Four Freedom Songs: For Baritone Solo, Mixed Chorus, and Chamber Orchestra or Piano / words by Thomas Merton ; music by C. Alexander Peloquin.

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a writer and Trappist monk at Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky. His writings include such classics as The Seven Storey Mountain, New Seeds of Contemplation, and Zen and the Birds of Appetite. Merton is the author of more than seventy books that include poetry, personal journals, collections of letters, social criticism, and writings on peace, justice, and ecumenism.

C. Alexander Peloquin was a composer of liturgical music who was one of the earliest to begin to write in a style that reflected the changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council. He spent many years as composer-in-residence at Boston College and directed student choral ensembles. He composed music for some of Merton's "Freedom Songs", poems inspired by Negro spirituals. The songs were originally intended to be sung by African-American baritone Robert Williams. Merton and Peloquin had trouble at a time with claims that Williams made over copyright of the songs.