2008 Sunday Service Music & Schedule

Upcoming: 2008 Music
Click below for past programming.
2007-08 / 2006-07 / 2005-06 / 2004-05 / 2003-04
2002-03 / 2001-02 / 1991-92 / 1978-79 / 1966-67 / 1964-65
Early History of Music at First Parish 1733-1964

Adult Choir Rehearsal Schedule : 8-9:30pm Thursdays - NEW MEMBERS WELCOME

This page is updated every week!

July 27
"Creating a Culture of Peace: the Hidden Roots of War and Injustice" - the Rev. Will Tuttle
Musician - William Tuttle, piano soloist; Jean Monroe, hymns

August 3
"The Spirit of Water" - Christina Sillari
Musicians - Prichards

• Prelude: Afton Water (Scottish Folk Tune) arranged by Sir David Willcocks (1919-)
  Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes!
  Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise!
  My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream,
  Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.
  
  Thou stock-dove, whose echo resounds thro' the glen,
  Ye wild whistling blackbirds in yon thorny den,
  Thou green-crested lapwing, thy screaming forbear,
  I charge you disturb not my slumbering fair.
  
  How lofty, sweet Afton, thy neighbouring hills,
  Far mark'd with the courses of clear winding rills;
  There daily I wander as noon rises high,
  My flocks and my Mary's sweet cot in my eye.
  
  How pleasant thy banks and green valleys below,
  Where wild in the woodlands the primroses blow;
  There oft, as mild Ev'ning sweeps over the lea,
  The sweet-scented birk [birch] shades my Mary and me.
  
  Thy crystal stream, Afton, how lovely it glides,
  And winds by the cot where my Mary resides,
  How wanton thy waters her snowy feet lave,
  As gathering sweet flowrets she stems thy clear wave.
  
  Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes [hills],
  Flow gently, sweet river, the theme of my lays;
  My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream,
  Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.
  - by Robert Burns (1759-1796)
• Candle Music: Sicut cervus by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
• Offertory: The Blue Bird by Sir Charles V. Stanford (1852–1924)
  Stanford was the son of Irish musicians and made his name in England as an improvisatory organist. He was a professor at both the Royal College of Music and at Cambridge University for over forty years, and was the main composition teacher of Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. In The Blue Bird, Stanford uses a soprano solo to represent the female poet's voice. The choral parts mirror each other, symbolizing the bird's reflection on the surface of a calm lake. The altos sustain long pitches throughout the piece, representing the surface of the water and its ability to transform our perceptions of "real" images and their reflections (an opposite viewpoint, or a necessary balance?).
  Text by Mary Coleridge (1861-1907) -
  The lake lay blue below the hill,
  O'er it, as I looked, there flew
  Across the waters, cold and still,
  A bird whose wings were palest blue.
  The sky above was blue at last,
  The sky beneath me blue in blue,
  A moment, ere the bird had passed,
  It caught his image as he flew.
• Anthem: Ol’ Man River from Showboat Jerome Kern (1885-1945)
  Michael Prichard, baritone; Laura Prichard, piano
• Postlude: To Be Sung on the Water, op. 42, no.2 (1969) by Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
  Click here to hear all parts played
  Click here for an article of the poet Louise Bogan and the text of the poem
  Notes: Samuel Barber's music represents the confluence of twentieth-century tonal harmonies and nineteenth-century structures. Both a pianist and a baritone of some repute, Barber is principally known as a composer of songs and of music for piano. His vocal lines always respond to the contours and meaning of the text, and his choral compositions show influences of British Romanticism and in particular the a cappella choral output of Elgar, Stanford, and Parry. The part-song To be sung on the water is a restrained, lyrical setting of a Louise Bogan poem. At one point, Barber intended to insert this song into Antony and Cleopatra, his final opera, but ultimately decided against it; however, he had enough affection for the piece that he asked that it be performed at his funeral. Heard in every bar of the piece, a slow, lapping motive comprising two sixteenth notes followed by a quarter note suggests the paddling of oars. Against this rhythm appears a long, lyrical outpouring, first given to the sopranos and altos and then to the tenors and basses. Instead of building to a climax, we are given a slow, quiet coda which "like an echo" recedes into the eternal quiet.

August 10
"Fun as a Spiritual Path" - Emily Randall and Marlene Hobel
Flute Loops Chamber Ensemble

August 17
"On Gardens and Relationships: from Carollina to the Banks of the Volga" - Cheri Minton
Music organized by Cheri Minton

August 24
"Regret Reduction" - Christine Rafal
David Whitford and Hannah Mathes, violin; Bob Voges, guitar; Rachel and Eva-Leah Stark; Jean Monroe, hymns (possible)

August 31
"Forgiveness in the Age of Climate Change" - Glenn Koenig
Nancy McDowell, soprano; Bill Geha, piano

September 4 First Fall Rehearsals

• 5:45-6:30pm Chalice Singers Youth choir
  6:30-7:00 Intergenerational Band/Orchestra (easy/intermediate level rep. for fall & Hallowe'en)
  7-7:30 Symphonic Band (intermediate/adult level rep. including some jazz)
  8-9:30 Adult choir

September 7 Water Communion

• Prelude: Sous le dôme epais from Lakmé by Léo Delibes
  Vocal Duet with piano
• Candle Music: Clear and Gentle Stream, op. 17 (1939) by Gerald Finzi (1910-1956)
  Click here to hear a recording by the Drake University Chamber Choir; poem by Robert Bridges
  Click here to read a detailed biography of the composer.
  Notes: Gerald Finzi, contemporary of Holst and Vaughan Williams, was active as a composer and organist throughout his short life. He was employed as a Professor of Music at Durham University; held organist positions at Wigan Parish, Leeds Parish, and Yorkminster Parish; and taught composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Considered a neo-romanticist, Finzi was influenced melodically and harmonically by Elgar, Vaughan Williams, and Walton. Finzi wrote his Seven Partsongs, op. 17, all to the poetry of Robert Bridges, from 1934 to 1937, several years after the poet’s death in 1930. The poems are metrical and represent the traditionalist phase in the poet’s body of work. This partsong balances textual declamation with melodic lyricism. It has a high degree of craftsmanship, and is a moving depiction of a sultry summer by the river.
• Choral Water Music: The Blue Bird by Sir Charles V. Stanford (1852–1924)
  Stanford was the son of Irish musicians and made his name in England as an improvisatory organist. He was a professor at both the Royal College of Music and at Cambridge University for over forty years, and was the main composition teacher of Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. In The Blue Bird, Stanford uses a soprano solo to represent the female poet's voice. The choral parts mirror each other, symbolizing the bird's reflection on the surface of a calm lake. The altos sustain long pitches throughout the piece, representing the surface of the water and its ability to transform our perceptions of "real" images and their reflections (an opposite viewpoint, or a necessary balance?).
  Text by Mary Coleridge (1861-1907) -
  The lake lay blue below the hill,
  O'er it, as I looked, there flew
  Across the waters, cold and still,
  A bird whose wings were palest blue.
  The sky above was blue at last,
  The sky beneath me blue in blue,
  A moment, ere the bird had passed,
  It caught his image as he flew.
• Offertory: Sarah Haera Tocco, piano solo
• Offertory Song: Down in the River to Pray from the Coen Brothers' film, based on Homer's Odyssey, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
• Anthem: Deep River by Harry T. Burleigh
  Men of the First Parish Choir
• Postlude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo
• Quotation: There is nothing softer and weaker than water, And yet there is nothing better for attacking hard and strong things. For this reason there is no substitute for it. All the world knows the weak overcomes the strong and the soft overcomes the hard. -- Lao-Tzu (fl. B.C. 600)

Saturday, September 13 Blood Drive

Sunday, September 14
Rev. John Marsh: "Building Trust"

