
Practice Tracks
~A note on cultural appropriation~
•Recordings are for your ears only! Do not disseminate. For real. It's illegal.•
•And bare with me on some of these, they're quite imperfect. Sometimes its flat by the end of the recording, or my voice is straining. But I hope these rough cuts get the basic parts across!•
•If a track glitches, try refreshing the page.
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This is the charge I keep as mine
The goal of every hope and plan
to cancel the dividing line
between me and my fellow man
​
This song is inspired by the "four universal addictions" as described by Angeles Arrien in her book, The Four-fold Way. They are 1. The addiction to Intensity, 2. The addiction to Perfection, 3. The addiction to Focusing on whats going wrong. 4. The addiction to "knowing" This may be my favorite of all Karly Loveling songs right now, because when the rhythm is clicked into, it is seriously groovy and unstoppable!
I learned this song as a foot stompin' round at Catoctin Quaker Camp when I was Nine years old. That's how I have it presented here. Turns out there is actually a written score for Soprano, Alto, and Bass, written in 1972, which can be found here. Interesting. It has a calypso rhythmic section... "For Joyous Occasions" . The translation more specifically is "Let us rejoice today."
Gaudeamus Hodie
This is a magical song with a magical lineage. It is an old Christian hymn that means, roughly, "To you we are singing, we are blessing you. We thank God and pray to you, Lord our God." And I encourage taking lightly the somewhat staunch translation that has been passed down. This is a song of ultimate praise and gratitude for life, and its harmonies are out of this world. It was passed to me by Laurence Cole, who received it from one of his mentors, Siobhan Robinsong, who received it from one of the founders of the Natural Voice Network, Nick Prater. There is a story that Laurence's choir sang it at an old folks' home in Port Townsend, and on their way out, a nurse with a Russian accent came rushing out, "Please, please, come sing it again to my father! He cannot leave his room, but when he heard this song from his childhood there were tears streaming down his eyes! He wants to hear it again." So they came back and did a bedside rendition to the nurse's father, who was a resident there. This is an encouraging example of how cultural appropriation can sometimes shelter and transport a potency and depth, even when in foreign hands, to eager ears. The man hadn't heard the song in something like fifty years...
Tibyeh pieyom
tibyeh blagoslovim
tibyeh blagodarim
go spo di
ee molim tibyeh bojanash x3
go spo di
a men x3
This mesmerizing four-part round by Becky Reardon eloquently points to the reality that we, as support for our friends, family, and wider community, cannot live out one another's life/experiences/ challenges, but we can "keep watch". It gives me a sense of solidity in those who care for me. It's saying, "I'll be there for you, though your path may be dark, and you will walk it alone." Musically, this song is really fun to sing, especially on the arching note on the words "Keep Watch". It feels impossible to sing this one without moving to the layering harmonies.
We cannot follow you where you are going.
What you are feeling we cannot know.
But we will keep watch, watch through the night
watch till your journey brings you home.
As we pick the manifold seeds this Autumn from the massive heads of sunflowers, let's enjoy this round by Sam Long that keeps geing higher, higher, and higher, in honor of the tall bright giants than look lovingly down upon us.
Sunflower open,
underneath you have only begun,
yellow and bright, you are among
so many like flowers in sun
so stand tall!
A haunting operatic-sounding, yet simple song. Great for beginner song leaders! The three parts are all different lengths so loop at different rates, which is part of why this song gives a lot out of a little, so to speak.
A gratitude song to our endlessly intelligent bodies, this song recognizes that often, the body knows best. The three-part harmony overlaying the groovy bass parts creates an interesting dynamic sound.
Body body thank you
Body body thank you
Oh body body thank you
Body body thank you
​
You know what to do ohohoh body thank you
​
Body feels, body shows
Body heals, body knows
Lyrics:
Zoryushka weiczerniaja
Zoryushka weiczerniaja
Oj, liuli, liuli, zoryushka weiczerniaja
Dream Our Dream by Helen Yeomans
Soprano:
We’ll dream our dream together
Before we go
We’ll weave our wish into the stars
We’ll dream our dream together
Before the sunrise
Alto:
We’ll dream our dream
Before we go
We’ll weave our magic
We’ll dream before the sunrise
We’ll dream our dream
Before we go
We’ll weave our magic
We’ll dream before the sunrise
Tenor:
We’ll dream
Our dream before we go
Away
Weave our magic
We’ll dream
Before the sunrise
Bass:
We’ll dream
Our dream before
We go away
We’ll dream our dream
Before the sunrise
​
​
A round from a poem by Kabir
When you were born you cried
And the world rejoiced
Live your life so that when you die
The world cries and you rejoice
Lyrics:
Part 1
Everything lives in obligation to everything that lives x2
Part 2 & harmony
Every - everything in all creation everything everything is alive
Part 3
Everything in all creation is alive
An autumn round from a Hark singer, Jess Kaufman
Lyrics:
Treetops kissed
With yellow all around
The fall is settling settling down
The heavy fog the grasses browning
Turning inward nesting down
Underneath the Sun by Helen Yeomans
Lyrics:
Soprano:
Won’t you come sing
Under the sun
Won’t you come sing
Under the sun
Won’t you come sing
Underneath the sun
Sing with me
Alto & Tenor:
Eh won’t you sing
With me
Underneath the sun
Sing with me
Bass:
Won’t ya come sing with me
Under the sun
Won’t you come sing with me
Under the sun
Won’t you come sing with me
Underneath the sun
Sing with me
Written by our very own Ellison, the crunchy chords manage to melodically convey the coincidence of light and dark that we experience on a moonlit snowy night.
Practice Tracks
Moonlight Over the Field
Moonlight, casting shadows on the snowy ground,
casting shadows on the ground
Words by Rumi. Arranged by Laurence Cole.
I found the album "the book of rounds" by the October Project years ago, but never really noticed this one until some songleader friends sang it with me this year. Another Mary Poppins gem. Sometimes a song doesn't pop in recorded form and it's worth singing songs with friends to see how it sounds in reality.
As the sun is rising to shine
over the ocean into the sky
the whole world, ancient and new
holds the beauty inside you