Click right here on Sunday at 10 to join your ASC friends online.

No matter where life takes us …the good times, the hard times… music is

always there to help us through. Music can celebrate, energize, fortify. Music can console, repair, encourage. Join us this Sunday as All Souls’ music makers contribute to a service filled with the gifts of music.

 

Order of Service                 Music Plays On                   July 19, 2020
Welcome and Board Greeting

Prelude    Intermezzo from Bizet’s Carmen
                                  Tom Baehr, flute; Eva Greene, piano

Chalice Lighting      By Marnie Singer
read by Karen Tyler
“The chalice is the container—
the space where the musicians and the listeners gather.
The oil is the fuel—
the hours of practice and the life experiences of everyone in the room.
The wick is the instruments and vocal cords
through which the music will flow.
And the flame—the flame!—
is the music which is created, as if by magic,
when the instruments are lifted,
the breath is inhaled,
and the downbeat is nodded.
May this flame ignite the music within us all! ”

Opening Words                            by  Marty Shaw

Hymn              Gather the Spirit    
                                      Catie Berg, soprano

Story 1            “Music for the Clouds” by Pedro Pablo Sacristán
read by Mara Berkley

Reading I         “Listen” by Barbara Crooker
read hy Elizabeth West

Hymn                 Wake Now My Senses
Hilary Claire Menegaz-Weitzner, violin

Story II               “Sarajevo Cellist”
read by Steve Squires

Meditation         “Musica Universalis”
read by Jamie Gibson

Special Music     Let It Be        Lennon & McCartney
Steve Squires, voice & guitar

Story III               “Another, Truer Song” by UU Minister Elea Kemler
read by Bev Miller

Offering              shared with Nicole’s Community Kitchen

Offertory            Very Early         Bill Evans
Eva Greene, piano

Reading II           “Music Arises”
read by Maisie Crowther

Hymn                   How Can I keep from Singing?
Eva Greene, alto

Story  IV               “Classical Music Saved Me”
read by Ed Burke

Hymn                    For the Earth Forever Turning                 
                                             Steve Squires, baritone

Reading III            “We Are the Music” by Arlen Goff
read by Elizabeth West

Story V                  “Song of the Soldier”
read by Steve Squires

Extinguishing the Chalice
A New Song, a New Harmony     By Richard S. Gilbert
read by Karen Tyler

“By our presence here with one another,
Hearing the harmony that is the music of the spheres,
May some of the harshness and discord of our human lives
Be transmuted into music.
A new song in our hearts may there be,
And a new harmony in our beings,
So that we shall return to our several duties
with fresh courage, and with eagerness and with rejoicing.
Amen.”

Closing Circle     Carry the flame of peace and love, until we meet again     2X

Poems from July 19, 2020 Service “Music Plays On”

Reading I         “Listen”                       by Barbara Crooker
I want to tell you something. This morning
is bright after all the steady rain, and every iris,
peony, rose, opens its mouth, rejoicing. I want to say,
wake up, open your eyes, there’s a snow-covered road
ahead, a field of blankness, a sheet of paper, an empty screen.
Even the smallest insects are singing, vibrating their entire bodies,
tiny violins of longing and desire. We were made for song.
I can’t tell you what prayer is, but I can take the breath
of the meadow into my mouth, and I can release it for the leaves’
green need. I want to tell you your life is a blue coal, a slice
of orange in the mouth, cut hay in the nostrils. The cardinals’
red song dances in your blood. Look, every month the moon
blossoms into a peony, then shrinks to a sliver of garlic.
And then it blooms again.

Reading II                    “Music Arises“             by Arlen Goff
music arises from depths unknown
often without words but never without meaning
and spirit rises from deep within me
seducing my body to join the song
first a tremor in the soul, then tapping of toes
breath aligns with breath, heart beats in syncopation
and a stuttering buzz in my throat becomes a hum
breath with breath, beat with beat
and music and spirit arise together!
wed with faith and hope and love and pow’r
a song is born, bursting from my lips
in sweet, sonorous symphony
a melody joining with other souls
perhaps in tune, perhaps not
but a song still, arising from deep within
and from… community
spirit moves, soul births song
and hope fills life
and I am not alone
how can I keep from singing?

Reading III       “We Are the Music”                by Renee Ruchotzke
Our first breath is followed by our first song
Lusty, loud and primal
A solo that announces to the world, “I have arrived!”
We are the music.
As toddlers hearing our first reggae beat
We let our spines and hips bend and sway in response
As natural as the beat of our hearts
We are the music.
The drone of the bass notes of the church organ
A vibration in our chests
Tense muscles relax, the breath deepens.
We are the music.
As we push the air from our bellies
Out through the chest and throat
Our changing expressions shape the sound.
We are the music.
As we sing together
Voices blend to create a harmony
Each voice enriched by its connection to the next.
We are the music.