• Chalice Lighting Music: Meditation and Ma Tovu from Ernest Bloch's (1880-1959) Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service, 1933, pp. 1-6)
  Ernest Bloch was a Swiss-born, American-Jewish composer. His Sacred Service starts with a symphonic prelude followed by a traditional prayer: Ma tovu oholecho Ya'akov, mishkenosecho Yisroel.
  Translation: How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel. I come to worship in the temple and bow in reverence. May my prayer, humbly upraised, seem good in your eyes, as I come meekly. Answer me and grant me mercy.
• Candle Music: Silver the Moon by Diane Taraz Shriver
• Offertory: You are the New Day by John David (of the British band Airwaves, 1978), arranged by Peter Knight
  I will love you more than me and more than yesterday,
  if you can but prove to me you are the new day.
  Send the sun in time for dawn,
  let the birds all hail the morning;
  love of life will urge me say,
  "You are the new day."
  When I lay me down at night knowing we must pay,
  thoughts occur that this night might stay yesterday.
  Thoughts that we, as humans small,
  could slow worlds and end it all
  lie around me where they fall, before the new day.
  One more day when time is running out for everyone;
  like a breath I knew would come
  I reach for the new day.
  Hope is my philosophy,
  just needs days in which to be,
  love of life means hope for me
  borne on a new day.
  Notes - Songwriter and record producer John David was born in 1946 in Cardiff, Wales. Having played bass on popular hits with Dave Edmunds in the group Love Sculpture (Sabre Dance, 1969; I Hear You Knocking, 1970; and It's Too Late in 1970 covered by The Searchers), John has had several parallel careers; as a session bass player, solo performer, producer, songwriter and a member of the Rockfield studio band Airwaves which chalked up two Top-100 albums. John has gone on to produce some of the biggest names in rock at his Berry Hill studio, including Robert Plant, the BBC, Cliff Richard, and Little Richard. As a bassist, John has performed with Springsteen, Clapton, Sting, Bryan Adams, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
• Anthem: Greatly Beloved, Fear Not from Dona nobis pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams
• Benediction: Silent Meditation from Ernest Bloch's Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service, 1933)
  This third movement of Bloch's Sacred Service starts with a meditation. The orchestra/organ alone is heard, allowing the listeners a moment to formulate their own thoughts in silent prayer. Then the choir, a cappella, quietly intones Yihyu Lerotson, the prayer for acceptance. The composer called this section "a silent meditation which comes in before you take your soul out and look at what it contains." The most important part of any Jewish prayer is the introspection it provides, the moment that we spend looking inside ourselves, seeing our role in the universe.
  Translation - O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart
  be acceptable before Thee, Adonoi, my Rock and Redeemer. Amen (So be it).[Side thought on the word Adonai] - Adonai comes from the root word "Adon," which means lord. A king would be referred to as Lord, or actually any person of high status. In modern Israel, Adon is used as "mister", as in Adon Bloch = Mr. Bloch. A related word, Adoni (pronounced adonee), means "my lord," and is used as a form of respect. Adonai means Lord in the divine sense (as in this prayer): this is what confused the gospel writers, who didn't know Hebrew, and thus didn't know that Jesus was being referred to as Adoni, because he was a teacher.
  

Saturday, September 20 Arlington Town Day

Sunday, September 21 (Vernal Equinox is Sept. 22)
Rev. John Marsh: "Building Trust, part II"

• Candle Music: Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein rein Herz from Motette, op. 29, no. 2 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Offertory: Sarah Haera Tocco, piano solo
• Anthem: Tröste mich wieder from Motette, op. 29, no. 2 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Benediction: That Lonesome Road by James Taylor
• Postlude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo

Saturday, September 27 Quincy UU Church Benefit/fundraiser

Sunday, September 28 1st Jewish Music Service & Tocco Piano Recital
Guest Musician, Virginia Crumb, harp
Rev. John Marsh: "Rosh Hashanah"

• Prelude: Harp Solo
• Sounding of the Shofar: Tekiya
  Dorothy May, shofar & Andee Rubin, cantor
• Chalice Lighting:
• Candle Music: Adonai roi from Chichester Psalms (1965) by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
  Jacob, treble solo, with the Ladies of the Choir
  Click here to hear a practice files for this selection.
  Click here to read the wikipedia article for this selection.
  
• Offertory: Harp Solo
• Anthem: Adonai, lo gavah libi (Lord, my heart is not haughty, Psalm 131) from Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms
  Virginia Crumb, harp
• Sung Benediction: Shalom Rav by Ben Steinberg

September 29 - October 1 Rosh Hashanah

Saturday, October 4 Cantilena Yard Sale

Sunday, October 5 2nd Jewish Music Service
Rev. John Marsh: "Yom Kippur"

• Preludes: S'u She'orim (1847) by Samuel Naumbourg (1815-1880) for choir and piano
  Notes: Naumbourg was a cantor, composer, and scholar who rejuvenated synagogue song in Paris according to modern musical practices. He was born in Dennelohe, Bavaria into a family of cantors and received his musical and cantorial training in Munich. After holding the office of hazzan-shochet (cantor-ritual slaughterer) in Besançon and choirmaster in the synagogue of Strasbourg, he was invited to officiate at the Great Synagogue in Paris. It was during his time in Paris that he became associated with Jacques Halévy, and their preference for contemporary opera changed synagogal musical practices. The French government commissioned him to arrange a service to be introduced into all French synagogues, and his work resulted in his earning the title of Chief Cantor of Paris in 1845. Naumbourg was held in great esteem by the Paris community and was appointed professor of liturgical music at the Séminaire Israélite. S'u She'orim, a setting of Psalm 24 taken from that grand musical service, is reminiscent of the Parisian grand opera.
  
  Clarinet Concerto, I. (1948) by Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
  Michelle Markus, clarinet
  Click here for the wikipedia article on the piece.
• Candle Music - Congregation: Mi Shebeirach by Debbie Friedman
  Jewish tradition ordains that whenever the Torah is read we are granted a special and uniquely opportune moment to invoke blessing for those in need of divine intervention. From time immemorial it has therefore been the custom to recite a Mi Shebeirach (prayer for the sick) on behalf of people who are ill.
  Mi shebeirach avoteinu  (The one who has blessed our fathers)
  M 'kor habracha l'imoteinu.  (Source of blessing for our mothers.)
  May the source of strength who blessed the ones before us,
  Help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing, and let us say, Amen.
  Mi shebeirach imoteinu  (The one who has blessed our mothers)
  M 'kor habracha l'avoteinu.  (Source of the blessing for our fathers)
  Bless those in need of healing with r'fuah sh'leimah.  (complete healing)
  The renewal of body, the renewal of spirit, and let us say, Amen.
  Candle Music - Choir: We Remember Them by Ben Steinberg
• Candle Music: Kol Nidre: Adagio on Hebrew Melodies by Max Bruch (1838-1920)
  Robert Olsen, double bass, Sarah Haera Tocco, piano
  Click here to hear a recording by Alexander Skwortsow
  Click here for an article on the Kol Nidre with many links to recordings of the melody.
  Abraham Idelsohn, a noted scholar of Jewish music, wrote in 1929, "There is hardly any other traditional Jewish tune that attracted so much attention from the composers of the last century. Innumerable are the arrangements for voice with piano, organ or violin accompaniment and violoncello obligato. We have the exalted melody prepared for choir and small orchestra. And last but not least is the concerto by Max Bruch. In the first bars of Beethoven's C-sharp minor quartet, the opening theme of Kol Nidre is recognizable. Thus has the music world come to consider this the most characteristic tune of the synagogue. [Bruch's] melody was an interesting theme for a brilliant secular concerto. In his presentation, the melody entirely lost its original character. Bruch displayed a fine art, masterly technique and fantasy, but not Jewish sentiments. It is not a Jewish Kol Nidre which Bruch composed."
  Max Bruch himself wrote the following on Kol Nidre, in a letter to cantor and musicologist Eduard Birnbaum (4 December 1889), "...I became acquainted with Kol Nidre and other Jewish melodies in Berlin through the Lichtenstein family, who befriended me. Even though I am a Protestant, as an artist I deeply felt the outstanding beauty of these melodies and therefore I gladly spread them through my arrangement. As a young man I had already ... studied folksongs of all nations with great enthusiasm, because the folksong is a wellspring at which one must repeatedly renew and refresh oneself---so lay the study of Jewish ethnic music on my path."
  Lichtenstein was the cantor-in-chief of Berlin, who was known to have friendly relations with many Christian musicians of that time. The conductor of Lichtenstein's choir was nobody less than Louis Lewandowski. Idelsohn proved that many of the compositions of Lewandowski were based on the chazzanut (cantorial solos) of Lichtenstein.
  
