A Breath of Song

Song: Turn, from The Book of Rounds Lyrics by: Julie Flanders Music by: Emil Adler   Notes: You can find different arrangements of this round, but here it is in its beautiful simplicity as a song you can carry on walks and in the middle of the night...learn it slowly with me, letting it sink in, and then let it sing inside you as it has for me over the past decade, connecting, settling, assuring me that I'm already home in some fundamental way. Then maybe go sing along with the Vancouver Youth Choir! Songs that help us navigate life, feel connected, remember into what can be beautiful with humans...   Songwriter Info: American Prize-winning Composer Emil Adler, Poet/Lyricist/Conceptor Julie Flanders and Vocalist/Producer Marina Belica of October Project offer a new repertoire of choral music with a message. Known to millions for the poetry and aural beauty of their recordings, The Book of Rounds: 21 Songs of Grace, conceived of and written by Flanders & Adler, has become a choral viral sensation. Written to promote feelings of well-being, each of the 21 songs of The Book of Rounds is a fugue of positive messages set into musical rounds that strengthen and expand those messages with each repetition. A post of the round “Turn”performed by the Vancouver Youth Choir, the largest youth choir in Canada, to the one million followers of Daily Choirs online, resulted in an outpouring of interest from choirs across the globe. It has since been sung by thousands of singers and achieved significant acclaim. The songs have moved beyond classrooms and concert halls to spiritual and healing communities including music therapy, hospice (The Threshold Choir), Alzheimer and dementia patients (Canada’s nationwide Voices in Motion organization) as well as in refugee camps around the world. Setting up a space of calm within the chaos, where children can have access to art, books and music, aid workers have shared The Book of Rounds at such refugee camps as Lesvos, Greece, the Sinjar district of Northern Iraq and at a camp for Ukrainian refugees in Moldova, where, in spite of the language differences, the beauty and comforting embrace of the rounds helps soothe displaced and traumatized children. Recipient of the 2020 ACDA Genesis Prize, with Venezuelan-born composer, Carlos Cordero, Flanders’ earlier choral work, Holding Our Breath, was debuted in 2021 by Conspirare (Craig Hella Johnson) and has since been performed worldwide, including at the Kennedy Center (Eugene Rogers & EXIGENCE) and Carnegie Hall, also winning awards for young choirs across the world. A #1 best-selling poet on Amazon, Flanders has authored four collections of poetry and originated the international October Project Annual Poetry Contest, now in its 9th year, attracting thousands of entries in conjunction with National “April is Poetry Month.” With messages of hope, comfort, belonging and healing that resonate today with more urgency than ever before, Julie Flanders, Emil Adler and Marina Belica of October Project are on a mission to bring harmony to these dissonant times. Says Ryan Heller, Conductor and Artistic Director of Chorus Austin, who premiered the work with close to 200 performers, “October Project has captured something that the world needs right now with The Book of Rounds. Each of the 21 rounds combines to form a composite whole that resonates with what it means to be human.”   Sharing Info: The song is free to share in oral tradition groups, but for recording and/or performing in a workshop, class, or performance, please visit https://www.octoberprojectmusic.com/the-book-of-rounds/sheet-music/the-book-of-rounds-sheet-music for permission and rates.   Song Learning Time Stamps: Start time of teaching: 00:03:26 Start time of reprise: 00:17:37   Links: Contact email: [email protected] Website for October Project: www.octoberprojectmusic.com Website for The Book of Rounds: https://www.octoberprojectmusic.com/the-book-of-rounds/the-book-of-rounds-summary Youtube: @OctoberProjectMusic Facebook: @October Project Instagram: @octoberproject Spotify: @October Project Vancouver Youth Choir version of Turn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMwc9wkgItk&t=3s   Nuts & Bolts: 2:4, major, round   Join this community of people who love to use song to help navigate life? Absolutely: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/335811/81227018071442567/share   Help us keep going: reviews, comments, encouragement, plus contributions... we float on your support. https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar.html

