Last night we in Lake Luzerne had our annual Thanksgiving service at the Hadley-Luzerne Wesleyan Church, and it was a festive, sometimes rollicking, sometimes thoughtful, service. The Community Choir sang "We Give Thanks" -- and it was good to be singing together in worship again. I'd been away from the Community Choir for awhile, as I served churches in other communities, but I'll lend my voice (tenor this time, usually alto) to the choir for the Christmas Concert on Dec. 5.
I keep thinking of Dan Berggren's song "Alice" about Alice who started a community chorus up in the north country -- Dan's from Minerva, so it was somewhere thereabouts. It was Alice's conviction that anybody could "sing along" and the world would be a better place. I agree.
We have fun in community choir. Randy, the director, is a genuine character with a somewhat wacky sense of humor, and the choir responds accordingly. But we also work hard -- and the work pays off. Our concerts are always well done, presented with faith hope and love, and also well-received.
This year the cantata is a modern one called "The Star Still Shines." But it doesn't matter a whole lot what the music is as long as it's faith-full, has some traditional and some contemporary aspects, and expresses a simple but profound faith. That's pretty much what our community choir is about -- that, and blending our voices together in a harmonious whole -- something from which our society -- in particular, our political process -- could take lessons!
In order to sing in harmony, each singer, and each vocal part, needs to listen to all the others and hear how all the parts fit together. If they don't fit together, we have to do more listening, practice, and then keep trying again until they do. The best singers in the world don't necessarily make the best CHORAL singers. Instead, those who can keep on tune and learn to blend together make the best music together. This is a good lesson for life, too.
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