• Offertory: Clarinet Concerto, II. (1948) by Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
  Michelle Markus, clarinet
• Anthem: Avinu malkeinu from the Sacred Service by Max Janowski (1912-1991)
  Michael Prichard, baritone
  Translation - Hear our voice, O father, pity and be compassionate to us, and accept, with compassion and favour, our prayers. Traditional prayer for Yom Kippur
  Notes - Max Janowski was born in Berlin, Germany. He was a prodigious 20th-century composer, conductor, and organist whose liturgical compositions have been performed in concert halls, synagogues, churches and colleges throughout the world. He emigrated to Japan and then to New York in 1937. He was the beloved music director, organist, and choir director at six Chicago-area synagogues and Unitarian congregations
• Benediction: Benediction from Bloch's Avodath Hakodesh
  Andrew Leonard, tenor
  All Shabbat services end with this traditional text: May the Lord bless you and keep you, and the light of his countenance shine upon you and be gracious to you, and lift up his face to you, and give you peace. Amen.
  This prayer from Bloch's Sacred Service features the traditional text that concludes most Shabbat services. It emphasizes Bloch’s desire for universalism in the work, in the tradition of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony or Missa Solemnis: “While it is named the Sacred Service, it embraces the whole of humanity, rather than one creed or sect. I hope it will bring to the souls, minds, and hearts of people a little more confidence, make them a little more kind and indulgent than they were, and bring them peace. I have not written to astonish the world with a spectacular achievement. I have a message to deliver—that is all.”
• Postlude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo

October 8-9 Yom Kippur

October 12 Music of Columbus' World
Guest Speaker: Rev. Jean Wahl, May Memorial, Syracuse, NY

• Notes on the service music: During the long reigns of Charles V (1517-56) and Philip II (1556-96) Spanish music, especially church music, reached its highest level of perfection and there was no lack of expert musicians of international calibre. Instrumental music, especially for organ and vihuela, attained an excellence equal to anything being produced in Europe while Spanish religious polyphony, which had distinctive individual qualities, was in the very first rank not only in its spiritual intensity but also in its musical achievement. Three great schools contributed to the astonishing wealth of Spanish religious music in this period: Castile, Catalonia-Aragon, and Andalusia.
• Anthem: by Juan del Encina (1468 - 1529)
  The most interesting Spanish composer, playwright and courtier at the turn of the 16th century was Juan del Encina. He entered the Duke of Alba's service in 1492 as master of ceremonies, writing both text and music for plays that were performed at the court. When in 1498 he failed to get a musical post at Salamanca cathedral he went to Rome to seek the aid of the Spanish Pope Alexander VI, who gave him a benefice there; he became a priest in 1519 and held various ecclesiastical posts in Málaga and Laón. As well as being a composer, Encina was also a poet of great delicacy, and translated the Bucolics of Virgil. He was a pioneer in the Spanish secular theatre and several of his compositions, presented in the courtly Cancionero de Palacio, are based on Virgil's Eclogues, and were villancicos written for stage presentation. By uniting popular and artistic elements, he broke new ground in the field of Spanish secular drama.
  Practice files - http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Juan_del_Encina
• Anthem: by Juan Navarro (c.1560 - after 1604)
  Navarro was Spanish composer and Franciscan monk who went to Mexico, and his 1604 volume of Passion and Lamentation settings was one of the first music publications to appear in the New World. He was a notable early composer of the Andalusian school and predecessor of Guerrero and his great teacher, Morales.

October 19 Ferry Beach Weekend (Oct. 17-19)
Rev. John Marsh: "Putting your Faith in Revolution, an Election Day Sermon"

• Candle Music: One Voice by the Wailin' Jennys
  Diane Shriver, solo, with the Women of the Adult Choir
• Anthem: El Cóndor Pasa (1913) by Daniel Alamía Robles (1871-1942, Peru)
  Click here for a webpage with the text, translation, and history of the song.
  El Cóndor Pasa is a song from the zarzuela El Cóndor Pasa based on traditional Andean folk tunes. It is possibly the best-known Peruvian song worldwide, partly due to a cover version by Simon and Garfunkel in 1970 (together with Urubamba group) on their Bridge over Troubled Water album, which is called "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" in full. Paul Simon used only the melody and wrote entirely new, unrelated lyrics. Later that year, Perry Como released a cover of Simon's version on his album It's Impossible, while Julie Felix took advantage of Simon and Garfunkel's decision not to release their version as a UK single, and had a UK Top 20 hit with it.
• Postlude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo

October 26 Intergenerational Hallowe'en Service & possible Fall Musicale
Led by Krista Ernewein and shaped by the RE Committee

• Anthem: Circles by Dave Brubeck
  Within the circles of our lives we dance the circles of the years,
  the circles of the seasons within the circles of the years,
  the cycles of the moon within the circles of the seasons,
  the circles of our reasons within the cycles of the moon.
  Again, again we come and go, changed, changing.
  Hands join, unjoin in love and fear, grief and joy.
  The circles turn, each giving into each, into all.
  Only music keeps us here, each by all the others held.
  In the hold of hands and eyes we turn in pairs, that joining joining each to all again.
  And then we turn aside, alone, out of the sunlight gone into the darker circles of return.
  -Wendell Berry
  Notes on the composer - David Warren Brubeck (1920- ) is a U.S. jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a genius in his field, he has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way." Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills. Much of his music employs unusual time signatures. His new choral piece Circles sets a text by Wendell Berry.
  After graduating from the University of the Pacific in 1942, Brubeck was drafted into the army and served overseas in George Patton's Third Army during the Battle of the Bulge. He played in a band, quickly integrating it, and gaining both popularity and deference. After finishing his compositional studies at Mills College (Oakland, CA) under Darius Milhaud, Brubeck founded The Dave Brubeck Quartet (1951-67) with Paul Desmond on saxophone. The group maintained a long residency at San Francisco's Black Hawk nightclub, and in 1954 Brubeck was featured on the cover of Time Magazine, the first jazz musician to be so honored. Brubeck converted to Catholicism in 1980, shortly after completing the Mass To Hope. Today, Brubeck continues to write new works, including orchestrations and ballet scores, and tours about eighty cities each year. Since his 85th birthday his area of focus is the US, where he still premieres new works, like the 2006 Cannery Row Suite.
  Notes on the text - Poet and conservationist Wendell Berry was born in Newcastle, Kentucky in 1934. Berry's father and Robert Rodale contributed to the founding of the organic farming movement: following their examples, Wendell uses only farm animals to work his fields and organic methods of fertilization and pest control. In 1958, Berry received a Wallace Stegner Fellowship and attended Stanford University's creative writing program, where he studied with Stegner in a seminar that included Larry McMurtry, Edward Abbey and Ken Kesey. His writing is grounded in the notion that one's work ought to be responsive to one's natural environment. In 1964, he and his wife Tanya purchased the Kentucky farm close to his parents' birth places, and in 1965 moved onto the land to become organic farmers (of tobacco, corn and small grains) on what would eventually become a 125-acre homestead.
  Berry was granted a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, which took him and his family to Italy and France in 1961. From 1962 to 1964, he taught English at New York University’s University College in the Bronx. From 1964-77, he began teaching creative writing at the University of Kentucky. In the 1970s and early 1980s he served as an editor of, and wrote many articles for, Rodale Press publications including Organic Gardening and Farming and The New Farm. In 1987, he returned to the University of Kentucky, teaching literature and education. Today he still lives, writes, and farms at Lane's Landing near Port Royal, Kentucky, alongside the Kentucky River, not far from where it flows into the Ohio. He is a prolific author, with at least twenty-five books (or chapbooks) of poems (A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems, 1979-1997), sixteen volumes of essays (The Failure of War, 1999), and eleven novels and short story collections to his name. His poetic voice is direct and resonant, indebted to Whitman and William Carlos Williams.
• Closing Words (to accompany the Brubeck above):
  Antiphonal reading by Wendell Berry (P is the pulpit side; C is the choir side)
  P: Within the circles of our lives we dance the circles of the years,
  C: the circles of the seasons within the circles of the years,
  P: the cycles of the moon within the circles of the seasons,
  C: the circles of our reasons
  P: within the cycles of the moon.
  Leader1: Again, again we come and go, changed,
  Leader2: changing. Hands join,
  P: un-join in love and fear, grief and joy.
  C: The circles turn, each giving into each,
  P: into all. Only music keeps us here,
  C: each by all the others held.
  P: In the hold of hands and eyes we turn in pairs,
  C: that joining, joining each to all again.
  Leader2: And then we turn aside, alone,
  Leader1: out of the sunlight gone
  All: into the darker circles of return.
• Postlude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo

Saturday, November 1, Dress Rehearsal, 10-Noon

Sunday, November 2 [Daylight Savings Time]
"Beyond Categorical Thinking" (welcoming diversity)
Guest speaker and Ministerial Search Committee Update
Lux Aeterna (1997) by Morten Lauridsen (1943-)

