An Ode to the Possibility of Peace

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Program Notes

There was a short time in my life, when the achievement of peace seemed to be a tangible, real possibility. Naive and illusory as that feeling might have been, for a few moments, enough momentum towards peace had accumulated, and so very many people were actively in the streets expressing their desire for it, that we could almost taste a change coming about in the world.

I cannot bear the fact that those precious moments evaporated into nothing, and the world has kept on, as it always has, continually lapsing into paroxyms of violence. I truly believe that a large majority of people desire peace, but this desire is continually thwarted by a small but powerful minority for whom war is too exciting and profitable a prospect to forego.

Much credit should be given to John Lennon, who actively used his musical gifts to campaign for peace, and who, in his remarkable song, encouraged people to “imagine” a world entirely different from the violent one in which we all seem inevitably fated to live and die. In this spirit, An Ode to the Possibility of Peace was composed as a series of short meditations on the idea of peace, to create in the minds of its listeners images of a world without violence. Each movement, by its brief title, is intended to conjure up a series of thoughts and feelings connected to the conviction that peace is possible. If enough people feel it, believe it, desire it – it can happen.

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