vocal harmony, & harmony as such

"But harmony of earth is Heaven-made,
Heaven-making, is promise and is prayer,
A little song to keep us unafraid,
An earthly music magnified in air."

--Wendell Berry, A Timbered Choir.


This Holiday season I was fortunate enough to get to travel to my hometown, & sing with some of the dearest and most talented folks I know (Voce, a small choral group at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, in Milwaukee, WI).

There are few things as enjoyable as singing choral music with others. You have the physical sensation of sending your voice forth, but if you hear yourself, you really only do so as a single thread wound round with others, blending, making a sound quite beyond the sum of its parts.

It is said that in Iceland, everyone belongs to two or three choirs. Imagine friends' voices, intertwined breaths rising like steam in the dark icy air.
It makes sense that in Iceland, and Eastern Europe, choral music is so, so good.
(Nota bene: Some of the sweetest holiday music I've heard recently is by Kitka, on their cd 'Wintersongs.')

Having the chance to see dear friends, and to sing with them, in the mid-point of Winter, is something more than a treat. It is the sort of thing that can only be captured by a word like 'blessing', or 'grace' -- a gift whose measure is beyond one's reasonable ability to earn.