Music Notes – Sunday, October 30th:
This Sunday’s musician is UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley.
Opening Hymn: #6 Just as Long as I Have Breath
#6 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal, “Just as Long as I Have Breath” is a song based on Johann Ebeling’s (1637-1676) traditional hymn tune “Nicht So Traurig” (“Not So Sad”), with words by UU songwriter and activist Alicia S. Carpenter (b. 1930). Carpenter has authored no fewer than 10 of the songs in our ‘big’ hymnal, including “Here We Have Gathered” (#360), We Celebrate the Web of Life” (#175), and “With Heart and Mind” (#300).
Centering Music: Theme from The X-Files – Snow
Sunday’s centering music is the main theme from The X-Files, a 16-time Emmy Award-winning sci-fi/suspense/drama television show that produced over 200 episodes, originally airing from 1993 to 2002. The popularity of The X-Files also resulted in two feature films, two spinoff TV series, and 2018 reboot of the original series. The distinctive theme music for The X-Files was written by American composer Mark Snow (b. 1946), who works primarily as a soundtrack composer for film and television. The main theme, also titled Materia Primoris (Latin for ‘first material’), was released as a single in 1996 and became a hit, especially in Europe where it reached #1 on the Billboard Chart in France and #2 in the U.K. Here’s a link to an interview with Mark Snow about his collaborative process creating the theme with series creator Chris Carter.
Offertory: #1 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.
Closing Hymn: When I Am Frightened – Denham
“When I Am Frightened” (#1012 in Singing the Journey), also titled “Then I May Learn”, was commissioned in 1999 by the First Unitarian Church of Dallas. Because of her lifelong commitment to working with and empowering youth, UU composer Shelley Jackson Denham (1950-2013) took the opportunity to write a piece based on children’s yearning for truth, respect, and engagement with adults. In keeping with a philosophy that “children are watching, what are they learning?”, the song is meant as a reminder that all children deserve and need compassion, acceptance, commitment…and that they often learn to both give and receive these essential elements of relationship through the simple act of observation. (includes material from uua.org)
Postlude: Danse Macabre – Saint-Saëns
Danse Macabre (Op. 40) was originally written in 1872 by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) as an art song based on an ancient French story and superstition about Death calling the dead from their graves to dance with him at midnight on Halloween night. Two years later, Saint-Saëns expanded and adapted his song into a tone poem for orchestra. Although Danse Macabre was not well-received by audiences and critics at first, it has since become one of the most recognizable and famous melodies ever written.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director
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