• Prelude: Introitus
• Candle Music: O Nata Lux
• Offertory: In Te, Domine, Speravi
• Anthem: Veni, Sancte Spiritus
• Postlude: Agnus Dei
• Notes by Peter Rutenburg: "In his preface to the published choral score, Morten Lauridsen wrote, "Lux Aeterna was composed for and is dedicated to the Los Angeles Master Chorale and its superb conductor, Paul Salamunovich, who gave the world premiere in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Los Angeles Music Center on April 13, 1997. The work is in five movements played without pause. Its texts are drawn from sacred Latin sources, each containing references to Light. The piece opens and closes with the beginning and ending of the Requiem Mass, with the three central movements drawn, respectively, from the Te Deum (including a line from the Beatus Vir), O Nata Lux and Veni, Sancte Spiritus.
  "The instrumental introduction to the Introitus softly recalls motivic fragments from two pieces especially close to my heart (my settings of Rilke's Contre Qui, Rose and O Magnum Mysterium) which recur throughout the work in various forms. Several new themes in the Introitus are then introduced by the chorus, including an extended canon on et lux perpetua. In Te, Domine, Speravi contains, among other musical elements, the cantus firmus Herliebster Jesu (from the Nuremburg Songbook, 1677) and a lengthy inverted canon on fiat misericordia. O Nata Lux and Veni, Sancte Spiritus are paired songs -- the former the central a cappella motet and the latter a spirited, jubilant canticle. A quiet setting of the Agnus Dei precedes the final Lux Aeterna, which reprises the opening section of the Introitus and concludes with a joyful Alleluia."
  Since its premiere, Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna has had dozens of performances around the country and abroad, in both the orchestral and organ versions. In addition, a 1998 Grammy nomination for the Master Chorale's recording of the work (RCM 19705) brought widespread acclaim. It is possible to hear in Lux Aeterna the echoes of a direct line back thirteen centuries to the codification of plainchant by Pope Gregory; to the first and second Notre Dame schools under Leonin and Perotin respectively; to the paired dialogues that distinguish
  Josquin's high Renaissance style; to the playfulness of early Baroque counterpoint; to cantus firmus (chant or hymn melodies in long notes) as a Palestrina or Bach might have used them; to the sonorities heard in Brahms' Requiem, and beyond to the 21st century. Indeed Lauridsen's choice of ancient texts and the associations that come with them add an important component to this two-way bridge to the past and future. It is the coup of his genius that not only doesn't the music sound academic or labored, but fresh and new, as in a modern distillation of essential flavors. The connections with chant are especially important in Lux Aeterna, so that, like Duruflé, the asymmetric rhythm of the melodies seem to be suspended in time, even as the music is propelled by its inner pulse.
  The power, relevance and finesse of Lux Aeterna speaks to us each in our own language. This with our full attention and assent does it transport us over gossamer paths to a state of enlightenment and grace."

Saturday, November 8 Blood Drive

Sunday, November 9 Sunday Service & Arlington Philharmonic Concert
Rev. John Marsh: "Getting Ready for the 2012 Presidential Election"

• Prelude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo
• Candles Music: Trois Beaux Oiseaux du Paradis by Maurice Ravel
  Click here to hear a recording of this selection
• Anthem: (led by Teen Music Group) Fire of Commitment by Jason Shelton, from the new UU Singing the Journey hymnal
  From the light of days remembered burns a beacon bright and clear,
  Guiding hands and hearts and spirits into faith set free from fear.
  When the fire of commitment sets our mind and soul ablaze,
  When our hunger and our passion meet to call us on our way,
  When we live with deep assurance of the flame that burns within,
  Then our promise finds fulfillment and our future can begin.
  —words by Mary Katherine Morn and Jason Shelton
• Postlude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo

Tuesday, November 11 Veteran's Day Holiday

Sunday, November 16
Rev. John Marsh: "Fasting and Feasting"
Music Coordinated and arranged by Andrew Leonard

• Prelude
• Chalice Singers: Food, Glorious Food from Oliver!
• Choral Anthem: Taco Bell Canon

Friday-Saturday, Nov. 21-22 Harvest Moon Fair in Sanctuary
Saturday, Nov. 22 Faneuil Hall Tree Lighting, Boston

Sunday, November 23 3rd Annual A Cappella Day at First Parish
Rev. John Marsh: "Thanksgiving"

• Prelude, Offertory, Anthem: Benjamin Britten's Hymn to St. Cecilia
  Click here for notes on this work
  Click here to practice
• Postlude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo
• Hymns & Readings: 290, 349

Thursday, November 27 No choir rehearsals due to Thanksgiving

Sunday, November 30 Chamber Music
Rev. John Marsh: "The Battle for Christmas"

Sunday, December 7 & Cantilena Concert (Dress on Dec. 6)
Rev. John Marsh: "The Mountain of Mercy - Yaum Arafa (day of pigrimage to Mecca)

• Chalice Singers Anthem: Halla lalla layya (Arabic friendship song from Lebanon)
• Candes Music: O, pray for the peace of Jerusalem (1941) by Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
  It has been written of Howells that he is ‘more widely respected than performed’. Whilst this may sadly be the case with respect to his orchestral and chamber music, it is certainly not true of his organ and choral music. Howells was articled to Herbert Brewer at Gloucester Cathedral in 1905. In 1912 he won an open scholarship to the Royal College of Music where he studied with Stanford and Wood. Howells was to return to the Royal College as a teacher from 1920 and became almost as well known in that capacity and as an examiner and adjudicator as he was as a composer. He succeeded Gustav Hoist in 1936 as Director of Music at St Paul’s School in Hammersmith, a post he retained until 1962. In 1950 he was appointed King Edward VII Professor of Music at London University.
  Amongst Howells’s self-confessed influences were plainsong, the modes, the pentatonic scale, folk-song, his friendship with Ralph Vaughan Williams and a feeling of oneness with the Tudor period. Howells’s music is frequently contrasted with that of his contemporaries, Boughton, Bridge, Delius, Gurney, Hoist and Vaughan Williams; the young composer was particularly influenced by the first performance in 1910 of Vaughan Williams’s “Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis”, which took place in Gloucester Cathedral. Comparisons to Howells’s contemporaries are often unfair and laboured; there are many of Howells’s contemporaries whose music has been strongly affected by some or all of the influences that prevailed upon him. In reality Howells is not a pastiche composer of the twentieth century, but rather a testament to the fruits of the Second English Renaissance, and a fine composer in his own right.
  The anthem “O pray for the peace of Jerusalem” was completed on 5 January 1941 whilst the composer was in Cheltenham and is the first in a set of four short anthems. This work demonstrates the composer’s ability to build up seamlessly to a climax and then to release the tension and allow the music to slip away into the stillness of a great cathedral. This arch form is a structure that the composer often used to great effect. The work is dedicated to Sir Thomas Armstrong who at that time was organist at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford.
  O pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee.
  Peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy palaces. Psalm 122: 6-7
• Postlude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo

Monday, December 8 Alliance Party

• Introduction: Let Christmas Come
• Intergenerational Caroling: Hymns & The Christians and the Pagans by Dar Williams
  
