Music Notes – Sunday, Nov. 9th:
This Sunday’s musicians are Nick McNally, The Treble Ensemble, and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
About this Sunday’s special guest musician:
Nick McNally, currently a sixth-grade student at Menlo Park Academy, has been playing piano as long as he can remember. This year, he is an Academy student at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and he also sings with the Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus and plays French horn. He has been a member of the San Antonio Junior Tuesday Music Club and is a current member of the Akron Tuesday Musical Association’s Brahms Allegro Junior Music Club. Through that organization, he was recently selected to play for world-class pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin in a masterclass at Kent State University. Though he mostly plays classical music, he likes listening to good music in just about every style. Beyond music, Nick enjoys participating on a swim team, a quiz bowl team, a mock trial team, and with his school’s ski club. When he’s not too busy, he’s most often found with his nose in a book or plotting to take over the world.
Centering Music: Fantasia No. 3 in D minor – Mozart
The Fantasia No. 3 in D minor (K. 397/385g) is a piece for solo piano by legendary Classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). Mozart is believed to have written this work in 1782, although his original manuscript has been lost. Historical transcriptions of the work do not include the final ten bars of the piece, which either were not completed by Mozart (who was working on numerous projects at the time) or have been lost with the original manuscript. The ending of the piece which is generally performed today is thought to have been written by the lesser-known German composer and organist August Eberhard Müller (1767-1817), who was a great admirer of Mozart’s music.
Prelude: Heleluyan – Muscogee (Creek) song
#366 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal, “Heleluyan” (Hallelujah) is a folk song from the Muscogee Creek hymn tradition, believed to have originated in the early 19th century. In a 2014 story on NPR’s All Things Considered, Dr. Hugh Foley, a fine arts instructor and Native American history professor at Rogers State University in Claremore, OK, explains more about this music:
“We’re talking about a pre-removal music that happened in the early 1800’s and was a combination of African spirituals, Muscogee words and perhaps some influences from their ceremonial songs and then all that being started by the Scottish missionaries who bring in Christianity and their own singing style. All three of those merge into what we now know as Muscogee Creek hymns which are a unique musical product in American and world music history.”
Song: For All That Is Our Life – Rickey/Findlow
#128 in Singing the Living Tradition, “For All That Is Our Life” has been a favorite UU hymn for many years. The song resulted from a collaboration between composer Patrick Rickey (b. 1964), a California-based songwriter and church musician, and Rev. Bruce Findlow (1922-1994), a British author, educator and UU Minister who wrote the song’s lyrics.
Special Music: There Are Numerous String in Your Lute – Tagore, arr. Carney
Winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature, Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) was an Indian poet, author, philosopher, activist and artist. Tagore was also an accomplished composer who wrote more than two thousand songs, including two which are now used as the national anthems of India and Bangladesh. His poem and accompanying melody for “There Are Numerous Strings in Your Lute” were first published in 1917 and the song appears as #197 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnbook.
Offertory Music: One Voice – Moody
Two-time Juno Award winning singer and songwriter Ruth Moody (b. 1975) was born in Australia but raised in Manitoba, Canada. She is a founding and current member of the Canadian country/folk trio The Wailin’ Jennys. Moody wrote “One Voice” in 2004 for The Wailin’ Jennys and the song was released in August of the same year on the group’s debut album 40 Days. “One Voice” has since become the Jennys’ signature song and has been performed and recorded by numerous other artists as well. In this Sunday’s service, “One Voice” will be sung by UUCC’s Treble Ensemble.
Song: For the Earth Forever Turning – Oler
#163 in Singing the Living Tradition, “For the Earth Forever Turning” (also known as “The Blue Green Hills of Earth”) is a song by American composer Kim Oler, who is primarily known for his work in television and on Broadway musicals. The arrangement you are hearing today is an adaptation by James Walker that was used in Missa Gaia (Earth Mass), a larger work released in 1982 by The Paul Walker Consort.
Postlude: Breaths – Barnwell/Diop
“Breaths” (#1001 in Singing the Journey) is adapted from the poem of the same title by Senegalese poet Birago Diop. The music was written by Ysaye Barnwell (b. 1946), a UU songwriter, activist and former member of the a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock. In Barnwell’s own words: “Hearing this poem…affirmed my world view which includes and reveres my ancestors. When I heard the poem a second time years later, it began to sing itself to me, and I am glad that I have been able to share what I heard with you. (from uua.org)
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director