A Gift From Above

 “A gift from above dropped in our laps,” choir director Cathy Crispino said.

On Friday, Aug. 21, poet laureate of Kansas Caryn Mirriam Goldberg and singer/songwriter Kelley Hunt made their first of many visits to A Cappella choir during fifth hour.

Goldberg and Hunt have collaborated on many pieces in the past, but they wanted to try something new.  Goldberg’s daughter Natalie Lassman, a member of A Cappella, is the link in the new connection.  Together  A Cappella , Hunt and Goldberg will create a song for the Oct. 14 concert.

The theme of the fall concert in which the new song will be performed is “I love, I cry, I sing, I dream.” The theme was inspired by the translation of one of A Cappella’s pieces entitled “Alma Llanera”.

“Each of the other choirs has four tunes in their set—one for each theme,” Crispino said. “A Cappella choir’s songs are overlapping so that we can take this new song wherever we want to go.”

A Seasoned Duo

Hunt and Goldberg have been writing songs together for years.

“People assume that she does the music and I do the words,” Goldberg said. “Actually, sometimes we have no idea who wrote what.”

During their first visit, Hunt performed two of their creations for A Cappella choir: a bluesy song called “Love” and a faster song which the choir joined in on called “You Got to be the Vessel”.

“We have a great time together because we treat it as an experiment,” Goldberg said. “It’s like jumping off a cliff while holding someone’s hand.”

Hear these songs and more on the Kelley Hunt jukebox.

A Song is Born

 “Write ‘I dream’ on the top of your paper,” Goldberg said. “For five minutes, just write whatever comes to mind—words, phrases—whatever you want.”

When five minutes had elapsed, A Cappella choir shared their ideas. While some had written just words, others had assembled entire poems.  

The group then discussed how they wanted the song to sound.  See what ideas the choir suggested.

On Wednesday, Aug. 27, the choir began to learn the song Hunt and Goldberg wrote with their input. The song is called “Dream it All”.  Check out the lyrics here. 

Harmony out of Chaos

 “You won’t be looking at sheet music when you learn this,” Hunt said. “You’ll need to learn it as we go. And don’t get too attached to your voice part—we might shake things up a bit.”

While only a few of the choir members had experience in learning music by rote, the choir was able to learn the basic bridge, chorus and verses on the first day.

Instead of dividing into the typical soprano, alto, tenor and bass voice parts, A Cappella members chose the parts they connected to most and got to sing the parts in octaves of their choice.

“This song isn’t going to be the hardest thing you’ve ever sung,” Hunt said. “It’s about the emotion. You may start this song on the risers, but I don’t think that’s where you’re going to end up.”

A Cappella members turned to each other and grinned.  This would be a memorable performance.

 “Our intention is to make it fun, surprise the audience and make you shine,” Hunt said. “We want jaws on the floor – not just because of what we’ve done, but what you’ve done.”