It's high holiday season again, the busiest time for the synagogue choir. We've trucked out our music and trained our rusty voices on the old standards and a few relatively unfamiliar tunes, preparing for our big moments of the year, the days we'll be up there singing all day, while the people in the audience doze off or whisper to each other under their breath.
On these days, particularly Yom Kippur, people spend so many hours in the sanctuary you can catch them doing almost anything. Siblings fight, parents admonish, people flip ahead to a more interesting part of the service. Meanwhile, from the bimah, we see it all, getting a rabbi's eye view.
2 comments:
That's funny that you watch the congregation. I sang in the church choir for years when I attended parochial school, but I remember being so taken up with the choir director and the other members that I didn't look at the people at all. We sang from a loft far above the floor of a large church.
We know the music so well that we barely need to watch the director. When there's a new song or a new arrangement, of course that keeps us busy. I don't read music, so when there's something I don't know well, I have to watch the director or listen carefully to those around me, if they know it better than I do. Since they can read music and I am one of the few who can't, I generally listen to them.
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