Through my teen years, three of my mates and I formed an acapella quartet and learned a bunch of songs including some good old Gospel spirituals. We would sing at churches and concerts and then one day we entered a competition. I still remember the afternoon very clearly. We went to a concert hall at Queensland Uni to compete. There were practice rooms around and we found one to go and warm up our voices. The song we sang was “Steal Away”, an old spiritual. The acoustics in the practice room were amazing. As we sang together, I remember getting lost in the harmonies, feeling the sound and the song. I think it was the first time in my life I truly had an insight in to what true harmony is. When we all hit our notes well, loose items in the room would rattle and I could literally feel the sounds in my chest.

One of the interesting things about quartet singing (and lots of other music as well, I think) is that there are times when there are intentional dischords. These are times in the song when the notes don’t always fit together as we would expect or even prefer, and yet they add to the richness, challenge and pleasure of the music. It is quite hard to sing these “clashing” notes at first, but as time goes by and we realise harmony doesn’t mean unison, or sameness or even the expected, it becomes easier and eventually something to look forward to, both as a challenge and as a satisfying exercise.

Why am I babbling on about singing, acoustics and dischords? Well, tomorrow we will celebrate Harmony Day at Prescott Primary Northern, and as I reflect on the events in Christchurch last week, I feel compelled to write about what it means for us to live together in “Harmony.” The thing that I think I need reminding of most, is that Harmony cannot exist if everyone and everything is the same. It is not “Unison Day”, it is Harmony day. It is about appreciating our differences, even the dischords, and coming to the place we live in appreciation and allow the harmony to be acknowledged as challenging, satisfying. We have a school family which is very multicultural and varied and I really admire the way our children, families and staff work so hard at “Harmony.”

Thankyou – I feel it my chest.

Oh yeah. How did the quartet go in the competition? We won our category! We were the only ones in it.

Have a great and harmonious week with your kids,

Mark B