Prayer of the Children

Prayer of the Children

The "Prayer of the Children" is a song, the words and music written by Kurt Bestor; and it was arranged by Andrea S. Klouse for a four-part men's choir. In Bestor's original performance on his Innovators album, he sings all the harmonies simultaneously by passing his voice through the chords using a vocoder. To make the effect more surreal, the song is performed a capella.

History

Bestor served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Serbia during the 1970s. This song was written years later when the Yugoslav wars broke out in the early 1990s as a tribute to the country's children. "Meridian Magazine" described it this way:

Later when war broke out, and Yugoslavia splintered into warring factions with Serbs, Croatians and Bosnians hating and butchering each other, Kurt's heart was aching. What came to him--haunted him--were the faces of the children he had known.

"Those children didn't hate anybody," he said. "They didn't care about who owned the land, or who had the power or the money. These are adult neuroses. They just wanted to have a mom and dad and a place to play." [http://www.meridianmagazine.com/music/001221bestor.html]

Lyrics

"Can you hear the prayer of the children
"on bended knee, in the shadow of an unknown room?
"Empty eyes with no more tears to cry
"turning heavenward toward the light.
"Cryin' Jesus help me
"to see the mornin' light of one more day,
"but if I should die before I wake,
"I pray my soul to take.
"Can you feel the hearts of the children
"aching for home, for something of their very own.
"Reaching hands with nothing to hold onto
"but hope for a better day, a better day.
"Cryin' Jesus help me
"to feel the love again in my own land,
"but if unknown roads lead away from home,
"give me loving arms, 'way from harm.
"Can you hear the voice of the children
"softly pleading for silence in their shattered world?
"Angry guns preach a gospel full of hate,
"blood of the innocent on their hands.
"Cryin' Jesus help me
"to feel the sun again upon my face?
"For when darkness clears, I know you're near,
"bringing peace again.
:"Dali čǔje te sve dječje molitve?
"Can you hear the prayer of the children?

ee also

* Hide and Seek (Imogen Heap song) — A song performed in the same manner, a capella with a vocoder.


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