• Chalice Singers: How the Grinch Stole Christmas
  Lemony Snicket's Lump of Coal
  Here in My House There Are Candles Burning Bright
  Hark, How the Bells adapted in 1936 by Peter Wilhousky (1902-1978) from a 1916 Ukrainian song by Mykola Leontovich (1877-1921)
  Click here to hear a recording of this selection by the Cal Tech combined Glee Clubs
  Click here to hear a keyboard play all the parts (SATB)
• All Children's Choirs: O Hannukah, Rock-a My Soul, Holiday Singalong (Silver Bells, etc.)
• Solstice by Randall Thompson (1899-1984)
  An exuberant setting (originally for solo voice) of Robert Lee Wolff’s poem.
  Refrain: "It's the solstice, the time when the sun stands still, outside you and inside you, you feel a bitter chill. It's the solstice, when the cold north wind could kill; but hold your breath and it's Christmas, Peace on earth, and to men good will."
  Click here to hear a recording of this selection
• First Parish Flute Loops
• UUlations: Lo, How a Rose (canon) by Melchior Vulpius (c1560-1615), arranged by Jennifer Kobayashi
  Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella (French carol) arranged by Clifton J. Noble Jr. (1961-), staff accompanist for Smith College
• 2008 Alliance Party Dramatic scene: How the Grinch Stole Christmas
  Chalice Singers present music from the 1996 film
  Click here to view "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch"
  Click here to listen to a 3-part version of "Fa-who fores, welcome Christmas"
• 2008 Alliance Party Dramatic scene: Lemony Snicket's Lump of Coal
  Lemony Snicket's Lump of Coal (Snicket wrote this unusual (OK, weird) holiday tale just for USA WEEKEND.)
  The holiday season is a time for storytelling, and whether you hear the story of a candelabra staying lit for more than a week, or one about a baby born in a barn without proper medical supervision, these stories often feature miracles. Miracles are like pimples, because once you start looking for them you find more than you ever dreamed you'd see, and this holiday story features any number of miracles, depending on your point of view.
  The story begins with a lump of coal that, for the sake of argument, could think, talk and move itself around. Like many people who dress in black, the lump of coal was interested in becoming an artist. The lump of coal dreamed of a miracle -- that one day it would get to draw rough, black lines -- or, better, a breast of chicken or salmon fillet -- on a canvas. To do this, it first needed to participate in a barbecue to become familiar with its subjects.
  But barbecues, sadly, are for summer, and this is a holiday story and so takes place in the dead of winter, when the air is gray and wet shoes line up in hallways, shivering and crying tears of sleet. It is difficult to find a barbecue in the winter, although it is easy to find small animals scurrying through back yards and tipping things over, such as abandoned, snow-covered lawn chairs, frozen birdbaths and forgotten bags of charcoal, and this is how the small, flammable hero of our story found itself tumbling out into the world.
  "This isn't the miracle I was hoping for," said the lump of coal, "but perhaps if I roll around a bit, I can find something interesting."
  The lump of coal rolled out of the back yard, taking care to avoid the inevitable puddles of winter, and soon found itself in the center of town. You would think that the center of town would be bustling during the holiday season, but most shoppers were bustling around at the mall several miles away, so there was plenty of room on the sidewalk for the lump of coal.
  It window-shopped for a while, and then to its delight the lump of coal found itself outside an art gallery. In the window were several paintings that looked like someone had taken a dark, crumbly substance and smeared it all over a piece of paper. "I can't believe it!" cried the lump of coal. "Here is an art gallery that displays art by lumps of coal! It's a miracle!"
  When the lump of coal rolled inside, however, it discovered that the art gallery was not a miracle after all. "We do not represent artists such as yourself," said the gallery owner, after the lump of coal had introduced itself. The gallery owner had a long, oily mustache and a strange accent that the lump of coal suspected was fake. "We have a wide selection of works by human beings that suits us just fine. Please go away, and don't leave smudges on my artistic floor."
  Disappointed, the lump of coal rolled outside. "That wasn't the artistic opportunity I was hoping for," it said to itself. "But if I roll around a bit more, perhaps I can find something interesting."
  The lump of coal rolled farther down the block and stopped in front of a building where powerful smells were wafting, a phrase that here means "coming from nearby, even though the door was closed." A sign on the building informed passers-by that the building was named "Mr. Wong's Korean Barbeque Palace And Secretarial School," which made the lump of coal gasp in delight, because I forgot to tell you that for the sake of argument the lump of coal could read.
  "It's a miracle!" cried the lump of coal, and certainly there was every reason to believe this was so. A Korean restaurant is an excellent opportunity to enjoy an indoor barbecue. In fact, many such establishments have small barbecue pits installed in the tables, so you can do the barbecuing yourself. I have spent many pleasant evenings in Korean restaurants, taking shelter from the winter cold, warming myself by the barbecue pit at my table, enjoying the smell of the toasted rice tea, eggplant salad and pickled cabbage served alongside the roasted meats and vegetables.
  When the lump of coal rolled inside, however, it discovered that Mr. Wong's Korean Barbeque Palace And Secretarial School was not a miracle after all. The air was filled with the smell of oregano, which is not a Korean spice, and the owner was wearing a pair of very ugly earrings and a rude scowl on her face. "I don't need any coal," she said. "I get all my coal from a Korean restaurant supply factory. Everything in this restaurant has to be 100% Korean."
  "But Wong isn't even a Korean name," the lump of coal said. "And judging by the smell, I don't think you're using proper Korean spices."
  "Please go away," said the restaurant owner, "and don't leave smudges on my Korean floor."
  The lump of coal did what it was told and began to grow very despondent, a word that here means "certain that a miracle would not occur after all." "Perhaps miracles only happen to human beings," it said, "or maybe miracles are only as genuine as Mr. Wong's Korean Barbeque Palace And Secretarial School. Perhaps I should just bury myself and become a diamond after thousands of years of intense pressure."
  Just when the lump of coal was ready to throw in the towel, however, it ran into someone I'm sure I don't have to introduce. He was an overweight man with a long white beard, dressed in a very bright red suit.
  "Santa Claus!" cried the lump of coal. "It's a miracle!"
  "I'm not a miracle," said Santa Claus, "and I'm not really Santa Claus. I'm an employee of the drugstore, dressed up and giving out coupons. The real Santa Claus is at the mall."
  "Do you have any use for me?" asked the lump of coal. "I'm an artist at heart, but I'm very helpful when cooking meat."
  Santa Claus sighed. "Well," he said. "My stepson is a very disobedient boy named Jasper. His mother used to say he had an artistic temperament, but I just think he's a brat. You're just the thing to put in his stocking as punishment."
  "I guess that's better than nothing," the lump of coal said, and when Santa Claus put him in Jasper's stocking, the lump of coal found that being in a cozy sock was, in fact, better than nothing. And when Jasper found the lump of coal, things became even better than better than nothing.
  "A lump of coal!" Jasper cried. "I've been wanting to create some abstract art featuring rough, black lines!"
  "I'd be happy to be of assistance," said the lump of coal.
  "Egad!" cried Jasper. "You can talk! It's a miracle!"
  It was a miracle, although the miracles didn't stop there. Jasper and the lump of coal collaborated on a number of beautiful paintings, which the art gallery sold for an enormous fortune. That was a miracle. Jasper and the lump of coal used this fortune to visit Korea, where they had always wanted to go, and when they came back they bought the restaurant and turned it into a proper place, known as Yi Sang's Korean Barbeque Palace And Secretarial School, after the famous Korean poet who was unfairly imprisoned in 1937 for crimes he did not commit. That was a miracle, too.
  In the daytime, the two friends cooked genuine Korean food, and in the evenings they produced works of abstract art. They never saw Santa Claus again, although they heard he had been fired from the drugstore for making fun of someone who was buying a certain ointment. All these things are miracles.
  It is a miracle if you can find true friends, and it is a miracle if you have enough food to eat, and it is a miracle if you get to spend your days and evenings doing whatever it is you like to do. The holiday season, like all the other seasons, is a good time not only to tell stories of miracles, but to think about the miracles in your own life, and to be grateful for them, and that's the end of this particular story.

Saturday, December 13 Dress Rehearsal, 10am-Noon

Sunday, December 14 Music Service & Arlington Philharmonic Concert
Guest Musician, Virginia Crumb, harp

• Excerpts from Ceremony of Carols (1944) by Benjamin Britten
  SSA practice files: http://cyberbass.com/Major_Works/Britten_B/britten_ceremony_carols_ssa.htm
  http://cyberbass.com/Major_Works/Britten_B/britten_ceremony_carols_satb.htm
  http://cyberbass.com/Major_Works/Poulenc_F/poulenc_gloria.htm
• Anthem: There is Sweet Music, op. 53, no. 1 (1908) by Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
  Online introduction and performance by the BBC Chorus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkWOaFfkp2M
  Text by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892):
  There is sweet music here that softer falls
  Than petals from blown roses on the grass,
  Or night-dews on still waters between walls
  Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass;
  Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
  Than tir'd eyelids upon tir'd eyes;
  Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies.
  Here are cool mosses deep,
  And thro' the moss the ivies creep,
  And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep,
  And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep.
• Postlude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo

Sunday, December 21 Hannukah Celebration
Rev. John Marsh: "Hannukah Intergenerational Service"

• O Hannukah
• Ocho Kandelikas
• Light One Candle
• First Parish Intergenerational Klezmer Band: Tchiribim and Hava Nagila

Wednesday, December 24 Christmas Eve, 5pm Service
Guest Musician, Virginia Crumb, harp

• Prelude Music: The Last Month of the Year (When Was Jesus Born) traditional Gospel
  O Tannebaum (German Traditional Carol)
  O Christmas Tree (1965) by Vince Guaraldi
  An instrumental version of "O Tannenbaum" was composed by former pianist Vince Guaraldi for the Peanuts special "A Charlie Brown Christmas," a very popular holiday TV show that was created and first aired in 1965.
  
  Christmas Greeting, op. 52 (1907) by Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) with text by Caroline Alice Elgar (1848-1920):
  Bowered on sloping hillsides rise
  In sunny glow, the purpling vine;
  Beneath the greyer English skies,
  In fair array, the red-gold apples shine.
  Refrain: To those in snow,
  To those in sun,
  Love is but one;
  Hearts beat and glow,
  By oak and palm.
  Friends, in storm or calm.
  On and on old Tiber speeds,
  Dark with the weight of ancient crime;
  Far north, thr' green and quiet meads,
  Flows on the Wye in mist and silv'ring rime.
  Refrain
  The pifferari wander far,
  They seek the shrines, and hymn the peace
  Which herald angels, 'neath the star,
  Foretold to shepherds, bidding strife to cease.
  Our England sleeps in shroud of snow,
  Bells, sadly sweet, knell life's swift flight,
  And tears, unbid, are wont to flow,
  As "Noel! Noel!" sounds across the night.
  Refrain
  
