I'm formatting this blog post a little differently this week because while there are very clear reasons for each of my choices (I promise!), there is no overarching theme to discuss.
Anthem:
This week's sermon is about justice and aboriginal issues so I wanted to chose a piece that came from or was influenced by aboriginal music. I went down a couple roads to try and find something. I contacted a friend who was an aboriginal studies major in university, but she hadn't studied music there and didn't have and connections for that here. I looked for choral pieces at Music Plus, but most of it wouldn't be appropriate for our choir. I wasn't sure what we were going to be able to do, but at the last music focused Manna Day at Crieff Hills, I learned about a piece in our hymnal which uses a Dakota melody! So the choir will be singing "Many and great, O God, are your works," hymn #301, as the anthem this Sunday.
Prelude & Postlude:
One of our hymns this Sunday, "We cannot own the sunlit sky," hymn #717, uses the same melody as the folk song "How Can I Keep from Singing," which is one of my favourite sacred pieces. So even though I played them earlier this year (don't tell anyone!) I am going to play two different arrangements of that song for the prelude and postlude.
Offertory:
I will be playing an arrangement of "Deep River." To me the longing in this piece (see the text printed below) is reflective of the longing for peace and reconciliation in regards to aboriginal issues that I think many of us feel.
Deep River
Deep river, my home is over Jordan
Oh deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground
No comments:
Post a Comment