One of the most beautiful pieces of music composed in recent years has to be Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. I love hearing him sing it; I love hearing KD Lang sing it. Recently, however, I was introduced to the version by the Canadian Tenors, and it blew me away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTx8IGPwrIk (turn up your volume)
The reason this version grabs my heart is the perfect, pitch-perfect, harmonies. In my own personal experience, nothing is more exciting or inspiring than singing in harmony. Why I haven't found a way to do it more frequently is a topic to ponder at another time.
Hearing this beautiful arrangement, sung by four tenors, reminds me of how it can feel to live harmoniously, and how painful it is to live "off." I have had the privilege of singing in multiple choral groups and well remember how often the director would stop us mid-note to declare, "whoa, whoa, we are off...let's try it again." The huge pay off for all the practicing and rehearsing came when we could hear for ourselves that we were "on," blend our voices and soar with the music.
I think Life requires a lot of rehearsing; learning to hear the Music is no easy task, much less finding and mastering our place in the Choir. But I gotta tell ya, nothing is more satisfying, healing, and inspiring than the actual experience of knowing, however briefly, that you are "on."
I been “sleepin’” on how to respond in a way similar to how I was touched by what you wrote. With several beliefs and feelings in mind, I am going public with my response: I believe your small group offerings to explore, look and learn more about the practice of meditation are all GENTLE INVITATIONS to Harmonize with the close-by, the universe and the Omnipresence of which we are an undivided part. It seems almost impossible to grasp and we resist the experience of this profound knowing. Eventually, on this plane of time, we can not harmonize with this knowing. Yours is a Gentle Invitation which requires only a little bit of willingness on our part to be open to this Omnipresence removing our resistance to getting “on” with “gettin’ on”. Hallelujah!
ReplyDeleteWhen i cut and pasted my comment, i did not notice that the blog program edited one of my statements. There were two not(s): we cannot not harmonize with this knowing. my apologies
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