Richard Connolly (10 November 1927 – 4 May 2022) was an Australian musician, composer and former broadcaster. He was best known for having composed the theme song to the children's TV series '' Play School'' for the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

(ABC); the lyrics were penned by Rosemary Milne. In 2017 the tune was added to the list of the top 10

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list by the

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for being culturally, historically and aesthetically significant. Connolly's published and performed works allowed him to be counted among Australia's most prolific composers of

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

music,Featured Interview:Richard Connolly
ABC Sunday nights, 22 June 2003. Accessed 22 June 2007.Featured Interview:Richard Connolly
ABC Sunday nights, 22 June 2003. Accessed 22 June 2007. particularly the

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

s he composed for the church in Australia which are now published and used inter-denominationally. His hymns were composed to accommodate and adorn the liturgical reforms of the

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. He was noted for his collaborations with Australian poet

James McAuley James Phillip McAuley (12 October 1917 – 15 October 1976) was an Australian academic, poet, journalist, Australian literature, literary critic and a prominent convert to Roman Catholicism. He was involved in the Ern Malley poetry hoax. Life ...

. His compositions were successful internationally, both in the

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and

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

fields.

Life and career

Connolly aspired to join the priesthood and, from 1946 and 1950, pursued theological studies in

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. A few months before his planned ordination, however, he abandoned his studies and returned to Australia where he completed an arts degree at the

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. At that time, he was a member of Holy Spirit parish in

North Ryde North Ryde is a suburb located in the Northern Sydney region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. North Ryde is located 15 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City ...

. In 1955, he was introduced to McAuley by Father

Ted Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...

who asked Connolly to compose

s to sing at various points during

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. Thus began a longstanding partnership between McAuley and Connolly. Their subsequent musical collaboration during the 1950s and 1960s contributed significantly to contemporary Australian hymnody.HYMNS OF GLORY: for Palm Sunday from Parramatta Catholic Cathedral
Sunday Morning – ABC TV Religion. Accessed 22 June 2007; R.J. Stove, Visions of ceremony: an interview with Richard Connolly, ''Quadrant'' 57 (10) (Oct 2013), 109-113. Their compositions were first released in a collection titled ''Hymns for the Year of Grace'' in 1963. In 1960 Connolly's work had anchored the ''Living Parish'' hymnbook, edited by Tony Newman and published by a group gathered around Roger Pryke, which would sell one million copies over the next decade, enabling congregations to sing hymns in a distinctively Australian voice. Many of the hymns published in both collections are still widely sung across various Christian denominations in Australia and internationally. Connolly joined the ABC in 1956 and by 1960 worked in its education department, mainly in schools broadcasts. In 1967 he joined the Radio Drama and Features Department, becoming features editor. In 1971 he undertook a

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and at

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and

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. He also spent several months working in the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Life and career

Contributions

Hymnody

Liturgical music

Secular music

References

External links

Further reading