“This is what I want everyone to experience at the end of my concert is everyone has this sense of
Songweavers happy singing
rejoicing. I want them to have this sense of real, real joy from the depths of their being. Because I think when you are taken to that place, then you open up a place where grace can come in.”
~Bobby McFerrin
Songweavers had our first concert last Sunday and are getting ready for our second concert on April 22 in Concord. In preparation, I have been thinking about grace, how music takes us beyond our linear brain into a place of unexpected spaciousness. That spaciousness is like the ever-widening rings on a lake. As singers, we release a song into the air, the rings of sound washing through the room and everyone in it. The sound resonates through our bodies, literally creating added space between the molecules and cells, loosening constriction, relaxing muscles, opening the breath.
To close today’s rehearsal, we sang “May You Dwell in the Heart,” the final song of our program. It is a Buddhist blessing. “May you dwell in the heart./ May you be filled with kindness. /May you be well./ May you be at peace.” We start with the melody, then the high part floats over the top. The bottom part enters and we finally hear the ground of the chord. As the harmony unfolds, it feels like double doors open in the center of my chest. I can feel the waves of energy expand out those doors, flowing beyond myself. A song of simple, but beautiful words and uncomplicated harmony transcends space and time. Our hearts open and we merge into one pulsing, resonant being. “May you dwell in peace.” As the last note fades, there are many women wiping away tears, including me. Grace has come in. We have been moved from the depths of our being.
This experience of joy, as McFerrin calls it, expands throughout the body on vibration, beyond bones, mind and form. The right and left hemispheres of the brain merge. The barriers of individuality melt. In the spaciousness of joy, “grace can come in.”
Join us next Saturday, April 22 at 5:00pm at South Congregational Church at 27 Pleasant St. in Concord. For tickets, call Concord Community Music School at 603-228-1196 or go to ccmusicschool.org.
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