On the 4th

[Gillie Campbell]

Dear Singing Friends,

 

On July 4th I often wish we could celebrate not just the rockets' red glare but also the many different energies required to make democracy function.  What are they?  Naturally I think of music, and of Sacred Harp.   We often say that Sacred Harp is democratic because we have no conductors, we sit in a hollow square, and the melody lines have equal weight (although we tenors may claim some are more equal than others).  

 

Sacred Harp has a surprising cousin in democracy: jazz.  Sam Smith says, "The essence of jazz is the same as that of democracy: the greatest amount of individual freedom consistent with a healthy community. Each musician is allowed extraordinary liberty during a solo and then is expected to conscientiously back up the other musicians in turn. The two most exciting moments in jazz are during flights of individual virtuosity and when the entire musical group seems to become one. The genius of jazz (and democracy) is that the same people are willing and able to do both."  

 

The genius of Sacred Harp (and democracy) is that everyone who leads is a virtuoso, albeit with constraints, a virtuoso who then returns to his or her seat to sing in support of the next leader; everyone who pitches is responding to the community and strengthening it; we get chills "when the entire musical group seems to become one."   

 

Let's keep on being willing and able to create those exciting moments essential to democracy, stepping out as virtuosos then returning to back up the group, in our hollow squares, in our families and neighborhoods, in the USA.  And let's keep singing.

 

Although it's the 6th, Happy 4th!

 

Gillie