Songs of Hope

Musicians and poets and others who create with ideas and music at times have the best and the deepest things to say about what happens in the world. There is such deep and lasting music from the tradition -- the traditions -- of many countries, handed down the generations, changed and adapted and yet holding truth that resonates.

There's music newly written too, pieces that speak to immediacy of event and feeling and yet hold ideas and connections and ways of thinking that last beyond a specific moment.

These two songs, written in very different times and places each from the other and from what is happening in the world as I write this, yet resonate with each other, and offer hope in times of sorrow and anger as well as in times of peace. Take a listen -- take several.

Carrie Newcomer wrote I Heard an Owl as part of her response to the events of September 11. You may find it on her album The Gathering of Spirits.

Amazing Grace was written in English originally, as a reflection on conversion to faith. Karen Matheson sings it here in Scottish Gaelic. You may find it recorded on Celtic Women of Scotland: Songs of Love & Reflection.

"The only word is courage and the only answer love..."

Music has its place in healing, in connection, in understanding, in crossing borders -- and in hope.

Photograph by Kerry Dexter

You may also wish to see
Carrie Newcomer: Kindred Spirits
Scotland's Music: Karen Matheson, Gaelic, and story
Cathie Ryan: Through Wind and Rain

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