The aria "E lucevan le stelle" from Puccini's Tosca

In this aria, hopelessness in the face of death yields to being more in love with life than ever. Is it too sad to say this is what I think people in the towers must have been feeling? The aria also ends abruptly, leaving the rest of us bereft, wanting more.

Joan Bernard

Aaron Copland's "A Lincoln Portrait"

This piece of music speaks volumes to me. Lincoln has been a lifelong hero of mine because he held this country together at a time of great peril and division. His call to unity and healing in the Gettysburg Address is one of this nation's most masterful speeches.

Copland's tribute to Lincoln would be the perfect way to end a playlist of music for 9/11. It is uplifting and you can't help but feel proud to be an American after hearing this piece of music. Fauré's Requiem Mass is another piece of music that, while somber and mournful, ends with the uplifting and ethereal "In Paradisum" movement and should be included in the playlist. I would also include Dvorak's 9th Symphony "From the New World" because it is a hopeful vision of America from a foreigner come to our shores. This would speak of the hope of immigrants coming to our land and seeing what is best about us. Mozart's Requiem Mass should be in there somewhere because it is properly somber and mournful. Perhaps you might open with this piece to remind people of the sorrow we experienced on that dreadful day. It is also in a minor key so that sets the proper somber tone to start things out. Then you should play music that speaks to more positive and uplifting themes and end with Copland's "A Lincoln Portrait" that ends with a segment of his "Gettysburg Address": "For on the battlefield at Gettysburg, this is what he said. He said, '....that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth'." What better way to end a playlist than to remind us of who we are and why we exist as a country!

Sally Burnell

Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning) by Alan Jackson

As a firefighter and paramedic in NJ, who spent time at Ground Zero in the first few hours after the attack, this is probably the most direct reference to Sept. 11th that I have found, and the line "the heroes who died, just doing what they do," is especially important, as I knew as friends and acquaintances a couple of the cops who died. The live version is the better of the two.

Brian Fitzpatrick

I Like the Sunrise

On the evening of 9/11 I listened to this Ellington song sung by Sinatra on their joint album of the 60's. It seemed to me about the best soundtrack I could find for that evening, deeply sad but with a great feeling of resilience and hope.

Bruce Walker

handel's "to thee, thou glorioius son of worth" from Theodora

i heard it recently at a friend's funeral. It praises the subject, then wonderfully, expresses the wish that we may meet again in heaven. It's just glorious.
Especially the version by Sarah Connolly and Rosemary Joshua.

I am not a New Yorker but read about this survey in today's Guardian in London.

dianne kaufman

strong as samson procol harum

this is a song about hostage taking . it talks about being chained to a pillar and the exhausting hyper vigilance even a failed attack causes . shoe bomber blows it and we all have to have our shoes sniffed to perpetuity

the lyrics speak for themselves

Psychiatrists and Lawyers destroying mankind
Drivin' 'em crazy...and stealing 'em blind
Bankers and Brokers ruling the world
Storing the silver and hoarding the gold

Ain't no use in preachers preaching
When they don't know what they're teaching
The weakest man be strong as Samson
When you're being held to ransom

Famine and hardship in true living colour
Constant reminders...the plight of our brother
Daily starvation our diet of news
Fed to the teeth with a barrage of views

Ain't no use in preachers preaching
When they don't know what they're teaching
The weakest man be strong as Samson
When you're being held to ransom

Black men and white men, and Arabs and Jews
Causing congestion and filling the queues
Fighting for freedom the truth and the word
Fighting the war for the end of the world

Ain't no use in preachers preaching
When they don't know what they're teaching
Weakest man be strong as Samson
When you're being held to ransom

bill

the blink of an eye / procol harum

this simple song and Gary Brooker's incredible but vulnerable voice captures the feeling of awe and disbelief i felt that morning perfectly
its on the "wells on fire" album

the blink of an eye

It was all over in the blink of an eye
Thousands of people walking by
A big black bird swooped out of the sky
Nobody knew the reason why

It was all over in a few seconds flat
Blue skies turned grey at the drop of a hat
Pillars of dust blocked out the sun
All that the people could do was run

We thought we were living on easy street
But they pulled the rug from under our feet

It was all over in an avalanche of pain
And now the world can never be the same
The dreams of so many have gone up in smoke
The ones who are left don’t know how to cope

