Music can touch our soul

This evening my wife suggested that we go to the All District Band concert.  We had been a few times in the past when our kids had played in it.  This year we knew some of the kids playing in it and we decided we wanted to show them our support.

I was pleased to find that Dr. Quincy Hilliard was the conductor of the Symphonic Band.  He had conducted one of our children when they played in that top district band a few years ago and I remembered him because they played some of his compositions and one in particular had really touched me. 

Tonight he told about a song entitled The Day the Clowns Cried which he wrote after reading an article in USA Today several years ago.  The article mentioned a time during WWII when in a little town Ringling Brothers Circus had come.  It was 1944 in Hartford Connecticut and the people went to the circus to forget the war and be entertained.  The heat of the day was so much that they hosed down the huge tent to try and keep things cool inside.  However they used a flammable liquid to water down the tent and a couple of children playing with matches burned the whole thing down.  100+ people died, a third of which were children.  Click here to read an article about it. 

In the song he starts with the happy music as the circus began but then pandemonium breaks out with the fire and finally a sad dirge as the crying clown exits the tent with a child's body in his arms.  Twinkle Twinkle little star is woven through the piece to represent the children that were there.  This song really had some emotional power for me today and I thought you might enjoy listening to it as well.

Another song he composed and was played a few years ago is The Unknown Soldier.  This one had me flying out of my seat as it finished in applause.  Throughout the song I was remembering my father who was a war veteran. 

Hope you enjoy them and get some of the feeling from these videos.