I feel like I should be writing something elegant and insightful and perhaps a bit humorous about Taizé , about glorias, about chants and canons. Just yesterday I spoke of how this practice has never (except around the election) felt like a chore. And truly, the practice itself – singing – has never felt that way. …
Yay! Another alleluia! Today’s is made better for two reasons: First, my colleague and friend Amy Zucker Morgenstern wrote this in the comments for yesterday’s Alleluia: The word doesn’t really mean “praise the lord.” It means “praise Yah,” one of the many Hebrew euphemisms for God, since God’s name is unpronounceable. Some of them do translate …
I love alleluias. Sure, the word means “praise the Lord” and I’m not big on the word “Lord”, but as a word of praise, it’s gorgeous and lyrical and pretty much no matter how its sung, I am in. This one’s in a pretty round from an unknown source, one that I wish all choirs …
We have now entered (and rejoiced, and came in) a new phase in this practice – the short songs. The rounds, the doxologies, the introits, the chalice lightings, and the benedictions. I have no idea how this section will feel. I admit that this morning it feels a little disappointing, as there’s not much to …
This round evokes in me another, which we’ll get to in November: Where does it come from? Who wrote it? Why is it in here? Where does it come from? How did it get here? Mystery. Mystery. This hymn’s a riddle and a mystery. Okay, so not all of it is a mystery – it …
Day two of laryngitis – day two of not actually singing, and letting a series of YouTube videos sing for me (by and large, videos of high school choirs around the world singing this with a simplicity this middle aged voice long ago relinquished). It is again a simple piece with deep complexity, a prayer …
Ear Worm Alert! This round is so common in Unitarian Universalist circles it’s hard to remember that in the scheme of things, it’s only about as old as the grey hymnal itself. Yet here it is, a standard welcoming song, even if it’s incomplete. As my beloved colleague Lynn Ungar originally wrote it, this setting …
I wish… I wish I lived with someone, because I would have made them sing this round with me so I could revel in the fullness of this beautiful piece. Although there’s a good chance I would have gotten the pre-coffee stink eye, so maybe it’s just as well. I wish the hymnal indicated that …
Today we get to the first of several pieces by Jim Scott, a prolific UU songwriter and performer. It’s interesting to me that while some of his songs are full on hymns (Gather the Spirit, The Oneness of Everything, etc.) we also get some short pieces that are the choruses of longer songs. That’s the …