Good Friday on the front porch

Well, it happend. Gerry read my previous post and e-mailed me to say he'd like to sing. A few phone calls and we had a quorum, and tonight, seven of us -- a tenor, an alto, two trebles and two basses -- sang the songs suggested for the 14 Stations of the Cross on our front porch. It was one of those lovely Midwestern spring evenings that makes the long winter almost worth it.

We started at about 7:45 and it took us about an hour to go through them. The singing was strong, and as I hoped several passersby stopped to listen to the strangely beautiful sounds coming from the porch. The connection of a few of the songs to the station to which they were assigned eluded us, but most of them fit very nicely. A couple of times someone spoke about the station or a song, but mostly we just sang them. I noticed we sang at a some what slower tempo most of the time, which gave it just the right mood

The only complaint from one singer was that there weren't enough fuguing tunes. When I announced that the song for station 11 -- Jesus is nailed to the cross-- was number 300, the alto said, "What's that, Calvary? Hot diggity!"

Easter Anthem at the end was wonderfully trimphant.

After the prepared program, we sang a little more, and then broke for ginger-lemon sandwich cookies and an hour of conversation. It felt right to do something on Good Friday, and this was the right thing to do. We closed with "Living Hope" #500:

When from the dead He raised His Son
And called Him to the sky,
He gave our souls a living hope
That they should never die.

* * * *

Gerry and I have decided to go to Chicago in two weeks for the 21st Annual Sacred Harp Midwest Convention and are going on an outfit he found called Megabus -- $8 one way, $15 the way back. (Some fares are even cheaper: e.g., $1 from Chicago to St. Louis depending on the schedule.) It's hub is Chicago, and it connects to Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, St. Louis, and Indianapolis. We'll get on the bus in Minneapolis at 11:50 pm on Friday and will arrive in Chicago at 7 am Saturday. On Sunday, we leave Chicago about the same time and arrive home by 8 or so. I don't know how they do it, but we're gonna try it out and are looking forward to an adventure.