English novelist and philosopher Aldous Huxley once said, “After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” Sacred music is humanity’s ultimate effort to express what we cannot ever fully comprehend – beauty, wonder, happiness, peace.
The music Peter DuBois presents each week is listened to, sung, played, and loved on every continent, in almost every country on earth. It is an art that is marked by both great traditions and great changes. From Temple Psalmody to Gregorian chant, to Reformation and Revolution, to the 21st Century Church, sacred music has told the story of faith and spirituality through the centuries.
Many people tell us that listening With Heart and Voice on their local public radio station is how they prepare for worship, or how they begin their week. Others seek out the program online if their station does not carry it. Thousands of Facebook friendsand Twitter followers inquire about particular anthems and hymns every week. Hundreds of choirs sing music that they have first discovered on With Heart and Voice.
Last fall we began a new tradition of creating programs based on listener favorites. Using broadcast, the internet and social media, we invited audiences across the country to submit requests. Hundreds of suggestions have come to us from Georgia to Hawai’i, from Chicago to Houston. The requested hymns and anthems span the centuries, continents and cultures, and represent a broad overview of sacred music.
On September 3, 2017 we’ll share these requests together on With Heart and Voice, and hear the music that was chosen by you – our faithful listeners. The music will include Herbert Howells' Like as the Hart, Alice Parker's arrangement of Be Thou My Vision, And I saw a new heaven by Edgar Bainton, and Will you come and follow me from the Iona Community. This shared experience of beauty, joy and serenity builds connections that make our world a better place to live.
