Perfect Harmony

This week is concert week for the chorus that I am a member of.  It means two nights of rehearsal and two performances which equals a lot of singing.  I love being part of a group of women that spends time together making music.  We are not professional musicians but spend time and effort learning notes, exploring musical nuances and perfecting our performance.  For 2 ½ hours a week I become lost in the complexity of music mastery and the production of choral sound.

At camp singing is a large part of our everyday lives.  We sing silly songs, rowdy songs, quiet, contemplative melodies and most importantly we sing our Runoia songs.  We spend time at Assembly learning songs; some have been sung for generations and others are new to Runoia.  Old songs carry our history. Hearing them reminds us of our special place on Great Pond.  We find ourselves humming Runoia tunes when we are far from camp and know that many of our alumnae sing them to their own children as lullabies.

Our camp songs have actions, guitar accompaniments, nonsense words, no words, harmonies, different parts or barely a tune.    We make songs up to popular tunes, we lip sync, we cry while we sing: sometimes from laughing and sometimes because it is our last time of the season singing together.

At camp it is not the quality or musicality that matters so much although we do channel our inner Diane Smith and try to hit those odd high notes in Tumbledown and It’s Blue and White! It is more that we do something together.  We can be heard singing in the Lodge, Dining Hall, around the campfire, in a sail boat or canoe, down the path to the waterfront, out on the hiking trails, for the camp Talent Show and in the vans. Songs are a unique part of our camp culture that we pass along orally and through our song book.

Songs and singing make us happy! Music has the ability to unite us. We may not always sing in perfect harmony but we sing together to celebrate our community, traditions and just because we can!  It is part of who we are at Runoia it is our ‘Harmony’.

Listen to a few favorite Runoia songs here!