Around the Piano

Today’s blog by Krystle Curley (Dad started a simple plumbing job yesterday, discovered years of rotting floor and will be fixing it until ............... )

I play piano. It is my favorite thing in the world, not for the delight it affords me, but for the joy that it brings to those who listen. Open a songbook, start plinking out the melody, someone starts singing . . . soon you have a chorus of voices pouring themselves out in the enjoyment of music. And it is from this “pouring out of self” from whence the joy comes.

Singing only works when it comes from the heart- it doesn’t matter if you sing like an angel or a toad as long as your song is honest and deep.

It is an expression of self - one’s beliefs, fatherland, and all else that he loves. Look at our Catholic hymn Faith of our Fathers: “Our fathers, chained in prisons dark, were still in heart and conscience free! And truly blessed would be our fate, if we like them should die for Thee!” Here is a song for all ages of Catholicism; it expresses yearning for martyrdom, love of the saints, and Adoration of God - all in two lines of music.

I am closest to those friends that I can sing with. At school after dinner we gather at the piano and sing whatever sheet music is around. We’ve done the Phantom of the Opera, “Meet me in St. Louis”, “Waltzing Matilda”, and just about everything. I’ve learned Hungarian folk songs (in Hungarian), the Sanctus in Greek, and some Russian song I don’t remember just to please Katherine.

Singing is the most important element of our community - it is a way to get to know what people really love without asking awkwardly, “So, what’s the most important thing in your life?” and “What kind of person are you?”

So there is a risk when you sing. People might get to know you!