Forward Together

What a wonderful experience singing with Zach, Randy and Richard! We had a last minute recording session of Zach Thomas' song Forward Together at practice this week. Zach, Randy and Richard sang this song in the Moral Monday protests in Raleigh earlier this year. Please pass this song along and the sentiments that are expressed in these lyrics:

Should we let Jim Crow make it hard to vote
And push our country backward a hundred years or more?
Should the rich get richer on the backs of the poor
And push our country backward a hundred years or more?
Should there be a war against women anymore
And push our country backward a hundred years or more?
No, no, no, you've got to hear what we say
Justice is moving the other way.
Forward together and not one step back.

recording of our May 19th performance

Here is a link to the recording of our May 19th performance at Sharon Presbyterian Church Chapel.  It is hard to hear the talking, but the singing comes across well.  The singing starts at 2 minutes. You can download the entire performance.

Community Singers Concert - May 19th, 2013

poetry and song

Last night at practice we had a short discussion about poetry and song...how it is often difficult to understand the lyrics to songs when we hear a choir sing...how reading the lyrics as a poem can help us make sense of the song.

A song is still a song without the words.  It may touch us in a different way.  And poetry is music to me even though it doesn't have a melody in the way a song does.  I tell my elementary school students that we always want to strive to make music, not just noise.  I think this applies to choir practice, performance and life. A line from an Amy Grant song I listened to in high school comes to mind: "It's not a song 'til it touches your heart".  We will keep striving to make our lyrics clear, but most of all we will strive to touch a heart each time we sing.

The Arrow and the Song
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

recording from Brookdale

I recorded our singing at Brookdale Place on Tuesday for Nancy and thought others might like to hear it as well.  Click here to listen.

We will have a regular practice this coming week.  See you then!

Bread and Roses

This is one of the new songs we are working on.  It has a beautiful melody with a very powerful message.
listen