Sunday, September 10
Ingathering and Water Communion with the Rev. Dr. Barbara Whittaker-Johns and Carlton E. Smith

• Prelude: Au font du temple saint from Georges Bizet's Pearl Fishers
  Eric Sumner and Michael Prichard, vocalists
  Notes - The Prelude this morning is dedicated to our Senior Minister, Barbara Whittaker-Johns, on the occasion of her return to work, following a long medical leave of absence. We look forward to her thoughtful sermons and the renewed opportunity for fellowship this year! In this duet, Zurga (baritone) becomes chief of his people (in ancient Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka). His long-lost best friend Nadir (tenor) returns, and they passionately, and musically, renew their vows of eternal friendship in this moving duet.
  Translation -
  [NADIR] Au fond du temple saint - At the base of the holy temple
  Paré de fleurs et d'or, - Strewn with flowers and gold,
  Une femme apparaît! - A woman appears!
  Je crois la voir encore! - I believe I can still see it!
  La foule prosternée la regarde, etonnée, - The prostrate crowd looks at it, stunned,
  Et murmure tous bas: Voyez, c'est la déesse! - They murmur, "See it is the goddess!"
  Qui dans l'ombre se dresse - She who draws toward us in the shadow
  Et vers nous tend les bras! - And extends her arms!
  [ZURGA] Son voile se soulève! Ô vision! ô rêve! La foule est à genoux!
  Her veil is raised! O vision, O dream! The crowd is on their knees!
  [DUET] Oui, c'est elle! Yes, it is she!
  C'est la déesse plus charmante et plus belle! It is the charming and beautiful goddess!
  C'est la déesse qui descend parmi nous! She comes down among us.
  Son voile se soulève et la foule est à genoux! Her veil is raised and the crowd is on their knees!
  [ NADIR & ZURGA]
  The dialogue continues, discussing the return of the woman they both love and remember. They sing that they will never be separated again.
  [DUET] Jurons de rester amis! Oui, c'est elle! C'est la déesse! We swear to remain friends! Yes, it is she! It is the goddess!
  En ce jour qui vient nous unir, On this day which comes to unite us,
  Et fidèle à ma promesse, And faithful to my promise,
  Comme un frère je veux te chérir! As a brother I will cherish you!
  Qui vient en ce jour nous unir! who comes in this day to unite us,
  Oui, partageons le même sort, yes, let us share the same fate,
  Soyons unis jusqu'à la mort! until death do us part!
• Anthem: The Blue Bird by Charles V. Stanford (1852–1924)
  Jennifer Kobayashi, soprano solo
  Notes - Stanford was the son of Irish musicians and made his name in England as an improvisatory organist. He was a professor at both the Royal College of Music and at Cambridge University for over forty years, and was the main composition teacher of Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. In The Blue Bird, Stanford uses a soprano solo to represent the female poet's voice. The choral parts mirror each other, symbolizing the bird's reflection on the surface of a calm lake. The altos sustain long pitches throughout the piece, representing the surface of the water and its ability to transform our perceptions of "real" images and their reflections (an opposite viewpoint, or a necessary balance?).
  Text by Mary Coleridge (1861-1907) -
  The lake lay blue below the hill,
  O'er it, as I looked, there flew
  Across the waters, cold and still,
  A bird whose wings were palest blue.
  
  The sky above was blue at last,
  The sky beneath me blue in blue,
  A moment, ere the bird had passed,
  It caught his image as he flew.
• Water Music: Sicut cervus by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
  Down in the River to Pray as featured in the film Oh Brother! Where Art Thou?
• Singing: Keep Breathing led by Anne Goodwin
• Offertory: Toccata in F by Dietrich Buxtehude
• Postlude: Joyful, Joyful by Christina Harmon
  Wendy Covell, organ
• Hymns & Readings: 209, 347, 416, 729, Down in the River to Pray, Deep River from Lift Every Voice and Sing II

Sunday, Sept. 17
"Be Not Afraid" Rev. Dr. Barbara Whittaker-Johns

• Prelude: Brother James's Air by Harold Drake
• Offertory: Lento by Johann S. Bach, arr. Jackson
• Anthem: Gathered Safely In, original solo song by Diane Shriver
• Postlude: Fugue in E-flat by Johann S. Bach
• Hymns & Readings: 126, 368, 413, 447, 461

