This week’s selection is a reflective and peaceful work for choir: Earth Song by Frank Ticheli. Written for four-part choir with no instruments other than the human voice, the music delivers a peaceful, contemplative message for the world around us. Wide dynamic contrasts and beautifully smooth and soaring melodies transform the voices into a beautiful, memorable ode to the earth.

This piece is so personal to the composer, it is best to leave you with his own words:

“Earth Song is one of only a few works that I have composed without a commission. I felt a strong impulse to create something that would express my own personal longing for peace. It was this longing which engendered the poem’s creation.”

“I knew I had to write the poem myself, partly because it is not just a poem, but a prayer, a plea, a wish – a bid to find inner peace in a world that seems eternally bent on war and hatred. But also, the poem is a steadfast declaration of the power of music to heal.

“In the end, the speaker in the poem discovers that, through music, he is the embodiment of hope, peace, the song within the Song. Perhaps music has the power not only to nurture inner peace, but also to open hearts and ears in a world that desperately needs love and listening.”