Music Notes – Sunday, October 25th:
This week’s musicians are The Chancel Choir and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
Centering Music: Autumn Leaves – Kosma/Prévert
“Autumn Leaves” (Les Feuilles Mortes) is the most famous jazz standard to have originated outside the United States. The distinctive melody and unconventional supporting harmony were originally written by French-Hungarian composer Joseph Kosma (1905-1969) as a pas de deux (choreographed duo) within his 1945 ballet Le Rendez-vous, whose storyline was written by French poet and author Jacques Prévert (1900-1977). The original French lyrics were added by Prévert shortly thereafter and the completed song reached a larger audience when it was featured a year later in the film Les Portes de la Nuit (The Gates of the Night). Since then, “Autumn Leaves” has been recorded over 1000 times by a veritable who’s who of performers from every corner of the globe.
Song: With Heart and Mind – Schein/Carpenter
#300 in Singing the Living Tradition, “With Heart and Mind” is a hymn that juxtaposes a centuries-old chorale melody with a contemporary text. Originally known as “Machs mit mir Gott”, the tune was written by German Baroque composer Johann Schein (1586-1630) and later harmonized by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). This melody has been set to numerous texts and published in over 25 hymnals of various denominations. In Singing the Living Tradition, the tune is paired with a 20th-century text by UU songwriter Alicia Carpenter (1930-2021). “With Heart and Mind” is one of 10 hymns in Singing the Living Tradition that were written or co-written by Ms. Carpenter. Some of her other contributions to our hymnal include #6 “Just as Long as I Have Breath” and #360 “Here We Have Gathered”.
Joys and Concerns Music: Selections from Seven Pieces in G Major and G Minor – Franck
César Franck (1822-1890) was a European composer, educator, pianist, and organist of the Romantic period. Born in what is now Belgium, Franck lived and worked in Paris for most of his adult life, becoming a French citizen and teaching at the Paris Conservatoire from 1872 until his death. Franck composed many works that are now part of the standard classical repertoire, including the Symphony in D minor, Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra, and his setting of the sacred Latin text Panis Angelicus. Franck was a highly skilled organist and wrote many large and small works for the organ, including “Seven Pieces in G Major and G Minor”, which you’ll hear excerpts from on Sunday. Those short pieces are part of a collection of works titled L’Organiste, first published in 1896.
Offertory: The Road Home – Paulus
Stephen Paulus (1949-2014) was a prolific American composer of classical music. He wrote over 600 works, receiving premieres and performances throughout the world as well as a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2015. His musical style has been described by The New York Times as “lush and extravagant,” and critics from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and many others have praised his work. He was a recipient of both NEA and Guggenheim Fellowships. (from stephenpaulus.com) “The Road Home” is Paulus’s choral setting of the Southern Appalachian hymn tune “Prospect”. Our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal uses this tune for hymns #15 (“The Lone, Wild Bird”) and #232 (“The Hills Are Bare at Bethlehem”).
Song: Be Thou My Vision – Irish folk tune/Byrne & Hull
#20 in Singing the Living Tradition, “Be Thou My Vision” is a setting of “Slane”, a well-known Irish folk song (which is also in our hymnal as #398 “Wake Now, My Senses”). “Slane” is named for a hill in County Meath, Ireland, where St. Patrick’s lighting of an Easter fire – an act of defiance against the 5th Century pagan king Loegaire – led to his unlimited freedom to preach the gospel in Ireland.
Postlude: Heart Wide Open – Morris
“Heart Wide Open” is a song by award-winning performer and composer Lea Morris (b. 1978), also known simply as LEA. Born in Baltimore to a father who toured the world playing trumpet in the funk band Black Heat and a mother who dreamed of opera while performing with her siblings in the Jones Family Gospel Singers, LEA was singing on the pulpit of the Baptist church where she grew up as soon she could speak. When she discovered the acoustic guitar as a teenager, she began teaching herself to play by writing songs. LEA’s final year in high school in Germany at a classical conservatory, where she sang with the jazz ensemble Black & White and co-wrote with the British pop trio Indigo Wild. Having shared the stage with luminaries including Odetta, Mavis Staples, Dar Williams and Anthony Hamilton, LEA performs at a far-ranging array of venues, including arts centers, universities, festivals, places of worship and beyond. She performs solo and with her band, The Moment. (includes material from thisislea.com)
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director