Photo by David Brooke Martin on Unsplash

It is fitting that Pride and Juneteenth both occupy the same month, as both focus on being free, being seen, and being ourselves.  The human race has made significant strides toward liberty and inclusion, but “othering” still rears its ugly head at times, and there is more work to be done.  Countless works of music would have been appropriate for today’s service, and it was challenging – but fun! – trying to select today’s music.

The prelude opened with George Shearing’s jazzy, modern arrangement of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, the beloved ballad composed by Harold Arlen for The Wizard of Oz.  Full of wistfulness and longing, this song about wishing for a place “where troubles melt like lemon drops” has spoken to generations of people with dreams of a world without fear and exclusion.  The famous melodic leap from “Some” to “where” demonstrates some subtle text painting; the octave ascends as if reaching and searching for this new idyllic place. Renowned jazz pianist and composer Sir George Shearing reframed the familiar melody with new harmonies and dissonances that add complexity to the song, while retaining the hope of the original. Shearing played his version of this song as an upbeat tune when playing with his jazz trio, but the work is arranged so well that it is often played as a piano solo with a slower, reflective air, as performed today.

True Colors was originally created with a much different vision in mind. Composer Billy Steinberg (who also penned several other commercial hits from the 80s and 90s) originally wrote this as a gospel song in honor of his mother, trying to express the concept of a parent’s unconditional love for their child. His songwriting partner Tom Kelly thought that the idea of someone loving you exactly as you are was beautiful, and could be applied to all kinds of relationships, not just mother and child; so the two modified the song to express any and all unconditional love. Cyndi Lauper wanted to sing the song, and when Steinberg and Kelly listened to her recording, they were surprised and enamored by the lean, stark character of her rendition – a far cry from the song’s original gospel style. Its message is simple but powerful: our truest selves are not something to hide, apologize for, or diminish, and if we let our true colors shine through, there will be people who find them beautiful and worthy of love.

There are so many wonderful pieces of music about love, acceptance, equality, inclusion, pride, and Pride, and it was hard to narrow down which pieces I would select for today’s service. But I think I always knew that I would play Somewhere from the seminal West Side Story, by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. This song marks a pivotal point in the musical: Tony has accidentally killed Maria’s brother Bernardo, and the chance of any sort of happy ending for the lovers seems all but destroyed. They cling to the fragile hope that a life without prejudice, violence, and fear can still be possible “somewhere”. But the song isn’t just remarkable for its dramatic power; the composition is a marvel of melodic, harmonic, and text writing, frequently held up by performers, scholars, and composers as an example of a perfectly crafted song. The melody is full of reaching, grasping intervals, including the seldom used melodic minor seventh, leaning into the interval’s natural uncertainty. The unexpected harmonic progressions keep the song suspended between stability and uncertainty, and the phrases resolve a little differently than you expect them to, mirroring Tony and Maria’s emotions: frightened and unsure, but with moments of hope and tenderness. And the text…Sondheim’s lyrics in his own works are wickedly clever, very cerebral and extremely funny. But in Somewhere, he refrained from gilding the lily and the simplicity of his words transform this song into a prayer as simple as the things that Tony and Maria long for. They have no desire for riches or grandeur, glory or material possessions; they dream of the simple things that we would all have in an ideal world: safety, love, acceptance, and peace.

Today’s postlude was I’m Coming Out, made famous by the incomparable Diana Ross. It is jubilant, demands attention, and is gloriously declarative. This song has been claimed long ago as a Pride anthem of visibility and self-acceptance. And through the lens of Juneteenth, it can also be heard as a celebration of liberation – freedom from oppression, and the freedom to experience joy, dignity, identity, and a rightful presence in the world. There is no shortage of joy in this song, and its energy felt like an appropriate way to end the morning. May we all know the freedom of coming out into the world as our true selves, and with pride in who we are.

