I am a Voice that Sings
From award-winning composer Michael Bussewitz-Quarm and acclaimed lyricist, Ronald W. Cadmus comes an uplifting message of hope and friendship through times of darkness. Multiple musical settings provide a quick learn for choirs of all levels while allowing your singers opportunities for solos. “Together, we will find something of grace and peace. I am a voice that sings! Together we will sing!”
Description
Composer and Lyricist
As part of the "I am a Voice that Sings" commissioning consortium, composer Michael Bussewitz-Quarm chats with lyricist Ron Cadmus about the lyrics and what it means to each of them.
Content Warning: In Part 1, an incident is shared involving the emotional response to the loss of life to the suicide of a stranger.
Part One: Composer and Lyricist
Part Two: Composer and Lyricist
Panel on Singing and Emotional Well-Being
As part of the "I am a Voice that Sings" commissioning consortium, Michael chats with Terri Muus, Hima Joshi, and Ron Cadmus about singing and how it effects emotional health.
Terri Muuss is a School Social Worker, actor, director, motivational speaker, author, certified self-defense instructor and certified Trauma Professional.
Hima Joshi has taught chemistry for over 20 years at the high-school and college levels. She is currently a professor at Grossmont College and owner of The Chemistry Orchard (an online chemistry education resource).
Ron Cadmus retired minister from the Reformed Church, actively involved in speaking engagements and lyric writing. His fifth book is about to be published, titled “Melodies of Christ”.
“Together, we will find something of grace and peace. I am a voice that sings! Together we will sing!”
— Ronald W. Cadmus
The Power of Song: Examples Mentioned in Michael and Ron’s Conversation
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Estonia, which had endured foreign occupation for centuries, joined its fellow Baltic Republics of Latvia and Lithuania in a nonviolent movement that enabled them to become independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Estonians began taking advantage of their unique and rich cultural tradition, particularly in choral music, to encourage a national reawakening. Estonians gathered in the thousands and eventually hundreds of thousands to celebrate their heritage in song, in what became known as “The Singing Revolution.” Raising the banned Estonian flag while gathering en masse and singing banned patriotic songs, the movement eventually gained the support of the republic’s ruling Communist Party in defying Moscow, faced down Soviet tanks, and successfully declared Estonian independence. By Stephen Zunes (April 2009)
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The Harlem Cultural Festival attracted everyone from Stevie Wonder and Nina Simone to Jesse Jackson and Marcus Garvey Jr., but quickly faded into obscurity. Fifty years later, a rediscovery is finally underway.
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Moving anthem with a text by Ronald W. Cadmus written as a tribute to the survivors and victims of the 2016 PULSE Nightclub massacre – winner of the Harrisburg Gay Men’s Choir 25th Anniversary composition competition.
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Lyricist Ron Cadmus (I am a Voice that Sings) writes,
Here is a letter shared by the Mahler Foundation that reflects the tension of his struggles with life the resolution from that struggle that always helped him to create. "All at once the sun shines upon me and gone is the ice that encased my heart." Scholars have said, that the threat of self-harm is his route to self-repair. He has discovered that the way to mend his life is by making art. Mahler says, "I can't help it. I just have to compose. Everything in and around me is in a state of becoming."
This letter is powerful. I hope the insight within this letter to his dear friend, helps each of us with our internal struggles. It is quite profound. Through yours, you have to compose. Through mine, I have to write words.