MLK and Human Rights (a capella) music

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January 2012	Hello ,
Featured Song Every Man, Woman, and Child featuring Michelle and Harrison Crenshaw: CHANT version: Click here to listen to both versions: FREE!  From the  We Agree Project:     Forward this message to a friend Was this forwarded to you? Join the Mailing List! Email Address:	This Monday is Martin Luther King day, and all over the country, people will be doing community service and celebrating human rights, one of my favorite things to teach, and one of the most important things for us all to understand. Every Man, Woman, and Child I performed this song for the United Nations in 1987 on Human Rights Day, as a way for a community to learn about human rights together. This song is part of the We Agree Curriculum, and provides a very engaging method for studying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in great detail. Participants (4th grade and up) are assigned articles of the document to research and present. As the song is played, each performer approaches the microphone and declares one of the thirty articles. The lyrics are sung by the whole group, with hand motions and everything! The project workbook has several other ways to create and educate about this wonderful document, as well, from creating Public Service Announcements to performing a silent spiral ceremony. These are wonderful activities for church groups, Drama, Social Studies and Music teachers at all levels, and any group who wants to participate in a Martin Luther King Oratorical Contest. Please pass this on to anyone you think who might be interested. Forward this message to a friend our human rights But you don't have to take on the whole project to enjoy the song! This month, our featured song page includes not one but TWO versions of the EMWC, with vocals by a wonderful mother/son duo, Michelle and Harrison Crenshaw. Make sure you click this link to start the second song after the first one ends. The CHANT version comes with free sheet music for a capella groups. Keep in Touch!  I've been making lots of new friends on Facebook lately! We can keep in touch with you in whatever way that works, whether you prefer this email newsletter, automatic blog postings, Facebook, or MySpace. We're always hoping for good reviews on iTunes, CDBaby, Scribd, YouTube, and Amazon, so if you're online and my music comes up on your playlist and lifts your spirit, pass it on. Peace to all of us, Merrill Collins www.spiralingmusic.com www.merrillcollins.com www.myspace.com www.facebook.com
310-696-1920 • merrill@spiralingmusic.com

A "spiraling" holiday party - and a new address!

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December, 2011	Greetings, Friends!
It's easy to give your "Christmas Presence" to your friends... Order more than one copy and get a 20% discount Amazon • iTunes • CDBaby Upcoming Changes - Please Read! Soon I will be switching my communications format over to my blog, Spiraling Stories. You will recieve an email asking to confirm your subscripton. I hope you would like to continue hearing our news, and click 'yes'.	Some of you may be getting this newsletter for the first time. Our biggest news is our address change... we have moved to 13909 Old Harbor Lane #304, Marina Del Rey CA 90292. Online Holiday Party Amidst the hubub of moving, we've enjoyed many collaborations this year, which we're celebrating with not one, but FOUR featured songs. While you're at your computer reading this, open our featured song page at www.spiralingmusic.com/featured.htm, and enjoy the music! Joseph Hebert conducted a a combined choir singing Hodie, a joyful Christmas song in the spirit of a carol. Sheet music is for sale - cheap! Cesar Marquez sings Soyez Gentille, a special favorite French Christmas song - the complete Piano/Vocal score is now available for that, as well. And of course, you can listen to the classic. Angels We Have Heard on High from Christmas Presence. JINGLE BELLS Marshall Richards sings an original swing version of Jingle Bells, a free download to enjoy and share with your friends. Also please enjoy the lovely decorations by Diana Lovett, a jewelry designer from Oakland. There's a link where you can order her hammered metal trees and stars, if you like them! Have a Peaceful Holiday Christmas Presence, which is now being played on radio internationally (hooray!), has been our best-selling CD for fifteen years. Churches and cathedrals play it during Advent and Christmas season. Christian ministers and priests keep it on in the background. Gift shops, restaurants and coffee shops play it to create seasonal ambience. Bodyworkers and spas play it because it is soothing and de-stressing. One Reiki healer said, "It helped my clients relax into healing and open to the peace, not the stress, of the season.” People at home play it for peaceful dinner, entertainment, and chill-out time with family and friends. and people love to play it while they drive in traffic! Haven't heard it? Give it a listen! Have it? Love it? Please share your review on CDBaby, Amazon or MySpace! Christmas Presence makes a great gift of peace and serenity. Please share with your friends and family. Good Times Many thanks to all of you for being part of the Spiraling Music world in 2011, and may we all have calm, relaxing holidays with time for family, good friends, good food, and good music! Peace of the season, Merrill Collins www.spiralingmusic.com www.merrillcollins.com www.myspace.com www.facebook.com
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The Lullaby Project

Our current featured song is Within You (Lullaby for Bobby), which we wrote as a first birthday gift for one of several wonderful new children that have been born into my family.  At the studio we passed around his picture so we could be playing music to him as if in person. The song is a flute, guitar, and grand piano arrangement with improvisations over descending lines that brings to life various scales from distant times and lands.

