Music Notes – Sunday, August 28th
This week’s musician is Pamela Schenk
Pre-service Music: Pièce sans titre (Untitled Piece) – Debussy
French composer Claude Debussy (1862-1918) is considered to be 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.
Opening Hymn: #159 This Is My Song – Sibelius/Stone
“This Is My Song” (#159 in Singing the Living Tradition) is a favorite hymn of many UUs. The music famously comes from Finlandia, a 1900 tone poem which is the best-known work of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). In 1934, American poet Lloyd Stone (1912-1993) set Sibelius’s distinctive melody to “This Is My Song”, intending the hymn to become an international song of peace. Fittingly, Stone’s setting of the Finlandia melody appears today in hymnals of dozens of faith traditions around the world.
Centering Music: Theme from The Shape of Water – Desplat
Alexandre Desplat (b. 1961) is a French composer and conductor best known for his film scores, which already number more than 100. Desplat has received numerous accolades for his work, including 11 Academy Award nominations (winning two) and ten Grammy Award nominations (also winning two). Some of his best-known scores include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (parts 1 & 2), The King’s Speech, and The Imitation Game. Desplat’s score for the 2017 film The Shape of Water earned him the Academy Award for Best Original Score (his other win was in 2014 for The Grand Budapest Hotel), and his score for The Shape of Water also won the Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Critics Choice Awards for best score. Desplat wrote the soundtrack in six weeks, collaborating with the film’s director, Guillermo del Toro, and seeking out ways to reflect the motion of water with his music, as well as the themes of love and mystery that are central to the film.
Sung Meditation: Simple Gifts – Brackett
“Simple Gifts” is one of the most familiar and beloved American songs ever written. It was originally composed as a ‘dancing song’ in 1848 by Joseph Brackett, Jr. (1797-1882) for the Shaker Settlement of Gorham, Maine. The song remained relatively unknown outside of the Shaker community for nearly a century, but it entered the American mainstream in 1944 when Aaron Copland (1900-1990) prominently featured the melody (which Copland had discovered in a Shaker songbook borrowed from his local library) in his orchestral suite Appalachian Spring. “Simple Gifts” is #16 in our Singing the Living Tradition hymnal and is a beloved song in many congregations.
Offertory Music: In My Life – Lennon & McCartney
“In My Life” is a song by The Beatles from their groundbreaking 1965 album Rubber Soul. The song was primarily written by John Lennon with some contributions by co-writer Paul McCartney and producer George Martin. Although not released as a single, “In My Life” was an important song for other reasons. Lennon described it as his “first real major piece of work” because of the song’s deeply personal meaning, and Rolling Stone magazine ranked “In My Life” as #23 on their list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” and #5 on their list of the “100 Greatest Beatles Songs”.
Closing Hymn: #1064 Blue Boat Home – Mayer
A native of Minnesota, folk musician Peter Mayer (b. 1963) is a guitarist and songwriter who specializes in earth-centered music. UU congregations know and love Peter as the lyricist behind “Blue Boat Home”, which first appeared on Mayer’s album The Great Story and is #1064 in our Singing the Journey hymnbook. The melody Mayer set his inspiring words to is called “Hyfrodol”, a popular Welsh hymn tune credited to Rowland Prichard (1811-1887). The piano accompaniment and choral harmonies are by Rev. Jason Shelton (b. 1972).
Postlude: The Long and Winding Road – McCartney
Appropriately enough, “The Long and Winding Road” was the last of the twenty songs that became #1 hits for The Beatles in the United States. Although John Lennon received album credit as a co-writer of this song, it was written entirely by Paul McCartney, who composed “The Long and Winding Road” as a reflection on the musical journey he had taken with the other members of The Beatles, whose breakup felt inevitable to McCartney at the time. The song was recorded for Let It Be, the Beatles’ final studio album, and was released as a single in May of 1970, a month after the band publicly announced their breakup. The lush orchestration and choir heard on the final version of the song were both added by producer Phil Spector without McCartney’s knowledge or consent, and McCartney tried unsuccessfully to prevent Spector’s arrangement from making it to the album. McCartney has since released his own stripped-down version of the song, which he uses when he performs it during live concerts.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director