BONUS ITEM #1 – BEHIND THE SCENES: Today’s music for reflection was going to be an outline – but not a full realization – of John Lennon’s Imagine, using the harmonic progression paired with fragments of the melody. However, due to a series of ridiculous events, this did not happen! Shortly after the service started, one of my contact lenses started shifting around; I suspect the small fan I had blowing on my face might have sent a speck of dust into my eye. Reduced to seeing with only one eye, I reached into my bag to grab my glasses, and then realized that they must have fallen out when I knocked my bag over last night. I slipped out to get the glasses I keep in my car, then came back in trying to be as quietly as possible. In my efforts to be inconspicuous, I squeezed my keys to keep them from jangling, but ended up squeezing the Tile tracker on my keys…which sets off a ringer on my phone even if it is silenced, so that I can locate it if lost. I spent the time that I would have pulled up Imagine on my iPad leaping into action to silence my phone instead, and then needed to start playing immediately, to avoid any dead space…as a result, I just improvised some delicate chord progressions, all while wishing I could start the day over! 🤣

BONUS ITEM #2 – O LOVE, by Elaine Hagenberg: If today’s choral anthem sounded familiar, revisit this blog post to find out how you already knew this song…

I have such a great view from the piano bench on Sunday mornings. I get to see faces I have come to know in different ways as they experience what they are seeing, hearing, and feeling before them. (Please don’t feel self-conscious…if it helps, David and I are up in front of you all the time!) Today I saw pride, nostalgia, amusement, tenderness, and joy. Some folks were celebrating their own children at the front of the room, while others may have been remembering rites of passage from their own history. There was laughter when our youth let their personalities and candor shine through their prepared words, and camaraderie and support as we watched a friend take a symbolic step forward. The whole service was not only a beautiful way to recognize transitions but a reminder that “growing up” isn’t just for children, and today’s piano selections reflected how we are always growing into new versions of ourselves as we learn and change.

Joni Mitchell’s The Circle Game is such a wonderful song about the passage of time, using the metaphor of a carousel to paint the cycle of seasons we move through in our lives. This familiar imagery represents how quickly life moves as well as how it’s not always easy to notice change as we are living through it, since we are focused on what is presently happening the ride rather than the journey. Joni Mitchell gives the definitive performances of her song, but since readers likely already know her renditions of The Circle Game, I offer here a performance by the inspiring PS22 Chorus. While they have performed with renowned artists and reputable events/venues (including the White House, the Oscars, and on Sesame Street), it’s this choir’s unpretentious background as a music class at a public elementary school that will make you fall in love with their earnestness, sweet young voices, and love of music.

Dos Oruguitas (“Two Little Caterpillars”) accompanies the story of Abuela Alma Madrigal and her husband, Pedro, in the Disney film Encanto. Using the imagery of two caterpillars who must let go of one another in order to become butterflies, the song is about love, separation, transformation, and pain. The story asks us to recognize that growth can require courage, and is sometimes the result of grief and loss. But it also reminds us that love does not disappear when life changes; it comes into our lives in different forms. We love as children, as siblings, as partners, as parents, as elders, as friends, and as members of a community…and each new form of love asks us to grow.

“How Far I’ll Go,” from Disney’s Moana, comes from a very different kind of story, but also speaks powerfully to growth. The teenage Moana loves her home and her people, yet feels drawn toward the ocean and toward a calling she does not completely understand. The song gives musical form to the moments when we recognize that there is more than just our familiar world, when something inside us begins asking where we are meant to go, and when wonder what we are meant to learn and who we are meant to become. That question belongs to children and teens, but it also belongs to adults. There are many moments in life when we find ourselves like Moana, standing at the edge of what we know, wondering what lies beyond the horizon.

(It is worth noting that the music from Encanto and Moana are by the extraordinary Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also penned the Tony and Pulitzer-awarded Hamilton. Both movies are stunning – visually and musically, and in their deeply moving stories – and if you are not familiar with either one, these beautiful, beautiful films about heritage, family, and culture are worth checking out, whether you are very young, very old, or somewhere in-between.)