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!