[Choir] Music Sunday Beauty

[Vamarie]

 Amazing list!
Here's one that I suggested but don't see: the French song about the rose??? Bronwyn surely remembers that title. I think we sang it in spring last year, maybe even for the flower service.
    On Tuesday, January 21, 2025 at 11:36:49 AM EST, Donia Prince via Choir <choir at unitarianchurchofmontpelier.org> wrote:   

 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, LauridsenFor the Beauty of the Earth, Rutterother Lauridsen and RutterThere will be rest, TicheliSleeping Golden Cloud, TchaikowsyPrecious Lord, Dorsey, arr SevierOther spirituals?ShenandoahBridge over troubled waterHallelujah, CohenLaudate Dominum or other MozartAve MariaYou'll Never Walk AloneSomething from West Side Story?--Somewhere or One Hand, One HeartSomething from Les Miserables?  On Your Own, I Dreamed a DreamOne 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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