Sunday, Sept. 24
"Shaker Music Service" Nancy McDowell, Emily Browder, Andrew Leonard, and Jean Renard Ward

• Prelude: Cantabile "O Sacred Head" by Flor Peeters
• Offertory: Improvisation on the Shaker hymns "Work for the Harvest" and "Love, O Love" by Laura Prichard
• Shaker Hymns and Songs: While Nature Lies; Welcome Here; Come Life, Shaker Life; Hop Up and Jump Up; I Love Mother; Lay Me Low; Hunger and Thirst; I Know How to Pray; Here Take This Lovely Flower; I Have a Little Drum; Am I Worthy; Summer Land; My Robe is New; Here's Love; The Humble Heart; Brave Soldier; Mother Anne's Closet; On Zion's Holy Ground; Work for the Harvest; O Lovely and Fair Mount Zion; Simple Gifts; I Am the True Vine; Funeral Hymn; Lucy Clark's Exaltation (O Heaven of Heavens); In Whose Service; Invitation to the River of Love; Brilliant Gem; Love, O Love; Come Love; Mother's Good Drink; Sittin' on a Seat; More Love; Just Enough Cross; All of Mother's Children; Oh, My Children; Willow Tree; I've Set My Face for Zion's Kingdom
• Postlude: Finale from Jessica's Theme by Bruce Rowland
• Hymns & Readings: 484, 16 (with Chalice Singers bellringers A. Friedman, M. Henriksen, and S. Fleishman)

Saturday, Sept. 30, 3pm CONCERT and Sunday, Oct. 8, 3pm CONCERT (Amherst)
"Shaker Music Concert" The River of Love
Malcolm Halliday* and Laura Stanfield Prichard~, conductors
Soloists are listed below. Also joining us were twelve members of the Shrewsbury Youth Singers & Master Singers Youth Chorus, M/ Halliday, director. Other singers included: Lauren Cook, Grace Long, Allegra Martin, Carl Schlaikjer, and Jennifer Shaw

