At Morningsong yesterday, Pattie Bagley performed and once again sang "Amazing Grace." She also told us the story of how the hymn had come to be translated into Cherokee.
The Cherokee were, for the most part, Christians before the the shameful Removal of the tribe from their homelands to Oklahoma. On the Long Walk, also known as The Trail of Tears, many, many people died. There was no time for proper funerals -- just a quick burial and the singing of "Amazing Grace." In Cherokee. It was sung so many times that it came to be known as the unofficial anthem of that persecuted nation.
I've included a video I took -- but am not sure if it will play on Blogger. If not, I'll have a try at posting it directly to Facebook where I know many of you have a presence. The sound quality doesn't do justice to Pattie's lovely voice -- but at least I kept quiet when the audience was singing along. (I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, as they say.)
And I found a link HERE to a Youtube video of Pattie singing AG in an informal setting -- very brief but better sound quality than mine.
5 comments:
Very very moving in Chherokee!
What a lovely voice!
I did watch. It must have been a god moment for you.
Thank you so much for a most amazing start to my Thursday morning! Once I stopped tearing up, I realized that the heavy cloud cover will block my sunrise today, so listening to this lovely rendition is a powerful substitute for my daily appreciation of the morning's miracle. We have many such mornings up on the mountain, so I'm sure I'll be enjoying Patty's voice numerous times throughout the year.
Whatever one's faith, this song touches all hearts that are open to the concept of a loving G-d and the hope of a better world through our personal worship and manly (or womanly) efforts each and every day.
This simple hymn, sung so beautifully is very moving. Now it will always remind me of yet another time in our history when innocent people suffered so horribly because of the greed of others.
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