May 7 – “Lives in the balance – A Concert for Peace & Justice”
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Bring Us Peace (Da Pacem Domine) – A new English arrangement by Linda Spevacek of a classic late-Renaissance Latin piece from Melchior Franck (1573-1639).
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Bonse Aba – A traditional welcome song from Zambia, arr. by Victor C. Johnson. The text in chiBemba translates loosely as “All who sing with spirit have the right to come on in!”
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What is Peace? – A poetry collage from a writing exercise led by Sylvia Patience at our annual retreat, August 2010. A response to the prompt “What is peace? What are your first memories of being aware of peace & justice?”
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Ose Shalom/Al Yadil Yadil Yadi – Two folk songs. The first, arranged by Michael Larson, is a Hebrew prayer for “ the One who makes peace in the heavens “ to come down and “make peace for us and all Israel.” The second is a tradition Palestinian children’s song arranged by John Higgins, which says “Come, let us play & celebrate together, climb the mountains and run free into the valley.”
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Emma Goldman – by Jolie Rickman, arr. by Bev Grant & The Dissident Daughters. In this song, the activist thinks she is alone, invisible, done, finished; then a friend convinces her otherwise. We are all each other’s angels and super-heroes. We walk in the footsteps of the amazing ordinary people who have gone before us.
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Lives in the Balance – by Jackson Browne, arr. by Aileen Vance. Although this song was first popular in the 1980s and references the horrible war in El Salvador and the brutal U.S. backed dictatorship in Chile, the words still ring so powerfully true in today’s world that we simply had to include it in this year’s repertoire.
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Earthsongs – A composition in three movements by David L. Brunner; we are doing the first 2 movements tonight:
I. “The World is Full of Poetry,” text by James Gates Percival, 19th century geologist.
II. “In Safety and Bliss,” text from Buddhist writing in the Sutta Nipata.
Oboe soloist: Lorna Kohler -
We Were There – by Bev Grant, arr. by Janet Stecher. In this 100th anniversary year of the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, we honor the working women who were there to make all our lives a little better and who are such important, often unsung, American heroes.
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War! Medley – “War!” by A. Cole & C. Barrett, ”No More Troubles” by Bob Marley. We were inspired by the wonderful work of “Playing for Change” to make our own version of this brilliant coupling of Bob Marley songs. PFC has done an incredible job bringing together people from all over the world and giving them the opportunity to sing together across all boundaries of class, ideology, and race.
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Open the Window – by Elise Witt. Inspired by the traditional Georgia Sea Islands song “Heist the Window, Noah.” Soloists: Mary Graydon-Fontana & Skye Leona
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Pachebel’s Peace Meditation – by J. Pachebel, text Denis Donnelly
A Singing Community 