Music Notes – Sunday, November 1st:
This Sunday’s musicians are Bill McNally and Nick McNally
About Bill McNally:
The New York Times calls him “a hot item” and “powerful,” and the Santa Barbara Independent called him a pianist, “…with great sympathy and insight.” William McNally is a two–time winner of the World Championship Old–Time Piano Playing Contest, and three–time winner of their New Rag Contest. He now serves as their Contest Coordinator, and he has since taken on the role of the Scott Joplin Foundation’s Ragtime Kid Program Director. His performance of George Perle’s Concertino for Piano, Winds and Timpani at Tanglewood, conducted by Cristian Măcelaru, was hailed for its “nimble,” “miraculous,” “sharp soloing.” As a collaborative pianist, McNally has performed with a wide range of musicians, including the Verona String Quartet, mezzo–soprano Davida Karanas, the Mark Morris Dance Company, and many others.
His album Dream Shadows was released to high acclaim: reviews in Fanfare Magazine—two of them—called the recording “highly natural and persuasive…his prismatic range of touch and tone allows him to trace out the shifting moods of the music—from the sentimental to the nonchalant to the smashing—with unusual sensitivity…the disc is so good, from beginning to end, that it’s hard to know what to highlight…a treasure!” McNally’s “serious classical” CD with works by Brahms, Reger and Busoni was lauded by the New York Times as “effortless…fascinating…mercurial… and intelligently curious.” This June, Rivermont Records will release Piano Puzzles & Magic Trix, McNally’s recording of the complete solo piano works of Arthur Schutt, packaged with the first serious biography of Schutt. It is paired with novelty works by Vincent Matthew Johnson, and it also includes the premiere recording of four works by Art Tatum.
He completed his doctorate at CUNY’s Graduate Center, where he studied with Ursula Oppens and wrote a ragtime–focused dissertation. He has served on the faculties of Texas State University, CUNY Queens College, and Temple University. He currently lives in Cleveland, Ohio with his wife Daria and nine–year–old son Nick, where he spends most of his “free” time cooking, biking, hiking, and cleaning up loose chess pieces. Check out his two upcoming outdoor performances for Piano Cleveland this July! For more information, visit http://www.williammcnally.com.
Centering Music: Georgia Jubilee (1934, Arthur Schutt & Benny Goodman)
The prolific 1920s and ’30s band pianist Arthur Schutt (1902-1965) co-wrote “Georgia Jubilee” in 1934 with “The King of Swing” Benny Goodman (1909-1986). The song became one of the biggest hits of Schutt’s career.
Song: All My Memories of Love – Plainsong melody/Belletini
#336 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnbook, “All My Memories of Love” is a setting of “Adoro te devote” (Humbly I Adore Thee), a 13th Century plainsong melody that is often (but probably incorrectly) attributed to St. Thomas of Aquinas. The lyrics in our hymnal were written by Rev. Mark Belletini, who served for many years as senior minister at the First Unitarian Church of Columbus, Ohio.
Joys and Concerns Music: España, Op. 165: 2. Tango – Isaac Albéniz, arr. Godowsky
Spanish composer/conductor/pianist Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909) was among the most important and influential figures of the post-romantic era. He was well-known for his piano compositions, many of which incorporated melodies and thematic elements of Spanish folk music. One of Albéniz’s best-loved melodies, this tango is the 2nd movement of a larger work titled España, first published in 1890. The arrangement you’ll hear this Sunday is from Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938), a Lithuanian-American pianist and composer who was highly regarded both as a performer and music educator.
Offertory Music: Dolly, Op. 56: 1. Berceuse – Fauré (with Nick McNally)
A musical berceuse (lullaby) is typically a short and simple piece in triple or compound meter to give the rhythmic sensation of rocking a child to sleep. This form was most popular during the 19th century and was used by many composers, including Chopin, Gounod, and Tchaikovsky. The piece you’ll hear on Sunday is one of two well-known berceuses by the French composer Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), who wrote this piece as the opening movement of his Dolly Suite (op. 56) for piano duet, composed during 1893-1896. The title of the larger suite was inspired by Régina-Hélène “Dolly” Bardac, the daughter of singer Emma Bardac, who was a love interest of Fauré at the time. At UUCC this weekend, Fauré’s duet will be played by the father-and-son team of Bill and Nick McNally.
Song: We Are… – Barnwell
#1051 in Singing the Journey, “We Are…” was composed by Ysaye Barnwell (b. 1946) for Sweet Honey in the Rock. “We Are…” was originally the last song in a suite that began with the lyric, “Lawd, it’s midnight. A dark and fear filled midnight. Lawd, it’s a midnight without stars.” Dr. Barnwell wanted to create a complete circle of experience, and so she wrote “for each child that’s born, a morning star rises…” This phrase is meant to establish hope, and it defines the uniqueness of each one of us. No matter what our race, culture or ethnicity, each one of us has been called into being and are the sum total of all who came before. In the composer’s words, “Each and every one of us stands atop a lineage that has had at its core, mothers and fathers and teachers and dreamers and shamans and healers and builders and warriors and thinkers and, and, and…so in spite of our uniqueness, we come from and share every experience that human kind has ever had. In this way, we are one. (from uua.org)
Postlude: Blue Donkey Rag (2008, Bill McNally)
Sunday’s postlude will be a Bill McNally original, “Blue Donkey Rag”, composed in 2008 and featured on two of Bill’s albums: Chickens ‘n’ Kittens: A Ragtime Coup (2008) and Dream Shadows (2018).
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director