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At the UUA General Assembly last week in Ft. Lauderdale, at the opening ceremony on Thursday, they had a definitive performance of the "Sources Cantata" with words by Kendyl Gibbons (the UU minister in Minneapolis, a humanist) and music by Jason Shelton (the music director of the UU church in Nashville, a Christian). It was very inspiring to those of us who were fortunate enough to be there.
They got together a 90-voice choir, strings, and percussion for this, and I think some of the Cantata will be used in UU churches for generations to come. More importantly, it's a heartfelt work that does more to explain our "syncretic religion" to the world than all the postings we could ever write.
It's inspired by the "living tradition we share" section of the covenant of the the UUA commonly referred to as the "six sources": direct experience, words and deeds, wisdom from the world's religions, Jewish and Christian teachings, humanist guidance, and earth-centered traditions. In the Cantata, each of these gets its own song, in a different musical style with different instrumentation.
At the end, there's an additional song that ties all these sources together: "What Keeps Us Whole Is the Promise", which is an interesting artistic solution to why people coming from all these different traditions decide to come together as Unitarian Universalists. This hip-hop song features a rap by Justice Whitaker.
It's about 50 minutes long, and is towards the end (fast forward 53 minutes into the video) of the Opening Ceremony (Plenary 1) of the GA. The Windows Media version is at:
http://media.uua.org:8080asxgen/ga2008/1030.wav
or you can find a RealPlayer version on the main page of all the GA 2008 videos:
UUA: Watch General Assembly 2008 on Streaming Media!
Technically, it's not ideal--it was recorded in a huge hall like an airplane hangar, and it was the first event of the GA so there wasn't much rehearsal time, but I hope you enjoy it and pass it along. If you want to read the words, there's a PDF of them in the choral score at Jason Shelton: Composer, Arranger and Choral Conductor. Click on "works", then "sources".
They got together a 90-voice choir, strings, and percussion for this, and I think some of the Cantata will be used in UU churches for generations to come. More importantly, it's a heartfelt work that does more to explain our "syncretic religion" to the world than all the postings we could ever write.
It's inspired by the "living tradition we share" section of the covenant of the the UUA commonly referred to as the "six sources": direct experience, words and deeds, wisdom from the world's religions, Jewish and Christian teachings, humanist guidance, and earth-centered traditions. In the Cantata, each of these gets its own song, in a different musical style with different instrumentation.
At the end, there's an additional song that ties all these sources together: "What Keeps Us Whole Is the Promise", which is an interesting artistic solution to why people coming from all these different traditions decide to come together as Unitarian Universalists. This hip-hop song features a rap by Justice Whitaker.
It's about 50 minutes long, and is towards the end (fast forward 53 minutes into the video) of the Opening Ceremony (Plenary 1) of the GA. The Windows Media version is at:
http://media.uua.org:8080asxgen/ga2008/1030.wav
or you can find a RealPlayer version on the main page of all the GA 2008 videos:
UUA: Watch General Assembly 2008 on Streaming Media!
Technically, it's not ideal--it was recorded in a huge hall like an airplane hangar, and it was the first event of the GA so there wasn't much rehearsal time, but I hope you enjoy it and pass it along. If you want to read the words, there's a PDF of them in the choral score at Jason Shelton: Composer, Arranger and Choral Conductor. Click on "works", then "sources".
