Newtown Psalm

When tragedy strikes a town, city, or country, we as humans sympathize for the pain that those who suffer feel and for the hardships that they endure.  When a tragedy involving the murder of 20 elementary school children, humanity is paralyzed by the killing of innocence and the ending of a life that has yet to begin.  Newtown Psalm captures the unsettled feeling that we the living feel when we think of those little lives that will never be lived.  None of the students that were murdered were older than seven.  

There are four text selections that each carries different emotions from peace to destruction and returning again to a settled peace.  December 14, 2012 is a day that will not be forgotten for the 20 lives of those young and the 6 teachers who were murdered.  There are moments in Newtown Psalm where the melodic and rhythmic dissonances portray the appalling day which in turn ultimately resolves with a text from Psalm 121:8 reassuring humanity of peace for mankind and hope for the future while never forgetting the beauty of these 26 lives that are at rest.   

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— john frederick HUDSON