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From: April
Email: ahayes@gol.com
Remote Name: 203.216.49.192
Date: 10-Aug-2002
Time: 08:22 PM
Hi all --
Just thought I'd put my two cents (or more;-) in...based on my own experience...not as a songwriter...but as a music teacher who was put in the position of requesting a change to a songwriter...
The international school where I teach has been using the song "Let There Be Peace On Earth" as its school song for many years. It was chosen by the founder of the school long before I was ever at the school. After having been there a few years I found out the school had not gotten official copyright/permission to use it/print it as it had been doing for a long time. In addition, there was a strong movement among some of the teachers and parents to use one of the more "updated" versions of it (a few of which already existed). However, when I contacted the daughter of the songwriters, it was discovered that at least some of the updated versions that were in print, did not actually have permission to be printed/performed that way -- and it was felt by the daughter (who'd had this discussion with her parents while they were still alive) that the depth of the original intent/meaning was lost in at least one of these versions. (If you know the song, the version that was not acceptable in the eyes of their daughter used "neighbours" as a substitute for "brothers"). She felt that this did not at all convey what her parents deeply felt when they wrote their lyrics.
Our school however, was proposing that "fam'ly all are we" might be used instead of "brothers all are we", which was more acceptable than neighbours to the daughter. I actually agreed with the daughter, in that I felt the 'old english' usage of "brother" was better in spite of today's focus on finding a way to be politically correct and/or non-sexist in our language usage. When I taught this song to the students before there was any change to the lyrics... or reviewed the meaning of the words with the kids who already knew it... we would always discuss what the word "brothers" meant. Which I think is more educationally valuable to them, ultimately.
In the end, however, it was decided that we would use a version that has been accepted by Jill & Sy Jackson's daughter AND the teachers/parents/administration at our school where we say "God our creator" (instead of God as our Father) and "fam'ly (syllabically it had to be sung as two syllable to be singable) instead of "brother".
Anyway, it was an interesting process to be a part of...and a great experience to have discussed this in such depth with someone close to the songwriters...
Well, time to step down...I guess that's what happens when I keep quiet for so long...
April
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