“Earth Song” (Frank Ticheli) so personal to the composer, that it would be an injustice to introduce it using anything but his own words: 

“Earth Song is one of only a few works that I have composed without a commission.” … “I felt a strong impulse to create something that would express my own personal longing for peace. It was this longing which engendered the poem’s creation.” 

… “I knew I had to write the poem myself, partly because it is not just a poem, but a prayer, a plea, a wish – a bid to find inner peace in a world that seems eternally bent on war and hatred. But also, the poem is a steadfast declaration of the power of music to heal. 

In the end, the speaker in the poem discovers that, through music, he is the embodiment of hope, peace, the song within the Song. Perhaps music has the power not only to nurture inner peace, but also to open hearts and ears in a world that desperately needs love and listening.”