Hallelujah -as sang by Jeff Buckley
or anyone else: Leonard Cohen (the original), Rufus Rainwright, Alexandra Burke - will do too.
It can soothe a broken heart!
Magali Regis
Paul Robeson's Ballad for Americans
This is an old chestnut, it reeks of a time long before anything like 9/11 could even be imagined, but given Robeson's history with his own government, it strikes me as wholly appropriate for it's message of perseverance. And who can not be stirred by Robeson's deep booming bell like. "And you know who I am..."
I would also suggest, Barber's Adagio for Strings and also Barber's Knoxville, Summer 1915 (only Price or Steber please)and of course either Copeland's Appalachian Spring or his music for Our Town.
Bill Matthews
Strauss's Ein Heldenleben #6
It reaches to the soul within us all
avice Wilson
James Adler's "Reflecions pon a Sepember morn"
A beauifl, shor piece composed in response o he horrific evens. Mr. Adler is a Village residen who, like man of us, winessed he evens. Anoher sggesion - he pie Jesu from his "Memeno mori - an AIDS Requiem" Sorr 2 leers on m keboard are malfncioning!
Jean Lman Goez
My Music
Gadi Kaplan, acomposer, the Astoria Symphony performed a piece of mine on Sept 10th & 11th, 2005. They have an archival recording. SInce you are asking for 9/11 suggestions I can't think of more appropriate music than mine. Pls contact Astoria Symphony and ask them to send you an archival copy.
Gadi Kaplan
Edward German's English Dances for Henry VIII
On 9/11, I had watched the Towers go down from the roof of my workplace in Westfield NJ. That morning I had seen the Twin Towers in all there beauty as I crossed over Rout 22 on Springfield Boulevard. I was angry and sad. The speeches of our leaders did little to confront. The next morning I listened Memette (I think that how you spell her name) as she was signing off. I cannot remember her words, but her statement gave me the inspiration and resolve that was so sorely lacking from anything that had been said thus far. Then she played “The English Dance for Henry VIII.” I have always love that music ever since. Thank You.
Frank Harder
American Tune by Paul Simon
It came into my head in the days after 9/11 and it seemed to perfectly sum up my feelings: heartbreaking loss and confusion, yet still a remnant of hope that we, as a city and country, would get through it somehow.
Michael Vines
Theme for Lester Young (Goodbye Pork Pie Hat)
It's a beautiful, soulful elegy that communicates a little something of what the black community know about death and life and remembrance.
anonymous
Shostakovich Quartet No. 15
It is among the most honest and powerful pieces of music about death that I know.
anonymous
kol nidre, o danny boy, flight of the Valkyries,
love of western civilization/cultural expression. respect for the dead.
lynn
"All Things Must Pass," George Harrison.
It helps me cope with the pain of loss.
Manuel Macarrulla
Handel's "Largo" from Xerxes (orchestral)
I was a volunteer nurse with the American Red Cross in NYC 9/13 - 10/13/2001. Sometime during that time this was played on the radio and it captured my sense of grief, majesty, beauty, horror, humility, honor,and soft heroism in which I was immersed then. Every time I hear it since, I am returned to that but with the added sense of awe and calm I found & continue to find in the people of NYC. I am returning for the 10th and will visit the Memorial on the 12th. No "closure", just continuance. "I am a New Yorker."
Lucie Ferrell
You'll Never Walk Alone
A Mormon Tabernacle Choir performance of this inspiring work has often moved me to keep on truckin', as cartoonist Crumb would say. In the wake of our recent earthquake and storm experiences, the theme was never more timely. I think each religion can bring its faith to this universally human concept.
Don Wigal {WHY-gull]
Can't Cry Hard Enough
Someone distributed a slideshow after 9/11 /01 of images from the disaster set to the song Can't Cry Hard Enough ... and I watched it over and over and cried for days and days.
Margaret
Shining Towers by John Webster with Brindaband
This is a song I wrote based on a story told by a New York art therapist who worked with the traumatized during the week, and then, on the Saturday, found himself being comforted by a little orphaned bear cub he regularly visited at a refuge each Saturday.
The conclusion of the song is that even Nature was offended by the events of 9/11, and that a balancing energy of love was spurred on that day.
The song can be heard on our album 'Songs for our Time' which is on iTunes, or for a remixed copy of the song contact me at my email address.
With good wishes,
John Webster
Pathfinder Audio
John Webster
Ives - From Hanover Sq. North, at the End of a Tragic Day, the Voice of the People Again Arose
Ives is one of the greatest American composers. But even though he's famous for being a New Englander, he was, from his graduation from Yale until the end of his life, a resident of Manhattan. When the Lusitania sank in 1915, it was probably the most tragic event in many New Yorkers' lives. Ives, working on Wall St., went to catch his normal train up to his Village home. As he went up on the platform, the overwhelming sense of dread and sadness was transformed by the communal singing of a hymn, "In the Sweet By and By."
this moment of people coming together in downtown Manhattan to celebrate life in the face of great tragedy and conflict is representative of all the good things about 9/11. And it's free of much of the negative things about 9/11 - the fear-mongering, the jingoism, the ethnocentrism, or the focus on revenge.
Jake
Mahler's resurrection symphony
I think it will be appropriate to broadcast the Mahler's Resurrection Symphony on 9/11. It has the meaning of resurrection from destruction and death.
Peter Feldman
Part, Spiegel im Spiegel
sometimes tragedy calls for simplicity. This is the musical equivalent of: Pray you, undo my button.
Alan Hyde
Peteris Vasks, Music for a Deceased Friend
written 1981 so not specifically about 9/11, but beautifully captures grief. I have played this with my woodwind quintet and done the wordless singing for which the composer calls (though I am no singer)
Alan Hyde
Margaret Brouwer, Lament
composed 2002 as a direct response; a rare successful response
Alan Hyde