We thought we were living on easy street
But they pulled the rug from under our feet
They pulled the rug from under our feet

bill Pellegrini

Faithful

A time to remember all those who have gone before us, I would recommend you include Rock Of Ages

David

Ubi Caritas Et Amor -Maurice Durafle

Ubi Caritas et Amor Deus Ibi Est int he setting by Mauriece Durafle is a very moving piece . The lyrics translate as Where charity and love are, God is there. This seems to me such an affirmation of what the divine is in our lives in complete and total opposition to the definition of God that the terrorists acted on in destroying the lives of 3000 people and causing enormous loss and pain. On the evening after September 11th our Church community, St. Boniface -the Brooklyn Oratory, located in downtown Brooklyn, had a service of memorial, support and solidarity. The choir sang 'Ubi Caritas et Amor" and it moved me (and many others) both as consolation but importantly as to have courage to be witnesses to the truth of God's love and to oppose hate, evil destruction and revenge. All through the weeks to come when debris from the WTC fell in our Church courtyard, in our windows and yards in Brooklyn, and the sorrow and anger we experienced from personal losses , Ubi Caritas with Maurice Durafle's music, was present in my heart.

Michele Cahill

In My Life

This Beatles :In My Life" is perfect for me after 10 years from that 911. Everybody experienced 911 in different way and place. 911 changed my life and mind. And I am accepting this event more quietly and calmly, just like this music.

Junko

Yo Yo Ma, Milonga del Angel

The poignancy and depth of Piazzolla's music is captured so beautifully in Ma's album, and this heartbreakingly beautiful rendition of his "Milonga del Angel" is very powerful to me

Maggie

Arvo Part, Agnus Dei

I am moved by all of Part's ecclesiastical music, the Berlin Mass and the Agnus Dei. I find them moving and inspiring, and the prayer of the Agnus Dei, a simple plea for for peace, is stirring.

Maggie

Brahms - German Requiem

I remember the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Mazur performing the Requiem on a televised special, weeks after the 9/11 attack; as a gift to the city and the world. For me this was the most memorable artist response of any that I remember from that time period. The German Requiem has a depth of healing that I find unequaled.

Gerard Lambert

Enya - Only Time

I was in 8th grade in Germany when the towers were hit and several news stations used this song when they were showing the attacks in recaps. In my mind, this song will always be intrinsically linked to the 9-11 tragedy.

Sophia

Last movement of Mahler's 2nd Symphony...Faure Requiem

This music is plaintive yet hopeful - and gorgeous.

Andrew

Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb

It sums up the hopelessness of our situation, the existential angst of our time. We exist with(in) our iPhones, iPads, Blackberries and other PDAs. We exist to consume and to have stuff. And for our economy to grow we must all buy more stuff... Yes, we're all "Comfortably Numb"

Carlos Rey

The World is Upside Down by Katherine Bescherer

This is a song I wrote following 9/11. It was and still is an impossibly difficult time... and as a songwriter it presented me with the challenge of both wanting to write a song to express the inexpressible, and not knowing quite how to put it into words. But, I was finally able to do so.
Year after year I have sung this song and it has always spoken so strongly to me and to my audiences. You can find it on my website: www.cloudscanbreak.com

Katherine Bescherer

Mozart's Requiem

There simply is something so majestically solemn about this requiem, and yet by its end (with or without the Exultante)one has arrived at resigned acceptance. The "Amen" tract, so poignant, leads this listener to ponder the deepest thoughts ...

Laurie Levoy

"Living Voices" This is a new album being released at the beginning of September featuring a commission from the BBC to mark the 10th Anniversary of 9/11 (track: "Living Voices").

I had the honor of participating in this album, and it contains music by BBC producer and composer James Whitbourn. The music is stunning and has a simple yet powerful emotional effect.

Jonathan Palmer Lakeland

from Mozart's Coronation Mass (K 317) the Kyrie and the Agnus Dei, particularly the Dona nobis pacem; also, the laudate Dominum from the Vesperae Solennes K 339.

Certainly we needed then, and still need, mercy and peace and truth. The music is beautiful and joyous--not a requiem-- but it helps us remember, in the face of past, present and future sadness, that there is always beauty and joy.

E-M Goodman