Embracing the power of music

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I am always pleasantly surprised when I am reminded, at various and random times, of the power that good music seems to have to bring together and unite people. This can happen even with the most diverse groups of people imaginable. And it happened one Friday at Bradley University during the rehearsal of one rather unsuspecting choir in which I currently sing, the Bradley Chorale. In the course of our typical one-hour daily rehearsal time, we were transformed and unified with a group of strangers with which we happened to share one crucial passion — a love for choral music and singing.

This group who came to visit our rehearsal that day was the gospel choir from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The gospel choir was on tour in the Midwest and had just come from singing at the centennial celebration of a local Peoria high school. Our choir started out the hour of shared music by singing one of the selections from Mendelssohn’s oratorio “Elijah,” which we are preparing to sing for a November concert. The song, while very dramatic with intense contrasts between low and soft sections, is definitely classical in style.

After we presented our selection, it was time for our visitors to take the stage. The moment the choir began to sing, we could tell the music came straight from their souls. We were enthralled by the soloists and the way their fellow choir members encouraged and praised them as they were singing. We even were asked to participate — the choir taught us to sing a gospel song with them, as well as dancing and clapping movements. For a time, it almost felt like we were one big choir — the choir from the South and the choir from the upper Midwest, the gospel choir and the typical choir, the all-African-American choir and the predominantly Caucasian choir — all merged into a big group of singing human beings united by their love for music. Our differences and the things that separated us vanished temporarily. These things did not matter. What mattered was joining together in the excitement of the song and the rhythm.

I think both of the groups realized that each had something to learn from the other. We also felt we had more in common than all of the differences that could be clearly noted from the way we looked and spoke — and even through the types of music our choirs primarily sang. It was an authentic time of learning, and it wasn’t even given in a classroom lesson. All of us came to a new understanding just through listening to each other sing and by singing together.

That day proved two things to me — it can be a great thing for people who seem to have so many differences dividing them to come together and share in experiences that ultimately lead them to realize just how much they might have in common. Maybe doing this more often would help to eliminate prejudice and to create more understanding between people who are initially unsure about each other due what they perceive as irreconcilable differences dividing them from one another.

The experience also reminded me of the uplifting power that music seems to have for so many people. Personally, I had been having a rather difficult and unsettling week prior to the day of the gospel choir visit, and that hour spent listening to music and joining with others in song gave me the strength and attitude change that I had desperately needed all week.

So, maybe if you are having a particularly gloomy or hard time lately because of the cold and wet weather, or all the sickness that surrounds us, or just from experiencing hard times in general, you could sing, play or listen to some of your favorite type of music, whatever it may be, or better yet, you could even share it with others.

Heather Holland is a former Princeton High School student and a graduate of Augustana College. She is currently a graduate student at Bradley University in Peoria. She can be reached at hgholland@mail.bradley.edu.

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