Body" were written by Ben Gibbard of the band Death Cab for Cutie. Gibbard's lyrics employ powerfully imagistic metaphors and his music is catchy and bouncy.

Iron & Wine is mainly Samuel Beam, who weaves traditional instruments and archaic recording techniques into a gorgeously rustic sound. His lyrics often explore death and everyday images that carry us away into a nostalgic past that we all seem to somehow share, in songs like "Naked as We Came" and "Upward Over the Mountain."

I recently picked up the album "Sigh No More" by UK newcomers Mumford & Sons after becoming smitten with their sound on NPR's World Café. Their songs, such as "The Cave" and "Roll Away Your Stone," use an epic mixture of folk, rock, and Celtic influence to dive into themes of rebirth, self-assertion, and how this "grace thing" works.

Maine singer-songwriter Ray Lamontagne sometimes seems like the next Cat Stevens (whose "Where do the Children Play" and "If you want to Sing Out, Sing Out" we've also performed this year), and at other times like the next Wilson Pickett. In the former mindset he produced "Be Here Now," a meditation on compassion that fit quite nicely with our like-named Buddhist-themed worship service.

The choir very much enjoyed singing a transcription of the Grateful Dead's three-part-harmony ballad, "Attics of my Life," as well as Bill Douglas's "I Shall not Live in Vain." Both have given the choir a chance to stretch the limits of their legato; soup up their sustain, as it were. All of their hard work and dedication this year has resulted in a true choral sound, constantly seeking blend and balance, listening to one another musically, mir-roring how we should all listen to one another spiritually.

For me, to sing is to see, to love, to worship. Thank you for letting me share this with all of you this year.

Nick MacDonald
Music Director