More Than Four Sides

Category: Music

  • The restorative power of singing…

    I feel like I’ve written about this before, but searching on the word “choir” didn’t produce the results that I thought it would.  I figured that I must have written sometime in the past about how therapeutic it is for me to join with a group of people, be they close friends or total strangers,…

  • Music is love… Music is life

    I think I’ve written about this before, but it recently became very present for me again when I was listening to streaming music, and the song “Music is love”, by David Crosby, came on.  The version inserted here is Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young:

  • Good music

    I turned on the radio this morning in the middle of the program On Being, and heard Krista Tippett ask her guest (who I soon realized was Yoyo Ma) “So if you could replace the words “classical music” with another phrase, or some other words, what would they be?” Her question immediately brought back to…

  • Jazz – it’s all about balancing on the edge

    I have played music, or sung (same thing, just using the voice as one’s instrument), from the time I was about 6 years old, maybe earlier.  I remember hearing music from my earliest memories.  Both my parents played music, in very different ways, and music was never always something to listen to only, but something…

  • Well May the World Go…

    Well may the world go, The world go, the world go, Well may the world go, When I’m far away. And, now, Pete Seeger is far away.  Or maybe not. So much has been written and said of this great singer and activist – I can hardly add much to the beautiful tributes of others.…

  • Wedding Bells

    I’ve been thinking a lot about weddings lately. Last Sunday, Tikvat Israel hosted the annual spring Cantor’s concert, this year titled “Under the Chuppah” The concert was amazing, with members of the community providing explanations of the various elements and traditions in a Jewish wedding.  Over several weeks before the concert, the event was previewed…

  • Rehearsal night

    Tonight was my choir rehearsal night. It’s one of my two regular weekly activities that serve to restore my soul. The other is my voice lesson, so they’re both about singing. (That’s tomorrow). But today’s rehearsal was a little complicated. Dad left early this morning (really early!) to spend the day with our niece in…

  • Harry Belafonte

    I haven’t posted in awhile, but have had all kinds of thoughts brewing in my head…looking back at my last post, Mishpacha & Me, I am thinking more and more of the connections that I have to Harry Belafonte, a wonderful singer, whose music was a soundtrack to a lot of my happiest childhood moments.…

  • Meredith Monk

    I regularly listen to the APM program On Being hosted by Krista Tippett, and I often listen to both the produced/edited podcast, as well as the uncut interview. This program was fascinating, but I actually enjoyed the unedited interview more than the produced show – I have to admit that I had the same reaction…