  The Oxen
  Text: Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
  "Now they are all on their knees,"
  An elder said as we sat in a flock
  By the embers in hearthside ease.
  We pictured the meek mild creatures where
  They dwelt in their strawy pen,
  Nor did it occur to one of us there
  To doubt they were kneeling then.
  So fair a fancy few would weave
  In these years!
  Yet, I feel,
  If someone said on Christmas Eve,
  "Come; see the oxen kneel,
  In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
  Our childhood used to know,"
  I should go with him in the gloom,
  Hoping it might be so.
  by Thomas Hardy
• Bell Carol: Hark, How the Bells by Mikhail Leontovich
  Click here to hear a recording of this selection by the Cal Tech combined Glee Clubs
• Il est né, le divin Enfant
  It is not clear whether the word carol derives from the French "carole" or the Latin "carula" meaning a circular dance. In any case, the dancing seems to have been abandoned quite early, but some examples are very danceable. In the 1680s and 1690s Louis-Claude Daquin wrote 12 noels for organ. Marc-Antoine Charpentier wrote a few instrumental versions of noels, plus one major choral work "Messe de minuit pour Noël" (carols with orchestral links written by Charpentier). Ça, Bergers, assemblons nous is from the 16th century, and was sung aboard Jacques Cartier's ship on Christmas Day 1535. Perhaps the best known traditional French carol is Il est né, le divin Enfant!, which comes from Provencal. In 1554 "La Grande Bible des Noels" was printed, in several versions in Orleans. It was a collection of French carols. "Chants de Noels anciens et nouveau" (1703) was printed by Christophe Ballard (1641 - 1715) in Paris.
• Excerpts from Ceremony of Carols (1944) by Benjamin Britten
  SSA practice files: http://cyberbass.com/Major_Works/Britten_B/britten_ceremony_carols_ssa.htm
  http://cyberbass.com/Major_Works/Britten_B/britten_ceremony_carols_satb.htm

Wednesday, December 24 Christmas Eve, 7pm Service

• Prelude Music: Tota pulchra es Maria by Maurice Duruflé
  Click here to practice this selection with soprano 1 emphasized
  Click here to practice this selection with soprano 2 emphasized
  Click here to practice this selection with soprano 3 emphasized
  Click here to practice this selection with alto 1 emphasized
  Click here to practice this selection with alto 2 emphasized
  Click here to practice this selection all parts emphasized equally
  Click here to hear a recording by the Cal Tech Women's Glee Club
  http://cyberbass.com/Major_Works/Poulenc_F/poulenc_XMAS_motets.htm
  
  Dixit Maria (Renaissance motet) by Hans Leo Hassler (c1564-1612)
  Liturgical texts relating to Offertory & Anthem: The feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which dates from the seventh century, acknowledges the preparation by God of his people to receive their Saviour and Lord, putting 'heaven in ordinary' and showing that mortal flesh can indeed bring hope to the world. This festival in honour of the conception of the mother of our Lord is celebrated on December 8 in both the eastern and the western Church.
  In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you." But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."
  Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God."
  Dixit Maria ad angelum: Ecce ancilla Domini, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.
  Mary said to the angel [Gabriel], "Behold I am the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her. Luke I. 26-3
  Excerpts from Handel's Messiah
• • Overture (No. 1)
    Comfort Ye (Tenor Recitative, No. 2) Andrew Leonard
    "Comfort ye, my people, saith your God; speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem; and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that cried in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God." (Isaiah 40:1-3)
  • Every Valley (Tenor Aria, No. 3) Andrew Leonard
    "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low, the crooked straight and the rough places plain." (Isaiah 40:4)
  • I Will Shake (Bass Recitative, No. 5): Jean Renard Ward
    "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts: Yet once a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all nations; and the desire of all nations shall come." (Haggai 2:6-7)
    "The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts" (Malachi 3:1)
    And the Glory of the Lord (Chorus, No. 4)
    "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." (Isaiah 40:5)
  • O Thou, That Tellest (Alto Recitative & Aria, Nos. 8 & 9): Dorothy May
    "Behold! a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us." (Isaiah 7:14; Matt. 1:23)
    "O thou that tellest good tidings of Zion, get thee up into the high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!" (Isaiah 40:9).
  • (Bass Recitative & Aria, Nos. 10 & 11): Michael Prichard
    "For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee; and His glory shall be seen upon thee, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising" (Isaiah 60:2-3)
    "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." (Isaiah 9:2)
• The Lamb (1946) by Theodore Chanler
  Text: Little Lamb, who made thee?
  Dost thou know who made thee?
  Gave thee life, and bid thee feed,
  By the stream and o'er the mead;
  Gave thee clothing of delight,
  Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
  Gave thee such a tender voice,
  Making all the vales rejoice?
  Little Lamb, who made thee?
  Dost thou know who made thee?
  Little Lamb, I'll tell thee,
  Little Lamb, I'll tell thee.
  He is called by thy name,
  For He calls Himself a Lamb.
  He is meek, and He is mild;
  He became a little child.
  I a child, and thou a lamb,
  We are called by His name. Little Lamb,
  God bless thee! Little Lamb, God bless thee!
  by William Blake (1757-1827), from Songs of Innocence and Experience (1789)
• Carol: The Lamb by John Taverner
  Notes: The Lamb is a hauntingly beautiful piece. It is for unaccompanied SATB choir. It is almost entirely syllabic which, along with its homophony, adds to the simplicity of the piece. Performance directions state that tempo should be flexible and also guided by the words, and Taverner uses contrapuntal varitations to develop his themes.
  In the second bar, the alto part sings an inversion (upside down) of the melody sung by the soprano. Bars 3 and 4 are also soprano solo, with bar 4 being the retrograde (reverse) of the previous bar. The same technique is used in the soprano part in bars 5 and 6, with the alto singing a retrograde inversion (combining both ideas, sung upside down and backwards). The overall effect of this section is blatant dissonance, though the fact that each line returns to the same point reaffirms a serene, uncomplicated mood.
  After an atonal start, the full chorus joins for the second half of the verse. The music here is gently dissonant, with a feeling of E-minor but without the expected D-sharps. This section is entirely based upon the opening soprano melody. The soprano and alto parts sing in thirds throughout, with the tenors and basses helping to create subtle suspensions. Each bar ends with an E-minor chord. The second verse is similar to the first, with the women's voices focusing on the tune in unison.
• Anthem Set #1: The Christmas Story
  Pastoral Symphony (No. 13)
  Soprano Recitative (Nos. 15-16) Krista Ernewein
  "And the Angel said unto them, 'Fear not; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people; for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.' And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying:" (Luke 2:10-11)
  Chorus of Angels (No. 17)
  "Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, goodwill towards men" (Luke 2:13-14)
  Alto Recitative and Aria (No. 19) Meg Candilore
  "Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing" (Isaiah 35:5-6)
  "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, and he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young" (Isaiah 40:11)
  Soprano Solo (No. 20) Laurie Francis Wright
  "Come unto him, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and he will give you rest. Take his yoke upon you, and learn of him, for he is meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matt. 11:28-29)
  Soprano Solo (No. 18) Krista Ernewein
  "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee! He is the righteous Saviour, and he shall speak peace unto the heathen." (Zechariah 9:9-10)
• Chorus with Congregation (No. 44)
  "Hallelujah: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth (Rev. 19:6). The Kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever (Rev. 11:1). King of kings, and Lord of lords. Hallelujah!" (Rev. 19:16).

Thursday, December 25 No choir rehearsals due to Holiday

December 28 Chamber Music

2009 Music:

Thursday, January 1 No choir rehearsals due to Holiday

Sunday, January 4 Possible Epiphany/Twelfth Night Event

• Candle Music: Austria & Bavaria - Star Singers Carol
  In Austria and Bavaria, children dress up as "The Three Kings" and carry an imitation star on a pole. They go from house to house from New Year's day to January 6th, and sing religious songs. The children are called "Star singers." If they are rewarded with sweets, they may eat them. If they are rewarded with money, it is given to a Catholic church or to a charity. They put a chalk mark "C.M.B" on houses they have visited. Although this is sometimes taken as a reference to the three kings - Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar - it may originally have represented the words "Christus mansionem benedicat" (Christ bless this house).
• Twelfth Night by Samuel Barber
• Postlude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo

Saturday, January 10 Blood Drive

January 11 Snow Music with Chalice Singers

• Prelude: Velvet Shoes (1927) by Randall Thompson (1899-1984)
  Sung by the First Parish Choir Women and the Chalice Singers
  Click here to practice this selection with the melody emphasized
  Randall Thompson was an American composer. He attended Harvard University, became assistant professor of music and choir director at Wellesley College, and received a doctorate in music from the University of Rochester School of Music. He went on to teach at the Curtis Institute of Music, at the University of Virginia, and at Harvard, where Leonard Bernstein was one of his students. He is particularly noted for his choral works. His most popular and recognizable choral work is his anthem, Alleluia, commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky for the opening of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood.
• Candle Music: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (1957) by Randall Thompson (1899-1984)
  Sung by the First Parish Choir Men (with 8 handbells)
  Click here to hear Robert Frost read his poem
  Click here to read about the composition and to hear an expressive a cappella recording by the Two-by-Fours (last link on the page).
• Anthem: Candle Music: A Winter Prayer by Fenno Follensbea Heath, Jr. (1926-)
  The Lord Came down on a snowy day.
  White, O, white He lay.
  In spring, the Lord walked all around.
  Stirred seed, spread sod o'er leaf and ground.
  Fell with the rain and rose again.
  Green root, green shoot, oh green he strode.
  So kneel I by thy branches in the snow.
  Let all my branches down and pray to know
  That from each bough so barren now
  A shoot of grace, a sprig of faith will grow.
  by Alexander Winston
• Notes on the Choral Music: The three-stanza text Velvet Shoes by New Jersey poet Elinor Wylie (1885-1928) evokes the beautiful tranquility of a walk in the snow. "Under veils of white lace, we shall walk in velvet shoes: Wherever we go, silence will fall like dews on the white silence below..." Wylie was famous during her life almost as much for her ethereal beauty and personality as for her melodious, sensuous poetry. This poem comes from her first mature poetry collection, Nets to Catch the Wind (1921). As we listen to this poem, our senses are arrested by whiteness, silence, suspended motion, and softness. These sensual ideas fuse together to create a response called synesthesia. Wylie's snow symbolizes tranquility, just as the speaker in Frost's "Stopping by Woods" listens to "the sweep / Of easy wind and downy flake" and observes that "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep." In fact, Frost's scene, with its "frozen lake" nearby, is actually colder, and may suggest a very subtly pervading presence of death. But there is no such sense of winter's coldness in Velvet Shoes. The lace and silk, the milk, dews, silence, peace, and velvet are all tranquil and comforting.

