Last night my heart soared and I felt completely connected with the capacity audience at Sydenham Street United Church, temporary home for concerts of the Kingston Symphony Orchestra. Why did I have this encompassing and joyous feeling? Because the conductor invited the audience to sing a few Christmas carols.
I love the traditional carols, but that's not the reason the feeling was so powerful. It was because all of us were singing together, creating a community from our shared voices.
When I was a small child during the Second World War, at the movies there was always a short subject, as they were called then, of a few songs. The lyrics were displayed on the screen, and we were invited to sing along and “follow the bouncing ball." At school we sang every day for thirty minutes out of the book called “the Canadian Song Book." How I loved those songs like “Flow Gently Sweet Afton” and looked forward to singing them.
Singing around the campfire on the beach in the summer evenings was traditional. Someone always had a ukulele, and “Bye, Bye, Blackbird” was invariably part of the song list.
Much later I attended a small church in a village in BC, where the temporary minister, who loved the old hymns, would come early to services and sing them, inviting everyone to join him. Attendance more than doubled within a few weeks.
We're fortunate to have many fine choral groups in Kingston. I guess I'll have to join one of them.
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