Last week, the Seattle Symphony released a free recording of their performance of Georgian composer Giya Kancheli's "Nu.Mu.Zu." It's not every day that the symphony decides to drop a recording for free, but they've decided to do so this week in honor of those who've died in the recent terror attacks.

Kancheli composed the piece as he was becoming increasingly disillusioned by the fact that many live in a state of seemingly constant violence. You can feel his exasperation in the title, "Nu.Mu.Zu," an ancient Sumerian phrase inflected with millennial punctuation that translates to "I. Don't. Know." The piece starts serenely. Then violins pierce the calm with dread and anxiety before the whole orchestra swells into a tumultuous clamor. The piece continues on in that bi-polar way, reflecting the peaks and valleys of violence in the age of terror.

On the symphony's website, composer Ludovic Morlot explains the push to offer the music free for streaming and download, “Earlier this month, we were deeply touched by Nu.Mu.Zu, and by the sentiments Kancheli expressed about his hopes for a world without violence. After the recent terrorist attacks in my home country of France, and elsewhere, we felt strongly that this music should go out into the world and be shared with everyone.”

The performance would have been released on the symphony's in-house record label, Seattle Symphony Media. I had no idea that the symphony had a record label, so I sat down with Simon Woods, President and CEO of the Seattle Symphony, to learn more about what they're doing over there at Benaroya.

He told me that label has already seen a lot of success since its launch earlier this year. Back in February, for instance, the symphony's recording of John Luther Adams's Become Ocean snagged the Grammy for "Best Contemporary Classical Composition."

The symphony works directly with Morlot to decide which performances should go on the albums. They like to pair familiar compositions with unfamiliar ones in order to celebrate under-acclaimed artists and to illuminate thematic connections between older and more contemporary works.

One album, for instance, presents Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring alongside Alexander Raskatov's “Night Butterflies,” performed by Tomoko Mukaiyama. "Both composers are Russian, both are about tension and conflict, and both examine nature through music," Woods said.

As the largest arts organization in the state, Woods takes seriously the symphony's role in connecting to the community. He calls Seattle "a compassionate city," and says he wants the label to reflect that value. After mentioning the symphony's prison programs and its work with homeless mothers, Woods added that he wants to use the label as part of the organization's mission to engage in a dialogue with our world.

"Music speaks beyond words," he said, which is why he was happy to be able to release "Nu.Mu.Zu," for free online. "Why wait," he said. "It's a great message and it needs to be heard."