Raise Your Voices

For the friends who have longed for sacred music we can use in our meetings that unites us and provides a worship
experience more active than just to sit and listen to someone else perform, here is a collection of precious pearls set to music
that are easy enough for everyone to raise their voices in song together! Here are settings of some of the most beloved and
well-known prayers and passages from the Bahá'í writings. They cover a range of themes from trust in God and detachment
from the world to respect and love for our parents and the oneness of mankind. With the melodies in octaves with their
range limited to what most people should have no trouble singing in community, Ron Lyles and I invite
you to sing along with us. The collection starts with familiar prayers: Make Thy Beauty to Be My Food, a prayer for
firmness in the Covenant in a musical style that evokes the mysteries of God's plan, and Refresh and Gladden My
Spirit. While choosing songs for this collection, we realized that the setting of Is There Any Remover of Difficulties
save God? had to be on this album even though it's already on our other CD, Singing His Praise on Holy Days, so we
included it here as a bonus. We chose the ever-popular Unity Prayer to round out these opening prayers. Settings of
familiar passages follow: The All-Knowing Physician (“hath His finger on the pulse of mankind”), The Essence of
Faith (“is fewness of words…”), Make Haste to Love, and The Tabernacle of Unity (in an upbeat bossa nova style
for contrast). Transitioning back to more prayers is a song dedicated to our Mothers, and We Remember Fathers as
well. There's also a new version of God is Sufficient Unto Me (with verses repeated nine times). The Prayer for
America is set in a stirring, traditionally American style, and the prayer For The Departed is designed to help us
meditate on the soul's journey after death and pray for the happiness of those who have passed on. Finally, we have a newly
composed version of Blessed is the Spot with a flowing melody that's easy to sing and a fitting theme to conclude this
collection of songs.

There are two matching songbooks to facilitate group singing, one complete with the words, melody lines, guitar chords, and
piano scores, and one with just the melody line and guitar chords. There is also a separate CD available with the
instrumental backtracks only.

These songs may, of course, be used at devotionals, Feasts, Holy Days, and any time Bahá'ís and their friends get together.
May they bring peace, joy, harmony, and upliftment in every community where they are sung.

Wendy Scott, 2010