Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church

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Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church

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Music Notes

Adventures at UUMN.

After the summer break, it is always exciting to get back to music making at BUUC. Although it is never completely out of my mind, the first step for getting back into the swing of things is attending the Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network (UUMN) Annual Conference. It was held this year in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Thank you Ginny Berns and Diane Mossa for helping get me to and from the airport.) These conferences always provide a chance to sing with over 200 other UU Musicians, to attend workshops on a variety of subjects and to read through more new music than we could ever use even if we could afford it all. This year was no exception. One of the workshops I attended was introducing the new Children's Songbook. You will hear more about that later. This year we also had some very interesting speakers, including the world-renowned composer Libby Larson (hymns #80 and 192 in our hymnal). I will probably be writing about her keynote address later, as well. The majority of the 260 attendees made up a 220+voice chorus that sang for the Sunday Morning Church Service at Unity Unitarian Universalist Church in St. Paul under the direction of Dale Warland of the famed Dale Warland Singers. After the service one woman came up to three of us and said she and her husband had traveled widely to hear many famous choirs and we were the best - better than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! It is fun to be part of something so big and powerful.

It is also interesting to hear about other music programs and to see how they are similar or different from ours. Some choirs sing every week, some only once a month. Some have organs, some don't. Some churches have no music budget, and see no reason to, some have budgets to die for and full time Music Directors, more than one choir, multiple instruments. (OK--the latter are big churches) I came away proud of what BUUC has done and is doing.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE BUUC MUSIC PROGRAM.

Music is a part of each worship service and is planned in collaboration with Rev. Sara, Director of Religious Education (DRE) Laurel Burdon, and Misty-Dawn Shelly, chair of the Worship Committee. The choir contributes to fully half of the services of the year, and an array of instrumentalist and singers give us music for the other half. We are always looking for more musicians and this is a good time to get involved. One of my colleagues says that church newsletters and bulletin boards are the least effective way to recruit new musicians. If you would like to prove him wrong, please respond to me now at lilamfarrar@juno.com !

MUSIC INFO CENTRAL

We have a spot in the parlor, on the little parlor reed organ, where you can often find information about the composers you have heard that day. When I meet a composer of music that we use, I try to get a picture and learn something about them. Both of the pieces the choir is singing on September 10 are by living UU composers and their bio pages will be there. Ann Littlefield was at the conference this summer and I took a new photo of her to add to her page.
The organ is also where we post flyers for concerts held here at BUUC, concerts of interest in the area, and concerts and plays involving members of our church community. You can check it out between bites and conversations at coffee hour.

Also on the organ you will find the lending library of CD's and some cassettes. I have added CD's from the UUMN conference. One is Mila, a women's vocal group that sings traditional music from eastern European countries - very stirring even if you don't speak Latvian, Bulgarian, Russian, etc. The others are recordings made in Morocco and Eastern Africa by one of the workshop presenters. Perhaps something different from what you would normally buy for yourself. To borrow from the library, simply put your name on the card and leave the card in the basket. When you return the CD, cross your name off the card, and attach it to the CD with a rubber band. If you want to share CD's with the BUUC community in this way, put your name on the CD, put the name of the CD on a blank card and attach it to the CD with the rubber band. Music is always best experienced live, but when that is not possible, having recordings to listen to can introduce us to music we wouldn't otherwise hear. And that is a good thing.

Looking forward to another year of worship and music making at BUUC,

Lila M. Farrar, Music Director
lilamfarrar@juno.com