Song: I Will Face the Light/Dark Music by: Jeri Katherine Howell   Notes: I love this personal mantra of Jeri Katherine Howell's that can be harmony-rich or very simple, and helps me center back into my integrity when I'm trying to be present with opposites -- light and dark, for example. Or, as some of the different listeners who wrote to me with opposite things they're holding -- hope & fear, excitement & dread, bitter & sweet, lies & truth. This song holds it all with breath and presence and calm. We sing it different ways -- unaccompanied, then with some strings, then just a two-part vocal harmony -- maybe you add more harmonies, maybe you have more words? Make this song your own if it sings in you....   Songwriter Info: Jeri Katherine Howell — award-winning singer-songwriter, cultural organizer, songleader and educator — cultivates creative experiences that inspire us to live in complex and caring relationship with one another and the planet. Rooted in the oral traditions of folk, Bluegrass and Appalachian music, Jeri Katherine’s songwriting and songleading style is in relation with the land, in deep listening to the triumphs and struggles of everyday people, and embodies music as a communal act. As a facilitator, Jeri Katherine believes we’re all teachers and every moment is a practice ground for creating the world we want to exist. As a caretaker, Jeri Katherine centers equitable access to the arts and nature to support our individual and collective well-being and resilience. Jeri Katherine loves to collaborate with organizations, small businesses and artists to cultivate joy and healing and build community. Connect at jerikatherinehowell.com.   Sharing Info: Yes -- Please share this song in oral tradition groups, but please contact Jeri for recording and/or performing permission. If you plan to share this song as a songleader, particularly if you are a paid songleader, please consider making a donation. Thank you!   Song Learning Time Stamps: Start time of teaching: 00:03:20 Start time of reprise: 00:15:24   Links:  Become a member and get monthly song tutorials and more at https://ko-fi.com/jerikatherinehowell Donate on Venmo at https://venmo.com/code?user_id=2771302012157952132&created=1771099464 Join Jeri's email list and check out upcoming shows and workshops at https://jerikatherinehowell.com/ Buy original music downloads and merch at https://jerikatherinehowell.bandcamp.com/ Follow Jeri on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jerikatherinehowell Follow Jeri on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeri.katherine   Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, major, unison, optional harmonies   Join this community of people who love to use song to help navigate life? Absolutely: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/335811/81227018071442567/share   Help us keep going: reviews, comments, encouragement, plus contributions... we float on your support. https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar.html

Song: Cycle Breakers Music by: Ríomas (with some lyric support from Yesh Salz)   Notes: Ríomas gives us a conversation steeped in joy and acceptance of hard things -- in the middle of doing a hard thing, since we lost a recorded hour of our first conversation due to a tech glitch. We talk about what makes it possible to come back -- how to not get stuck -- and how that applies to breaking cycles, connecting with our ancestors of before and those to come after. I found myself inspired by their description of the culture of song circles as a way "to vision in and dream in what we’re actually trying to create that’s more beautiful and more free and more inclusive.” I was surprised and intrigued by their take on severance from rhythm and how regaining embodied, shared pulse is a resistance practice. Catch the whole interview to learn this song that Minnesota folk created a dance to, and hear how Ríomas found their new name and what it means!   Songwriter Info: Ríomas (RiYo or Río for short, they/them), previously known as Shireen Amini, is a queer, trans masculine, Puerto Rican-Iranian artist and immigrant settler based in Portland, Oregon creating at the intersection of music, healing, and cultural change. Drawing upon pop and folk soul textures, gratefully and respectfully from Black and Afro-Latin lineages, they craft artful, participatory songs that invite realness and transformative energy. Bridging contemporary music mediums with ceremonial ways and resistance efforts, Ríomas creates soulful and joyful community singing experiences that reconnect people to their power and place. In spring 2026, they released their first community song album, Gather Your Resilience: Medicine for Liberation.   Sharing Info: Yes -- The song is free to share in oral tradition contexts like song circles, but please contact me for permission and rates if interested in teaching this song as part of greater money-making ventures like multi-week choirs, workshops, classes, or performances or if interested in recording this song.   Song Learning Time Stamps: Start time of teaching: 00:03:40 Start time of reprise: 01:32:12   Links: Liz Digitale Anderson: https://singingforliberation.com/ C. Onyx Li: https://www.instagram.com/pointsoflight_mu/ adrienne maree brown: Pleasure Activism: https://adriennemareebrown.net/book/pleasure-activism/ CIIS San Francisco: https://www.ciis.edu/ Plena music of Puerto Rico : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plena Vernon Bush: https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/vernon-bush/ Bobby McFerrin’s Circle Singing: https://circlesongs.com/ Vision fast: https://schooloflostborders.org/programs/vision-fast/ Doesn’t Mean by Ríomas ABS Episode 249: https://www.abreathofsong.com/p/249-doesnt-mean Mountain Song, Te Martin: https://www.lamafoundation.org/mountain-song/ Tracy Robertson: https://www.instagram.com/tracyljrobertson/?hl=en Sarina Partridge, “I Am of This Earth”: https://sarinapartridge.bandcamp.com/track/of-this-earth Dark as Night by Nahko And Medicine For The People: https://www.nahko.com/music  Persian Aush soup – a Samin Nosrat recipe is behind a NYTimes paywall, so here’s another one!: https://www.101cookbooks.com/new-year-noodle-soup/ Los Pleneros de la Cresta: https://losplenerosdelacresta.com/   Riomas’s recent album, “Gather Your Resilience,” on Bandcamp: https://riomas.bandcamp.com/album/gather-your-resilience-medicine-for-liberation Patreon: https://patreon.com/riomas Instagram: @riomasmusic Linktree: https://linktr.ee/riomas Artist Website: https://shireenamini.com/ Music as Medicine: https://shireenaminimusicmedicine.com/   Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, minor, harmonizable song form   Join this community of people who love to use song to help navigate life? Absolutely: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/335811/81227018071442567/share   Help us keep going: reviews, comments, encouragement, plus contributions... we float on your support. https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar.html

