Calling All Dawns is Christopher Tin's debut album. It won two GRAMMYs at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards: Best Classical Crossover Album, and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists (for the song 'Baba Yetu', which made history as the first video game theme to win a Grammy). It was started in 2005, and released October 1st, 2009, nearly four years after its conception.
Calling All Dawns is a song-cycle in three movements: day, night and dawn. Each movement corresponds to a different phase of life--life, death, and rebirth. In short, it's 5 songs about life, 3 songs about death, and 4 songs about rebirth. There are songs of joy, mystery, and hardship, reflecting the complexity of our mortality. There are songs of the deepest, darkest sorrow to accompany us through death. And finally, there are songs of triumph and exultation that bring us roaring back to life, beginning the cycle anew.
Click on a song title below to view its lyrics and English translation.
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Baba Yetu Mado Kara Mieru Dao Zai Fan Ye Se É Pra Vir Que Venha Rassemblons-Nous Lux Aeterna Caoineadh Hymn do Trójcy Świętej Hayom Kadosh Hamsáfár Sukla-Krsne Kia Hora Te Marino |
Part I: Day "Our Father" "Through The Window I See" "The Path Is In Returning" "Whatever Comes, Let It Come" "Let Us Gather" Part II: Night "Eternal Light" "To Cry" "Hymn To The Holy Trinity" Part III: Dawn "Today Is Sacred" "Journey Together" "Light And Darkness" "May Peace Be Widespread" |
Swahili Japanese Mandarin Portuguese French Latin Irish Polish Hebrew Farsi Sanskrit Maori |
The twelve songs are sung in twelve languages, including Swahili, Mandarin, Hebrew, Irish, Farsi, and many more. The lyrics themselves come from a variety of sources, both sacred and secular: Japanese haiku, Maori proverbs, the Torah, the Bhagavad Gita, and many more. Each song flows seamlessly into the next, and the album ends on the same chord that it opens with--thereby representing the fluid, cyclical nature of the universe. It carries a strong message of unity: that regardless of race, culture and religious belief, we are all connected through our common human experience.
Calling All Dawns was recorded at the world-famous Abbey Road Studios with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Lucas Richman. Performers on the album include the Grammy-winning Soweto Gospel Choir, Grammy-nominated opera singer Frederica von Stade, Portuguese fado sensation Dulce Pontes, early-music quartet Anonymous 4, and Iranian singer Sussan Deyhim, J-Pop star Lia, and an ensemble of over 200 instrumentalists and singers. It was recorded and mixed by four-time Grammy-winning engineer John Kurlander, with vocal recordings by Grammy-winning engineer Bill Hare.
You can purchase a real or digital copy of Calling All Dawns in our store.