  • Snow is often used in Zen poetry to suggest the true nature of the world when finally perceived by the enlightened awareness. Everything is seen as one, the same, radiant, "white" -- everything comes to rest in the interpenetrating glow of being. The idea of separation is lost in the light of a fluid continuity. Objects may not be passively disappearing, but actively hiding themselves. American poet Ivan M. Granger compared this to the Zen approach to worship: "recognizing your own bright nature in the midst of the still, bright field of being -- and to let the sense of a separate (selfish) self fade as you gently merge into that radiance of interbeing."

    Worship by Dogen (1200-1253)
    A white heron
    Hiding itself
    In the snowy field,
    Where even the winter grass
    Cannot be seen.

    In The Snow Man, American poet Wallace Stevens works with the Zen concept of emptiness, or at least three of the four Noble Truths: a) life is suffering; b) suffering results from attachment to transient things and ideas; and c) a cessation of suffering is attainable.)

    The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)
    One must have a mind of winter
    To regard the frost and the boughs
    Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
    And have been cold a long time
    To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
    The spruces rough in the distant glitter
    Of the January sun; and not to think
    Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
    In the sound of a few leaves,
    Which is the sound of the land
    Full of the same wind
    That is blowing in the same bare place
    For the listener, who listens in the snow,
    And, nothing himself, beholds
    Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

January 18 MLK, Jr. Weekend - Spirituals/Jazz

January 25 Mozart Service

• Regina Coeli
  http://cyberbass.com/Major_Works/Mozart_W_A/mozart_KV127_regina_coeli.htm

February 1 Snow Music Service

• Candle Music: Quiet City by (1939) Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
  Carl Schlaikjer, English horn; Brad Amidon, trumpet
• Offertory: Snow, op. 26, no. 1 (1895) by Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) Women of the First Parish Choir
  Click here to hear a live recording (Cal Tech Women's Glee Club)
  Text by Caroline Alice Elgar (1848-1920):
  O snow, which sinks so light,
  Brown earth is hid from sight
  O soul, be thou as white as snow,
  O snow, which falls so slow,
  Dear earth quite warm below;
  O heart, so keep thy glow
  Beneath the snow.
  O snow, in thy soft grave
  Sad flow'rs the winter brave;
  O heart, so sooth and save, as does the snow.
  The snow must melt, must go,
  Fast, fast as water flow.
  Not thus, my soul,
  O sow Thy gifts to fade like snow.
  O snow, thou'rt white no more,
  Thy sparkling too, is o'er;
  O soul, be as before,
  Was bright the snow.
  Then as the snow all pure,
  O heart be, but endure;
  Through all the years full sure,
  Not as the snow.
  Text by Alice Elgar
• Anthem: Dreams by Andrew Pereli, poetry by Lanston Hughes
  A new work for mixed choir, string quartet and wind quartet (premiered 2007)
• Postlude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo

February 8

• O, My Luv's Like a Red, Red Rose
  Click here to hear the text spoken with a proper Scottish accent
  Click here to read a discussion of the text
• Postlude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo

February 15 School Vacation Begins - Youth Group to New Orleans

February 22

March 1

• O Wild West Wind, op. 53, no. 3 (1908 ) by Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
  Score: http://www.doveton-music.de/PDFfree/ElgarOWildWestWind.pdf
  Text by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) from Ode to the West Wind:
  O wild West Wind, [...]
  Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
  What if my leaves are falling like its own!
  The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
  Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
  Sweet though in sadness.
  Be thou, Spirit fierce, My spirit!
  Be thou me, impetuous one!
  Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
  Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!
  And, by the incantation of this verse,
  Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth
  Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
  Be through my lips to unawakened earth
  The trumpet of a prophecy!
  O, Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
• Postlude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo

Saturday, March 7 Blood Drive

March 8 Music Service (Daylight Savings Time)

• Sermon in Music: Fantasie für Klavier, Chor, und Orchester, op. 80 by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
  Sarah Haera Tocco, piano solo
  Practice files for all vocal parts are availabe at: http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Choral_Fantasy,_Op._80_(Ludwig_van_Beethoven)

March 15 Alliance Service (March 20 Vernal Equinox)

March 22 Youth Group Service & Latke Party

March 29 Possible Candidating Sunday -1

• Anthem: Psalm 111 (Hallelujah) by Salomon Sulzer (1804-1880)
  Sulzer was born March 30, 1804 in Hohenems, a small town in Vorarlberg, an Austrian province between Tyrol and Switzerland. Schooled at the Yeshiva at Endigen, Switzerland, Sulzer concurrently studied music in Karlsruhe (Baden) and decided to become a cantor. At age 14 Sulzer was elected cantor in his hometown, but in 1826 on an extended leave of absence, he traveled to Vienna where he was engaged for the next twenty-one years as the chief cantor of the Vienna Jewish community. It was there that Sulzer undertook the serious study of composition, where he become close friends with Franz Schubert and other famous members of the Vienna Opera. It was, however, under the influence of the chief rabbi of Vienna, Isaac Noa Mannheimer, that Sulzer published three volumes of music that followed the Mannheimer's prayer-book (1839-1865). It was Sulzer's deliberate attention to proper diction, musical form, and harmony that wed liturgical words with sacred sounds; It can be said that he almost single-handed, reintroduced dignity and decorum into Jewish worship, through choral music, pioneering a renaissance of Jewish music.
• Postlude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo

April 5 Palm Sunday & Possible Candidating Sunday -2
Guest Musician, Virginia Crumb, harp

Saturday, April 11 Blood Drive

April 12 Easter

• I thank you God for this most amazing day by Eric Whitacre
  I thank You God for most this amazing
  One of several self-portraits
  day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
  and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
  which is natural which is infinite which is yes
  (I who have died am alive again today,
  and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
  day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
  great happening illimitably earth)
  how should tasting touching hearing seeing
  breathing any—lifted from the no
  of all nothing—human merely being
  double unimaginable You?
  (now the ears of my ears awake and
  now the eyes of my eyes are opened) by e. e. cummings
  Note by Richard Kennedy: On a visit to Tucson, Arizona, e.e. cummings had a mystical experience while walking in the desert where he encountered a strange cactus-like plant: he touched one spine and jumped “spiritually 40 miles.” His journals are full of references to “le bon Dieu” and frequent prayers for help in his creative life (such as “Bon Dieu! may I some day do something truly great. amen.”). he also prayed for strength to be his essential self (“may I be I is the only prayer--not may I be great or good or beautiful or wise or strong”), and for relief of spirit in times of depression (“almighty God! I thank thee for my soul; & may I never die spiritually into a mere mind through disease of loneliness”). His basic religious feelings were in tune with his Unitarian upbringing. His concept of God was that of a comprehensive Oneness together with a sense of the presence of this Oneness in nature. In Xaipe he expressed this belief most clearly in this sonnet that combined both prayer and an awareness of Divinity in the natural world (I thank you God).
• Postlude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo

April 19 School Vacation Begins

April 26 Possible Candidating Sunday -3

May 3 Possible Candidating Sunday -4 or
http://cyberbass.com/Major_Works/Mendelssohn_F/mendelssohn_walpurgs.htm

• Preludes: Now Is the Month of Maying by Thomas Morley
  Click here to hear an under-tempo but fun recording by the amateur German choir Canterino
  
  Ce moys de May by Clement Janequin (c1485-1558)
  Click here to see the score for this selection
  Click here to hear the parts played for this selection
  Click here to hear a live recording of this selection
  
  Rise Up, My Love (1929) by Healey Willan (1880-1968)
  Click here for a biography of the composer. Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come. Songs of Songs 2: 10-12
  