Song: Doesn't Mean Music by: Ríomas   Notes: What if there are other stories we can tell ourselves, other ways to protect ourselves? What if it doesn't mean what we think it means? The kind of flexibility that asks of us -- the openness to consider that the solution our mind is so neatly presenting might actually not be the most accurate or the most helpful? Wow. It's a game changer when we don't have to hold our stories or our past techniques so tightly -- and Ríomas has given us a song to ask these questions, to remind us that old ways of coping aren't always working so well in the here and now. Next episode, we get a sweet, intense conversation that touches in on navigating change, ancestors, rhythms, and more -- PLUS a new song Ríomas shares that's all about changing patterns...   Songwriter Info: Ríomas (RiYo or Río for short, they/them), previously known as Shireen Amini, is a queer, trans masculine, Puerto Rican-Iranian artist and immigrant settler based in Portland, Oregon creating at the intersection of music, healing, and cultural change. Drawing upon pop and folk soul textures, gratefully and respectfully from Black and Afro-Latin lineages, they craft artful, participatory songs that invite realness and transformative energy. Bridging contemporary music mediums with ceremonial ways and resistance efforts, Ríomas creates soulful and joyful community singing experiences that reconnect people to their power and place. In spring 2026, they released their first community song album, Gather Your Resilience: Medicine for Liberation.   Sharing Info: Yes -- The song is free to share in oral tradition contexts like song circles, but please contact me for permission and rates if interested in teaching this song as part of greater money-making ventures like multi-week choirs, workshops, classes, or performances or if interested in recording this song.   Song Learning Time Stamps: Start time of teaching: 00:03:20 Start time of reprise: 00:18:24   Links: Album on Bandcamp: https://riomas.bandcamp.com/album/gather-your-resilience-medicine-for-liberation Patreon: https://patreon.com/riomas Instagram: @riomasmusic Linktree: https://linktr.ee/riomas     Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, minor, 3 layer with extra harmonies   Join this community of people who love to use song to help navigate life? Absolutely: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/335811/81227018071442567/share   Help us keep going: reviews, comments, encouragement, plus contributions... we float on your support. https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar.html

Song: Soften Music by: Patricia Norton   Notes: I caught this song more than a year ago, but it's been back in my brain, claiming space and being a helpmeet -- so I thought I'd share it with you. A reminder to release, to be present -- and that in that very softness is a fierce strength and belonging to help meet whatever moment you're in.   Songwriter Info: You can find out more about me in general here: https://www.juneberrymusic.com/about-patricia.html Or the whole team that puts this podcast out here: https://www.abreathofsong.com/about.html Sharing Info: Feel free to sing this song yourself and with your friends and family as often as you please! If you are using this song in a way that is making money for you, please contribute to the A Breath of Song gratitude jar at https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar, and/or send me a note letting me know how the song is helping you, so the song brings us into relationship. Thank you!   Song Learning Time Stamps: Start time of teaching: 00:03:40 Start time of reprise: 00:16:45   Links: Flow Singing: https://www.juneberrymusic.com/flow-singing.html All of what I'm up to: https://www.juneberrymusic.com/ Kindred Voices Retreat: https://kindredvoicesretreat.com   Nuts & Bolts: 12:8, major, 3 part   Join this community of people who love to use song to help navigate life? Absolutely: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/335811/81227018071442567/share   Help us keep going: reviews, comments, encouragement, plus contributions... we float on your support. https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar.html