Music Notes – Sunday, May 17th:
This Sunday’s musician is UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley.
Centering Music: Arabesque No. 1 – Debussy
Joys and Concerns, Offertory, and Postlude: Selections from Children’s Corner – Debussy
French composer Claude Debussy (1862-1918) is considered the father of musical Impressionism, although Debussy himself disliked the idea of being categorized as a composer. Throughout his career, Debussy wrote music for a wide variety of performing forces, and his nontraditional use of harmony played a vital role in ushering in a new era of music at the turn of the 20th century.
Debussy composed his two Arabesques (L. 66) for solo piano between 1888-1891 while still in his twenties. Both pieces include remnants of the Romantic Era such as exoticism, but also show several elements of Debussy’s emerging Impressionist style.
Children’s Corner (L. 113) is a six-movement suite for solo piano, which Debussy composed between 1906-08, dedicating the work to his daughter Claude-Emma, who was born in 1905. Children’s Corner quickly rose to popularity after its premiere and publication in 1908, and was arranged for orchestra by Debussy’s friend André Caplet in 1911.
Song: Enter, Rejoice, and Come In – Ruspini
“Enter, Rejoice, and Come In” (#361 in Singing the Living Tradition) is a simple, upbeat song of welcome that is well-known to many Unitarian Universalists. The song was written by folk singer-songwriter Louise Ruspini and originally published in her collection of songs Journey to Freedom.
Musical Response: From You I Receive – Segal and Segal
Most Unitarian Universalists are familiar with this short and simple round, which is #402 in Singing the Living Tradition and is used by many UU congregations as their weekly offertory response. What many UUs do not know is that the song was written and performed by two brothers, Joseph and Nathan Segal, who describe themselves as “12th generation singing rabbis”. The Segal brothers had a successful career as both spiritual leaders and entertainers, blending music, humor, and life lessons in their appearances.
Song: We Laugh, We Cry – Denham
A native of Cincinnati, Shelley Jackson Denham (1950-2013) was a lifelong Unitarian Universalist, composer and performer. No fewer than six of Shelley’s hymns can be found within our two hymnbooks, including the joyfully rolling “We Laugh, We Cry” (#354 in Singing the Living Tradition), which she composed in 1980.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director