Any new baby or parent will enjoy Within You (Lullaby for Bobby), which is over ten minutes long, providing a relaxing theme for nursing or naptime.

But everyone thought a custom lullaby was such a wonderful idea, we had to do more! The next few babies and kids, Loki and Ruka, love their songs, too!

The Lullaby Project

Now we're working on an album. Do you have a child in your family who deserves to be wrapped in music? Commission an original lullaby for the new light in your life! Various acoustic ensembles are available.

Contact Merrill Collins for more information.

Amazing Grace!

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March 2011
Featured Song Click here to enjoy an amazing moment of harmony and grace.  From the Album  New Ways to Connect! I've finally got a Facebook page! I'd love to see your face in my "like" box -- click here or visit my new blog.     Was this forwarded to you? Join the Mailing List! Email Address:	As we enter this season of Lent, a traditional time of retreat and reflection, we would like to offer all of our music as a tool to can support you in your daily meditation. Amazing Grace! I recorded Amazing Grace in 2009 with my friend and longtime collaborator Joseph Hèbert, for our second album, Cello & Piano Sanctuary. It is a song musicians have many opportunities to play, and we came up with a new , refreshing version. The U.S. Library of Congress has a collection of 3,000 versions of Amazing Grace, including ours, which features an interesting "conversation" between a wondering, childlike piano descant and the gentle guidance of a caring, mature cello. (how sweet the sound) Click this link and you can not only hear the song, but enjoy a gorgeous video by Yvon Chausseblanche featuring egrets at sunrise at a bird sanctuary, a beautiful symbol of retreat. Click this link to enjoy the entire album. All over the world, there are good people struggling for freedom, for their rights, for their livelihoods and their lives. I wish I could reach out and send support to each and every one of them in their struggles, both here in the U.S. and all around the world. I am hoping while you listen and watch and enjoy you can help me send a quiet signal of strength to those who need it, and a prayer that grace will find us all. Keep in Touch!  If you like the song, please share it with your friends. Can you invite your facebook friends to 'like' our page? Peace, Merrill Collins www.spiralingmusic.com www.merrillcollins.com www.myspace.com www.facebook.com Forward this message to a friend

Colors and Sounds*****

Colors have always been a key source of musical inspiration to me.
Like many other composers such as Scriabin, I associate colors with
musical notes and chords.
On the new Cinema Musique Collection, Volume One, we began a series of
colors. Bonbon Rouge and L'Orange are just the beginning of the
rainbow.
My creative imagination is currently very happily working on Volume
Two, "Les Couleurs" .

Having shared that, I am starting my very first blog on the topic of
colors and sounds, and look forward to the discussion!

For the Love of ... Music!

Music is the food of love, and YOU are always welcome to the Spiraling Music feast!

Just in time for this season of romance, we have a special FREE mp3 to share with you."My Love Will Never Fail" is a "Chanson d'Amour" (love song), and features Nicole Garcia on violin.  Click here to listen to and download an exclusive version of our featured song! A longer version and 13 more tracks can be heard on our latest album, Cinema Musique. This album is crafted especially for film and TV scoring, and we are focusing this year on pitching to movie music supervisors. Know any? Send them over!

We also have a wonderful new website to crow about...kudos to Kristen Caven at Cowgirl Creative for designing! Check it out! (And pardon us while we work out the kinks.)

New Projects

A new collaboration is in the works with long time collaborator Mary Sano, who is choreographing several of the new tracks from Cinema Musique. One of our favorites is "When My Mother Cries", featuring Pope Flyne on talking drum.

Our multi-media producer Yvon Chausseblanche is celebrating the new year with a high-tech video camera, so watch for new videos on our YouTube channel soon!

On the World Projects horizon, we will be inviting new participation on the "We Are Interdependent" ongoing collaboration of artists, singers, dancers, and teachers. Watch for more news to come!
Keep in Touch! 

We LOVE keeping in touch with you!!! If you haven't yet signed up on our official mailing list, please do.  Don't miss out on our seasonal newsletter full of new projects, music, and more! 
You can also keep in touch through our new blog, Facebook, and MySpace. And if you ever review anything of ours on iTunes, CDBaby, Scribd, YouTube, or Amazon, please send the link or post it to the wall on Facebook.

Enjoy the new site, and please pass on the LOVE this month! 
Peace to all of us,
Merrill Collins
www.spiralingmusic.com
www.merrillcollins.com
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