I often participate in Linda Hill‘s Stream of Consciousness Saturdays. Her last prompt was “song.” The instruction was to “find a picture–the closest one to you. Your prompt is the title and/or the lyrics of the first song that comes to mind when you look at the picture.”
I couldn’t manage to follow the instruction – my brain doesn’t work that way – but thoughts about song have been flooding my consciousness for the last couple of days.
I can’t remember the first song I sang, but singing has been an important part of my life, especially choral singing. Decades of it. Most of it has been associated with schools or church. It has been my privilege to sing some of the great choral works of Western music. I love singing Bach; my background as an organist probably influences that. My favorite large work to sing is Brahms’ Requiem, in German, of course.
I’ve written sorrowfully of the probable demise of University Chorus due to a re-organization of the choral program at Binghamton. At the time, I never dreamed that choral singing itself would be on indefinite pause.
It turns out that singing is a high-risk activity to spread coronavirus. A choir rehearsal, with lots of people singing in close quarters indoors, can easily become a super-spreader event. While some churches have begun re-opening, they cannot safely have their choirs sing. They can’t even have their congregations sing. The thought of returning to church but having to stay silent is more than I can bear.
Nine years ago, I made my first trip to Europe as part of the Smith College Alumnae Chorus. We sang the Mozart Requiem in Sicily. I have sung with the SCAC in several on-campus events, as well as last year’s tour of Slovenia. Any planning for future events is on hold, not knowing what conditions we will be facing over the next couple of years.
Someday, some year, there will be widespread vaccine and/or effective treatment for COVID-19 and singing in groups will again be reasonably safe. I hope that choral organizations manage to survive so that they can reconvene and make music together again. I hope that I, then in my sixties, will be considered young enough, healthy enough, and mellifluous enough to join in.
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I understand having been part of a small church choir before COVID 19. The music has always been my favorite part of church. My church has zoom meetings, but there is rarely music, so I’ve been watching and listening to another church that videos a sermon and plenty of music by a couple with a guitar and the words across the screen so I can sing along. I would think that call/response singing outside with people say, 10 to 15 apart might work.
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Unfortunately, churches here don’t usually have appropriate outdoor space for worship. Your climate is perhaps more conducive to that than mine.
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Maybe in the fall we can have outdoor church. It’s too hot right now.
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Well, there is that! 😉 Some churches here have resumed in-person services with masks, sanitizer, greatly reduced capacity, spacing, having to make reservations, etc. I am continuing remote attendance for a number of reasons, not least of which is protecting vulnerable family members.
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