Phil Ochs--"When I'm Gone"
The quite gentle song to me means more or less exactly when Ochs intended--that it is up to the living to correct wrongs. It's a sad song but also a hopeful one.
EMH
Fragile by Sting
I heard this song during the period and listened to it constantly over the months following 9/11. It is now permanently linked in my mind to 9/11 and reminds me how fragile we humans are.
Ellie Park
Freude schoener Goetterfunken, Beethoven
This music was played at our wedding 39 years ago at the UN church, and it celebrates the brotherhood of mankind, peace, and Joy.
Kate M. Glynn
I'm Just Waiting On A Friend by the Rolling Stones
I volunteer at Camp Better Days (www.campbetterdays.com) 911 survivors and this is a favorite song of some of the kids. It typifies the reliance of our camp friends to cope with the death of a loved one. it's filmed in NYC and has a special meaning; please play it for them.
Bill
J. S. Bach, the "Dona Nobis Pacem" from the B Minor Mass
The profundity and overwhelming scope of this movement speak for themselves, an extraordinary unfolding of the spirit of its words, "Give us Peace". I could conceive of no more appropriate timeless marker of this marker of the passing of time since the 9/11 tragedy.
I'd especially love to hear the awesome old Karl Richter Archiv Produktion recording if you have it.
Laurie Spiegel
Lamentations for a City by Lisa Bielawa
It expresses the loss and longing for the city that was and will never be again after 9/11, much as the Lamentations of Jeremiah express the loss of the city of Jerusalem's temple.
eileen green
Rock Me on the Water - Jackson Browne
The lyrics tell an apocalyptic tale of unheeded warnings, anomie, and confusion. At the song's mention of "the towers are turning," I remember reading a September 11 description of "the towers turning to dust."
But the lyrics also speak of people helping, if they can, and remembrance. As water symbolizes rebirth, I also believe that ultimately, this is a song of hope.
Karie
Lee Greenwood "God Bless the U.S.A."
I was the Podiatry Volunteer and Coordinator at St. Paul's Chapel for the entire eight months post 9-11-01, caring for the foot and ankle injuries and conditions of the Firefighters, Police Officers and other First Responders. The podiatrists I recruited from all over the country covered our "volunteer medical office" in George Washington's Pew at the Chapel essentially 24/7.The attitudes and emotions of the responders and volunteers ignited a sense of patriotism in me that I hadn't even been aware of in myself. We all worked together and cried together, and to this day, hearing that song still brings up those emotions and feelings of comeraderie and love of country. (Incidentally,I'm now under regular care at the Mt. Sinai WTC Medical Effects Program for all the pulmonary and related conditions resulting from the time spent at Ground Zero).
Dr. Arthur Gudeon
Somewhere in Time--by John Barry
The title,"Somewhere in Time," alone, tells/explains the feeling of time as it was, and how it could of been.
Ali Abdul Perez
You lift me up - Josh Groban
I remember this song being played during one of the first 9/11 anniversary ceremonies. Salvation Army Ground Zero Volunteer
Renee Allegrini
in the arms of an angel -Sarah Mclaughlin
I remember hearing this song on tv when they would show the firefighters coming off the pile. I was a Salvation Army Ground Zero Volunteer.
Renee Allegrini
'Brokeback Mountain 1', Gustavo Santaolalla; Brokeback Mountain (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
There is a melancholia to the piece that for me invokes utter sadness and at the same time suggests an underpinning of hope to even the most haunting experiences.
Larry Martin
ave maria schubert
I want play this music on my funeral.
sherley
I Will Remember You by Sara MacLachlan
This song was song in June, 2002, at the closing of St. Paul's Chapel's World Trade Center Relief Ministry -which ran 24/7 during the rescue and recovery effort. The Chapel graveyard looks out over the WTC site...
It was dedicated then, as I would like it to be now, to all the responders and recovery workers who gave so much to find survivors and to recover the remains of those lost for their families.
This song had just a few words changed to make it completely applicable to all who came to help. Thanks to them for bringing us out of the darkness and into the light.
Volunteer Barbara
Barbara Horn
Prayer Flags by Marc Farre
After 9/11 I walked into Bellevue Hospital every day, passing the flyers and posters put up for missing people. Marc's beautiful song Prayer Flags remindsme of those haunting images...
Donna Baier Stein
On the Transmigration of Souls
The piece was commissioned by the NY Philharmonic to commemorate 9/11. Composed by John Adams, one of our greatest living American composers, it recreates the both the events and the horror of that day. I find listening to it to be deeply cathartic, and treasure it as part of our historic and cultural heritage. It's also an amazing accomplishment musically.
Richard French
Phillip Glass: Heros
He is the ultimate New York Composer and was in town when the horror happened. He gets it, which is evident in this amazing symphony...you should play the entire symphony all day.
mare Earley
Copeland's "Quiet City"
This piece of music is quite meaningful to me. After the Brooklyn Bridge was reopened, I went into Brooklyn to visit my daughter. I returned home at night traveling over the bridge. In the extensive area where the sparkling lights of the Twin Towers and the other lower Manhattan buildings used to be, there was nothing but black. Black, black and more black. My city was no longer sparkling. Quiet City gives the empty feeling I had at that time and place, while some notes of hopefulness can be heard towards the end of the piece.
Barbara
The Tailor by Jack Hardy
As Jack Hardy said of himself, "I'm probably the least known person with a 2 album retrospective." Jack, a fixture of the Greenwich Village folk revival from the 70's until last year, died a few months ago of lung cancer. His brother Jeff who played bass and sang back up vocals with him finally gave up the music business and became a corporate chef and worked at the World Trade Center where he died on 9/11. He can be heard playing bass and singing on two of Jacks best known songs, 'The Tailor' and 'May Day'
William Sarokin
The Byrds, from FIFTH DIMENSION, "5D"
Blown to dust in an instant, & freed from the rushing powder blast, & horrors of this world, this "transmigration of souls"
open in peace to the universe.
Vic
