Music Report from GA

Here are some musical highlights from the UUA General Assembly in Salt Lake City last week:

• John Hubert organized an amazing amount of music, musicians, and equipment. I think Melodie Feather was his assistant this year. They both worked tirelessly day and night to make each event meaningful through purposeful music.
• Allison Wilski fearlessly led the 150-member non-auditioned choir. I was really impressed with Allison's professionalism, time management, and poise. She repeatedly said how she wished they all could come home with her! It was an amazing group of readers -- we learned about 8 songs in 4 short rehearsals. The best moment for me was singing "Stand" by Amy Carol Webb at the Sunday morning service. All 3,000 attendees sang the chorus with us, and it was a powerful statement of ACTION. You can listen to it and see the lyrics here: http://www.amycarolwebb.com/music-73.html I also love the song "We Pray," which is a Nick Page adaptation of "There is a Balm in Gilead." It always makes me weepy in a good way!
• I participated in a worship service with Sarah Dan Jones and the other 6 newly-minted UUA credentialed music leaders. We sang a few choral pieces and led music with the congregation. There were two amazing homilies - by Jane Rzepka and by Bill Schultz. You can see the whole service here: http://www.uua.org/videos/ga2009.php?movie=2005.flv
• In general, I was surprised that contemporary songs weren't used more. The Service of the Living which, admittedly, is full of tradition and pomp, was particularly stodgy musically. Will we sing "Rank by Rank" for the processional for years to come? Is that the best representation of our mission and our message at this point?
• One other thing I was struck by was the predominance of WORDS. My yes, we are a wordy denomination. So much talking, so much preaching, so many homilies and speakers and sermons and .... I liked each of them, but by the end of the week I was ready to just rock out with some MUSIC!

New UUA Music Credentialing Program

I am pleased to announce that I have passed all the requirements for the new UUA Credentialing Program for Music Leaders.  I am one of seven candidates who will be "graduating" as the very first class of this new program.  We have spent the last three years studying in three areas: Music, UU History and Theology, and Leadership.  We studied with wonderful experts such as Jason Shelton, Sarah Dan Jones, Ken Herman, Rev. Marc Belletini, Beth Norton, Annease Hastings, and Joyce Poley.   Our class will be recognized at the Service of the Living Tradition at General Assembly in June 2009.  

Thanks to everyone who helped make this milestone possible for me:  Rev. Bill Sinkford for helping to push the idea through the ranks of the bureacracy, the Leadership Development Board of the UUMN, Donna Fisher, Beth Williams, my advisor Ila Stoltzfus, and my sponsor Susan Shaw.  

Teaching Tolerance through songs

Last Sunday our church's Family Choir sang "1492," a great song by Nancy Schimmel about how Christopher Columbus thought he "discovered" America. I found the song in a resource I've used many times and I'd like to share here with whoever finds this blog:

The book/CD is called I Will Be Your Friend. It's put out by Tolerance.org, an arm of the Southern Poverty Law Center. One of the coolest things about this resource is that it's FREE to educational and religious organizations!! You just have to send for it on your school or church's lettehead. And they expressly state on the acknolwedgements page that copies of the songs are permissible for educational use. Free is good!

http://www.tolerance.org/teach/current/event.jsp?cid=414

Besides being a FREE resource, it also has awesome songs that can be used with a children's choir, family choir, or even with your congregation. In addition to "1492," I've used several other songs from this book. Our children's choir -- MUUsical Magicians -- have sung "Paz y liberdad" for Peace Sunday, a young soloist sang "Courage" for a service about bullying, and we put "What Can One Little Person Do?" on our CD Family ValUUes: Songs UU Families Can Share. http://cdbaby.com/cd/ocuuc

The CD is professionally produced with (usually) the songwriter as the performer, complete with the appropriate band backing them up. Good stuff!

I really can't say enough good things about this book & CD. If you're a teacher, Religious Education Director, Music Director, or Minister, pick one of these up!

LESS IS MORE - Peace Round

The theme for the service at my church a few weeks ago was world peace - a heavy topic nowadays indeed! Now there are literally hundreds of choir pieces dealing with peace. In fact, last year I produced a Music Sunday in which the whole service was comprised of musical reflections on peace.

But for this service, for some reason I was inspired toward simplicity when I was choosing the choir anthem. The choir sang "Peace Round," which was taught to me by William Allaudin Mathieu (http://www.coldmountainmusic.com/), a fantastic plenary speaker at the Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network several years ago. This song is a 3-measure piece with simply the words for "peace" in four languages - Latin, Hebrew, Sanskrit, and Arabic.

The basses sang "Om Shanti, Om" on octave Cs. At first they complained about how "boring" it was, but I encouraged them to go into a meditative space when they sang. When they did that, the magic began.

The other three sections each learned their parts in turn, and when the four parts were sung together, it was beautiful as a piece of music, but I felt it could go even farther. Then I was inspired to have the choir sing, in mixed formation, from the perimeter of the sanctuary. (The choir members are very good sports by now and almost always trust my crazy ideas!)

After the basses sang their "Om, Shanti Om" about 6 times through, I brought in another section (I changed it every time so the singers had to watch me!) and slowly another, and another. Then I took them out in reverse order, and everyone joined the basses on a unison "Om Shanti Om" at the end until it just faded out. The rehearsal was very powerful -- there was a palpable sense of peace and holiness in the room after the last note dropped off.

We sang this Peace Round at the end of the service on world peace the next Sunday. It was one of the most spiritual musical moments I've ever had, and I heard the same thing from several choir members. The congregation was BATHED in peace/Shanti/Pacem/Salaam/Shalom.

So what did I learn from this experience?

• I learned to trust my "inspirations" and crazy ideas.
• I learned that when I present ideas to the choir from an inspired place, they also get inspired and carry out the vision I had.
• I learned that Unitarian Universalists aren't always "in their head" as we are sometimes rumored to be!
• I learned that it isn't always necessary to prepare a complicated SATB choir anthem to create a sacred musical experience. Sometimes less is more. (One congregant asked how long we had prepared the piece -- she thought it sounded so difficult that we must have been practicing for months! I told her it was only three measures long and she was astounded!)

Has anyone else used this piece in worship? Do you have any experiences when you presented something very simple yet magical at a worship service?

My UU Ministry

Beth has worked at

Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church

since 2001. Her first Sunday was just two weeks before 9/11/2001. After that tragic event, she learned what music ministry meant – and in a hurry! What started out as a part-time job has turned into a deep ministry. She is now the Director of Music Ministries and she is in charge of three choirs for different ages and abilities, a concert series, Sunday morning music, musical outreach opportunities, and many special events throughout the year.

Beth is a member of the first group of Unitarian Universalist musicians who will become

Certified Music Directors

through the

Unitarian Universalist Association

in June 2009. This three-year program, sponsored in part by the

Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network

, has been an excellent tool for personal and career growth.

" "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt in the heart." (Helen Keller)  Among the things that drew me to OCUUC was Beth's ability to analyze the weekly service to help bring the message directly to my heart through music."
- Brenda Titus