Peace as Harmony

If you know music at all, you know the importance of harmony, that blending of various, sometimes wildly different, voices that creates a single sound of beauty. Harmony is literally when all the various sounds get along and go well together. It's an apt metaphor for peace between people, for good human relationships.

Chicagoan Willie Schwartz believes that people who play musical instruments in harmony with each other become citizens who live in peace with one another. So out of the wildly different musical traditions of the wildly different immigrant groups that call this great city home, he has formed an orchestra. The Polish accordion, the Mexican guitaron, the Chinese pipa, the Palestinian oud, the Celtic uillean pipes--these are a few of the instruments that Willie brings together and conducts in the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra.

The weekly newspaper, The Chicago Reader, caught up with Willie on July 16 as the orchestra was getting ready to play at the Pritzker Pavilion for the grand opening of the new Millennium Park downtown. The 54-year-old studied "enthomusicology" (a fancy title for what's labeled as World Music in the music store) in his youth. Even more than language, music goes to the soul of a group of people. "You can speak the language like the guy next store," Willie told reporter Peter Margasak. "But if you can sing just one song convincingly, with decent pronunciation and the right ornamentation, you are accepted literally and immediately as one of the tribe."

But harmony in music--as in life--is hard work. It requires a willingness to share your native customs as well as to adapt them so that they fit into the bigger picture. So in the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra, Mwata Bowden plays his jazz sax in such a way as to fit into an Eastern European Gypsy song, while Betty Xiang adds the sound of her two-stringed erhu to an Irish jig.

What's created as a result of all this hard work, though, is heavenly music. All that's left to do is dance!

Catholic Connections

"Since its founding, the United States has received immigrants from around the world who have found opportunity and safe haven in a new land. The labor, values, and beliefs of immigrants from throughout the world have transformed the United States from a loose group of colonies into one of the leading democracies in the world today. From its founding to the present, the United States remains a nation of immigrants grounded in the firm belief that newcomers offer new energy, hope, and cultural diversity.

"All persons have the right to find in their own countries the economic, political, and social opportunities to live in dignity and achieve a full life through the use of their God-given gifts. In this context, work that provides a just, living wage is a basic human need.

"The Church recognizes that all the goods of the earth belong to all people. When persons cannot find employment in their country of origin to support themselves and their families, they have a right to find work elsewhere in order to survive. Sovereign nations should provide ways to accommodate this right."

Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope. A Pastoral Letter Concerning Migration from the Catholic Bishops of Mexico and the United States, January 22, 2003.

Reflection Questions

In what other ways do you see people of different ethnicities and races in Chicago working together peacefully?

Join us in our Forum to discuss these questions!