Dear Reader,
I’ve collected 48 historical songs and few more from Sunburst that were rather well recorded like “Must Go to Moscow.” Randy Remmell sent me some tracks from the New Hope Singers. We’ll put more of them on line in the future. The idea was to find original songs that were well recorded with high quality singing and performed at occasions where True Parents were in attendance—tour/speech events, Blessings, High Holy Days, etc.
Part of our HJ Foundation work in Korea has been our Holy Song contests. We’ve had five contests so far and have received hundreds of songs from all over the world. We’ve awarded 55 song as top entries and these songs are candidates for future Holy Song status.
Winning song-writers have been from Korea, Japan, Africa, Europe, Taiwan, Philippines, Russia, Moldova and the USA with small cash awards presented to assist their creative endeavors. We’ve created a Youtube channel where these songs (as well as 48 historical songs written by our members over the years—Dan Fefferman, Josh Cotter, Kevin Pickard, Joe Longo, Sandra Lowen, Miyuki Harley, Rick Joswick and yours truly) can be heard. Click to listen to these beautiful song.
God bless you.
David Eaton
Here are some quotes from True Parents regarding art and music:
[Cheon Syeong Geyong, Book 10, Chapter 3: /316-070, 2000.02.09]
People often think that politics moves the world, but that is not the case. It is culture and art that move the world. It is emotion, not reason, that strikes people in the innermost part of their hearts. When hearts change and are able to receive new things, ideologies and social regimes change as a result.” [True Mother’s Autobiography]
“The ultimate goal of artists, and those who work with the arts, is to reach the world of God’s heart. God, the Creator, wants to feel boundless joy through all the different things He personally created with His own hands, one by one, as works of art. God’s heart is such that He wants to give again after He has given. After doing things for others He wants to do more for them, and even after investing unconditionally He wants to forget what He has done. That heart is the basis of the world of true love. God’s ideal of creation for the created world arose from that heart. The starting point of art is the desire to represent that heart.
Accordingly, in the world of art there are no national boundaries. The purpose of art is not to serve as a tool of an ideology or an agenda. Its fundamental principles are harmony and unity. Divisiveness and conflict are fruits of fallen nature. Therefore, the world of art demonstrates universal characteristics in all directions, bringing the East to understand the West and the West to accept the East.
The Harmony of Extremes [God’s Warning to the World, Part II, Section 7]
In the vast ocean a tremendous variety of things happen when the warm and cold currents meet. When the five races gather together we are like five kinds of ocean current flowing into the same area, and extraordinary things can happen as a result. It is not my will or your will but some providential will that makes this so. There must be a universal power that pushes two extremes to unite for a greater purpose.
Exciting music is not made with just one or two tones, but with tones that range from high to low and with a variety of instruments. That blending of extremes makes exciting music. At the same time, one instrument alone cannot create excitement. In order to make the drums exciting the drummer has to combine many motions and gestures as well as rhythms. The violin combines different extremes, using thin strings to create very feminine, beautiful sounds. The beauty of the violin is that even though it has only a few strings, it is possible to produce extreme variation in sound.
The union of people from East and West can be compared to playing the violin: Westerners are like the low notes of a violin while Asians are like the high notes. Americans walk with a long, swinging stride, but the Japanese walk lightly, taking small steps. More excitement is created when the two extremes unite to make one harmonized picture. We do not use the word harmony to describe primarily the unity of similar things. The most moving, beautiful harmony is created when extremes come together. The value of harmony lies in this unity and diversity.
Rev. Sun Myung Moon on the Arts and Culture
“Art is like a flower for man’s mind. It blossoms and permeates its fragrances throughout our lives and our society. It connects all men together through their hearts.”
“Creativity is one of the greatest spiritual gifts. That is why art is so important.”
“Music, art and dance—these are expressions of the soul.”
“Many artist have great technique, however technique alone is not enough and should never be considered the subject. Once you have developed your technique you must infuse it with the proper spiritual and emotional impulses. This is what separates the exceptional artist from the merely good ones.”
“As artists you must work on your spiritual development as much as your technical development.”
“Music represents the way of life, the environment, it is history and tradition, combined and harmonized.”
“Religion and music exist side by side—hand in hand.”
“Art, inspired by religion, has played an important part of world history. Art and religion go hand in hand, side by side.”
“Rhythms, strong rhythm and weak rhythm, all these represent the spectrum of human life.”
“Classical music has the great ability to convey the expressions of the heart. Classical music should be your foundation. With that foundation you should take the Abel-type elements of other musical styles—jazz, folk, pop—and combine them into one style that transcends those individual styles. That’s New Age music.”
“We need a moral revolution in the arts to create a new future. There are three things that artists traditionally have had problems with; ego, sexual immorality and money. You must transcend these problems if you want to attain the highest spiritual inspiration and be an example to other artists.”
“Through the arts we communicate true love to the world.’
“In order to be a truly great artist you have to attain the position of a grandparent. Then you will have experienced all realms of familial love and you will be able to express the deepest realms of heart.”
In a speech to the Go World Brass Band in at Lancaster Gate in England in 1978 Father said:
I have a plan under way to witness through broadcasting. Nowadays, people do not want to go to church, they want to stay at home. But they still want to worship if they can. In the United States, I have already invested a million dollars in the Manhattan Center to make a good studio. We will show good musical performances together with a good sermon, for an hour or half an hour, and distribute tapes of this performance all over America and the English speaking world, both on television and radio.