Two days ago we drove to London, Ontario, and back to attend the funeral for Terry Head, Director of Music at First-St.Andrew's United Church. Terry had been the Minister of Music at Bridge St. United Church here in Belleville and a colleague. He died suddenly at age 49 and we mourn his loss.
The word is that there will be also be a memorial service for Terry in the new year as well, but we knew the music for Tuesday's funeral would be unsurpassed. It was all marvelous and honoured his commitment to excellence in every way, including the congregational singing. There were at last two hundred congregants so with that many voices the hymns were powerful affirmations of life in the midst of death.
Since then I've thought of a recent article about a Swedish study which monitored the hear rates of singers as they performed a variety of choral works.
They found that as the members sang in unison, their pulses began to speed up and slow down at the same rate. Writing in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, the scientists believe the synchrony occurs because the singers coordinate their breathing.
Dr Bjorn Vickhoff, from the Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University in Sweden, said: "The pulse goes down when you exhale and when you inhale it goes up. "So when you are singing, you are singing on the air when you are exhaling so the heart rate would go down. And between the phrases you have to inhale and the pulse will go up.
"If this is so then heart rate would follow the structure of the song or the phrases, and this is what we measured and this is what we confirmed."
This is remarkable, it seems to me, yet rings true. Sadly, we were in Sudbury earlier this year for another funeral where music figured prominently and the hymns stirred the large congregation. There is something about singing as an expression of joy or sorrow which is both uniting and transformative. Even when hearts are broken, figuratively speaking, they are brought together to connect with the heart beat of God, which is resurrection hope.
Would I recommend driving across the top of Toronto during rush hour each way in order to attend a funeral service? Not really, yet we would do so again.
Here is the link to the article from BBC News
2 comments:
This was one of those occasions where we did not really have a choice - in spite of the traffic and the hour ! Thank God we had a good driver ! (And, it is always the music which will last a long time, for me . )
Thanks Judy.
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