A Musical Tribute to Obama

You will be inspired and moved as you listen to this musical tribute to Barack Obama. Featuring the Canadian Tenors singing “Because We Believe,” this video was created by Bizzee24 and posted on YouTube and MasterClassLady.com. I love it for many great reasons — Obama, the Italian language, and the gorgeous voices. I’m including the lyrics so you can sing along. Oh, go ahead, I know you want to!

“Because We Believe” from Andrea Bocelli’s album Amore:

Guarda fuori e’gia’mattina
Questo e’un giorno che ricorderai
Alzati in fretta e vai
C’è chi crede in te
Non ti arrendere

Once in every life
There comes a time
We walk out all alone
And into the light
The moment won’t last but then,
We remember it again
When we close our eyes.

Like stars across the sky
E per a vincere
Tu dovrai vincere
We were born to shine
All of us here because we believe

Guarda avanti e non voltarti mai
Accarezza con i sogni tuoi
Le tue speranze e poi
Verso il giorno che verrà
C’è un traguardo là

Like stars across the sky
E per a vincere
Tu dovrai vincere
We were born to shine
All of us here because we believe

Non arrenderti
Qualcuno è con te

Like stars across the sky
We were born to shine
E per a vincere
Dovrai vincere
E allora vincerai

Thanks to MasterClass Lady for showcasing this video.

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Simple Gifts

Yesterday the inauguration of Barack Obama featured a composition arranged by John Williams, well-known for his movie soundtracks. “Air and Simple Gifts” may not have succeeded as a classical composition, but I liked how Williams incorporated the old Shaker tune “Simple Gifts” into his arrangement. I used to sing “Simple Gifts” all the time and I think it was appropriate to hear it at this historic event.

“Simple Gifts” by Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett in 1848

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,
‘Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain’d,
To bow and to bend we shan’t be asham’d,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.

“Simple Gifts” is actually a dance song, with step instructions, but has deeper meaning on a symbolic level.

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Inauguration 2009

Tomorrow Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.  This is a momentous event and over the next four years our new president will need strong support and earnest efforts from Americans in every niche of our great nation. There are areas for each and every one of us to work, ever how great or small, and together we can thread together fabrics of color to create a most spectacular American quilt. A thread is like a river that carves its way through solid granite over eons, widening into an immense canyon that glows brilliantly in the sun, reminding us of beauty born of effort.

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Dreams do come true

Tomorrow in Washington D.C. another dream will come true for this great nation. The promise of liberty and justice for all is being realized, perhaps too slowly for many, but still the march continues. When Barack Obama takes the oath of office, hope will bloom in our hearts. My hope is that each one of us will realize our own gift of freedom — and its responsibilities — and share it with every one we meet in life.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

“I have a dream”, Martin Luther King, August 28, 1963, Washington D.C.

Source of full text: MLK: I have a dream speech

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