Pacem in Terris
SSAATTBB a Capella
Program Note
On the morning of September 11th, 2001I was visiting my family in Seattle when I got the most disturbing call I’ve ever got: Turn on the TV, they said. The moment I turned on the TV I saw the second plane chasing into the WTC in New York, an image that will last in my mind forever.
As I moved to NYC a few years later, I wanted to do a tribute to the City of New York and those who lost their lives during the attack. New York is the most multicultural city in the world. In homage to that I decided to set a simple text: “Peace on Earth” into multiple languages: Latin, Spanish, English, French, Italian, and German.
Musically, the work is focused on chord progressions that change every time I switch between the languages. The text should be a reminder in every language that peace is one of the most important things we should treasure as a society.
- Juan Guerra González