Music Notes – Sunday, July 3rd:
This week’s musicians are John Gibbon and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
John Gibbon began playing the cello in 3rd grade at Onaway Elementary School in Shaker Heights and has continued to study and play throughout his life. In 2010 he received a Diploma in Cello Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. John and his wife Pam live in Cleveland Heights and have been members of UUCC for many years.
Opening Hymn: How Could Anyone – Roderick
Libby Roderick (b. 1958) is a singer-songwriter and activist from Alaska. Her song “How Could Anyone” (#1053 in Singing the Journey) was written in response to a friend in pain. It has been heard around the world, translated into many languages, and is reprinted in many books. The simple folk tune and words have been embraced by people with many types of pain, from AIDS orphans to cancer survivors and prisoners. The lyrics have been used for healing in many different settings, including churches, hospitals, shelters, rallies, weddings, and funerals. (from uua.org)
Centering Music: Shenandoah – American Folk Song
“Shenandoah” (also known as “Oh Shenandoah” or “Across the Wide Missouri”) is an American folk song believed to have originated in the mid-19th century in the Midwestern United States. Like most folk music, its exact origins are unclear and many variations of its melody and lyrics have been discovered by musicologists over the years. Regardless of where or when it was first sing, “Shenandoah” has become one of the most beloved songs in our nation’s history, and has been performed by countless choruses, orchestras, and popular musicians.
Offertory Music: Le Cygne (The Swan) – Saint-Saëns
“Le Cygne” (The Swan) is the 13th and most well-known movement from Le carnaval des animaux (The Carnival of the Animals), a fourteen-movement suite written in 1886 by the French Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921). Saint-Saëns originally scored “Le Cygne” for cello with two pianos, but it has been arranged for a multitude of different performing forces over the years and remains one of the best-known pieces ever written by Saint-Saëns.
Closing Hymn: # 1007 There’s a River Flowin’ in my Soul – Sanders
“There’s a River Flowin’ in My Soul” is #1007 in our Singing the Journey hymnal. It was composed by Rose Sanders (b. 1945), who is a civil rights attorney, activist and creative artist living in Selma, Alabama. Ms. Sanders was Alabama’s first African American female judge, and she has co-founded and works to support many organizations which protect children.
Postlude: Menuet I and II and Gigue from the Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major (Bach)
Baroque master Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) composed his six Suites á Violoncello Solo senza Basso (Suites for cello solo without bass) between 1717 and 1723 while living in Köthen, Germany. Bach divided each of the cello suites into an identically ordered set of six movements, each movement based on a traditional dance. Sunday’s postlude will include three movements (Menuet I, Menuet II, and Gigue) from the first of these suites (BWV 1007), composed in the key of G major.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director