This weekend: come hear members of our Chancel Choir sing with Good Company: A Vocal Ensemble
Join me in Lakewood this Sunday, April 19th for O Fire! – the spring concert of Good Company: A Vocal Ensemble. As the name suggests, this concert will feature music that is inspired by and connected to the element of fire. Music by Hugo Wolf, David Conte, Katerina Gimon, Thomas Morley and many others will be featured, and you can learn more about this event at www.good-co.org. The concert will be at 4:00 p.m. this Sunday at Lakewood Presbyterian Church (14502 Detroit Road) in Lakewood.
Many of you know that I direct Good Company, and several UUCC members and friends sing with the group as well, including Amy Collins, Lucy Carney, Leon Michaud, Anne and Steve Sanford, Pam Schenk, and Holly Walker. I hope to see you there!
Music Notes – Sunday, April 19th:
This Sunday’s musician is UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley
Centering Music: Anytime You Need a Friend – Carey/Afanasieff
“Anytime You Need a Friend” was written in 1993 by American singer/songwriter Mariah Carey (b. 1969) along with Russian-American songwriter, musician, and producer Walter Afanasieff (b. 1958). It was included on Carey’s 1993 album Music Box and released as a single in May of 1994. The gospel-style song was a top 20 hit in the U.S. and Canada as well as several overseas markets and received wide critical acclaim.
Opening Hymn: This Is My Song – Sibelius/Stone
“This Is My Song” (#159 in Singing the Living Tradition) is a favorite hymn of many UUs. The music famously comes from Finlandia, a 1900 tone poem which is the best-known work of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). In 1934, American poet Lloyd Stone (1912-1993) set Sibelius’s distinctive melody to “This Is My Song”, intending the hymn to become an international song of peace. Fittingly, Stone’s setting of the Finlandia melody appears today in hymnals of dozens of faith traditions around the world.
Special Music: You’ve Got a Friend – King
Carole King (b. 1942) is one of the most influential and celebrated songwriters in the history of American Popular Music. Since her career began in the 1950s, she has written or co-written no less than 118 songs that have charted in the Billboard Hot 100, has won four Grammy Awards, been inducted into both the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2013 became the first woman honored as a recipient of The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. King wrote “You’ve Got a Friend” for her signature 1971 album Tapestry. The song was also recorded by James Taylor (b. 1948), whose cover version became a #1 hit in the U.S. Interestingly, both artists recorded their versions of “You’ve Got a Friend” during the same studio session with the same backing musicians, and both earned a 1972 Grammy Award for their respective versions of the song: Taylor for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and King for Song of the Year.
Offertory Music: You’ll Never Walk Alone – Rodgers and Hammerstein
“You’ll Never Walk Alone” is one of the best-known songs from Carousel, the second musical written by the legendary creative team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960), who also famously collaborated on many other stage and movie musicals, including Oklahoma!, State Fair, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” has been performed and recorded by hundreds of artists, including Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley, and Jerry Lewis, who for more than 40 years concluded his annual telethon to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association with a performance of the song.
Song: We Are a Gentle, Angry People – Near
Holly Near (b. 1949) is a performer, songwriter, and activist who for decades has inspired thousands to thought and action. She is among the founders of the Women’s Music movement and is a fierce advocate for LGBTQ and environmental justice as well. Ms. Near has received honors from the ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild, the National Organization for Women, and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; she was named Ms. Magazine’s Woman of the Year and received the Legends of Women’s Music Award. One of Holly’s best-known and best-loved songs is “Singing for Our Lives”, which was written after she heard news of the assassination of city supervisor and gay rights activist Harvey Milk. The song appears in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal as “We Are a Gentle, Angry People” (#170). (includes material from hollynear.com)
Postlude: Thank You for Being a Friend – Gold & Walsh
“Thank You for Being a Friend” was originally written and performed by American singer-songwriter Andrew Gold (1951-2011) along with his bandmate Brock Walsh. Gold’s original 1978 recording achieved moderate success, but today, most people associate “Thank You for Being a Friend” with Cynthia Fee’s cover version that would become the theme song for the popular NBC sitcom The Golden Girls, which aired from 1985-1992 and is still a part of our cultural landscape in reruns, memes, merchandise, and even a live on-stage puppet parody.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director