Tuesday's Musical Notes - "The Swing March" (Henry Mancini)

Tuesday's here....time for the Notes!!!  Do you smell popcorn?

     What do pink panthers, baby elephants, mouse detectives and Arkansas Razorbacks have in common?  The possibilities are very few.  This is not some "animal" version of six degrees of separation.  While you ponder the panthers, elephants and razorbacks (Oh, my!), let me give you some statistics that may surprise you.    The average attendance at an Arkansas Razorback (GO HOGS!) football game last year was 66,990.  This ranked as the 22nd highest average of all NCAA Division 1 schools.  If your tickets were on the low end of the spectrum, but high up in the stadium you would pay around $45.  That means the average Razorback football game takes in $3,014,550 in ticket sales alone, PER GAME.   This doesn't account for the pregame tailgating expenses nor the concessions during the game.  The point in all of this is that it is FINALLY college football season again, and with respect to these numbers the recession must be over.....have you given to your church lately?

     In 1966 a movie starring James Coburn (Snow Dogs), and Harry Morgan (M*A*S*H - Colonel Potter) came out titled "What Did You Do In The War, Daddy?"  It was a comedy about WWII.  You can go to IMDB.com for the plot, but as always we are more interested in the music.  The soundtrack was heavily influenced by a young composer who had already had 7 songs from films go into the charts.  He wrote the trademark song for Andy Williams, scored the movie for a bumbling French Inspector named Clouseau which included a panther of the pink variety, and wrote the very popular "Baby Elephant Walk" from the John Wayne movie Hatari.    In this particular film he wrote a march, one at the time didn't seem very memorable, but has come to be beloved by many in our great state.....Watch for the big "A" formation with  Henry Mancini's, "The Swing March" or as we know it in Hogland, the Go! Hogs! Go! song, as a part of the 1984 pregame show for the marching Razorbacks:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRPGrMYOGBs

     Many of the 90 records that Henry Mancini produced were for the movies or television.  He provided music to go with some of the funniest scenes in movie history as he collaborated with Blake Edward's for 7 films.  He is best know for music from the 9 Pink Panther movies and 124 Pink Panther cartoons.  Mancini was also known for his dramatic scores as well.  His music is featured in Breakfast At Tiffanys, Charade,The Thorn Birds, as well as The Peter Gunn Theme.  He even did the theme song for the 1990 version of the Tic, Tac, Dough game show as well as Disney's The Great Mouse Detective.  If you went to movies or saw very much television in the late '60s or early 70's you were exposed to the music of Henry Mancini.

     As we come into the Fall of the year, let's recognize a few things.  College Football is once again on TV.  Thank Goodness!!!  Students are back to getting the education that they will need to survive and succeed in the world.  An election will happen. (Have you registered to vote?) Churches will transition to "camp" mode back to "normal" church routine mode.  That "normal" is as different as  Henry Mancini's spectrum of movie scores.  But yet, God works through all of the differences and makes one church, His bride.  Paul's first letter to the Corinthian church speaks to such diversity, from The Message paraphrase:

1 Corinthians 12:11-13

The Message (MSG)

 ^4-11God's various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:
   wise counsel
   clear understanding
   simple trust
   healing the sick
   miraculous acts
   proclamation
   distinguishing between spirits
   tongues
   interpretation of tongues.
   All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.
 ^12-13You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.



     Perhaps you have heard criticism of other denominations from some in your church.  Perhaps you have even been critical of those in your own "denomination" because they don't do things the way "your" church does.    According to the Bible, that is like the fingers criticizing the ears, or the eyes being critical of the ankle.  All of our churches have a part in the plan.  We have specific people that we are enabled by the Holy Spirit to visit with in regard to eternal matters.  We should never be critical of another  method as long as it results in a soul having a transformational encounter with Jesus.  Or in "Notes Nomenclature"...We all have our spot to ensure that the big "A" goes down the field looking like a big "A".......

There is a small group at your church just waiting for your contribution.  What a great time of the year to find out more about it....

'Til Tuesday,

 Loving HIM by loving you,

Randy