Hymns To Hope

A psalm of David, an exaltation of Mary of Nazareth, a mystical poem of Rabiaa–l-Adawiyya, Martyr of the divine passion or a lyrical offering of worship by Tagor ..., these prayers of the Sons of Abraham have been chosen to be Hymns to Hope, an echo of the infinite Love of God and Mankind’s thirst to find his Creator and the meaning of his existence.

Whether a Jew, a christian or a muslim, whether religious, a believer or opposed to religion, Man, sooner or later will feel the need to throw himself into the arms of God, to trust him with the deepest secrets of his being.

These hymns find their inspiration in the musical themes of traditional song, Jewish, Christian and Muslim, as well as in the subtlest cadences of sacred classical music.

The instruments are active participants in these prayers, as much as when they accompany the song, as when they improvise, echoing the voice as it abandons itself humanly, spiritually and technically to the performance of a Magnificat (p1.1) or a Hymn to peace (p1.6).

The Nay creates just the right atmosphere for meditation and leaves the Piano to express all the fervour and talent for improvisation, to search for the most suitable tone and universal musical expression to cause the lyrical offerings of worship by Tagor to resonate in the most intimate recesses of the human heart (p1.3).

The Qan?n, the ?d, the Nay, the R?q or the Band?r, the life blood of oriental music, unite with the strings and Piano in accompanying the song, in unison, taking full advantage of all the riches of the decoration and subtlety of the untempered intervals.

Singers and instrumentalists of the “Peace Ensemble” (Ensemble de la Paix), all coming from different religions and cultures, sometimes diverge, sometimes unite to tirelessly repeat the prayer of a suffering man, another who waits or quite simply feels a need for Peace.

With these hymns, we wanted to see the frontiers between men and religions break down and give place to real religion which binds together, respects and loves.

May we, through the grace of everything that is Good and Sacred, cause human being to meet with human being to discover in that meeting the image of the Divine and so bring peace?

Sister Marie Keyrouz