I actually broke down and cried this past week while watching the computer screen and listening to sounds that were originating – live – from more than 1,300 miles away. Beautiful, musical sounds. Not to mention the sights.
And multiple times throughout the 23 hours that I dedicated to this activity over the course of five days, even though I didn’t cry, the tears welled up, and my throat ached. Right now, even as I’m typing, I am again wiping my eyes.
Make no mistake: These are tears of joy.
This past week, from Tuesday through Saturday, I spent every hour that I could viewing and listening to the first Sweet Adelines International worldwide competition since September 2019, when 13 of my Piney Hills Harmony chorus-mates and I attended what turned out to be the last such contest before Covid shut down the world.
This year, four of my fellow chorus members witnessed in person the historic re-entry of the Sweet Adelines’ contest onto the international stage in Phoenix. Meanwhile, I was cheering from here in Ruston – remembering the old harmonies, admiring the new ones, swaying in my chair, chapping my hands, laughing at the jokes, recognizing familiar faces and embedding new ones into my memory, all the while thanking God for my connection with this organization and these people and this music that means so much to me.
It has been a long three years ….
But as multiple people said on the webcast over the weekend, “Sweet Adelines is back, baby!”
For those of you who may not know, Sweet Adelines International is a worldwide organization of women singers, established in 1945, committed to advancing the musical art form of barbershop harmony (that is, tight, four-part a cappella harmony) through education and performances. It’s one of the world’s largest singing organizations for women. I have belonged to Ruston’s Piney Hills Harmony chapter for 33 years.
While I’ve known for almost my whole life that music is a gift from God, the events of the past three years – and now this past week – have accentuated that fact in my mind.
There’s much more to singing than the scientific knowledge that our vocal cords and the physical characteristics of our anatomy make this pursuit possible. As one blog post I recently read noted, “God gives us music as a reflection of the goodness and beauty of His presence.”
Another article said: “Music is God’s gift to the heart … Music has power. It can calm us, stir us and lift our spirits. It can express both our joys and our sorrows. Common to virtually all cultures – past and present – music is a language of both the mind and heart …
“From the time we were born, we likely heard some kind of music … The voice is directly in contact with the seat from which our deepest emotions spring, and it is the most efficient instrument for expressing them … Good music can be good medicine.”
Those writers said it so much better than anything I was planning to share. What’s more, they put last week’s experience into even greater perspective.
But here’s what I want to add. Women, if you like to sing and have an average or better singing voice, Sweet Adelines and Piney Hills Harmony could be the place for you. As we observed, the mere fact that you have musical talent is a gift from God, and one reason might be so that you can share it with others. Then if you share, the music becomes a gift to those who hear it.
So be a giver. Don’t hoard your abilities. You can share and develop them through Piney Hills Harmony Chorus and Sweet Adelines. In the past 12 months we have added nine people to our roster. As we begin preparing for holiday sing-outs and our regional competition to be held next spring, there’s a spot on the risers that could be emblazoned with your name.
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Sallie Rose Hollis lives in Ruston and retired from Louisiana Tech as an associate professor of journalism and the assistant director of the News Bureau. She can be contacted at sallierose@mail.com.
