John Rutter is one of the foremost choir music composers of this or the last century.  Sunday, January 28, the choir will perform his “For the Beauty of the Earth”, an anthem with words familiar to church goers and hymn singers since 1864.  This new setting emphasizes the voices of sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses and combines them in harmonies beautiful and moving.

For the beauty of the earth
For the beauty of the skies
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.

For the joy of human love
Brother, sister, parent, child
Friends on earth, and friends above
For all gentle thoughts and mild

Lord of all to thee we raise
This our hymn of joyful praise!

As our theme of Justice continues we celebrate our blessings of beauty, love, and joy.

Sunday , January 14, the theme will be Justice for Immigrants.  In keeping with this theme, the choir will sing a Pete Seeger song we all know, “This Land Is Your Land”.  The words and melody will be familiar…

This land is your land, this land is my land,
From California to the New York island;
From the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters;
This land is made for you and me.

…but you may notice some innovations, arranged by our own music director, Sadie Sonntag.

This Sunday is Christmas Eve.  The choir will sing at the contemplative 10 am service and at the celebratory 6 pm service.  Among the numbers they will sing, some with audience participation, are:

Non Nobis Domine,
Infant Holy, Infant Lowly,
Lo, A Rose E’er Blooming,
Night Of Silence/Silent Night,
plus many familiar Christmas carols.

Night of Silence/Silent Night will be sung at the evening Christmas Eve service during the traditional candle lighting time.  Please come to either or both services and experience the peace and power of beautiful music.

This Sunday the choir presents a song by Eric Ode and Tim Blickman.  Titled “Weave Me A Poem” the song was commissioned with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts by the CSA Children’s Choir directed by Dr Mary Lynn Doherty.  The beautiful melody compliments the beautiful words in free verse.

There’s a small gray bird hidden in the roses;
the one nobody notices, the one nobody sees.
Does that small bird worry as we’re hurrying by
that her song is not worth singing
and nothing is worth bringing to the day?

I have a song.
Will I hide it inside me,
or will I give it away?

Sunday the choir will give this song away for free!

This Sunday marks the end of a long Thanksgiving Weekend.  Sometimes it’s hard to be thankful.  Sometimes thankfulness just washes over you.  We’ve felt both recently.  The choir will perform a traditional southern gospel song titled “Down in the River to Pray”.  The origin of this song is unknown, but tradition suggests it was sung first by African-American slaves.  It is also known as “Down to the River to Pray”, but maybe these folks were Baptists.  And you know, Baptists immerse!

Some of the words are:

As I went down in the river to pray,
Studyin’ about that good ol’ way
And who shall wear the robe and crown;
Good Lord, show me the way.
Oh, sinners, let’s go down, let’s go down, come on down.
Oh, sinners, let’s go down, down in the river to pray.

The theme for this Sunday is “Bring Many Names”.  It is said there are 9 Billion names of God. That’s at least one name for every person living on this planet at present.  The choir will sing “Ubi Caritas”, which seems to say that one of those names of God is “Love”. 

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est                  Where there is charity and love, God is there

Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor       The love of Christ has gathered us as one

Exsultemus et in ipso jucundemur              Let us rejoice and be glad in it

Timeamus et amemus Deum vivum           Let us honor and love the living God

Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero               From a sincere heart let us love one another

Also this Sunday we will sing “Bring Many Names” as Rev Chris recites 99 Names of God.

Bring many names, beautiful and good;

Celebrate in parable and story,

Holiness in glory, living, loving God:

Hail and hosanna, bring many names.

The Spirit of Love and Life knows all our names too.

This coming Sunday the choir is back.  The last 2 weeks have cast all of us into an intense, terrifying, heartbreaking ordeal.  And we had to lean on each other to make it through.  We’ll do more than just make it through.  We will rise up from these ashes, stronger and more united than ever. 

“Lean On Me” by Bill Withers, 1972, is our song today. 

Lean on me when you’re not strong
And I’ll be your friend.  I’ll help you carry on.
For it won’t be long till I’m gonna need
Somebody to lean on.

Sadie Sonntag, our Director, will also sing “Rise Up” released by Andra Day in 2015.

I’ll rise up.  I’ll rise like the day
I’ll rise up.  I’ll rise unafraid
I’ll rise up.  And I’ll do it a thousand times again
I’ll rise up high like the waves. 
I’ll rise up in spite of the ache.
I’ll rise up.  And I’ll do it a thousand times again

Together we can move mountains.

Sunday, in keeping with this month’s theme of Hospitality, the Choir will enchant and move us with “Locus Iste”, a piece that evokes the sacredness of “this place” composed in 1869 and based on the biblical story of Jacob’s ladder.  

Locus iste a Deo factus est, inaestimabile sacramentum, irreprehensibilis est

This place was made by God, a priceless mystery; it is without reproof.

Next Sunday the choir performs “Flow Water” written by Damien Kehoe when he was just 22. This piece touches on modern dimensions of choral harmonies.  The words are free verse poetry.

Peace like a river that flows beneath the sky,
water so fresh and still where I alone must lie,
strength of the current, washing from the earth
oh hear that moving water surge from my heart
it is where I go to search amidst the lake
where pain and anguish burn like the flame in my heart
like the flame in my soul wait for water
peace like a river like a river so fresh and still
beneath the sky fresh so fresh and still
where I alone must lie
where I alone must lie
where I alone must lie
flow water.

Just at the beginning of his musical career, Damien looks forward to cultivating new sounds and experimenting with different styles and techniques.  He lists Whitacre, Palestrina, Bach and Wagner as his main influences.

Summer is over (well, according to the calendar, anyway) and the Choir will sing for Ingathering at both services (9:15 and 11:00 AM) this Sunday, the 10th.  We thus we begin our regular 2nd and 4th Sunday performances.

We will sing a 4-part rendition of “Come Come Whoever You Are” (#188 in the regular hymnal) in a round surrounding the congregation. We will also sing a hymn from the “Teal Hymnal” titled “Fire Of Commitment”.

So come, come whoever you are, and join us in singing of the fire of our commitment!