  Ego flos campi by Clemens non Papa (1510-1556)
  Ego flos campi et lilium convallium.
  (Bride:) I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys.
  Sicut lilium inter spinas sic amica mea inter filias.
  (Bridegroom:) As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
  Fons hortorum et puteus aquarum viventium quae fluunt impetu de Libano.
  The fountain of gardens: a well of living waters, which run with a strong stream from Lebanon.
  Click here to hear a recording by Amici Cantores
  Notes: Ego flos campi is one of many beautiful works by the Franco-Flemish Renaissance composer Jacobus Clemens (1510-1556). A prolific composer in many styles and languages, he was most well-known for his polyphonic settings of all 150 Psalms in Dutch known as the Souterliedekens. In his thirties, Clemens worked at the Bruges Cathedral and became the choirmaster at the court of Charles V. His nickname Clemens non Papa was jokingly added by the Parisian publisher Pierre Attaingnant to distinguish him from the contemporaneous Pope Clement VII (Jacobus Clemens, but not the Pope). Clemens adopted the name, as it reflected Protestant sympathies on his part, and he was one of very few northern European composers to never visit Italy. He also lived in the university town of Leiden, and wrote a wide variety of music in the Northern style (15 masses, 233 motets, 80 chansons, and 159 Souterliedekens).
  The Latin text is taken from the biblical Song of Songs (2:1-2, 4:15), and uses metaphors to describe the purity, simplicity, and stability of the church. Our choir has sung other Song of Songs settings this Spring (Willan’s Rise Up My Love), but this one is unique due to its combination of flower and water symbolism.
• Postlude: Sarah Haera Tocco, organ solo

May 10 Mother's Day (Chalice Singers final Spring performance)

May 17

May 24 Memorial Day Weekend

May 31

June 7

June 14 Flower Communion

• Contre Qui, Rose from the Rilke Flower Songs by Morten Lauridsen (1943-)
  The English translation by Barbara and Erica Muhl reads: “Against whom rose. Have you assumed these thorns? Is it your too fragile joy that forced you to become this armed thing? But from whom does it protect you, this exaggerated defense. How many enemies have I lifted from you who did not fear it at all? On the contrary, from summer to autumn you wound the affection that is given you.”
  Link to a short article on this text and its relevance to current events: http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirledview/2006/03/contre_qui_rose.html
  Link to listening example:
  http://www.imeem.com/people/-YICDHM/music/orj5QRc3/morten_lauridsen_lauridsen_les_chansons_des_roses_2_cont/
• Hymne au Soleil (1912) by Lili Boulanger (1893-1918)
  Click here for a biography of Lili Boulanger
  Text by Casimir Delavigne (1793-1843):
  Du soleil qui renaît bénissons la puissance.
  Avec tout l'univers célébrons son retour.
  Couronné de splendeur, il se lève, il s'élance.
  Le réveil de la terre est un hymne d'amour.
  Sept coursiers qu'en partant le Dieu contient à peine,
  Enflamment l'horizon de leur brûlante haleine.
  O soleil fécond, tu parais!
  Avec ses champs en fleurs, ses monts, ses bois épais,
  La vaste mer de tes feux embrasée,
  L'univers plus jeune et plus frais,
  Des vapeurs de matin sont brillants de rosée.
• Ethnic Combo Music: Argentina, Brazil (Samba), Django Rheinhardt Jazz Guitar, Gypsy, Israeli, Jazz Band, Jazz Combo, Klezmer, Mariachi, New Orleans, Parisian Café Music
• Folk Music: Shaker, Shape-Note, Spirituals, and Southern Mountains Music
• Tu es Petrus by Maurice Duruflé
  Click here to practice this selection with the soprano emphasized
  Click here to practice this selection with the alto emphasized
  Click here to practice this selection with the tenor emphasized
  Click here to practice this selection with the bass emphasized
  Click here to practice this selection with all parts played equally
• A Peace Song (Toras Adonoy and Etz Chayim) from Bloch's Avodath Hakodesh (pp. 58-68)
• One Voice by Barry Manilow
• The Fountain, op. 71, no. 2 (1914) by Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
  The unthrift sun shot vital gold,
  A thousand, thousand pieces;
  And heav'n its azure did unfold
  Chequer'd with snowy fleeces;
  The air was all in spice,
  And ev'ry bush
  A garland wore:
  Thus fed my eyes,
  But all the earth lay hush,
  Only a little fountain lent
  Some use for ears,
  And on the dumb shades language spent,
  The music of her tears.
  - by Henry Vaughan (1622-1695)
• The Shower , op. 71, no. 1 (1914) by Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
  Scores: http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/The_Shower%2C_Op._71%2C_No._1_%28Edward_Elgar%29
  Cloud, if as thou dost melt, and with thy train
  Of drops make soft the Earth, my eyes could weep
  O'er my hard heart, that's bound up and asleep;
  Perhaps at last,
  Some such showers past,
  My God would give a sunshine after rain.
  - by Henry Vaughan (1622-1695)
• Deep in My Soul, op. 53, no. 2 (1908 ) by Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) in celebration of Elgar's 150th Birthday Year
  Text by George Gordon Noel, Lord Byron (1788-1824) from The Corsair, Canto I: xiv, 1-2:
  Deep in my soul that tender secret dwells,
  Lonely and lost to light for evermore,
  Save when to thine my heart responsive swells,
  Then trembles into silence as before.
  
  There, in its centre, a sepulchral lamp
  Burns the slow flame, eternal - but unseen;
  Which not the darkness of Despair can damp,
  Though vain its ray as it had never been.
• Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi by Sir Arthur Bliss
  Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
  where there is hatred, let me sow love;
  where there is injury, pardon;
  where there is doubt, faith;
  where there is despair, hope;
  where there is darkness, light;
  and where there is sadness, joy.
  O Divine One, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
  to be understood, as to understand;
  to be loved, as to love;
  for it is in giving that we receive,
  it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
  and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. Notes - Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, CH, KCVO (1891-1975) was a British composer of American descent, his father having left New England to come and settle in London. Bliss’s mother, Agnes Kennard, was an accomplished pianist and his brothers all had musical abilities. He was educated at Rugby School and gained a considerable reputation at the school as a pianist. He received his BA from Pembroke College, Cambridge, and entered the Royal College of Music in 1913: here he studied composition with Charles V. Stanford and befriended Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst. His musical studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War in which he was wounded in the Battle of the Somme (1916) and gassed at Cambrai (1918). The tragic death in battle of his brother, Kennard, together with his own war experiences, had a profound and lasting impact on his life and in his music, and found expression most particularly in his choral symphony, Morning Heroes (1930). Vaughan Williams credited this work as the primary inspiration for his 1937 Dona nobis pacem, which in turn served as the main model for Britten's 1962 War Requiem.
  Bliss's early music shows the influence of Stravinsky and Debussy: a Concerto for [wordless] Tenor, piano and strings; and his Colour Symphony of 1922 which explores the idea of the musical associations of different colors. After the war, Bliss was offered a professorship at the Royal College of Music (even though he had never finished his graduate studies), but instead he accompaned his American father (who had retired in Santa Barbara, California) to the U.S. In California he met Gertude Hoffmann, whom he married and brought back to London in 1925. His music from the 1920s-30s focused on ballet commissions and six film scores. His Introduction and Allegro which was premiered in Philadelphia under Leopold Stokowski, and his Music for Strings debuted at the Salzburg Festival in 1935 under Sir Adrian Boult.
  During the first years of the Second World War, Bliss taught at the University of California - Berkeley. From 1941-44 he was Director of Music at the BBC; he spearheaded the division of British music broadcasting into categories after the war, such as the present day Radios 1 and 3. In 1950 he was knighted and in 1953 he was appointed to succeed Arnold Bax as Master of the Queen's Musick. In this capacity he composed numerous works and fanfares for royal occasions including the Investiture of the Prince of Wales (1969). Throughout the 1950s-60s, Sir Arthur Bliss recorded fine interpretations of several of his major works, but was often overshadowed by coincidentally similar large-scale works by Benjamin Britten and Witold Lutoslawski. 1970 brought the publication of Bliss’s autobiography, As I remember. The last of the composer’s masterpieces – the Cello Concerto written for the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and the haunting Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi - date from his final years.
• The Sailor and Young Nancy by E. J. Moeran
• Music of Hildegard von Bingen, and Hymn #27
• The Rapid Stream (1922) & The Woodland Stream (1922) by Edward Elgar for boychoir and piano
• Birds: Fly, Singing Bird and When Swallows Fly by Edward Elgar; excerpts from Dalglish's music
• Drömmarna by Jean Sibelius
• Esti Dal by Zoltan Kodaly
• The Lost Chord by Sir Arthur Sullivan

Click below for past programming.
2007-08 / 2006-07 / 2005-06 / 2004-05 / 2003-04
2002-03 / 2001-02 / 1991-92 / 1978-79 / 1966-67 / 1964-65
Early History of Music at First Parish 1733-1964

First Parish UUC Arlington Homepage
Laura Prichard's Homepage
UU & Musical Humor

Document maintained on server by LDSP. Last update 7/22/08 by LDSP.