Traditional

"Amazing Grace" is a hymn written by English poet and clergyman John Newton. With a message that forgiveness and redemption is possible regardless of the sins people commit and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God, "Amazing Grace" is one of the most recognizable songs in the English-speaking world. Newton was pressed into the Royal Navy and became a sailor, eventually participating in the slave trade. One night a terrible storm battered his vessel so severely that he became frightened enough to call out to God for mercy, a moment that marked the beginning of his spiritual conversion. His career in slave trading lasted a few years more until he quit going to sea altogether and began studying theology. The melody of this song did not consist by J. Newton, and the words were sung at first on the other numerous melodies before being definitively attached to this one. This melody is the one of an old Irish or Scottish air. According to certain sources, she would rather have been taken from the very slaves, because according to certain sources, she would be of South African origin. The success of this negro-spiritual also provoked a revival of Amazing Grace in the field of the Celtic music. It is one of airs the most played the bagpipe today.