What’s so special about that? Think about it. When you were a kid, your Grampa probably read to you – something like “The Little Engine Who Could” – the onomatopoetic “I think I can, I think I can” emulating the chug, chug, chug of an overburdened little train struggling up a mountainside.
To this day, most every English speaker under the age of about 80 can hear that little train engine inside our brains … evoking memories of a simpler time.
Words on a page are not meant to be read. They are meant to SHOUT inside our heads, resounding off the hard surfaces. If you stumble or cringe when reading your written copy aloud, it’s better scribed into a lawyer’s court document or spat out on the sawdust-covered floor of a barroom.
Of course, the setting of your words must, too, be considered with care. An off-the-cuff phrase appropriate to “The Grapes of Wrath” doesn’t work in the 21st century, no matter how informal the contemporary setting. Similarly, you can’t communicate four letters at a time in a church, a school or a white-collar workplace (although the Oval Office, apparently, is a different case entirely).
But the proper words, set forth with skill and verve, can be elevated by setting to a true art form. A story, if you will:
I’m a singer – not by avocation, nor by virtue of any particular talent (though I can basically carry a tune), but because I like to do it. My tummy tingles and my cerebrum floods with endorphins when just the right confluence of four notes – soprano, alto, tenor and bass – creates a harmonic envelope around the choir loft.
Actually, it’s akin to an opium high – a concept that would, I’m confident, horrify our resident Choir Lady, who is diligent in focusing our attention on the words of the text, and away from the harmonics of performance (one never “performs” in church, I’m told, but rather “sings praises” …. the distinction is largely lost on me).
That feeling should never end.
That same “high” ensues from a particularly well-turned phrase. “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” makes plain sense on a literal level, but also imputes a moral mini-lesson, along with sound financial advice. A fascinating cultural colloquy might evolve contrasting the Spanish, “A bird in the hand has more value than a hundred flying,” with its English counterpart.
Music, repetition, harmony, counterpoint and a magical acoustical setting can combine to elevate the most mundane of prose into the Voice of God. Our choir next month will present “Handel’s Messiah.” Singers who don’t so much as hum in the bathtub anymore come out of the woodwork at this season to deign be a voice in that grandest of Christmas communiqués.
True, the music is magnificent, and the voices typically outstanding. But have you ever paid attention to the words? At the first strain of organ/violin/trumpet sounding, an entire congregation, Carnegie Hall, heck, Yankee Stadium rises to its feet in anticipation of the first thrilling “hallelujah.”
But have you ever paid attention to the words? The words of this revered offering, whose harmonies traverse the spine like a stairway to heaven? They are a testament to appropriateness of setting, for surely, without the trumpets, adoring audiences and centuries of tradition, these 37 words would be overlooked and ignored in the busy-ness of the Christmas season. In their entirety, unrepeated:
Hallelujah! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. The kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever. King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Nice, but not likely to be case-bound and featured on the New York Times best-seller list, or sell for a buck-three-eighty on eBay … except that they are 37 entirely proper words crafted aptly for a glorious setting: The worship of our Lord at Christmastime.
Write to the ear. Consider the audience. Get that small voice heard inside the head. For if you succeed with your audience, you are a Writer of no small skill.Next: The Perfect Words (Part 1)
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