 Good morning. Welcome to the First Unitarian Society of Madison. This is a community where curious seekers gather to explore spiritual, ethical, and social issues in an accepting and nurturing environment. Unitarian universalism supports the freedom of conscience of each individual as together we seek to be a force for good in the world. My name is Michael Shuler. I serve as the senior minister of the society. And on behalf of the congregation, I would like to extend a welcome to each and all and especially to any visitors among us today. We are a welcoming congregation, so whoever you are and wherever you are on your life's journey, we celebrate your presence among us. Newcomers are encouraged to stay for the fellowship hour after the service in the commons area beyond the auditorium doors. If you are accompanied by a young child, please remember that if they do need to talk or to move around, the commons or the child haven to my left are good places for you to retire with them because you can hear and see the service from those locations. At this time, please silence any electronic devices that might compromise your enjoyment of today's program. I'd like to acknowledge those individuals who help our service to run smoothly. Our greeter this morning, Janine Nussbaum and Mark Schweitzer. Usher's were Anne Smiley, Gail Henslin, Dan Bradley, and Rachel Drapko. Our coffee host today are Rick DeVita and Sharon Scratish. Please note the announcements and the red floors insert of your order of service, which describe upcoming events including the services that will be held here on Easter weekend. And now a few words about our composer Johannes Brahms and the work that we are showcasing today. Brahms was born in 1833, almost a century after the death of Johann Sebastian Bach, a fellow German whom he deeply admired. When a new Handel edition comes out, he once invited to a friend. I put it in my library and I say to myself, as soon as I have time, I will look it over. But when a new Bach edition appears, I let everything else go. Although kindred spirits musically Bach and Brahms didn't have a great deal else in common. Bach had two wives and sired 20 children. Brahms had dear women friends, but he never married. And although he was fond of children, he had none of his own. Bach belonged to a long family lineage of consummate musicians. Brahms's father was a double bass player of middling abilities, who just happened to produce a son with perfect pitch and natural talent. Bach was a pious Lutheran who penned Help Jesus at the top of every score that he produced. Brahms, well, he was a nominal Lutheran, but also a free thinker of whom his friend Dvorak once wrote, such a great man, such a great soul, and he believes in nothing. A bit of an exaggeration perhaps. From a musical standpoint, Brahms could be described as something of a conservative, at least by comparison with composers like Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt. Although he experimented with many genres, Brahms never wrote an opera, for instance. And while compositions like today's Requiem can be big and lush and dignified, Brahms avoided theatricality. Brahms is a composer who cannot exalt, one commentator put it. Brahms was a celebrated figure in his own day, and he acquired both fame and wealth. Nevertheless, he maintained a conservative lifestyle. He lived in modest quarters. He ate at cheap restaurants. He wore suits with patches on the sleeves. He styled himself a man of the people and was generous with the working class folk who served him. Brahms loved to hike. He reveled in nature and enjoyed robust health until stricken with, and he ultimately died from liver cancer in 1864. The German Requiem that we are to hear today is the longest work that Brahms ever wrote. He was 34 when it was first performed. It may have been inspired initially by the death of the composer's mother in 1865, but the second movement's life actually began a decade earlier when Brahms joined Clara Schumann in mourning the decline of her husband and his dear friend, Robert Schumann, who ended up confined in an asylum. This setting today does not conform to what is typically found in the Latin Requiem Mass. Because Brahms drew his material from Luther's Bible, the Requiem was first sung in the vernacular German rather than in Latin. But its texts are all drawn from the Bible, both the Old and the New Testaments. Yet there is no mention of Christ or his redemptive work on behalf of sinful humanity, another deviation from tradition. Frustrated with this important omission, Charles Martin Reinthaler, the music director at the Bremen Cathedral where the piece was first performed in its entirety, this particular conductor, this particular music director, decided to add a solo to Brahms' work drawn from Handel's Messiah in which a soprano saying, I know that my Redeemer liveth. We will not be doing that today. We will be hearing the London version of the Brahms Requiem based on its first performance in that city. We sung in English with forehand piano rather than orchestral accompaniment. This version also contains a fifth movement that was added later and was not part of the Requiem's London debut. One more thing. We learned on Thursday that Kate Bunting Schaefer, beloved mother of FUS members Ruth and Dave Arnold, Anne Schaefer and Paula Bonner, that she died on April the 5th three days before her 98th birthday. It was a peaceful death, both a joy and a sorrow, Anne wrote to me. And so in the spirit of a Requiem, we extend to Kate's family, our heartfelt condolences this morning on their recent loss. A commentator that I quoted from in my introduction was mistaken. Brahms does exalt. And if you appreciate it and were inspired by this magnificent performance today, we do have receptacles outside of each of our doors, and we appreciate any contributions to our music fund. Let us sing the magic of imagination by which we know one another and learn the lives of ages gone by. Let us sing the magic of creation by which we build the world of our soul and teach its wisdom to others, young and old. Let us sing the magic of our lives together, holding and shaping by the movement of breath all new life that is to come. Go now with singing, go now with magic in your fingertips. Touch this world with the gift of your loving life. Blessed be and amen.