Rethinking the Fourth of July: a concert of American solo clarinet music
America—a union of singular voices. As our coins say, “E Pluribus Unum”: out of many, one. So our music has been the song of the solitary, self-directed voice seeking its audience. Throughout our history, this nation has sung again and again through the solo clarinet. Primitive, whimsical, curious, pleading, playful, daring, sometimes abstract and learned, the clarinet has been the solo voice of America.

Clarinetist Steven Jackson performs a musical mix that spans nearly 200 years of our musical heritage. Musical iconoclast John Cage, a Benny Goodman improvisation, a Shaker melody, the great film composer Miklos Rozsa, America’s two most celebrated composers of classical music Aaron Copland and Elliott Carter, minstrel tunes—all and more will be heard in a concert that tells the unity and richness of our country.

This will be the encore concert in our 2008–2009 series. It will be held on Wednesday, July 1 at 8:00 here at the Brighton Allston Congregational Church. For directions, please click here.http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=100202720826331987121.0000011276ca04a6421a4&ll=42.354707,-71.155143&spn=0.014176,0.028925&z=15&om=1

Tickets are $10 general admission, $5 for seniors and students, and free to low income people. The proceeds from the concert benefit the restoration of the church's Community Supper kitchen.

Week of June 28, 2009

Sunday, June 28

• Worship 10:30
• Fellowship 11:30
• BUOP group from Brandeis 3:30–5:30
• AA 6:00
  

Wednesday

• Thrift Shop 10:00–2:00
• Community Supper 6:00
• Concert: American solo clarinet music featuring Steven Jackson 8:00
  

Saturday, July 4

• Thrift Shop 10:00–2:00
  

Sunday, July 5

• Adult discussion group 9:30
• Worship & communion 10:30
• Fellowship 11:30
• AA 6:00
  

Tuesday, July 7

• YOU Boston starts new group 9:00
• Food Network 10:00
  

Week of June 21, 2009

Sunday, June 21

• Adult discussion group 9:30
• Worship 10:30
• Church picnic at Pastor Karen’s noon
• AA 6:00
  

Monday

• Bible study noon
  

Wednesday

• Thrift Shop 10:00–2:00
• Movie 4:00
• Community Supper 6:00
• Divi Zheni rehearsal 6:00
  

Thursday

• Pastor Karen to General Synod
  

Saturday

• Thrift Shop 10:00–2:00
• Food Pantry 10:00–1:00
  

Sunday, June 28

• Worship with Monica Maher, just back from Honduras 10:30
• Fellowship 11:30
• AA 6:00
  

Wednesday, July 1

• Rethinking the Fourth of July: a concert of American solo clarinet music 8:00
  

Sunday, June 14

• Adult discussion group 9:30
• Worship 10:30
• Fellowship 11:30
• AA 6:00
  

Monday

• Bible study noon
• Chaplains on the Way 7:00
  

Tuesday

• Women’s Association 11:30 Gather at the church to go to the Chateau Restaurant.

Wednesday

• Thrift Shop 10:00–2:00
• Movie 4:00
• Community Supper 6:00
• Divi Zheni rehearsal 6:00
  

Thursday

• Boundary training—Rev. Fritz 8:30–3:30
  

Friday

• Boundary training—Rev. Fritz 8:30–3:30
• Mary Lyon School graduation 11:00
  

Saturday

• Thrift Shop 10:00–2:00
• Fair in Artisani Park 9:00–1:00
  

Sunday, June 21

• Adult discussion group 9:30
• Worship 10:30
• Church picnic at Pastor Karen’s at noon
• AA 6:00
  

Week of Sunday, June 7, 2009

Sunday, June 7

• Adult discussion group 9:30
• Worship & Communion 10:30
• Strengthen the Church offering
• Fellowship 11:30
• Diaconate noon
• AA 6:00
  

Monday

• Conversation & prayer noon
• Finance Committee 6:45
• Executive Board 7:30
  

Wednesday

• Thrift Shop 10:00–2:00
• Movie 4:00
• Community Supper 6:00
• Divi Zheni rehearsal 6:00
  

Saturday

• Thrift Shop 10:00–2:00
• Food Pantry 10:00–1:00
  

Sunday, June 14

• Adult discussion group 9:30
• Worship 10:30
• Fellowship 11:30
• Building & Grounds Committee noon
• AA 6:00
  

Tuesday, June 16

• Women’s Association will gather at church at 11:30 to go to the Chateau Restaurant in Waltham.
  

Week of May 31: Pentecost Sunday

Sunday, May 31: Pentecost Sunday

• Adult discussion group 9:30
• Worship 10:30
• Strengthen the Church offering
• Fellowship 11:30
• AA 6:00
  

Monday

• Bible study noon
• Bereavement group 1:30
• Investment 6:00
  

Tuesday

• West Gallery Quire rehearsal 7:30
  

Wednesday

• Thrift Shop 10:00–2:00
• Movie 4:00
• Community Supper 6:00
• West Gallery Quire concert 8:00
  

Saturday

• Thrift Shop 10:00–2:00
  

Sunday, June 7

• Adult discussion group 9:30
• Worship 10:30
• Fellowship 11:30
• Diaconate noon
• AA 6:00
  

West Gallery Quire concert, June 3 at 8:00 p.m.

The final concert in the 2008-2009 “Music at Brighton Allston Congregational” series will be the West Gallery Quire performing on Wednesday, June 3 at 8:00 p.m. The concert will be held in the sanctuary of the Brighton Allston Congregational Church, 404 Washington Street, Brighton Center. The church is served by several bus routes, including #57 and #86; free parking is available next door in the Citizens Bank parking lot. For directions to the church, please see the column to your left.

The West Gallery Quire performs, not surprisingly, West Gallery music. This is traditional sacred music from English village churches of the 18th and early 19th centuries. As an attempt to introduce church music into rural areas, choirs were formed from the local residents. The village instrumentalists were often also recruited as a means of assisting the singers. The mixed ensemble of singers and players usually performed from a gallery at the west (rear) end of the church, so this music is now known as West Gallery music.

It is what Thomas Hardy’s characters, or Jane Austen and her preacher father, heard on a Sunday morning! Novelist Thomas Hardy came from a family of church musicians, and referred to this music frequently in his novels; in particular, Under the Greenwood Tree depicts the life and death of a typical church band and quire.

The music is powerful, hearty and rhythmic. Some of the tunes sound like folk-Handel (also known as “Barnyard Baroque”), others are stark and simple (much like Appalachian folk-hymns), and many are in the fuguing style which also became popular in late eighteenth-century New England.

Instruments were quite commonly used, both to support the singers and to play interludes and verses on their own: bowed strings, flutes, woodwinds, serpents, trombones, and concertinas are the most suitable, but anything that can play a melodic line is usually welcome.

For more information on West Gallery Quire, visit www.laymusic.org/wordpress/?page_id=500.

The suggested donation is $10 for general admission, $5 for seniors and students, and free to those of low income. Proceeds from this concert will benefit the renovation of the church’s Community Supper kitchen. Each week the Community Supper opens its doors to all who wish to join us for a tasty, nutritious meal. Every Wednesday evening at 6, approximately 60 guests are served.