Musical Friends 001

Music is a big part of my life, and I have a lot of musical friends. About 10 of us got together today for our monthly shape note sing (see http://fasola.org for more information). It wasn't possible for us to meet in our usual hall, so we went to the house of a friend whose husband died this past January. Very strange not to have him there, and he is much missed in the bass section. We had planned to sing for 2 hours, but it ended up being more like 3. It's difficult to explain this kind of 4-part a capella singing to people who have never heard it, but it is a traditional form from the early to mid 19th century, when musical instruments were in short supply in churches, and communities would hire singing instructors to teach them sight-reading. True to the origins, most of the songs are old hymns with words by Isaac Watts & Co., but today they are sung by a diverse mixture of people with & without religious affiliations. As one of my Jewish friends says, "We sing the poetry". The harmonies are contrapuntal and often quite open -- tenor carries the melody, bass underpins the whole, treble (soprano) warbles the descant (that's me), and alto fills in the middle (some songs have no alto part). It's extremely satisfying to sing, but not really a performance art.

We rarely sing at someone's house, so we added a pot-luck dinner to our day. Everyone brought something different - quiche, foccacia, salad, chili, and some exceedingly decadent desserts. We had the most stubborn bottle of wine I have ever seen. The cork absolutely refused to come out. So, we drank tea instead. Some days are just like that.