How often can you say those words with a straight face in a sentence and really mean them? Not often, but today is my chance.
Singing is a passion of mine. I love to sing and it gives me great joy.
I love sight-reading a new piece of music, then working on getting the notes right, the words in the proper order, the timing correctly, and the dynamics of the music. I enjoy the lover-like Italian phrases: legato, crescendo, fortissimo and adagio.
At first I thought ‘ode to joy’ might be too grandiose, but when I tried to replace it, all the other words seemed lackluster and blasé to describe my feelings about singing.
I came late to singing compared to a lot of other choir members. I sang in a children’s choir in sixth grade and I knew how to read music, but that was about the extent of my experience.
When we got engaged, my honey and I joined a church in Seattle and shortly after that my neighbor in the apartment next door invited me to come to a choir rehearsal. I was hooked after that first evening.
I do not have a great voice, but I make up for it in attention to detail. That first choir worked hard on Handel’s “Messiah,” all of it. We would perform the Hallelujah Chorus as the Easter morning introit. Heck, we even sang it as the recessional at a choir member’s wedding. And every year I would find a Messiah sing-along, grab my music and go sing my heart out during the Christmas season.
Singers feel a huge sense of pride and accomplishment when they finally master a piece of music and the joy in singing it is beyond description, at least for me. And so it is with a great sense of expectation I look forward to this afternoon.
Several local church choirs and individual singers will gather for an ecumenical concert at the United Methodist Church. The concert is open to all and a free-will offering will be taken for the Huron Area Ministerial Association.
We have been working on the four mass choir pieces separately all winter, but today will be the first and only rehearsal all together. And then at 4 p.m. look out!
The music will begin and the voices of nearly 100 people will break into song and joy.
You won’t want to miss it.
Louise Van Poll is a freelance writer and columnist for the Plainsman.
