In "Pieces of Dreams," Arlington musicians, inspired by a dramatic connection from beyond, made the 24th Martin Luther King observance memorable -- and healing.

The event in Town Hall auditorium, long the traditional opening of the annual town election season, brought out a spectrum of people, including those holding and seeking office.

On Monday, Jan. 16, transcendence met immediacy.

Part of immediate reality were honors bestowed on three leaders of the First Step Group of Arlington -- Elaine Shea, Mary Deyst and Claudette "Sue" Lehaie. The group supports women who have experienced domestic violence in Arlington.

The speaker, Haji Shearer, director of the Fatherhood Initiative at the Children’s Trust Fund,  paced the stage, trying to mediate between the ephemera of the spirit and reality of feelings.

The goal of his words was to heal broken lives; the music may have offered a more immediate antidote.

From where I sat among the 150 present, the flute made the difference in the score composed more than a decade ago by Pat Tassone, interim fine arts-performing arts director for the Arlington public schools.

The flute, an instrument whose tone pierces the spirit, knitted a variety of themes expressed in words by Dr. King. Jill Dreeben of Arlington performed. 

Fashioning the fabric of sound, much of it from spirituals, were the Arlington High School Honors Orchestra, directed by Tassone, and the Madrigal Singers, led by Cheryl Christo.

Punctuating those anxious strains -- using "Go Down Moses," "All My Trials" -- were words from King, written over the remarkably brief 13 years of the U.S. civil-rights movement, narrated by Sylvia Ferrell-Jones, in charge of the YWCA Boston for five years. 

As Tassone explains in the program notes, the work became a collaboration involving Frank Roberts, the theater arts director who died in 2010;  and Christo, current choral music director. Behind the scenes help came from Tino D'agostino, director of the AHS Jazz Band.

"Although the idea to use King's speeches for the text was mine, it was Frank Robert's idea to identify themes that could be developed by the use of the text. Consequently, we arrived at the following thematic scheme: I. Philosophy of Non-Violence; II. Idealism and the Dream; III. Slavery: IV. The Foreboding Prophecy (of his eventual assassination); V. The Legacy."

Under those headings were King's words, including those from addresses titled "Paul’s Letter to American Christians," "The Birth of a New Nation" (sermon at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church), "I Have a Dream," "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" and "I See the Promised Land," delivered the day before his assassination.

"Although I always knew that the composition would be a narration with music," Tassone wrote, "I was not sure exactly what form it would take.

" I had in mind Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait," but since our text was from actual speeches I wanted, unlike Copland, to have sections where the narration was unaccompanied by music and conversely, have sections where only the music was heard."

At Town Hall, music and words propelled toward a final shot, reflecting that April day in Memphis in 1968.

The seat-jarring blast awakened us from illusions of "kumbaya" and made us reflect.

The music cast a healthy spell over the auditorium, including those whose public appearances signal that they serve in office -- or would like to.

Amid memories of King's ground-breaking battle for equality were State House figures Sen. Ken Donnelly as well as Reps. Sean Garballey and Jay Kaufman. Candidates for selectmen were on hand -- the two Joe C's (Curran and Curro) -- as well as Steve Byrne. Two seeking a School Committee seat were, too -- Jim Flanagan and Ian Jackson. The latter had to be there: He's the chair of the King birthday observance committee.