Music Update Archive
Music Notes for 12/14/22:
This week’s music events:
- Sacred Breath Choir meets with Rev. Karen on Thursday Dec. 15th for Winter Solstice Rehearsal at 6:45
- Winter Solstice Celebration starts at 5pm Saturday Dec. 17th (call time for singers TBD)
Shared music this week:
- “Come On In” and “May the Wise Wind Lift You on Its Wings” – two songs written by our worship leader, the Rev. Suzelle Lynch, that she’ll teach us!
- “This Joy” by Shirley Caesar
From Heather Yonker:
Sacred Breath Wonder-Full! December 7 2022
Great-Full!
What a splendid, joyous service of wonder, reflection, celebration, and parting! Thank you for being there and making it so memorable.
- Sacred Breath Choir meets with Heather at 6:15 this Thursday, Dec. 8th
- Sacred Breath Choir meets with Rev. Karen on Thursday Dec. 15th for Winter Solstice Rehearsal at 6:45
- Winter Solstice Celebration starts at 5pm Saturday Dec. 17th (call time for singers TBD)
Shared music this week:
“Take This With You” from H. Yonker
Take this with you, when we part.
A gentle song, straight from the heart.
May it nurture and provide,
The sacred breath, the love inside.
May it hold you up in grace
And put a smile upon your face!
Sing it soft, sing it strong,
Share it wide, share it long.
Take this with you, the gift within, and keep on
Singing, singing, singing, singing,
Until we meet again.
Peace and Love and Blessings Always,
Heather Yonker
Winter Solstice Celebration on Saturday, December 17 at 5:00 pm
We’re so grateful that Heather has provided the leadership that Rev. Karen and our Sacred Breath Choir need to create a Winter Solstice Celebration- our first in-person Celebration since 2019! The service will also be streamed via Zoom.
Carols and Coffee on Sunday, December 25 at 10:00 am
Instead of our regular Sunday worship, we’ll have a shortened service and sing a few traditional Christmas songs together. Please bring a sweet treat to share for a festive coffee hour.
Sacred Breath Choir
Please watch for emails for information about future rehearsals during our Music Director transition. Thanks!
Regular weekly Sacred Breath Choir rehearsals are on Thursday evenings unless otherwise announced in the newsletter. We begin warm-ups at 7pm and at 7:15, the doors to the church are locked for safety. If you have been vaccinated and are willing to adhere to wearing a mask, we invite you to join us, no matter your level of music or reading ability. We will continue to provide a virtual option upon request.
During Sacred Breath gatherings we balance our activities with greetings, covenant, and deep breathing. We do vocal warm-ups, prepare, and listen. We investigate hymns and sometimes their contextual history, the music itself, and/or the lyrics, as well as special music related to our monthly themes. The choir provides music ministry to the congregation, to welcome and uplift, to nurture and inspire, to sooth and to rejoice. We will typically sing live at service at least twice per month. This is an open circle, and we would love for you to join us. There are many options for levels or types of participation. Instrumentalist? Accompanist? Occasional soloist or special music offering? Join us. music@officejruuc-org
From Heather Yonker 11/30/22:
Please come this Sunday for goodbyes, good wishes, and of course, good music!
I have invited anyone that has ever sung in the choir to come and sing this Sunday for my last Service as Music Director at JRUUC. However exciting, this is also quite a tender time for me.
Members of the choir and congregation:
Words cannot express my gratitude and respect for you all, nor how much I will miss you. We have made music wholly and holy, joyous and mournful, within and without, ministering and nurturing each others’ hearts. We have bonded and sustained, and it makes my heart glad to know that you will continue together down new paths.
“The Path You Walk Upon” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EYyhYs6rQI
Coming Rehearsals:
- See you for the next rehearsal this Thursday December 1st at 7pm
- On December 8th at 6:15pm! Please note this time change.
- On December 15th the choir meets with Rev. Karen for Winter Solstice Rehearsal
- Winter Solstice Celebration is Saturday Dec. 17th at 5pm, choir arrival time TBD
Sunday Dec. 18th Choir selections TBD
After the 18th, The choir will take a break for the remainder of December
Words from Alban Efeld:
“The air is different today, the wind sings with a new tone, sighing of the changes coming.”
With Love and Affection, Heather Yonker, Music Director, JRUUC
Celebration of Heather’s Time as our Music Director – Dec. 4th
You may have heard by now that our Music Director, Heather Yonker, is leaving us on December 8. We’ll have a ceremony of release with music offered by our Sacred Breath Choir during our December 4 service, followed by a celebration of Heather’s time with us during coffee hour. We hope you’ll be there!
From Heather Yonker, Music Director 11/16/22:
Sacred Breath People Get Ready 11-16-22
“People get ready, there’s a train a comin’
Don’t need no ticket, you just get on board.
