Merging is an Ongoing Journey - Sight-reading & Strong Musical Memories

Sometimes my default is to write about music or musical musings because that is where my passion lies.  And after fighting some strange unknown emotional whatever this past weekend, and as a result, had one of my wicked "I can't even sleep" headaches I'm moving to my default.

One of the things about an ongoing journey is some of the familiar yet not of being part of a church choir.  For many years at Wappingers I was part of the choir, I took a break, then I returned, then I left again.  And now I am part of the PUMC choir.  This means regular rehearsals on Thursday nights and lots of laughter.  Because choir is fun.  Don't get me wrong, it's hard work too.  But it is fun as well.

One of the things I'm getting really good at again is sight-reading.  I was never a great sight-reader when it came to the flute.  However, I was pretty decent at using the same skill for singing.  It was a skill that I stopped using for awhile, because when you're not singing any more, you don't really use the skills you had for reading music.  But now I'm back singing again and using my sight-reading skills once again.  A lot, actually.  Because undoubtedly when we get a different piece of music in our folders, our awesome director Polly says, "You know this one, we've sung it before" and I say, "definitely a new piece for me!" 

So, I've been learning a lot of new music.

But at the same time, it has brought up some really strong musical memories for me as of late.

Sunset by the old UMC of Wappingers (3/2021)

The most recent strong musical memory is "Brother James Air" which is based on Psalm 23.  While I was in choir, we sang a lot of anthems.  If I heard them, I'd probably remember them.  Aside from some of the big pieces we did, there are very few single anthems that stick in my brain.  One is Faure's The Palms.  But the other was Brother James Air.  It is such a beautiful song that can be done with or without accompaniment (I've done it both), with a mixed choir or just female voices, and a lot people or just a few people.  It is such a great strong musical memory that I went on a tear Friday night and Saturday to find various videos of it on YouTube, just so I could relive others singing the song I could just pulled out of my head randomly, even if I hadn't sung it in years (which, I can do now because I haven't sung it in years and years).

Sometimes memories make one sad.  This particular song could make people sad too, because of the scripture it is based off of.  But this one makes me happy.  Even though it has been so long since I sang it with choir, and the people who I sang it with have moved on to other places, it still evokes such joy in me. 

So if you see/hear me singing it, and you see me with tears in my eyes, it's not because I am sad singing it, but I am so joyful I am crying.  Because I do that too!