Music: Sun May 26

Music connected to war and peace is featured in recognition of Memorial Day. French composer Maurice Ravel dedicated each movement of his suite Le tombeau de Couperin to friends lost during the first World War. The title alludes to the 17^th-century composer François Couperin, whose Baroque style Ravel parodies with sly references to American jazz harmonies. Schumann’s “War Song” hails from a collection of teaching pieces, and features numerous imitations of horn calls and fanfares. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor included a South East African warrior song “Take Nabandji” in his collection of Twenty-Four Negro Melodies, published in 1904. Finally, peace in the natural world is embodied in one of Unitarian composer Edvard Grieg’s touching Lyric Pieces. Read on for programming details.

Centering Music: Adam Kent, piano

From Le tombeau de Couperin

            Forlane

            Rigaudon

                                                            Maurice Ravel

Opening Music:
“War Song” from Album for the Young, Op. 68

                                                            Robert Schumann

Offertory:
Take Nebandji

                                    Traditional South East African arr. by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Interlude:
Woodland Peace, Op. 71, No. 4

                                    Edvard Grieg