Author: Dr. Daniel Bassin, Director of Music Ministries.
Our month of “Tending” kicked-off with an All-Souls service where our Parker Bell Choir ringers’ music as well as aspects of their individual and collective stories of dedication, contribution, and commitment were interwoven with a children’s story about a family handbell, and even the bell that rang in a historic family telephone! The music ministry of this church is similarly a treasure built upon the legacy of a great many volunteers and a handful of directors, a source of our collective pride, made from an amalgam of festive memories and unforgettably moving experiences of magical music-making. The number and variety of musical experiences First Unitarian has to offer has been known to me since my first visit to our church in 2013, right as I was beginning my work at the UU Church of Buffalo. Being a regular visitor to Portland for more than two decades, I’ve attended special music-and-worship services, and I’ve also stopped by on ‘any given Sunday’ both to take notes professionally, and to have my cup filled spiritually.
The ways in which music and message uplift and bolster one another, the dialogue of the spoken and unspoken, the sung and the felt, is at the heart of this magic each of us in our own way are actively ‘tending.’ The rapt attention at the end of a beautiful choral diminuendo, the joyous uproar after hearing our mighty sanctuary organ come to life via the fingers (and toes) of Joe O’Donnell, the financial support you have offered up on special musical occasions, and perhaps that time you stopped by summer choir or brought your kids to an exploratory youth music session, as we are holding on Sunday at 12 noon, November 8th. What makes this church so musical doesn’t begin and end with our congregational participation in gathering and closing hymns, but rather the way each of us, in concert, share in these experiences as we resonate together.
With this, I invite each of you to a very special upcoming music-and-worship service on Sunday, November 22nd: “In Her Own Voice.”
Another crucial aspect of how a successful music ministry upholds and continually refreshes its contributions to this transfixing and transformative artform involves how we ‘tend’ to our repertoire – the canon of cherished musical gems shared across Sundays and church years either introduced in weeknight rehearsals, or sung since before anyone can recall. Taking the opportunity of the feast of St. Cecilia – the patron saint of music – on the 22nd, we are excited to present a service that uplifts a variety of musical voices from the past and present who have been silenced or otherwise marginalized in their work. Inspired by the metaphors of Cecilia’s story of ‘a song in the heart’ and a voice that cannot be silenced, ours will be a Sunday morning of celebration of music and readings voicing women’s perspectives and musical purviews from the 12th through the 21st centuries.