2007 THIRD PLACE

WHAT ABOUT PEACE?
John Caputo
14 years old, Illinois

This piece of music is not common. This piece is meant to tell a story. This story isn't exactly a happy story. It doesn't necessarily have happy instruments singing about how good life is. No, this piece is meant to describe my vision of the world.

My grandfather inspired me to write this music. The man that aided me in the writing of this piece was also inspired by his family. After the stories that my dad told me about my grandfather I almost started crying. My grandfather did live through the war, but he didn't leave the same way. When he came back from war it was like he left his soul. My grandfather was in the Italian navy during WWII. When I heard the stories about him I said to myself "why did it have to come to this, why did a part of my grandfather have to die from so much hatred, so much suffering."

The meaning of this piece is to describe how everything may seem like there is peace in the world, but all is not well. There is evil, an evil that is louder than you could imagine, overwhelming you till you don't know the difference between right and wrong. No matter how much you want it to stop it just keeps coming. People scream in fear and try to act, but it does them no good. Eventually good and evil clash in a fight bigger than any of them could have imagined, the fight drags on until you feel there is very little hope left. But, we remember that no matter how dark times can get there can always be light.