Maybe because I was in a pizza place near North Station--not a good venue for hearing televised poetry anyway--maybe because I wanted a little "churchin' up", I listened to the Closing Benediction.
It began lovely and familiar...turned out The Reverend Lowry was speaking some of the lyrics of "Lift Every Voice and Sing". I hope I wasn't the only non-African-American person who recognized it. Amen, amen, and amen, indeed.
And, yeah, the dearth of real religious plurality in the Prez's speech caught my ear too. The best I came up with was something like "from the Amish to the Zoroastrians", though.
I didn't catch the title of the musical piece at first, but I could hear it was based on "Simple Gifts" before the main theme came in. Sorry to be a nuffer (I like the original hymn), but did you get the feeling Williams sort of phoned it in after listening to Aaron Copeland for the "enth" time?
Closing Benediction..."go in peace to love and serve [the world]"
It began lovely and familiar...turned out The Reverend Lowry was speaking some of the lyrics of "Lift Every Voice and Sing". I hope I wasn't the only non-African-American person who recognized it.
Amen, amen, and amen, indeed.
And, yeah, the dearth of real religious plurality in the Prez's speech caught my ear too. The best I came up with was something like "from the Amish to the Zoroastrians", though.
I didn't catch the title of the musical piece at first, but I could hear it was based on "Simple Gifts" before the main theme came in. Sorry to be a nuffer (I like the original hymn), but did you get the feeling Williams sort of phoned it in after listening to Aaron Copeland for the "enth" time?