• Shaker Spirituals Living Souls, Let's Be Marching (Tyringham, NY)
  A Mince Pie or a Pudding (Lebanon, NY) N. McDowell, E. Browder, Pamela Dellal, Andrew Leonard
  Invitation to the River of Love (NY) Robert Honeysucker
  Brilliant Gem (Anna White, Lebanon, NY) Nancy Annis McDowell
  I Love Mother Corinne Candilis
• Four Harmonized Shaker Hymns~ The Spirit is Calling (Canterbury, NH)
  I'll Tell Thee of Heaven (Lebanon, NY)
  Work for the Harvest (Canaan, NY)
  Summer Land (Alfred, ME)
• Simple Gifts (Joseph Brackett, Alfred ME) arranged by Aaron Copland (1944)
  Pamela Dellal and Bill Geha
• From a Shaker Hymnal* (1999) by William Cutter
  I. There's a Light (Canterbury, NH)
  II. Let Zion Move (Alfred, ME)
  III. I Will Go On My Way (Enfield, NH)
  Bill Geha, piano
• Shaker Hymns High on the Billows Alison Julian
  A Snag of It, or, a Handful of Gospel Love Nancy McDowell and the Children
  More Love (Canterbury, NH) Emily Browder
• Throat Singing - a Demonstration by Eric Sumner
• Shaker Spirituals used in Druckman's Cantata
  Come Life, Shaker Life (Issachar Bates, Lebanon, NY)
  Lucy Clarks' Exaltation (O, Heaven of Heavens) Emily Browder
  One, Two, Three Steps Nancy McDowell and Emily Browder
  I Have a Little Trumpet Nathan Reich
  Funeral Hymn (Our Father's Gone) Pamela Dellal
• The Simple Gifts, a Cantata based on Themes of the American Shakers* (1954) by Jacob Druckman
  Bill Geha, piano; Emily Browder, Philip Candilis, Pamela Dellal, Andrew Leonard, soloists
• Shaker Hymns I Beg and Pray (Eunice Wyeth, Harvard. MA)
  Jimmy Tyler, Michael Prichard, Monica O'Neil, Laura Prichard
  I Know How to Pray (James Whittaker, Enfield, NH) Philip Candilis
  I Hunger and Thirst (R. Mildred Barker, Sabbathday Lake, ME) Laura Prichard
  Mother Has Come with Her Beautiful Song (Paulina Springer, Alfred, ME) James Frens
• Shaker Spirituals used in Sawyer's Cantata
  The Humble Heart (Thomas Hammond, Harvard, MA) Pamela Dellal
  Lay Me Low (Addah Z. Potter, Lebanon, NY) Nancy McDowell
  Dismission of the Devil Robert Honeysucker
  Drink Ye of Mother's Wine (South Union, KY) Andrew Leonard
  Mother Ann's Song (Anne Lee, Lebanon, NY) Michael Prichard
• The Humble Heart* (commissioned by New England Voices, 2006) by Eric Sawyer
  Lydia Sawyer and Katie O’Connor, Karen Oosterban, Tomas Fajaro, violins; Bill Geha, piano
  Emily Browder, Robert Honeysucker, Pamela Dellal, Andrew Leonard, soloists
• Shaker Spirituals On Zion's Holy Ground Diane Taraz Shriver
  In My Father's House (Lebanon, NY)
  I Will Bow and Be Simple (Mary Hazard, Lebanon, NY)
  I've Set My Face for Zion's Kingdom (Betsy Spaulding, Pleasant Hill, KY)
• Review/Announcement: 'River of Love' a celebration of Shaker music (from the Springfield Examiner, Friday, October 06, 2006) by Clifton J. Noble, Jr., Music writer
  Thanks to composer Aaron Copland's inclusion of it in his ballet "Appalachian Spring," the beloved tune "Simple Gifts" represents the extent of most concertgoers' knowledge of American Shaker music. For music lovers eager to enrich their experience of this humble, intensely spiritual singing tradition, Music on Main's presentation of the New England Voices program "The River of Love" Sunday at 3 p.m. at the First Congregational Church in Amherst offers a signal opportunity to do so.The Arlington-based New England Voices is conducted by Malcolm Halliday. The concert includes chamber chorus, children's chorus and instrumentalists, and a string quartet. Vocal soloists include soprano Emily Browder, mezzo-soprano Pamela Dellal, tenor Andrew Leonard, and baritone Robert Honeysucker. Pianist Eda Mazo-Shlyam is also featured.
  Of local interest is the Western Massachusetts premiere of a new work crafted around Shaker themes by Amherst College professor Eric Sawyer, called "The Humble Heart." Sawyer describes the piece as a cantata based on traditional texts from the American Shakers, centering on community rites of humility and mystical experience. He scores parts of the work for children, both singing and playing instruments, to highlight the role of children in Shaker communities as well as to echo the attitude of simplicity and playfulness present in many of his chosen texts.Sawyer described the program (performed in Arlington on Sept. 30) as "a very special concert, offering a portrait of Shaker musical tradition you're unlikely to hear anywhere else. The performers include some of Boston's leading singers singing both solo and in chorus with children - a representation of Shaker inclusiveness."
  In addition to Sawyer's composition, organizer Nancy McDowell discovered an unknown cantata by the late Jacob Druckman to flesh out the modern response to Shaker music. Combining the 20th and 21st century sound-worlds with the early-American traditional forms and harmonic constructions makes for a unique listening experience.

Sunday, Oct. 1
"Forgiveness, Mechilah, and Yom Kippur" Rev. Dr. Barbara Whittaker-Johns with the Jewish Connections Group
HEBREW MUSIC SUNDAY

• Prelude:
• Candle Blessing: sung by Bonnie Zimmer
• Candle Music - Congregation: Mi Shebeirach by Debbie Friedman
  Jewish tradition ordains that whenever the Torah is read we are granted a special and uniquely opportune moment to invoke blessing for those in need of divine intervention. From time immemorial it has therefore been the custom to recite a Mi Shebeirach (prayer for the sick) on behalf of people who are ill.
  