All you need is faith!”
From Heather Yonker: I bring you bittersweet news of change. I have accepted a new position and will be parting from JRUUC. Words cannot express my gratitude and respect for you all, nor how much I will miss you. We have made music wholly and holy, joyous and mournful, within and without, ministering the hearts of the congregation and each other. We have bonded and sustained, and it makes my heart glad to know that you will continue together down new paths.
Shared music this week!
“Loosen, Loosen Baby” by Aly Halpert
#317 We Are Not Our Own
#1017 We Are Building a New Way
From Alban Efeld,
“The air is different today, the wind sings with a new tone, sighing of the changes coming.”
With Love and Affection,
Heather Yonker, Director of Music, JRUUC
“I Know I Can”
11/9/22 – From Music Director Heather Yonker:
Come out, live! this Sunday, Nov. 13th for music from Rachel Avery!
We will continue learning this month’s new Song Leader style song by Aly Halpert. You’re going to love singing it! Start practicing it here: “Loosen, Loosen Baby”
Hymns will include:
#1015 I Know I Can – click for video
And #205 Amazing Grace – click for video
11/2/22 – “We Rise!”
Come out, live! this Sunday, Nov. 6th for special music from Sacred Breath Choir!
“We Rise” from Batya Levine
“We Are” by Ysaye Barnwell
This month we will all learn a new Song Leader style song by Aly Halpert. You’re going to love singing it! Start practicing it here: “Loosen, Loosen”
10/26/22 – Come out this Sunday, October 30th for special music and shared music from long-time choir members Kirsten Johnson, Jean Skinner, Heike Saynisch and Doug Erickson!
Courage in Community 10/19/22
From Music Director Heather Yonker:
Special Music Collaboration:
This week, Thursday October 20th, Sacred Breath Choir rehearsal is held at Reeb with 1st Unitarian Society choirs joining us for our collaboration. Rehearsal is in the Sanctuary and begins at 7pm sharp.
Please give a warm welcome to guest conductor Drew Collins!
This Sunday, October 23rd Drew will conduct the joint choirs singing at James Reeb UUC at 10am. We are preparing Eric Whitacre’s “Sing Gently” and Rollo Dilworth’s musical setting of Langston Hughes words, “Dream Keeper.” Come out in person to hear this gorgeous music and enjoy this special community collaboration!
The Eric Whitacre Virtual Choir #6 had more than 17,000 singers. As a response to COVID-19 and the isolation and division the pandemic was creating, Eric wrote the words and music with the hope that “Sing Gently” might give some small measure of comfort for those who need it, and that it might suggest a way of living with one another that is compassionate, gentle, and kind.
This opens with a simplistic yet mysterious repeated pattern (ostinato) in the D Minor mode. In the opening measures, the voices invoke the appearance of the Dream Keeper. By measure 8, the Dream Keeper delivers the brief and profound message from Langston Hughes:
Give me all of your dreams,
You dreamers,
Bring me all of your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.
Sacred Breath – Courage in Community! 10/12/2022
Our Special Music Collaboration:
This week, Thursday October 13th, Sacred Breath Choir rehearsal is held at First Unitarian Society for our collaboration. Rehearsal is in the Atrium Auditorium and begins at 7pm sharp. Wear your singing mask, bring your music, a pencil, and be aware that that we will be seated every other chair.
The address: 900 University Bay Drive, Madison, WI.
On October 16th the Sacred Breath Choir will be singing with the First Unitarian Choirs at First Unitarian Society of Madison at 9am and 11am services. On October 23rd the choirs will sing at James Reeb UUC at 10am. We are preparing Eric Whitacre’s “Sing Gently” and Rollo Dilworth’s musical setting of Langston Hughes words, “Dream Keeper.” Come out in person to hear this gorgeous music and enjoy this rewarding and heartfelt community collaboration!
“We Are All Just Walking Each Other Home” 10/5/2022
Special Music This Week:
“We Are All Just Walking Each Other Home”(quote of Ram Dass) adapted by Kate Munger
Shared Songs This Sunday:
“Sing Your Spirit Home”
“Building Up a New World”
Courage my friends!, Heather Yonker, Director of Musi
“Sing Your Spirit Home” 9/28/2022
Music This Sunday
Looking forward to seeing you at service this Sunday!
“If I Were Brave” – Offered live by David Lauth
From 9/21/22:
The choir is looking forward to singing together and with you again this Sunday!
