Common Thread       (USA, at Humphries)
Our theme song of unity in diversity.

Names       (U.S.A., Kathy Fink, arr. Roger Wesby)
This song has become an anthem for the AIDS Memorial Quilt for the victims of the disease. It has been recorded by over 30 artists internationally and won a Mid-Atlantic Songwriter's Association Award.

Log Driver's Waltz       (Canada, Wade Hemsworth, arr. Sherry Squires)
The song celebrates the profession of log driving, a practice in the lumber industry which involved transporting felled timber by having workers walk or run on the logs as they floated down rivers. Log driving required a great deal of strength and physical agility, and Hemsworth was struck by how much the sight of log drivers at work resembled dancing.

Hard Times       (U.S.A., Stephen Foster, arr. Andy Rush)
Hard Times seems to have drawn its inspiration from the wealth of slave songs Foster heard as a young man. It also shows the mark of a man who had come to know the suffering of which he wrote.

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrica       (Zulu/isiXhosa, E. Sontonga)
This song was composed in 1897 by Enoch Sontonga, a teacher at a Methodist mission school in Johannesburg. It was one of many songs he composed for his pupils. The words of the first stanza were originally written in Xhosa as a hymn. In 1927 seven additional Xhosa stanzas were added by Samuel Mqhayi, a poet.
The hymn is the national anthem of both Tanzania and Zambia, and was formerly the anthem of Zimbabwe and Namibia. Outside of Africa, the hymn is perhaps best known as the long-time (since 1925) anthem of the African National Congress (ANC), as a result of the global anti-Apartheid movement of the 1970s and 1980s, when it was regularly sung at meetings and other events. It became part of South Africa's national anthem in 1994, following the ANC's victory in the country's first multi-racial elections

Gens du pays       (French Canadian, Gilles Vigneault & Gaston Rochon)
This song was written in 1965 under a banner of friendship, fidelity, and a spirit of shared adventure. It portrays the honesty, wisdom, and humour of the Quebecois. The melody, almost a recitative, moves along swiftly and presents simple contours, building up gradually to the high point of the text, which sets off a rousing call to freedom: 'I hear you pass like the river at ice-break, I hear you speak of freedom for tomorrow'. The song contributed to the emergence of a nationalist wave during the 1960s of which it also was a reflection.

Mulumele Shangwe       (trad. Zimbabwe )
The title means "I greet you with respect and dignity". It was brought by Aku, a guest artist from Zimbabwe, who worked with high school students at the Ontario Vocal Festival in February 2007.

Siod Mar Chaidh an Càl a Dholaidh       (trad. Nova Scotia Folk Song (Gaelic), arr. Gary Ewer)
This song celebrates the power of music and dance. A meal is ruined because those making the meal are lured away to join in the festivities

Tourdion       (trad. French)
This is a lively French drinking song of the 16th century filled with ribald innuendo and double-entendres

El pueblo unido       (Chile (Spanish), Sergio Ortega, arr. G. Glickman)
The song was inspired by the bombing by Pinochet's military coup (1973) when Ortega heard a street singer shouting,"the people united will never be defeated", a well-known Chilean chant for social change. During the course of time, the song has been used in various protests around the world, most of which have nothing to do with the Chilean coup or Latin America, and it has been translated into various languages.

Ballad of Springhill     England, Peggy Seeger & Ewan Macoll, arr. Kim Boyd
Inspired by a famous Canadian mine disaster where a group of miners survived underground for 8 days - longer than anyone had ever survived under such conditions

Here is My Home      U.S.A., Si Kahn, arr. Tom Leighton
This easy to join refrain is a reflection on creating a spiritual home by sharing music.

Breaths       Lyrics: Birago Diop (adapted from his poem), Music: Ysaye M. Barnwell
Based on the poem by Senegalese poet Diop, it tells of the invisible world of spirit, humans and the visible world of nature. In Barnwell's words: "In writing the music, I tried to create a continuous melody line, rhythms that represent the relationship between human rhythmic functions and the laws of nature, and breath sounds representing the breath of life and the presence of spirit in air around us".