Quoting from a Russian Folk Tune, composer Dr. Z. Randall Stroope arranged a stunning choral and instrumental piece for the Nebraska Choral Arts Society and Children's Chorus called "Inscription of Hope." Based on fragments of Jewish text found on a cellar wall in Cologne, Germany during the Holocaust in World War II, it is believed to have been scrawled by a child hiding from the Nazis. The year was 1943.
The rendition you hear at this link is performed with treble voicing, strings and woodwinds. But Inscription of Hope is pure magic when sung by children. I have conducted this piece for children's choir and can testify to that. Melodically and harmonically simplistic, there is room for the innocence of the moment to speak.. Imagine the circumstances that led to such an epitaph. Here are the lyrics to Stroope's Inscription of Hope along with photographs from the United States Holocaust Museum and public domain during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in April/May 1943.
This child's poem is why, once again, we must look at the past.
Notice the girl in the checkered coat and hat.
What happened to her?
I believe in the suneven when it is not shiningAnd I believe in love
even when there's no one there
And I believe in God
even when He is silent
I believe through any trial
there is always a way.
But sometimes in this suffering
and hopeless despair
My heart cries for shelter
to know someone's there
But a voice rises within me saying
'hold on my child'
I'll give you hopeI'll give you strength
Just stay a little while
I believe in the sun
even when it is not shining
And I believe in love
even when there's no one there
And I believe in God
even when He is silent
I believe through any trial
There is always a way
May there someday be sunshineMay there someday be happiness
May there someday be love
May there someday be peace.
There is similar suffering all over the world today in varying forms of atrocity. Perhaps when we no longer need monies to buy bombs and fuel tanks we can feed all the hungry children. And no person will ever again have to scrawl out a message of hope on the dark walls of hell - but from a place of sunshine.
Don't be silent.
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November 5, 2009
Mimi Lenox
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