“Carry Me” – Watch here on YouTube
“Lean on Me” – Watch Here on YouTube
From 9/14/22
We Are An Open Circle
This week in Special Music: MaMuse
”Wholeheartedly fed by the folk and gospel traditions, MaMuse (Sarah Nutting and Karisha Longaker) create uplifting music to inspire the world into thriving!” You can learn more and purchase their music at mamuse.org
From 9/7/2022 – Welcome Home:
Let’s learn this song from Becky Post! You can start here with the lyric:
Welcome Home, let us come together, like separate streams flowing on,
into the great wide river, rolling to the sea, come on in, you’re welcome here.
We come for inspiration, and we study truths both old and new,
We’re drawn by common values yet respect divergent views.
Welcome Home. We will come together, like separate streams flowing on.
We come from all directions, moving to be one
Come on in, you’re welcome here.
We congregate to be engaged, to listen and to understand
We share this time in gratitude and give back as we can.
In ceremony and in song, we’re side by side and friend with friend
We come in celebration, and we come in reverence.
Welcome Home, we have come together, like separate streams flowing on
Into the great wide river, rolling to the sea
Come on in You’re welcome here. Come on in, you’re welcome here!
“A Voice For All” 8/31/22
Get ready for this Sunday
Join Worship Leader Teresa Mambu-Rasch reflecting on Labor Day (click for service info) and a voice for all workers.
Hymn #1028 “Fire of Commitment” (click for video) composed by Jason Shelton, lyrics by Mary Katherine Morn, sung by the Foothills Unitarian Church
Hymn #1020 “Woyaya” (click for video) collectively composed by Loughty Amoa, Solomon Amarfio, Robert Bailey, Roy Bedeau, Francis Osei, Whendell Richardson and Mac Tontoh. Transcribed by Ysaye Barnwell and arr. By Jeannie Gagné, sung here by Grand River Unitarian Congregation
The Path of Solidarity – August 24, 2022
Sing for the Climate – “We Need to Wake Up!” Very Inspiring – (Girl scouts sing with crowd).
August 17, 2022 From Heather Yonker, Music Director
This Week’s Music Offering:
“Poem” from Yiruma
”Lee Ru-ma (Korean: 이루마; born 15 February 1978), better known by his stage name Yiruma (Korean: 이루마), is a South Korean pianist and composer. He was born in Seoul to a pastor. He began learning the piano at age five and moved to the United Kingdom, where he attended the Purcell School for Young Musicians and graduated from King’s College London” – Kiddle
Community Music News
A few choir members and I attended “Madison Sings” sponsored by First Unitarian Society and the Madison Symphony Chorus. This is to become an annual summer event that I would highly recommend. We did about an hour of prep and then sang straight through the “Gloria” by Vivaldi, led by Drew Collins. Great fun!
Contact me for more information: Heather Yonker, Music Director music@jruuc.org
August 10, 2022
We are but a speck in the cosmos!
“Let the Mystery Be”
“Iris DeMent makes music that celebrates humanity’s effort towards salvation, while
acknowledging that most of our time on earth is spent reconciling with the fact that we don’t feel so redeemed.” -NPR
Iris DeMent – vocals & guitar, Russ Barenberg – guitar, Jay Ungar – fiddle, Molly Mason – bass, Donal Lunny – bouzouki
Click here for Iris DeMent’s webpage
Looking forward to “Breaths” this weekend!
Hymn #1001 You can practice it here:
Blessings, Heather Yonker, Music Director JRUUC
August 3, 2022
From Heather Yonker, Music Director
Resting in the Grace of the World
Attending the Association of Unitarian Universalist Music Ministries Conference, is indeed!
like resting in the grace of the world.
This year’s conference title and intention was “Rest, Renewal and Rebirth.”
The organization and leadership of this event is phenomenal. Morning services were powerful yet gentle, poignant, meditative, and musically rich with Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout, Rev. Sofia Betancourt, Francisco Ruiz, Matt Meyer, culminating in a Sunday service with the 1st UU of Ann Arbor and Reverend Manish Mishra-Marzetti who presents eloquently, humbly, and soulfully.
I was able to sit in on the new repertoire reading sessions, which is always an engaging and time-saving way to learn of new music and this year there was a plethora of content with themes current in our lives. It is such a pleasure and joy to be in a room full of singers and musicians making that happen! I hung out for conversations and ideas with other songwriters and arrangers at luncheons, listened deeply and engaged in high quality plenaries on topics like musician advocacy and collective trauma, and discussions on where we are going from here in our music ministry. I sat in on a variety of song leader/call and response style singing and master classes, and I moved through language and music in “Vocal Interplay” as well as held many funny and interesting conversations with colleagues from all over the country, sharing inspiration and ideas. The grounds of the church provided green walking trails for breaks and quiet time in the church of the woods, as I call it.
You’ll be hearing more about what I brought away from this event as the new season unfolds.
“Resting in the Grace of the World” from Rick Smith
— Blessings, Heather Yonker, Music Director JRUUC
Music Connections – links related to music and artists enjoyed in services