(no subject)
Okay, so thanks to my being horribly jetlagged (it's not 5 in the morning, it's noon, goddamnit!) and having some really nasty kind of allergy-induced cough, sleeping is not so much happening right now. What better time for writing about my trip and my life right now?
Ukraine is honestly just indescribable. I feel stupid even trying, but I figure most people probably want to know all about it, so I'll do my best.
MUSICALLY: Amazing. Having a small group (only 12 of us including leaders) meant that everyone really got a lot of individual attention and everyone was essential and present, all the time...and while some of our older ladies weren't exactly experienced singers, everyone put in a lot of effort and no one dragged the group down. Our American music was a lot of fun.
Our Ukrainian set, though, just really shined. We had a good group for it, vocally, and the moment we did our first concert the music just popped. It was probably the highlight of the trip to sing what we think of as "just another song" and watch half the audience singing along and/or tearing up because their mother used to sing them that song as a child. Many of them were just ecstatic to hear their music sung by a group of random young Americans.
And when we would go to visit groups of old women singers, where they would feed us ridiculous amounts of food and let us dress up in their old traditional clothes--and then we'd sit down to sing. And we'd sing them a song or two, that they'd never heard anyone sing besides themselves and that they just happened to sing to our Ukrainian leader/ethnomusicologist fifteen or twenty years ago. We'd sing for them, they'd sing for us (often for several hours) and upon leaving they would hug and kiss and dote on each one of us, as if they never wanted us to leave.
This trip was a singing trip, but it wasn't about the music. It was about using music to create something more profound than any of us could ever have imagined.
Ukraine is honestly just indescribable. I feel stupid even trying, but I figure most people probably want to know all about it, so I'll do my best.
MUSICALLY: Amazing. Having a small group (only 12 of us including leaders) meant that everyone really got a lot of individual attention and everyone was essential and present, all the time...and while some of our older ladies weren't exactly experienced singers, everyone put in a lot of effort and no one dragged the group down. Our American music was a lot of fun.
Our Ukrainian set, though, just really shined. We had a good group for it, vocally, and the moment we did our first concert the music just popped. It was probably the highlight of the trip to sing what we think of as "just another song" and watch half the audience singing along and/or tearing up because their mother used to sing them that song as a child. Many of them were just ecstatic to hear their music sung by a group of random young Americans.
And when we would go to visit groups of old women singers, where they would feed us ridiculous amounts of food and let us dress up in their old traditional clothes--and then we'd sit down to sing. And we'd sing them a song or two, that they'd never heard anyone sing besides themselves and that they just happened to sing to our Ukrainian leader/ethnomusicologist fifteen or twenty years ago. We'd sing for them, they'd sing for us (often for several hours) and upon leaving they would hug and kiss and dote on each one of us, as if they never wanted us to leave.
This trip was a singing trip, but it wasn't about the music. It was about using music to create something more profound than any of us could ever have imagined.