Avelino was shaking. What was he, a homeless person from Dallas, doing on a stage in Carnegie Hall in front of hundreds of people? In fact, he was just one of 30 homeless people from The Dallas Street Choir on the Carnegie Hall stage about to give a concert. Launched in 2014 by Jonathan Palant in Dallas Texas to bring homeless and severely disadvantaged people together; giving them a community, uniting them through the joy that comes from singing together, and using their voices to give them a voice. Their tagline is Homeless … not voiceless.
While the makeup of the Dallas Street Choir varies, typically 70% of its members live in shelters and 25% on the street. Over the years, several thousand people have been members. As well as at Carnegie Hall, the choir has been featured on PBS and has given many concerts, including at the Washington National Cathedral and the George W Bush Presidential Library.
Music is a universal language and one of humankind’s greatest creations
Among the several hundred types of music, some of the more popular include jazz, classical, opera, folk, soul, hard metal, punk, country and western, hip hop, rap, blues, military, dance, spiritual and of course cultural — the bag pipes of Scotland, the tenor voices of Ireland, and the electrifying drums of Africa.
Music, partly because of the emotions it raises, is often used in therapy. We play music and sing songs. We listen, relax and are inspired by it. We use music as background and a mood setter when we paint, read or write. One person told me of an experience in which African drums were the background while he rode a stationary bike for a fundraiser. At first, the music was inspiring, but as the tempo increased so did the speed of his cycling. He was peddling so hard he had to stop and take breaks every few minutes or so, and by the end his heart was going so fast he thought he was going to have a heart attack.
Music and its lyrics often tell stories that reflect, mark, and even transform the times. Do any of these names and their music conjure up emotions or bring back memories?
Vera Lynn • Frank Sinatra • Elvis Presley • The Kingston Trio • The Beatles • Peter Paul and Mary • Queen • John Denver • Prince • David Bowie • Pete Seeger • Willie Nelson • Dolly Parton • Johnny Cash • Neil Young • Gordon Lightfoot • Joni Mitchell • The Tragically Hip • Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks • Bruce Springsteen • Sarah Brightman and Pavarotti • Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin • Bob Dylan.
The Rolling Stones have been around for over 50 years and are still going strong. Elton John recently gave his last performance. The so very danceable music of ABBA gave rise to the lively and fun Mama Mia movies and the song that said it all, Thank you for the Music. And Louis Armstrong’s singing and trumpet rendition of It’s a Wonderful World is a landmark ballad for our times.
The Sunday night that Ed Sullivan showcased Elvis Presley’s gyrations as he sang Heartbreak Hotel to millions of us watching goggle-eyed had the Western world mesmerized. Then when he followed with the shockingly long-haired Beatles singing "I Want to Hold Your hand" to their tens of thousands of screaming groupies, our music was changed forever. That left it to muddy Woodstock, which either reflected or set much of the tone for the late 60s and 70s.
In 1985, Live AID involved dozens of musicians and inspired same-day concerts in 150 countries to raise awareness of African poverty and money for famine in Ethiopia. About 1.9 billion people tuned in all around the world that day. And now, forty years later for the Taylor Swift 7-day appearance in Toronto in 2024, the 40,000 tickets for each performance are selling for up to $2500 each.
The operas, symphonies, concertos, waltzes, requiems, oratorios, and chamber music of the classical composers — Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahms, Greig, Mozart, Bach, Puccini, Verdi, Strauss, Chopin and Handel — have been speaking to our souls for hundreds of years, and their ability to inspire shows no signs of fading. In fact, the mood of a movie is often greatly driven by the musical score, regularly drawn on classical and timeless themes. John Williams, the king of movie musical scores, is in his 90s, and still composing and directing.
We’ve danced and sung the songs, but perhaps it has been the musicals of George and Ira Gershwin, Gilbert and Sullivan, Rogers and Hart, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Sondheim, Irving Berlin, and Cole Porter that have most powerfully transported us to magical worlds beyond our day-to-day. Military lovers and soldiers are inspired by and have marched to John Philip Sousa’s band music. And at the heart of all this western music of our times have been the rock singers and groups, among them Janis Joplin, The Eagles, Rush, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Bob Dylan, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature for the words he wrote and stories he told in his songs.
Each culture seems to have its own sounds, much of it for dancing. The music and dancing of the Scottish, Irish, and Russian people, lives and breathes the land of its origin. The Chinese opera, representing ancient rituals, is simply unique. It’s impossible to remain still while hearing the drumming and beat of the South American and Caribbean sambas and tangos, and the athletic African drum music — the heartbeat of its people — is electrifying. Ravi Shankar and the Sitar are synonymous with India and have influenced music all over the world. The world’s most populous country, India boasts more filmgoers than any other country, and its Bollywood film music has become the country’s favourite form of music.
Clearly, we humans are unable to exist without our music, whatever its form. Singing, alone or in a choir, dancing, marching, humming, or playing one of the hundreds of different musical instruments that in our inquiring genius we have created, we are driven to listen and respond to the heartbeat of life. From voices and drums, harmonicas and harps, pianos and sitars, trumpets and cymbals, the wind and the flowing waters, during the frantic crush of the day and in the quiet of our darkest dreams, we pray that the music will never stop, and that the joy and comfort it brings will continue.
Chris Snyder is the author of several books and several hundred articles on personal finance, Chris’ most recent book "Creating Opportunities-A Volunteer's Memoir" describes a lifetime of volunteer experiences, much of it as an active member of the Rotary Club of Toronto and on many not-for-profit boards. Chris is past chair of the Canadian Landmine Foundation, founding chair/current chair of HIP (Honouring Indigenous Peoples) and the Trudeau Centre of Peace, Conflict and Justice as well as past board member of CUSO and the Nature Conservancy of Canada. He organizes and runs hands-on school building trips to the developing world and is the recipient of many volunteer and community service awards, among them the Paul Harris Fellowship Award, the Queen's Gold and Diamond Jubilee Awards, the Rotary Service-Above-Self Award and the Governor General's Sovereign Award for Volunteering. His latest book, “Good News in A Crazy World,” will be published by Civil Sector Press in 2024.
