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closeThursday, Sep. 10, 2009
9-11 victims to be remembered in song
By CHRIS SHULL
Special to dfw.com
Fort Worth-area musical groups will perform today in remembrance of 9-11 victims. The concert, September Song, at Texas Christian University’s Ed Landreth Auditorium, will feature vocal and instrumental performances and conclude with the world premiere of a choral piece written for the occasion.
Fort Worth’s first responders — police and fire units, emergency medical personnel, marshals and others — will be honored.
The free concert, organized by Fort Worth Sister Cities International in conjunction with the International September Concert program, is one of many to be held today to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks. It is at 7 p.m.
"How do we respond to such a catastrophic and evil event?" asked Patricia Wooley, one of the event’s organizers. "Music can be the healing power that brings people together."
Free September Concerts were first held nationwide on the one-year anniversary of 9-11, in 2002. Fort Worth Sister Cities presented its first last year, one of 222 programs that organizers said were held worldwide.
The new choral piece, Cantus Septembri, will be presented by combined choirs from TCU and Texas Wesleyan University. Ronald Shirey will conduct.
The 20-minute work was written in 2008 by Samuel Douglas, a professor of composition at the University of South Carolina. Its words are from an original poem by Wooley.
"I enjoyed working with Pat’s poem; it inspired the music," Douglas said. "To quote another old songwriter, Richard Rodgers, he said, 'When the words are right, the music writes itself.’ "
Fort Worth Sister Cities sponsors cultural, educational and business exchanges with seven international cities.
This year’s performance will also feature music inspired by those "sister cities": Bandung, Indonesia; Trier, Germany; Nagaoka, Japan; Mbabane, Swaziland; Budapest, Hungary; Reggio Emilia, Italy; and Toluca, Mexico.
Performers include children and church choirs, and pieces range from folk songs to classical duets.
"It’s addressing the whole issue of world peace and understanding, of trying to bring people together," Wooley said. "The healing power of music is what we’re reaching for."
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