  Mi shebeirach avoteinu (The one who has blessed our fathers)
  M 'kor habracha l'imoteinu. (Source of blessing for our mothers.)
  May the source of strength who blessed the ones before us,
  Help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing, and let us say, Amen.
  
  Mi shebeirach imoteinu (The one who has blessed our mothers)
  M 'kor habracha l'avoteinu. (Source of the blessing for our fathers)
  Bless those in need of healing with r'fuah sh'leimah. (complete healing)
  The renewal of body, the renewal of spirit, and let us say, Amen.
• Candle Music - Choir: We Remember Them by Ben Steinberg
• Offertory:
• Anthem: Adonai, lo gavah libi (Lord, my heart is not haughty, Psalm 131) from Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms
  Virginia Crumb, harp
• Sung Benediction: Shalom Rav by Ben Steinberg
  Dorothy May, cantor; Virginia Crumb, harp
• Postlude: Carol of the Birds by Pablo Casals
• Hymns & Readings: Avinu Malkeinu, Vine and Fig Tree

Friday, October 6
"Raising New Orleans" or "Sweeping Away Illusions" by Cheri Minton, the John, Carolyn, and Coletta Hodges
Alliance Program with First Parish Choir selected from the following:

• Ubi caritas by Maurice Duruflé
• You are the New Day by Peter Knight
• That Lonesome Road by James Taylor
• Down in the River to Pray from the Coen Brothers' film, based on Homer's Odyssey, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

Sunday, October 8
Topic: “God Makes No Mistakes: Creating Beloved Community for All Our Children” by Sally Patton

• Prelude: Berceuse by Ralph Kinder
• Candle Music: Wanting Memories by Ysaye M. Barnwell (of Sweet Honey in the Rock)
  I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me, to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.
  I thought that you were gone, but now I know you're with me; you are the voice that whispers all I need to hear.
  
  You used to rock me in the cradle of your arms, you said you'd hold me 'til the pains of life were gone.
  You said you'd comfort me in times like these and now I need you, and now I need you, and you are gone.
  
  Now the world outside is such a cold and bitter place, here inside I have few things that will console,
  And when I try to hear your voice above the storms of life then I remember all the things that I was told.
  
  I think on the things that made me feel so wonderful when I was young, the things that made me laugh, made me dance, made me sing.
  I think on the things that made me grow into a being full of pride; think on these things, for they are truth.
  
  I know a "please", a "thank you", and a smile will take me far; I know that I am you and you are me and we are one,
  I know that who I am is numbered in each grain of sand; I know that I've been blessed again and over again.
  Notes - Ysaye M. Barnwell joined the all-female a cappella group Sweet Honey In The Rock in 1979. The concept and leadership of the group rest primarily with Bernice Johnson Reagon, who, as vocal director of the D.C. Black Repertory Theater, founded The Sweet Honey in 1973. Reagon began her work as a socially conscious artist in 1961 during the Albany, Georgia Civil Rights Movement campaign. Combining the full gamut of the African-American vocal tradition, Sweet Honey's repertoire incorporates original West African songs that were brought by slaves to the Americas, work songs, congregational spirituals, full-on gospel numbers, blues, jazz, freedom songs from the Civil Rights movement, love songs and modern rap.The current five members come from a variety of backgrounds with Reagon's scholarly credentials including her current appointment as Curator Emerita at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington DC. She received a Presidential Medal in 1995 for her contribution to the humanities (including work on the PBS series Eyes on the Prize) and is the author of several books on African-American History.
  The group's name came from their first song, a parable that told of a land so rich that when the rocks were cracked open, honey flowed.
  Ysaye M. Barnwell (pronounced Eaze-eye) joined the group in 1979 and along with Reagon has become the group's main spokeswoman. Barnwell holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Speech Pathology and a Ph.D. in Public Health. She has worked on various projects as a composer (Sesame Street, the Dance Company of Pittsburgh, the Women's Philharmonic of San Francisco), has taught at Howard University, and has presented her workshop Singing In The African-American Tradition all around the world. This workshop in part-singing has been recorded, and we highly recommend it!
• Offertory: Interlude by Charles Tournemire
• Anthem: You are the New Day by John David (of the British band Airwaves, 1978), arranged by Peter Knight
  Text - I will love you more than me and more than yesterday, if you can but prove to me you are the new day.
  Send the sun in time for dawn, let the birds all hail the morning; love of life will urge me say, "You are the new day."
  When I lay me down at night knowing we must pay, thoughts occur that this night might stay yesterday.
  Thoughts that we, as humans small, could slow worlds and end it all lie around me where they fall, before the new day.
  One more day when time is running out for everyone; like a breath I knew would come I reach for the new day.
  Hope is my philosophy, just needs days in which to be, love of life means hope for me borne on a new day.
  Notes - Songwriter and record producer John David was born in 1946 in Cardiff, Wales. Having played bass on popular hits with Dave Edmunds in the group Love Sculpture (Sabre Dance, 1969; I Hear You Knocking, 1970; and It's Too Late in 1970 covered by The Searchers), John has had several parallel careers; as a session bass player, solo performer, producer, songwriter and a member of the Rockfield studio band Airwaves which chalked up two Top-100 albums. John has gone on to produce some of the biggest names in rock at his Berry Hill studio, including Robert Plant, the BBC, Cliff Richard, and Little Richard. As a bassist, John has performed with Springsteen, Clapton, Sting, Bryan Adams, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
• Postlude: Children’s March by Franz Schubert
  Frank Toppa, piano
• Hymns & Readings: 338, 413, 596, How Could Anyone, excerpt from Radical Hospitality, Benedict's Way of Love by Father Daniel Homan and Lonni Collins Pratt, What's Really Worth Doing and How to Do It by Judith Snow

