Music for Ukraine - Day 1

Warm greetings to all you people of peace! That’s what we are, isn’t it? And it’s so well expressed in this first song in the “Music for Ukraine” series.

The music is, of course the familiar theme from Finlandia, and you can find background on the music here: https://finland.fi/arts-culture/finlandia-by-jean-sibelius/. My friend Simone found the site, which includes this quotation:

In the autumn of 1899 Sibelius composed the music for a series of tableaux illustrating episodes in Finland´s past. The tableaux were presented as a part of the Press Celebrations held in November that year. The celebrations were a contribution towards the resistance to the efforts to increase Russian influence in the then autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. The music culminated in a stirring, patriotic finale, “Finland awakes.”

Dick Frantzreb

http://www.vocal-works.com/sounds/Solo_bank/090118G.mp3
(Left-click to play or right-click to download)

Song of Peace
Words by Lloyd Stone; additional words by Georgia Harkness
Music by Jan Sibelius (“Finlandia”); arrangement by Beth Miller

This is my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace, for lands afar and mine;
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine:
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;
But other lands have sunlight too, and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine:
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.

This is my song, O God of all the nations,
A prayer that peace transcends in every place;
And yet I pray for my beloved country --
The reassurance of continued grace:
Lord, help us find our one-ness in the Saviour,
And see your goodness shine in every face.

May truth and freedom come to every nation;
May peace abound where strife has raged so long;
That each may seek to love and build together,
A world united, righting every wrong;
A world united in its love for freedom,
Proclaiming peace together in one song.

Vocals by Dick Frantzreb, accompaniment by Tom Barr.