Music Notes – Sunday, January 5th:
This Sunday’s musician is UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley
Music Notes – Sunday, January 5th:
This Sunday’s musician is UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley
Song: May Nothing Evil Cross This Door – Quaile and Untermeyer
“May Nothing Evil Cross This Door” (also known as “Prayer for This House”) has the honor of being hymn #1 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal. The words, which were first published in 1923, are by Louis Untermeyer (1885-1977). Untermeyer was an American author, poet, and businessman (co-founder of Untermeyer-Robbins Jewelry), and was even a onetime panelist on the TV show What’s My Line? The music for “May Nothing Evil Cross This Door” is a hymn tune called “Oldbridge” (first published 1906), which was composed by Robert N. Quaile (1867-1927), an Irish businessman and minister’s son who was not a professional musician but wrote songs and hymns for his own enjoyment.
Offertory Music: The Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back – Williams
Renowned American conductor and composer John Williams (b. 1932) is well-known for his film scores as well as for conducting the Boston Pops from 1980-1993. Educated at Juilliard and Eastman, Williams has composed in a variety of styles, but he is best-known for writing the scores for over 100 movies, including Star Wars, Jaws, Schindler’s List, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jurassic Park, the Indiana Jones series, and the first three Harry Potter films. Williams’ work has earned him many accolades, including 5 Academy Awards, 7 British Academy Film Awards, 4 Golden Globe Awards, 26 Grammy Awards, and a 2004 Kennedy Center Honor. Composed for the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back, “The Imperial March” (also known as “Darth Vader’s Theme”) is among the most recognizable and iconic movie themes ever to have been composed.
Postlude: Theme from Superman – Williams
John Williams’s score for the 1978 film Superman earned him two Grammy Awards and the main theme (which you’ll hear Sunday from Karin) became a hit in its own right, spending three weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director