by Sara Vokes, Music Director
When I was a baby, my mama said that I would smile when she’d sing a very specific song to me. She sang to me in Danish, her childhood language. As a child I did not understand the words and now as an adult, I struggle to speak it and must take care in studying the pronunciation when I sing it. Ah, but I love this song.
What is it about this song? Is it the tune? Was it her beautiful face smiling down at me? It was a silly, little song that I loved to hear before falling asleep.
“Højt på en Gren Krage – Sim sala dim bam ba sala du sala dim
højt på en Gren Krage sad”
“High on a branch a crow sat.”
To this day, all these years later I hear this song in my ears, and I immediately feel love. Why?
The radio on my 22-year-old VW Beetle still turns on however, the speakers no longer work. It’s been six years since I’ve listened to music in the car. I have become accustomed to not having a radio on and find solace in occasionally filling the silence with my humming or singing. And my mood when driving has improved! I smile at fellow drivers, letting them in front of me, waving them on, thanking them for letting me in. When someone cut me off this morning, I surprised myself by saying out loud “Be careful honey”. Could it be, that remembering music that gives me joy has created a kinder side of me?
A fellow musician friend recently passed but before she did, she gave me a book by Dr. Oliver Sacks, “Musicophillia: Tales of Music and the Brain”. It is an intense book however, Dr. Sacks words spoke very clearly to me: “Music, uniquely among the arts, is both completely abstract and profoundly emotional. It has no power to represent anything particular or external, but it has a unique power to express inner states or feelings. Music can pierce the heart directly; it needs no mediation.”
It’s so true. When I sing, I cannot touch that sound and yet, it has a physical and emotional effect on the listener including myself. The tangible yet intangible. Amazing, isn’t it?
If you’re so inclined, stop by The Meetinghouse on a Sunday afternoon and attend a concert or join in the Acoustic Song Circle.
You never know what memories it may make in you.
-Sara
And now, click below to listen to Højt på en Gren Krage
https://vimeo.com/1016305076?share=copy
