The Common Man Song Listing

For the heroes of 1956. Composed October 2010. Photograph by Mario De Biasi.

Composed August 27-28, 2011.

For Solidarity, for Lech Walesa, for Jerzy Popieluszko, for the courage of the workers at the Gdansk Shipyard. Composed February 9, 2010.

One night in May 1990, I stood in Wenceslas Square with 100,000 Czechs who were celebrating the first half-year since the Communist government had relinquished power. Václav Havel addressed the crowd from a balcony of the Civic Forum headquarters. How many of them had stood on that same ground in 1968, during the Prague Spring, hoping for the deliverance that would not come for another 21 years? This song is for those who endured the unbearable lightness of being. Composed February 5-6, 2010.

In honor of The Common Man who defied a column of tanks on June 5, 1989, during the Tiananmen Square uprising. Composed January 23-24, 2010.

Father Jerzy Popieluszko preached nonviolent resistance to the communist regime in Poland. He became the unofficial chaplain to the Solidarity movement. His sermons were broadcast over Radio Free Europe. During the period of martial law in Poland, he suffered arrest, intimidation, and a failed attempt on his life. Finally, on the night of October 19, 1984, his car was pulled over by three men from the Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa, the Polish secret police. He was abducted and beaten to death. Father Popieluszko said: "Do not struggle with violence. Violence is a sign of weakness. All those who cannot win through the heart try to conquer through violence. The most wonderful and durable struggles in history have been carried on by human thought. The most ignoble fights and the most ephemeral successes are those of violence. An idea which needs rifles to survive dies of its own accord. An idea which is imposed by violence collapses under it. An idea capable of life wins without effort and is then followed by millions of people." More than a quarter million Poles defied the government's ban on public assembly to attend Father Popieluszko's funeral. By decree of Pope Benedict XVI, Father Popieluszko was beatified in a ceremony attended by 150,000 people in Pilsudski Square in Warsaw on June 6, 2010. Composed in February 2010.

The Common Man is not a saint, yet he is capable of rising to heroic acts of saintly altruism. As Rick Blaine in Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart declares, "I stick my neck out for nobody"—and then repeatedly proceeds to do the opposite. In this piece, the first statement is the tough-guy expression of cynicism and self-interest of Bogart's mythical antihero in Casablanca. The second statement adds the solo over the same progression to reveal harmonic nuance, corresponding to Bogart's revelation of his antihero's fundamental valor and sense of justice. Composed September 13-14, 2008.

Reinhold Niebuhr wrote of the dilemma of Moral Man and Immoral Society. This protest song makes a related, but political rather than theological, statement about The Worthy Man and the Unworthy Sovereign. Composed January 8-10, 2010.

 "In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility." Henry V, Act III, scene 1. In this composition, the Common Man calls to account the condescension and culpability of those in positions of power whose actions and inactions caused the misery of the Panic of 2008. Musically, the Common Man speaks in the modest stillness and humility of the pentatonic scale. The organ unites in judgment the collected voices of every Common Man. The final three chords are respectfully quoted from Aaron Copland. Composed January 16-17, 2010. 

Inspired by the interpretation of William Wallace by Randall Wallace and Mel Gibson in the movie Braveheart. Respectfully dedicated to the memory of Captain Christopher J. Sullivan, U.S. Army, killed in action in Baghdad, January 18, 2005. Composed in the fall of 2006.

A new arrangement and mix done in April 2011.

The reference is to Sheffield, England. I composed the piano phrase in 1986 but did not compose the remainder of the piece until the spring of 2007. In the interim, I was moved by reading the following passage by Karol Wojtyla in Centesimus Annus, which contributes powerfully to understanding the essence of The Common Man: "Man fulfills himself by using his intelligence and freedom. In so doing he utilizes the things of this world as objects and instruments and makes them his own . . . . By means of his work man commits himself, not only for his own sake but also for others and with others." It follows, as The Fully Monty conveyed with humor and poignancy about the plight of unemployed steelworkers in Sheffield, that a man denied work is denied his full potential for dignity, community, and creativity.

Music of the scene around the Brandenburg Gate when the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989. Composed in September 2009 and March 2010.

For the freedom of Burma. Composed August 25-26, 2010.

Recorded August 30, 2010.

Recorded August 30, 2010.

Composed in March and October of 2010.

Composed January 8-9, 2011.