This week in addition to reviewing several songs, we added our last two songs to our repertoire, a beautiful arrangement by Bruce and Linda Walker of a well-known traditional Scottish song “Loch Lomond” and the stirring and magnificent “A Psalm of Life”.
FYI: Loch Lomond is a freshwater Scottish loch, lying in Central Scotland. It is the largest lake in Great Britain, and a popular leisure destination.
Bruce and Linda’s arrangement of the song finds the melody interchanging between the sopranos and altos and many times we will find 4 part harmonies. We are reminded to pronounce the words as the Scottish would by dropping the ‘g’ in words like sleep-in or com-in or gloam-in. (which by the way means twilight; dusk)
“A Psalm of Life” reminds us that what we say and do should always be to lift and love and brighten the life of another. Technically, as there are many phrases that end in ‘er’ (like light-er, bright-er, sweet-er, fleet-er, an-oth-er, oth-er, strong-er, long-er) watch that you drop the r so that the sound is not harsh.
This brings our repertoire to 11 songs, the first 7 they would like us to have memorized:
“I Feel a Song Comin’ On”
“Home of My Heart”
“Ku-Ku”
“Loch Lomond”
“Ha Shalom”
“April Showers”
“Embraceable You”
“There Is Sunshine in My Soul Today”
“Abide With Me; ‘ Tis Eventide”
“Pie Jesu”
“A Psalm of Life”
Have fun memorizing.
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