When we sing “songs of the land,” we celebrate the great diversity and unique contributions of peoples from all corners of the world. Music of the common man is everyone’s music; it comes from the heart and inspires audiences both young and old. In traditional hymns and folk tunes we can hear the voices of everyday people—and maybe even find our own voice.
Over a century ago, the poet Walt Whitman praised the laboring people of the land using the metaphor of music. He wrote of the sweeping strains and pulsating rhythms of a mighty nation at work and at play. “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,” Whitman proclaimed. He acknowledged mechanics, carpenters, masons, shoemakers, woodcutters, mothers, “each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, … singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.”1
We all sing unique songs. We each make contributions that only we can make. Listen to any one of millions of voices, and you will hear the “varied carols” that Walt Whitman heard. You will hear the glorious sound of personal achievement in harmony with the common good. You will hear sweet sounds of hope, of possibility, of longing for good things to come. And you will hear in those words and melodies deep feelings of the heart.
Our words may be accented with regional and ethnic flavor, and our opinions and beliefs may not always be the same, but as we sing the songs of the land—of the freedom, dignity, and opportunity we share—we sing with one voice and one heart.
1 “I Hear America Singing,” Leaves of Grass (1921), 9–10.
Program #4113