[Choir] Music Sunday Beauty

[Donia Prince]

Hello everyone!

There is no required information in this email--read on if you are
interested but feel free to ignore!

As I mentioned at our last rehearsal, attached here is the list Lani put
together of all of the music in our music library.  *IF* you are
interested, take a look and see if anything stands out to you as something
you would love to sing again as part of a Music Sunday program on Beauty.
I know many of you have already offered suggestions, so we have a lot to
choose from, but just in case there is any gem not yet considered, please
feel free to pass on any additional ideas.

Anyone who might be interested in helping to hone our options and help
craft a program is invited to meet after the service on Feb 2nd.  After
that we will finalize the selections and begin rehearsing them sometime in
February.

Below are some of my considerations and thoughts about how to frame the
program (put down in no particular order...a bit stream of consciousness)
as well as a list of suggestions people have offered.

Include a broad range of styles, that might serve to illustrate some of
these thoughts.
What is beauty, what makes something beautiful?  is it melody, harmony,
texture, atmosphere, words.  Is it beautiful because of how it makes us
feel?  Pain/tension and release, harmony.
Differing and evolving perceptions of beauty, cultural and otherwise--what
we present, what we say is therefore limited.  In western music, there has
been an expansion of what we experience as beautiful and harmonious--eg in
earliest western music major thirds were considered dissonant and ugly, now
we can experience close tonal clusters as exquisitely beautiful.  A
corollary of how in general we can expand our perception of what/who is
beautiful.
Creating and experiencing beauty is essential now, an act of
resistance--talk about links between beauty and happiness, well-being.
What guest artists, other instruments, smaller ensembles, etc might we
include?  Eliza will of course do something on piano.
What pieces could fit into our program that would also be able to fit into
a service in the next couple of months (with themes of Embrace (*mostly set*)
Purpose and Imagination)?

I have a thought of opening the program with a unison medieval chant, then
going directly into One Voice ("this is the sound of one voice..."). Then
some words and we're off...   Possibly Include Bach's 1st prelude in C
(piano) as a perfect expression of what creates beauty

Partial list of possible music (forgive me if I've inadvertently left
something off):
We will of course have to settle on just 5 or 6 pieces for the choir, and
will make final decisions based on balance, contrast etc within the program.

Dirait-on, Lauridsen
For the Beauty of the Earth, Rutter
other Lauridsen and Rutter
There will be rest, Ticheli
Sleeping Golden Cloud, Tchaikowsy
Precious Lord, Dorsey, arr Sevier
Other spirituals?
Shenandoah
Bridge over troubled water
Hallelujah, Cohen
Laudate Dominum or other Mozart
Ave Maria
You'll Never Walk Alone
Something from West Side Story?--Somewhere or One Hand, One Heart
Something from Les Miserables?  On Your Own, I Dreamed a Dream
One Voice, Wailin Jennys

I would also like to include something new to us, recently composed.  Here
is one possibility--To See the Sky by Jocelyn Hagen.  gorgeous Sara
Teasdale poem, a fairly new composer who has been making a good name for
herself:  https://graphitepublishing.com/product/see-sky/

Thanks,
Donia
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