Music: Sun Sep 9

British royal watchers might have salivated over the prospect of an invitation to the weddings of Charles and Diana or Harry and Meghan, but, had we been around in the early 18^th century, the ticket-to-be-had would have been to King Geroge I’s boat party down the River Thames on the evening of July 17, 1717. No mere band would suffice for such a party: the king hired a boat for 50 musicians, and engaged George Frideric Handel to compose several suites of orchestral dance music to accompany the festivities. The music has come down to posterity as “The Water Music”, and several excerpts are included in Sunday morning’s Prelude.

Music connected with our annual Water Ingathering Ceremony also includes Federico Mompou’s introspective “El lago” (The Lake) as well as the famous African-American Spiritual “Deep River” as the Offertory. Other solo piano works with aqueous associations accompany our annual water sharing ritual, including Debussy’s magisterial “Sunken Catherdal” and playful “Ondine”, Liszt’s heroic portrait of St. Francis of Paola riding the waves, and a tempestuous evocation of the churning sea by Ernst Bloch.

The CUUC Choir is also on hand with Amy Bernon’s “I Am the River” and Roger Emerson’s arrangement of the American folk song “Down to the River to Pray”, both of which movingly describe the river as a source of universal connectedness and spiritual renewal. Read on for programming details.

Prelude: Adam Kent, piano
El lago from Paisajes

                                                            Federico Mompou

Air, Bourrée, and Hornpipe from The Water Music

                                                            George Frideric Handel

Anthem: CUUC Choir directed by Lisa N. Meyer and accompanied by Georgianna Pappas

I am the River   

Amy F. Bernon   

Offertory:
Deep River

                        Traditional Spiritual arr. by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Anthem:

Down to the River to Pray  

 American Folk Song, arr. by Roger Emerson 

Water Ingathering Ceremony

Still Waters: La cathédrale engloutie

Shining Waters: Ondine

                                                            Claude Debussy

Stormy Waters: St. Francis of Paola Walking on the Waters

                                                            Franz Liszt

Rushing Waters: At Sea

                                                            Ernst Bloch