Harmony

(Putting together some notes for a hymn festival)

Our word harmony comes from the old Greek word harmos, meaning "a joining or a fitting."  Whether you see harmony in dancing or hear it in singing, or watch it when a couple of infielders turn a perfect double play, harmony happens when two or more things come together perfectly, when they simply fit or agree.

That kind of harmony is both haunting and enriching. My mother's family used to sit around our living room and sing--sometimes happy little verses and silly songs. But the favorites you couldn't laugh about I remember best, songs like my grandpa's favorite "Beautiful Savior." When we'd sing those songs in harmony, the last note would only reluctantly leave the room, and for a moment no one would speak.

The people of Wales in the UK have a grand tradition of harmony. As many as ten thousand of them gather together to sing, to make music, in a gathering they call a Cymanfu Ganu. Even here in this country, in upstate New York, gatherings of Welsh-Americans still gather to sing.

The fiction writer John Gardner grew up among them. In his story "Come on Back," the community, shattered by the suicide of a man who'd been a singer, a soloist, are broken and disconsolate until they gather after the funeral and begin simply to sing. Harmony, "a joining or a fitting," weaves their pain together.

"Guide Me, O My Great Redeemer" was written by a Welshman for a Cymanfu Ganu. Its melody, a tune called CWM RHONDDA, is named after the Rhondda river valley, right there in the coal-mining district of Wales, a place where great singing festivals took place.

If you've got a moment, you might want to listen--and watch, and be sure to catch the final lines, sung in Welch.