Music Blog

I recently was asked to fill out a survey for one of Mark’s students who is studying UU polity. Polity is defined as “a form or process of civil government or constitution, an organized society”. I think of polity as how the church is run—how we do what we do. The fact that we are congregational means that we do as the majority rules, most of the time. I think it is valuable to reflect on what we do with the goal of making improvements as we see fit. Some of the questions posed to me as Music...

This is the time of year when we reflect on the highlights of the fall, winter and now spring. I have just written the Annual Report for Music, and I would like to share some of that with you now. In the fall, with the current chair of the Worship committee (this year it is Carole Berney) and Mark Harris, we create goals for the music program. We revisit these goals in the spring in an evaluative way. I suppose I am being proactive in sharing them now, as next month Carole, Mark, and I will be...

First let me say that our choir has been amazing!  They have not had a Thursday night off for months.  (We usually have one per month.)  Preparing for Missa Gaia made us all hunker down to be ready for Music Sunday.  Choir members have shown up, practiced their parts, shared their creative ideas, and actively helped to craft a beautiful worship service last Sunday.  I hope we will keep our connection to the Waltham singers as an annual event.  I am proud of our choir singers and I am honored...

This month is an exciting one for the First Parish Choir!  We are in the home stretch getting prepared for Music Sunday, which will be Sunday, March 3rd this year.  (Our usual time for Music Sunday is the first part of May.)  I remember feeling this way last year as we were almost ready for our Holiday Madrigal Concert.  It was something we had never done before, so we didn’t know HOW or even IF it would work.  And then, it was amazing!  Maybe because of that, I predict success and I hope that...

Missa Gaia is a Mass for the Earth.  It is a celebration of the earth as a sacred place.  It was premiered in New York in 1981 by Paul Winter, Jim Scott, Paul Halley, Oscar Castro-Neves, and Kim Oler. This piece of music is unique because there are three performing genres:  choral singing, instrumental playing, and animal sounds that include a female timber wolf, whales, birds, seals.  It is a timeless work of art that our church did as a concert four years ago.  This year, we have a different...