Music From The Inauguration: Aretha Franklin, Yo-Yo Ma

Amid the crowds, the cold and the excitement at Tuesday's historic inauguration, there was also music for celebration and reflection.

Aretha At The Capitol

Everyone had cheered at the sight of Michelle Obama in her sparkly golden dress. "Goodbye to J. Crew," my friend said with a laugh. Everyone had roared at the sight of Barack Obama on the JumboTron, as he made his way onto the steps and to his seat. Now it was Aretha Franklin's turn to inspire the crowd. She did it with her hat, and with her rendition of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" as only the Queen of Soul could deliver it.

A Simple Quartet

Before Barack Obama stepped up to take his oath above the crowd of chilled but cheerful well-wishers stretching all the way back to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, there was another moment for music. Simple music, played by four musicians representing the diversity and accomplishment of American culture: an Israeli-American, another born of Chinese parents, an African-American raised on the south side of Chicago and a recent transplant from Venezuela. These representatives of Obama's vision of a culture blind to color and creed joined together for an arrangement of one of America's most abiding tunes: the Shaker melody "Simple Gifts." The lyric, written in 1848 by an Elder in the Shaker Community in Alfred, Maine, begins: " 'Tis a gift to be simple / 'Tis a gift to be free."

Yo-Yo Ma's cello, Itzhak Perlman's violin, Anthony McGill's clarinet and Gabriela Montero's piano each held the melody and then layered it, twisting and curling out over the suddenly calming crowd. A man behind us remarked that a flock of birds seemed to be soaring along with the music. For a moment, everyone looked up.