Heartland Harmony
Heartland Harmony
All is Change
by Anni Zylstra
All is Change is a 4-part anthem to the chaos and grief of these ever-changing times. The melody came to me next to a fast moving fork of the Trinity River, where salmon were in their first week of journeying to their spawning sites in northern California. Martin Prechtel said after surviving the Guatemala earthquake of 1976, during which he witnessed the ground beneath him rising up and swallowing it's indigenous people and villages whole, that solid ground is a myth believed by people who live on the earth rather than in it. This idea stuck with me through the years and provided partial inspiration for this song. This song has 3 distinct sections which weave together and culminate in a solo voice part over harmony.
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All donations for licensing use can be made to @anniezylstra on Venmo. All funds received are currently being directed to families on the ground in Gaza and orgs supporting the Palestinian resistance, to which I dedicate this song at this time.
Lyrics:
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I believed in solid ground until I saw the earth in motion,
in the winds of steady change and in the ever-rolling ocean.
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All moves on in perfect, perfect motion.
All is change and ever-rolling ocean.
All is moving, all is change, though I once believed that there
might somehow be something firm beneath my feet, but
All is motion, and all is well for solid ground is just a myth
for those who never swim in it.
All is moving in blessed change, o the world we know
will come and go and everything will rearrange, so
be the ground beneath that sky,
tumbling round the by and by.
All is change, so am I.
lye lye lye, lye lye lye.