A Prayer of Beauty

A perusal of Kathryn Lee Bates poem, "America the Beautiful," reveals a prayer, a plea that God might guide America's fulfillment of the noble dream that inspired its origin to make America as beautiful in brotherhood as it is in nature. Her prayer inspired this brass quintet setting of Samuel A. Ward's melody. Accordingly the music is set as a prayer to lament the ugliness around us, to confess losing our vision, and to cry out for fulfillment of Bates' dream that our "alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears." The music is full of pain that reflects our hurting peoples. There are moments of shock at how much has been lost so quickly. And there are moments of sweetness and light in hope that God may indeed mend our every flaw. Robert Myers - S.D.G.