A Musical Dispatch From The Inauguration
The San Francisco Boys and Girls Choruses rehearse for their inaugural celebration performance. The San Francisco Boys Chorus/Flickr hide caption
Amid the crowds, the cold and the excitement at Tuesday's historic inauguration, there was also music for celebration and reflection.
Heading To The Mall
Listen: The San Francisco Boys And The San Francisco Girls Chorus Perform At The Inauguration"
Getting onto the Mall was a challenge. We tried the "crossover" at 7th street. We walked to 12th street, another entry point, according to the map. An even bigger crowd was there, pressing in from three directions; a man climbed a street sign to see what was happening and raise some Obama chants from the crowd. We gave up on 12th Street and looped up and around the White House, over to 19th street, walking with a widening river of our fellow citizens, anxious that we wouldn't make it. And then — a miracle — children's voices. An ethereal choir of children singing "America the Beautiful." We walked past the last buildings and the National Mall opened up before us: the Washington Monument, an icy pond with ducks. A pastoral scene punctuated by the red hats of the San Francisco Boys and Girls Choruses on every JumboTron.
Aretha At The Capitol
Listen: Aretha Franklin Sings "My Country 'Tis Of Thee"
Everyone had cheered at the sight of Michelle Obama in her sparkly golden dress. "Goodbye to J. Crew," my friend said with a laugh. Everyone had roared at the sight of Barack Obama on the JumboTron, as he made his way onto the steps and to his seat. Now it was Aretha Franklin's turn to inspire the crowd. She did it with her hat, and with her rendition of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" as only the Queen of Soul could deliver it. I only wish she'd gotten all of us, the million-plus crowd, to sing it with her. That would have been a true moment of unity.
A Simple Quartet
Listen: Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Gabriela Montero And Anthony McGill Play "Simple Gifts"
Before Barack Obama stepped up to take his oath above the crowd of chilled but cheerful well-wishers stretching all the way back to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, there was another moment for music. Simple music, played by four musicians representing the diversity and accomplishment of American culture: an Israeli-American, another born of Chinese parents, an African-American raised on the south side of Chicago and a recent transplant from Venezuela. These representatives of Obama's vision of a culture blind to color and creed joined together for an arrangement of one of America's most abiding tunes: the Shaker melody "Simple Gifts." The lyric, written in 1848 by an Elder in the Shaker Community in Alfred, Maine, begins: " 'Tis a gift to be simple / 'Tis a gift to be free."
Yo-Yo Ma's cello, Itzhak Perlman's violin, Anthony McGill's clarinet and Gabriela Montero's piano each held the melody and then layered it, twisting and curling out over the suddenly calming crowd. A man behind us remarked that a flock of birds seemed to be soaring along with the music. For a moment, everyone looked up.