Anthem for the World
Musician, positive thinker and world citizen Mathew Levine has just released a new album, A House Divided. It includes a song he’s calling an Anthem for the World.
In his own words,
I have just released an album of 11 songs called A House Divided. The title track of the same name you might think of as a proposal for the world’s first international anthem. If nations can have anthems, why can’t we grass roots world citizens?
The song starts:
Around the world as we assemble in every mosque and church and temple…
I think he’s dead on with this reference to religion. So many people are experiencing a confused preoccupation with religion these days. Even pop-superstar Shakira started off the album she released last year with a ramble about devotion to God and the role of “religion” in war and politics. And I’m not talking about the religion that people can disagree about. I’m thinking of Religion, described by Baha’u'llah:
he fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men. Suffer it not to become a source of dissension and discord, of hate and enmity.
So how do you go about getting an international anthem adopted? Well, if you’re Matthew Levine, you start by distributing the sheet music as a pdf. Then you find a friend who can make you a really nice looking flash slide show to run while visitors to your website listen to the song.
I listened to it. I enjoyed the slide show. I liked the song. The album includes some older songs of his that I’ve heard before, The Hunter, for example. I don’t know if this is a new recording of that song, but I have a sense from other information on the web about this album that Matthew Levine has a new producer, which makes me think this is an all new recording and that even if there are old songs, this should be the best recording of them.
You can listen to samples of all the tracks at his CD Baby listing for A House Divided.