I hear voices. They’re not in my head: the singing is on the Facebook feed of my synagogue’s Friday-night service.
I hear voices. They’re not working hard, as near as I can tell: they seem to effortlessly cross time and space from Eastern-Time Ottawa to Mountain-Time Tempe via some magic we’ve named “streaming”, just as if that explained it.
I hear voices. They’re not all the same: indeed, they’re not even all trying to be the same. What’s with that? Some voices are wafting above the others, singing different notes from the melody. Not wrong or off-putting notes, not can’t-sing-that-high/low notes, not don’t-actually-know-this-tune notes. Notes that somehow work with the melody; notes that somehow enhance it.
Without being able to do it beyond an exceedingly basic level, I learned to call this activity “harmony”. However, when I look up “harmony” online for a quotable quote, I am immediately swamped by tsunamis of text (here and here, for example) and video (here and here and here, for example) that assume an understanding of concepts and distinctions that I do not have or much want to acquire. I am, in fact, more than happy just to enjoy being in the presence of good harmonizers, however anyone defines it.
When I was first learning the different and usually a capella melodies used by different cantors for the same prayer, dagnab it, the occasional in-the-moment variations by people around me threw me off. What? We’re supposed to sing a different note here? Why didn’t someone say? But now that I know the major through-lines, as it were, I can appreciate the harmonies for what they are while holding to my part.
Why are we talking about vocal harmony/harmonizing? Because it reminds me of the beauty that can come with variation. Not wild, thoughtless, or ignorant variation, but variation introduced by someone who could absolutely sign the melody note-for-perfect-in-key-note and yet who chooses something a little different. Because vocal harmony gives me hope for our community: that when we each know our own part well enough to sing it confidently, maybe we can appreciate the different notes that someone else brings to our song.
