Consonance is important not only for singing. By achieving it in life and speaking together with others, we can solve many problems and achieve much greater results. Conductor and choirmaster Liya Obshadko tells how the choir personifies society and what useful things we can take from the principles of its harmony.
The choir is a model of an ideal human community. In it, each «I» hears others and joins them, while not losing itself. If we all learn to hear each other, then the wars will stop, I’m sure.
I say to the choristers: “Why are we given one mouth and two ears? To hear twice as much as to speak.» If you don’t learn to listen in the choir, you won’t build a single chord. The same is true in society. Once we learned a children’s song, it contains the words «Come on, friends, always wish each other well» — simple but useful.
It is not necessary to agree, it is not even necessary to consider others good, we just wish them well.
If tensions happen between the participants, I say: you are all different, you have different views, habits, ages — after all, in the «Little Chapel» we have people from 16 to 86 years old — someone you like, someone not.
If you don’t like this person, don’t go near him. But you are together, you sing, you have one music, and this unites you, you found it, that’s good. And we will not argue on different topics, we will remain with our own, this does not prevent us from singing together.
In life it often seems that you need to be better than others, but in the choir another principle is to be in harmony with others. No matter how beautiful your voice is, if it stands out from the choir, it harms both the choir and you.
If a nail sticks out of the sofa, even a very beautiful one, it will be pulled out. And it’s bad for everyone: there is a hole in the sofa, and the nail is in the trash. So in the choir it is important not to hang around, to listen to each other. Then there is consonance.
We practice on Friday evenings, and many people say to me: “The end of the day, the end of the working week, I can hardly go to rehearsal. And after it, as if on wings, I fly. That’s how it works: it gives lightness.
No need to adapt to others, you just need to hear them and sound yourself
I think all bosses should go through singing in the choir. I sing in the chorus of choirmasters, and there I realized how important it is for the leader to say a kind word to everyone. I felt on myself that when the leader does not pay attention, it’s a shame. It is useful for the boss to feel this for himself.
And singing in a choir helps to temper your ambitions. If they are too large, this makes the person in the choir uncomfortable. In ordinary life, you can not notice this for a long time, quarrel with others, not understanding why. And in the choir it immediately becomes noticeable, but it can be corrected very quickly. There is no competition in the choir, there is partnership.
When a person sings, he is very open — not only figuratively, but also literally: his mouth, throat, ligaments are open. The voice is the physical embodiment of the soul.
We open our soul, and next to us others are just as open. And we feel that it is possible to be completely open — and at the same time in harmony with others. No need to adapt to them, you just need to hear them and sound yourself. And harmony will arise: after all, this word is translated like this — consonance.