Creative Life

Here are three versions of that beloved hymn, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. It was originated in 1855 by as a poem that Joseph M. Scriven wrote home to his mother in Ireland to comfort her while he was in Canada. The tune was composed by Charles Crozat Converse in 1868.

Christmas is full of the celebratory sounds of music that echo the joyous fifty days of Christmastide. This music is particularly well suited to choirs and orchestral arrangements in western culture. Here is a small selection to draw you into the richness of the season.

Renowned writer Louise Bernice Halfe, also known by the Cree name Sky Dancer, has been named Canada's new parliamentary poet laureate. Halfe, who was raised on Saddle Lake Reserve and attended Blue Quills Residential School in central Alberta, is the ninth poet to hold the position, and the first to hail from an Indigenous community.

Peace seems illusive. And yet, every Christmas season, we cling to the hope of it, search for the sight of it, hold it, if only momentarily, within our hearts, and pray for a world of it. Here is Maya Angelou’s poem for it accompanied by children’s imaginings of it from all over the world.

J.S. Bach is, almost unarguably, one of the three most important and famous Classical composers of all time. The German genius lived a quiet, unturbulent life during which he produced not only over 1,000 compositions, but also twenty children. The father of Baroque music, Bach wrote pieces of gorgeous symmetry, which were performed most often in church and royal court settings.

Sjaella is Scandinavian and originally means soul. The the Leipzig vocal sextet give their souls a voice: joint singing. Since 2005, when the ten to thirteen year old girls began performing, the ensemble has enthralled its listeners with crystal-clear acappella singing across all repertoires and genres.

Native American Poet Laureate, Joy Hardio, draws on First Nation storytelling and histories, as well as feminist and social justice poetic traditions, and frequently incorporates indigenous myths, symbols, and values into her writing. She is a writer of profound beauty, calling her readers to relocate themselves in the landscape, in their own personhood.

Poetry, Audre Lorde tells us, names “the nameless so it can be thought.” On Being features poets across our media and public life offerings because poetry, for all its craft, is more than a craft. It is a necessary art. Poetry speaks to the way we could be. Poetry doesn’t have a single purpose, but it might help us live with purpose.

In Rainer Maria Rilke’s seminal collection of poetry, The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, the great twentieth-century poet explores the nature of—and his relationship to—God through divinely “received” prayers.

Pádraig Ó Tuama is the delightful host the Poetry Unbound podcast. He asks people to stop for 12 minutes every day and simply be still and listen to a poem, and some thoughts about it. This is art and spirituality all in one. Stillness and creativity woven together.

Mother and God, to you we sing, wide is your womb, warm is your wing. In you we live, move and are fed, Sweet flowing milk, life giving bread. Mother and God to you we bring, All broken hearts, all broken wings

David Whyte is an Anglo-Irish poet who writes and teaches poetry, and its powerfully transformative nature. He has said that all of his poetry and philosophy are based on "the conversational nature of reality.” His beloved poem, Everything is Waiting for You, invite us into this conversation.

The black church is a musical bootcamp. Beyonce, Aretha Franklin, Anderson Paak all found their start singing in the church. Sound Field (PBS) travels to Chicago, the birthplace of gospel music, chatting with gospel artist, Donald Lawrence and then to Orlando to meet singer Tye Tribbett at his church.

Black Gospel Music has a long standing tradition in the Christian Church, with its powerful message and joyous sense of celebration. Contemporary artists of the 21st century offer that same emotionally rich experience with modern rhythm and blues arrangements. Such rich offerings.

The heart of the Christian faith is the hope of new possibilities ​in the midst of failure and despair. That is the Easter story - that something new and never imagined emerges from the dying out of something known. Enjoy the music of celebration.

The Crucifixion of Jesus has been a focus for painters throughout the ages. What is depicted reflects the time, place, economics and politics of the painters and the culture in which they reside. Most notably, European artists from the Renaissance on, have painted Jesus, his family and his disciples as Caucasian, when in fact, Jesus was in the middle east, and would have had an ethnicity that reflected his birth place.

The Angelus (French: L'Angélus) is an oil painting by French painter Jean-François Millet, completed between 1857 and 1859. The painting depicts two peasants bowing in a field over a basket of potatoes to say a prayer, the Angelus, that together with the ringing of the bell from the church on the horizon marks the end of a day's work.

Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. The fifth commandment, on face value, seems simple enough. But you will know that nothing, when it come to matters divine and matters human, is simple. Rich. Deep. Mysterious. Complicated. Yes.

Andrew Peterson is a musician, writer, and performer who has offered the world a wide range of music reflecting on the mysteries of the Christian faith. A devoted man, he seeks conversations with the divine through his music, offering up thought provoking lyrics that catch at the hearts.

The Shalva Band is comprised of 8 talented musicians with disabilities and performs to the highest musical standards by invitation at cultural venues and dignitary events throughout the year. Inspiring crowds with its musical repertoire and charm, the band is one of Shalva’s most celebrated inclusion programs. Shalva, is the Israel Association for Care and Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities

Eclipse 6 is a six person group from Utah who create all their music a cappella. No instruments are used but the human voice, which is quite remarkable. Here are three samples of their work, two traditional hymns and a modern country tune that should be one as well.

The Psalms Project is a band setting all 150 Psalms to music in their entirety, including the essential meaning of every verse, a marriage of King David’s vision with modern worship music. The Psalms Project is led by singer/songwriter/producer Shane Heilman, who has collaborated with over 70 musicians thus far.

The Kingdom Choir, a collective from London, England sings performs and records songs that inspire and unify people. In December 2020, The Kingdom Choir held a very special performance at The Treehouse Hotel, dedicated to all NHS staff who have worked above and beyond this year in caring for those suffering from COVID19.

Formed of individual singers and performers from in and around London, England, The Kingdom Choir is a group of like-minded artists dedicated to creating a sound that demonstrates the community they share. The Kingdom Choir has been performing up and down the country and all around the world for over 20 years. They are perhaps best known for performing at the British royal wedding, May, 2018, ‘Stand by Me.’

Yes, there were terrible things in the news this week and every week, but, Louis Armstrong, who knew some trouble in his time, offers us this ode to beauty and hopefulness that always seems to lighten the spirit. It is perhaps the musical version of ‘Rejoice in the day and be glad.’

The idea that songs can bring redemption has echoed down the centuries. The wretch that was saved in “Amazing Grace” was rescued from Hell by a song – “how sweet the sound.” The appalling crime he’d committed was the same crime that afflicted Bob Marley in his “Redemption Song”: the writer of “Amazing Grace” was a slaver; Bob Marley was a descendant of slaves.

The Stellenbosch University Choir is a choir affiliated with Stellenbosch University. Founded in 1936, it is the oldest choir in South Africa. The choir is viewed as a leading South African choral ensemble and has toured overseas extensively where it has won critical acclaim for its performances. Currently the US Choir is ranked number 1 on the Interkultur World Ranking List of the top 1000 international choirs.

“The river in my song is a metaphor for being born again." The song was inspired by the traditional American spiritual "Down To The River To Pray," which was famously covered by Alison Krauss for the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? Bridges heard the tune at one of his local open mics. "It just really amazed me," he told Spin. "And it helped me find God in my story."

Mary Oliver saw the fingerprint of the divine in every detail of nature, marrying her love for all things alive with her search to make sense of the world. Here she reads from her own poetry.

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