If you missed this past Friday’s concert, featuring Dr. Kristín Jónína Taylor and the UNO Piano Studio, it is available on demand on our YouTube channel or at www.countrysideuccc.org/concerts.
We hope you have enjoyed the Online Summer Concert Series! Stay tuned for information on our Fall and Winter events, which will be revealed in the coming weeks, along with our new John-Paul Buzard op. 47 Pipe Organ!
If you are watching on KMTV and would like to view the prelude, you can do so HERE. The prelude will take place live on YouTube at 10:50 each Sunday.
Bordel 1900 from Histoire du Tango – Astor Piazzolla
Be Still – The Fray
Be still and know that I’m with you. Be still and know that I am here.
Be still and know that I’m with you, Be still, be still, and know.
When darkness comes upon you and colors you with fear and shame.
Be still and know that I’m with you, and I will say your name.
If terror falls upon your bed and sleep no longer comes.
Remember all the words I said: be still, be still, and know.
When you go through the valley and the shadow comes down from the hill.
If morning never comes to be, be still, be still, be still.
If you forget the way to go and lose where you came from.
If no one is standing beside you, be still and know I am.
Be still and know that I’m with you. Be still and know I am.
I Am Light – India Arie
I am not the things my family did, I am not the voices in my head
I am not the pieces of the brokenness inside, I am light
I am light, I am light
I’m not the mistakes that I have made or any of the things that caused me pain
I am not the pieces of the dream I left behind, I am light
I am light, I am light
I am not the colour of my eyes, I am not the skin on the outside
I am not my age, I am not my race, my soul inside is all light
I am light, I am light
I am divinity defined, I am the god on the inside
I am a star, a piece of it all, I am light
Open My Eyes, That I May See
Open My Eyes, That I May See was written in 1895 by Clara Scott, a notable composer and hymnist, and the first woman to publish a collection of anthems. The song was written at the end of her life (she likely would have been an influential figure in American musical history, but she met an untimely demise due to a runaway horse and buggy accident). The hymn has fallen out of favor due to a musical style that was popular in its day, but has not aged well and sounds outdated. The lyrics, however, are timeless, and we set them to a different melody to give it a more modern vibe.
The text uses the senses to speak to a receptiveness for the spirit and insight from the divine – open eyes to see glimpses of truth, open ears to hear God’s message, an open mouth to love all of God’s children, and an open mind to grow in one’s understanding of God’s love. The imagery of open eyes occurs throughout scripture. Hymn scholar Dr. C. Michael Hawn writes:
“In some cases, this is a sign of Christ’s healing power, as when Jesus gave sight to the blind man at the pool of Siloam in John 9. Closed eyes, on the other hand, could be a metaphor for avoiding the truth as in the case of John 12:40, a passage following the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem and beginning his journey to the cross: “He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.”
The image of open ears is also significant in the biblical witness. Matthew often reprises the theme “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Closed ears become a metaphor for a lack of understanding: “For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Matthew 13:15).
While the eyes and the ears are receptive organs, the mouth has the capacity to project. The mouth may project “cursing and deceit and fraud” (Psalm 10:7), or it may be an organ that projects praise, as Psalm 51:15 exhorts us: “O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.”
Open my eyes, that I may see glimpses of truth you have for me;
place in my hands the wonderful key that shall unlock and set me free.
Silently now I wait for Thee, ready, my God, Thy will to see.
Open my eyes, illumine me. Open my eyes, that I may see.
Open my ears, that I may hear voices of truth You send so clear;
and while the message sounds in my ear, everything false will disappear.
Silently now I wait for Thee, ready, my God, Thy will to see.
Open my ears, illumine me. Open my eyes, that I may see.
Open my mouth, and let me bear gladly the warm truth everywhere;
Open my heart, and let me prepare, love with Your children, thus to share.
Silently now I wait for Thee, ready, my God, Thy will to see.
Open my mouth, illumine me. Open my eyes, that I may see.
Open my mind, that I may read more of Your love in word and deed.
What shall I fear while yet You lead? Only for light, from You, I plead.
Silently now I wait for Thee, ready, my God, Thy will to see.
Open my mind, illumine me. Open my eyes, that I may see.
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Lift Every Voice and Sing was written by writer and civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson and set to music by his brother, John Rosamund Johnson. Both Johnsons were important figures in the Harlem Renaissance, and
The text was commissioned to celebrate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, but Johnson wanted to add ‘something else’ to the meaning. That ‘something else’ has made it timeless and relevant to this day, one hundred and twenty years later. The song has been used for graduations, church services, civic events, and historical celebrations, such as Nelson Mandela’s release from prison and Barack Obama’s inauguration. Johnson recognized the profundity as he penned the text. For him, writing the lyrics was an emotional experience. “I could not keep back the tears, and made no effort to do so.”
It was adopted as the official song of the NAACP in 1919, and dubbed the “Black National Anthem.” During the 1960s, it fell out of favor among a small contingent of civil rights leaders who felt that the idea of a black national anthem conflicted with their goals of unity and equality, and that all Americans should unite under one anthem. The Star Spangled Banner, which theoretically is the anthem that links all Americans together, falls short of that goal, where Lift Every Voice and Sing speaks for ALL Americans. According to Dr. Shana Redmond, a scholar on race and music history, “The Star Spangled Banner is missing something — radical history of inclusion, an investment in radical visions of the future of equality, of parity. Lift Every Voice and Sing has become a counterpoint to those types of absences and elisions.”
During the Civil War, the Union army would use The Star Spangled banner as a rallying song to gather troops for battle. During the early 20th century, as it became adopted as the national anthem, the south pushed back against the idea, and shunned the song. For southern African Americans in particular, The Star Spangled Banner wasn’t something they were exposed to, so Lift Every Voice and Sing became their defacto national anthem.
As Redmond puts it, “‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ is a song about transcending difficulties — and those difficulties have never fully receded. “Black communities across the globe continue to be vulnerable in very unique and unsettling ways. To sing this song is to revive that past — but also to recognize, as the lyrics of the song reveal, that there is a hopeful future that might come of it.” While the song speaks to the unique struggles of the black community, the continued relevance and staying power of Lift Every Voice and Sing is a testament to its unique and profound portrayal of the struggle for justice in America – past, present, and future – one that speaks to the true fabric of American identity.
Lift every voice and sing ’til earth and heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of liberty
Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun let us march on ’til victory is won
Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died
Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet
come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered
Out from the gloomy past ’til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way
Thou who has by Thy might, led us into the light
Keep us forever in the path, we pray
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand
True to our God, true to our native land