Sunday, October 15
Topic: CES "When Bigger is Better" - inspire yourself, connect

• Prelude: Autumn by Antonio Vivaldi
• Candle Music - Anthem: Silent Meditation from Ernest Bloch's Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service, 1933)
  Ernest Bloch was a Swiss-born, American-Jewish composer born 125 years ago. This third movement of Bloch's Sacred Service starts with a meditation. The orchestra/organ alone is heard, allowing the listeners a moment to formulate their own thoughts in silent prayer. Then the choir, a cappella, quietly intones Yihyu Lerotson, the prayer for acceptance. The composer called this section "a silent meditation which comes in before you take your soul out and look at what it contains." The most important part of any Jewish prayer is the introspection it provides, the moment that we spend looking inside ourselves, seeing our role in the universe.
  Translation - O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable before Thee, Adonoi, my Rock and Redeemer. Amen (So be it).
  [Side thought on the word Adonai] - Adonai comes from the root word "Adon," which means lord. A king would be referred to as Lord, or actually any person of high status. In modern Israel, Adon is used as "mister", as in Adon Bloch = Mr. Bloch. A related word, Adoni (pronounced adonee), means "my lord," and is used as a form of respect. Adonai means Lord in the divine sense (as in this prayer): this is what confused the gospel writers, who didn't know Hebrew, and thus didn't know that Jesus was being referred to as Adoni, because he was a teacher.
• Offertory: Choral from Suite Gothique by L. Boellmann
• Anthem: Followers of the Lamb (1847 Shaker melody from New Lebanon, NY) arranged by Philip R. Dietterich
  Philip R. Dietterich (b. 1931) was born into a musical family in Buffalo, New York, and now lives in retirement in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts. He is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, The Boston University School of Theology, and Union Theological Seminary, New York City. For many years, he was the full time Minister of Music at First United Methodist Church in Westfield, New Jersey. He was the founding director of the Oratorio Singers (Westfield, NJ) from 1980-94, and in the late 1990s, he created a noontime concert series at the Whaling Church in Edgartown, MA that spearheaded the restoration campaign for its historic organ. A widely published composer of church music, his 1977 Followers of the Lamb is a spirited arrangement of the 1847 Shaker text and tune by Clarissa Jacobs (Lebanon, NY).
• Postlude: A Mighty Fortress by M. Praetorius
• Hymns & Readings: 28, 413, 529, Blue Boat Home, excerpt from the sermon People Ask About God by Rev. A. Powell Davies, D. d. (All Soul's Unitarian Church, January 13, 1957)

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