There is a wonderful book by composer Bruce Adolphe called What to Listen for in the World. I read it and wrote this song. The rhythm is an Afro-Peruvian song style I learned from a compilation by David Byrne, called “The Soul of Black Peru,” on Luaka Bop Records.

Listen to the wind in the trees
The rush of the breeze
As it whispers and sighs
Listen to the cars in the street
Footsteps and feet
As people pass by
Listen to the roar of the crowd
The laughing out loud
Of kids as they play
Listen to the rain as it falls
The lone bird that calls
At the end of the day

CHORUS
Everything is music
Everything is music
Everything is music to me

There’s music in the stars as they spin
The day that begins
With a quiet sunrise
There’s music in the world as it turns
the fire that burns
into embers and dies
There’s music in the river that runs
From where it’s begun
Til it ends in the sea
There’s music in the waves on the shore
They crash and they roar
and sing out to me

CHORUS

Descant
1/ Everything is music to me
2/ Listen! Listen!
3/ Listen to the music playing…

Once you hear the world as it sings
all that it brings
then nothing’s the same
Once you find that we all belong
to one great big song
that always remains
Once you hear
the river of time
the rhythm and rhyme
in you and in me
Then you know the beat of your heart
Has its own part
in this big symphony

CHORUS