December is the month of anticipation and great collaborative music-making!  Singing songs, caroling in groups, listening to others, and enjoying good cheer – our lives are marked with an abundance of hope and joy. It has been three years since we’ve been able to gather comfortably and relatively safely during the holiday season. Early in the month, a caroling choir will visit the Adult Supportive Day Program at the Middleboro COA and sing while folks decorate the huge tree in the function room. Another caroling choir will lead a singing program at Heritage at Falmouth where our minister emerita Tricia

Here we go again, walking into darkness starting with the end of Daylight Saving Time on the first Sunday of November and marching on through to the Winter Solstice on December 21 when at last the days begin to grow longer.  There are different ways to handle darkness, and one is by looking directly into it. This year the Chalice Choir is working on John Rutter’s Requiem, starting with the second movement called “Out of the Deep.”  The lyrics are from Psalm 130, a plea to find solace by holding fast to the divine.  The full Requiem masterwork consists of seven choral anthems, each based on

What joy to be back in our precious resonant Sanctuary on Sunday mornings – congregants scattered throughout the room, rafters lifting with soaring voices, technology streaming to those who cannot be with us in person. We are indeed back in church, and we are on a roll. Choir registration is currently on hold because our numbers are maxed out. This is not a bad problem! The Chalice Choir sings for worship every other Sunday, and the “non-choir” Sundays are reserved for musicians to share solos or ensembles. Several years ago, we had an occasional “Family Choir” where any singers who showed up at 10:00 practiced a song together to share in a Musical Offering for the service. It was a fun intergenerational happening. Anybody up for this in October?

Homecoming, at long last! After two and a half years of mostly virtual church, we are moving into a time of mostly in-person worship. Last spring, as a few people started coming to church, I heard people crying. I was crying! Experiencing the resonance of our sanctuary reminded us of what we had lost during our months of virtual services--not only in music but in the warmth of physically being together. This year we are gathering in a new but familiar way. For those who cannot be with us in person, there will still be a virtual option, but the focus will be on the experience within the sanctuary. Kudos to our technology folks.

July and August mark a shift into “Summer Slowdown” where we let go of weekly choir rehearsals and music participation in Sunday services. This is a time to cut back on planning and practicing, to try out new music with no set agenda, to explore without a schedule. The usual hustle and bustle give way to longer and warmer days with sunshine, gardens, and diversion.

There are just three worship services in June before we finish out the formal church year. Throughout this year, the Chalice Choir has been rehearsing on Tuesday evenings and singing for church services.

WELCOME TO MAY Such an exciting time of the year as we enter warmer days of growing light and new beginnings. On May 22 we will celebrate Music Sunday with a special worship service called “Considering Music.” You can read more about this service in our calendar line-up of Sunday descriptions. The “music department” is very busy preparing and practicing for a program that we hope will be thoughtful and nourishing for us all. We are also thinking forward into June when we will celebrate Rev. Sarah’s retirement on June 11. She has been a stalwart supporter of our music

Welcome to March: month of wind and women. I’m not sure where that takes us. Historically, March has always been windy, just as women have struggled to be recognized as serious musicians and composers. I’ve been doing a lot of cooking and practicing and pondering “music as cooking.”

Get ready for a special treat on Saturday evening, November 6, at 7:30 when we host “A Concert of Negro Spirituals and Art Songs” by bass-baritone Oral Moses and pianist Jakari Rush. This concert is part of a tour funded through the Massachusetts Cultural Council that has been postponed twice due to the Covid pandemic. We are delighted to be able to offer the concert virtually, filmed live from our Sanctuary. The Zoom link will be available Friday, November 5, on the church website. Our church musicians, singers as well as instrumentalists, are practicing hard to share music on Sunday mornings.