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When we sing together we create together. [1]
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Date: 2022-08-01
Connects us, it does, singing songs. If you can talk you can sing, it's the joining in, not hitting the note. Join in one and all.
FARESPITHE THOUGHTS ON SINGING AS SHARING BREATH WITH EACH OTHER
(FARESPITHE stands for faith, religion, spirituality, theology: “fare” like fair; “spithe” like with)
“Everyone singing together means we are sharing breath. The pandemic took that away from us.” Rhiannon Giddens said that, only a little bit paraphrased due to not being able to write it down quickly enough, in an NPR interview I heard this past week. She went on to say that “sharing breath through singing takes us back to the primordial beginnings of humanity”, as she seems to perceive that as we share breath we share the very beginnings of life, and she grieves that the pandemic prevented us from doing that singing/sharing of breath. I find this image/metaphor delightful and meaningfully significant as a thought about sharing life again after the pandemic, if we can ever truly get to the point of being after the pandemic where sharing breath is not an issue.
In the Hebrew Scriptures there is that beautiful image/metaphor of the first humans (primordial) being given life by God’s breath being breathed into them. The Hebrew word for breath is “ruah”, and it also means spirit. Whether you believe in God or not that image/metaphor is seen by untold numbers of people as something delightfully, fascinatingly, intriguingly wonderful—that life is essentially sharing breath/spirit together with the essence of the universe and with the spirit essence of life connection to other humans —that life for humans is shared breath/spirit with the essence of creation, the very essence of what having life for humans means, and which for me includes the essence of evolution. I often respond when asked, “How are you?” with “I’m still breathing.” For without breath/breathing, without which there can be no essential spirit of life, there is no response possible to the question how are you.
Giddens goes on to say that singing together is the essence of what song and singing is really all about. She says there is too much “them vs us” in professional/performance music—as if it is that only the professionals sing and/or play their instruments and the audience simply listens. She thinks that it should be both singing together, because “When we sing together we create together. It is celebrating our coming together again which the pandemic stopped.”
Rhiannon Giddens is often introduced as a folk singer, but in truth she is much more than that, and has been appropriately proclaimed as a “folk, old-time music, bluegrass, country, gospel, blues, jazz, soul, R&B, and Celtic” singer/songwriter/musician, with some even using the genre label, Americana. With such a wide range of genres it is safe to say she cannot be confined to any one label. To underline that reality of her having such a diverse ability and understanding of music, near the beginning of the pandemic she was named creative music director of the SilkRoad Ensemble, replacing the world famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who founded the group, in that role. She plays banjo, fiddle, and viola. She has won two Grammys and appeared on the TV show “Nashville”, and in the Country Music documentary by Ken Burns. Her two solo albums are, “Tomorrow Is My Turn” and “Freedom Highway”—both exceptionally worth hearing!
Because of the pandemic the SilkRoad Ensemble is just now releasing their newest album under her creative guidance, “Phoenix Rising”. SilkRoad has had as many as 59 musicians on their collaborations, but the phots of the group usually show 10-12 or so. Giddens says that they are about telling each other’s stories, not just their own, and that they seek to listen at least 50% of the time to each other, and thus not talk any more than 50% of the time—which she says is something all of us in this country should do. She says it is not about where you come from with the group, but about finding a common language.
An example she gives is with the song “St. James Infirmary” which Louis Armstrong made famous in the 1920s. In the recording of it on this new album there is an accordion and a Japanese flute—which she said on paper seems to make no sense, but once you hear it it’s like it has always been a part of the music with the song. She said “It’s like having a conversation on stage and understanding each other”, even though they are speaking different cultural languages. They ask themselves “Where does my musical instrument fit in with your world?”
An old African proverb is that if you can talk you can sing. Doesn’t matter if you can’t carry a tune—not even in a bucket—if you can talk you can sing. Might not be all that harmonious, but that doesn’t matter. The point that matters is that you are joining your voice with the voices of others—you are sharing breath—sharing life, the essence of life, the essence of the spirit of what it means to be human with life. It is a connection with human existence for as long as life has been experienced on this planet Earth. It is a way to share life together in a way that deepens connection to the essence of life, and can enable and empower us to bring back that creative spark of our human spirit to overcome even the terribleness of a pandemic.
For singing together means we are sharing breath—the spirit essence of life and living! May we do so whenever and wherever it is safe and possible to do so! Thank you, Rhiannon Giddens! Thank you, indeed!
Love, grace, hope, joy, compassion, peace,
Rodney Noel Saunders July 31, 2022
/U:tsodog — ed/pub
Ps(a): Let’s rid the world of nuclear weapons because of their threatened use!
Ps(b): Let’s rid the world of unregulated guns because of all the deaths they cause!
Ps(c): Let’s rid the world of climate crisis b/c it threatens the existence of the entire planet!
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