Remembering 9:02 AM on this morning of April 19, I invite you to hear A Light Unto the Darkness, by composer David Gillingham. The piece is powerful, but so is how it came about, a story that is not told often enough. I arranged for the following to be sent to Presbyterian churches in Indian Nations eight years ago, and haven't shared it elsewhere since. It talks about the Mt. Pleasant (Michigan) High School Band, who came to Oklahoma City to perform A Light Unto the Darkness at First Presbyterian Church on April 19, 1998.

Why would a high school band from Michigan travel to Oklahoma City to perform at a Presbyterian church? Many high school bands take annual trips, usually to places like Disney World or football bowl games. However, the Mt. Pleasant band, under the direction of Mr. Roger Sampson, was extremely touched by the tragedy in Oklahoma City three years ago today, and the band wanted to participate in the healing of our community as much as possible. Instead of making a trip to an amusement park, they have come to our city to play on the anniversary of the bombing.

And not just any music, either. The band raised money and commissioned a new work for wind symphony by Dr. David Gillingham, a noted composer of works for symphonic winds. A Light Unto the Darkness, the band’s commissioned work, received its world premiere Thursday night in concert at the University of Oklahoma. It is both intense and deeply moving, evoking emotions one would not expect from a high school band or a symphonic piece. The following description is from the World Premiere program notes:

The work is in three main sections, each alluding to a different idea, setting or emotion associated with the disaster. The first section deals with the everyday routine of Oklahoma City, which is completely unsuspecting of the terrible fate knocking at the door. That fate interrupts the music several times during this section. The cosmopolitan nature of Oklahoma City is suggested through the music with references to the hustle and bustle of traffic, country & western music, jazz and the mechanistic drone of oil wells in the surrounding countryside. The ensuing section depicts the disaster itself with explosive articulations in e percussion, sinister motives, driving rhythms and unyielding dissonances. The final section begins with a lament by the English horn and a mournful call by the flugelhorn. This final theme is significant in at it is the key to understanding the work. We must all seek to be a light unto the darkness…to find good amidst the evil. The light is within the final melody of this work and seeks to call our attention the 168 special, individual, and beautiful souls who are now at peace. They are our lights unto the darkness.

[…] The central Michigan community around Mt. Pleasant has been incredibly supportive of this mission. The Saginaw and Chippewa tribes donated $15,000 to help the students make this trip, which has included performances at OU and in Edmond, as well as this afternoon’s central concert. In a day when many high school bands can sell candy door-to-door for months to grudgingly raise money for a weekend near a roller-coaster, these fine young musicians have traveled by bus to Oklahoma to share a symphonic work—one they commissioned—that has unusual power for both memory and healing. In fact, the Mt. Pleasant community has been so supportive of the cause that the band has been able to donate $1,000 to the Murrah Building Memorial fund.

Those kids not only spent their "band trip" on coming to Oklahoma just to be near the bombing site (a year before the memorial opened), they raised money to create this amazing musical work that seems to embody the words engraved upon the Gates of Time:

We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived, and those changed forever.

May all who leave here know the impact of violence.

May this Memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.

The work lasts seven minutes and forty-five seconds. Listen to it today, and remember.