Music Notes – Sunday, May 26th:
This Sunday’s musician is UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley
Opening Hymn: Just as Long as I Have Breath – Ebeling/Carpenter
#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 (1930-2021). Carpenter 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: Hey Jude/Let It Be – Lennon & McCartney
This week’s Centering Music will be a combination of two iconic songs by The Beatles, “Hey Jude” and “Let It Be”, both of which were written primarily by Paul McCartney (b. 1942) but co-credited to McCartney with John Lennon (1940-1980).
“Hey Jude” was the first Beatles song to be issued as a standalone (non-album) single when it was released in August of 1968. The song became a #1 hit and the top-selling single of the year in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada. “Hey Jude” began as “Hey Jules”, a song McCartney wrote to comfort Lennon’s young son Julian, after Lennon divorced Julian’s mother Cynthia Powell Lennon and began his relationship with Japanese artist Yoko Ono.
Released in 1970 as a single and then as the title track of their final studio album, “Let It Be” was written and sung by Paul McCartney, who has said that the inspiration for the song came to him in a dream. McCartney has also stated in many interviews that his use of “Mother Mary” in the lyrics was never intended to be religious but is instead a reference to his own mother, Mary Patricia McCartney.
Offertory Music: Circle – Chapin
Award-winning American singer/songwriter, guitarist, and activist Harry Chapin (1942-1981) was successful and widely influential in both the folk and pop music scenes of the 1970s. Chapin had multiple albums certified platinum (over 1 million units sold) and is an inductee in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Chapin also played an important role in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977, and in 1987, he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian efforts. “Circle” was released on Chapin’s 1972 album Sniper and Other Love Songs. Although the song did not chart as a single, it was a favorite of Chapin’s fans and eventually became the unofficial “Chapin theme song”, appearing on multiple compilation albums and performed in nearly all of Chapin’s live concerts.
Closing Hymn: Wake Now, My Senses – Irish folk tune/Mikelson
#298 in Singing the Living Tradition, “Wake Now, My Senses” is a setting of “Slane”, an Irish folk song that is most commonly associated with “Be Thou My Vision” (which is also in our hymnal as #20). “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. The words you’ll be hearing – and hopefully singing along with – this Sunday were written by the Rev. Thomas Mikelson (1936-2020), a UU Minister and native of Iowa who was also an educator and activist for racial justice and LGBTQ+ rights.
Postlude: You’ll Never Walk Alone – Rodgers & Hammerstein
“You’ll Never Walk Alone” is one of the best-known songs from Carousel, the second musical written by the legendary creative team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960), who also famously collaborated on many other stage and movie musicals, including Oklahoma!, State Fair, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” has been performed and recorded by hundreds of artists, including Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley, and Jerry Lewis, who for more than 40 years concluded his annual telethon to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association with a performance of the song.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director