One way to mark the anniversary of 9/11 is to listen to music composed as a tribute to the victims by Stephen Edwards. His “Suite for the Americas” was paired with his  “Ave Maria Mass”, which was commissioned by Ave Maria founder Tom Monaghan, on a CD a few years ago. A small number of copies is still available for purchase, though you can purchase the songs on iTunes, and you can listen to samples of all 21 songs at this link.

The Suite for the Americas is sweeping music worthy of America’s epic saga – it will spark your imagination and evoke the American spirit. Listening to the Ave Maria Mass will make you wonder why the songs are never performed at the Ave Maria Oratory – the Kyrie and Gloria are particularly moving. This review is from Amazon.com:

Steve Edwards has composed a moving tribute to the victims of 9/11 in his Ave Maria Mass. He has an excellent appreciation for this genre of music, creating a reverent transcendence. For those who enjoy fluid, coherent lines  of music, Mr. Edwards satisfies this longing. The Gloria moves well, the Sanctus and Benedictus are magnificent. The Agnus Dei hauntingly echoes the musical statement of the Kyrie. His Ave Maria is a wonderful work, that I found appealing. The Suite for the Americas is a set of short pieces for very enjoyable and often very inspirational listening. It begins with a musical flight into what seems an ethereal vista over one of America’s great wonders and plummets to what seems some profound journey. All of the music uses pleasing melodic structures with all dissonances resolved with a canvas of pleasant, beautiful, or magnificent phrasing that I appreciated greatly. It almost seems Steve takes you on a musical afternoon on his Tall Ships, and then steams you down the Grand Mississippi, with music that seems to let you see the danger of the shoals but the magnificence of the moving waters. In the mind’s eye, Steve helps one see the Flag waving in the breeze, the redwoods reaching to the skies. The Eternal Flame is haunting and the Elegy to our Fallen Heroes is the tribute is is meant to be, touching on their greatness and their loss.

This is a list of the tracks:

  1. Kyrie

  2. Gloria

  3. Sanctus

  4. Benedictus

  5. Agnus Dei

  6. Ave Maria

  7. Gratias Deo

  8. The Eagle Soars

  9. I Will Fear No Evil

  10. Tall Ships

  11. The Grand Mississippi

  12. Cowboy’s Jig

  13. Flag in the Breeze

  14. Central Park Waltz

  15. Mighty Redwoods

  16. Building a Nation

  17. Eternal Flame

  18. Niagra Falls

  19. Baseball Hero

  20. Elegy to our Fallen Heroes

  21. Patriotic Parade