The joy of singing

Choir member Lee Townsend sent along her thoughts on the proposed cuts. Here's what she wrote:

I am a member of the choir and have been singing in choirs since 4th grade (1954). My experience in my childhood church choir from 4th to 11th grade has completely molded my adult experience in music and hence my adult life. The harmonies in most Episcopal hymns are glorious. I am folk musician. I harmonize by ear whenever possible.

That internal ability to hear the harmonic progression in traditional secular and old time gospel music is a direct result of singing alto as a 4th grader. I cannot impress upon you how much joy being able to enrich the music brings me. It is the ultimate spiritual experience for me. Music and technical work are my two passions. I could not live without ether. I continue to be members of musical groups. I harmonize at folk concerts. I have performed at folk festivals. I put on musical Sunday services with Ellen Greist, a UU from Hamden. All these activities are due to that inner sense of what music is and what it can bring. I have taken the ability to hear the forest and the trees to classical music where I am able to hear the harmonic progression in that music as well. I may not always hit the right note but it is almost certainly in the chord somewhere. As a result of this skill, I am able to sight read fairly well and contribute to the spiritual experience of the congregation as well as the choir in the worship service. When I was last in Dallas I made it a priority to contact my choir director to thank her for the lifelong joy her choir gave to me.

Please do not cut the youth and children's choirs. They are our future choir members. They will be better camp song leaders, choir directors, folk musicians, classical musicians as a result of feeling the music at a deep level as I have. Their music will bring them peace when needed. It will also bring joy, sadness, and almost every other emotion. They will be able to reach out to the community to join in song. The joy of singing will have developed in large part because of choir membership as young people.

If the music program is to be cut I would suggest cutting the section leaders to half time and having more lay musicians on Sunday mornings. Most of our sections have at least a second member strong enough to take the lead with an occasional boost from the section leaders. We have many extremely talented non-section leaders who could enrich the Sunday morning worship service appropriately.

Thanks for listening.

Lee Townsend