Rehearsal Tracks

CONCERT INTRODUCTION

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Pete Seeger wrote the music for Turn, Turn, Turn in the late 1950s, when he’d often visit his father and stepmother, who lived in the big white house at 7 West Kirke Street, on the corner directly across from the main entrance to the Chevy Chase Village Hall. 

 

Seeger lifted the lyrics from the Book of Ecclesiastes that say there’s a time and place for all things.  And then he added six words, “A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late.” This line and the title phrase, “Turn, Turn, Turn,” are the only words Seeger wrote for the song.

 

As the Vietnam War escalated, Turn, Turn, Turn struck a nerve with the public, and at the end of his life, Pete Seeger would say, “I didn’t realize when I improvised a melody to a short poem in the Old Testament that these few words would be some of the most important words I would ever latch onto.

 

Mary Anne Hoffman - Jan. 21, 2018

Recordings

Muhlenberg Chamber Singers video

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The Byrds