Mich's Big Fat Hawaiian Funeral

Mich got a beautiful send-off yesterday morning. I'd say around 120 singers turned out: a good percentage of the Symphony Chorus, plenty of Choral Artists alums, strong representation from SI, St. Mary's and St. Dominic's... It felt like nearly everyone I've sung with in San Francisco showed up to make music in Mich's honor. It occured to me we were sort of like policemen, burying one of our own. Except we didn't have any polyester uniforms. And no bagpipes either (sadly).

Yesterday was a strong reminder to me of how music functions in our lives. It's not just entertainment, and it's not simply a concert-hall experience. Our calling as musicians is to help people mark important life events, and make them memorable. We create those moments when genuine emotional release is possible. We allow people entry into that space where they can express real joy and real sorrow without judgment or self-consciousness or artifice. That's a pretty special thing we get to do. And it's easy to forget what lucky bastards we are.

I must tell you, the Faure Requiem is quite a different experience when you're singing "Eternal rest give to her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her" to a friend who's in a casket in front of you. Likewise, I had a hard time with the shape-note hymn that said: "When this mortal life is ended,/ Bid us in thine arms to rest/ Till by angel bands attended,/ We awake among the blest." Today I came across this quote from Mich from an old Symphony program article:

Sometimes [the sound of the Symphony Chorus] is so achingly beautiful that I have to remove myself and just sing and become detached, because otherwise I’ll start crying. And you can’t sing when you’re crying.

Luckily there were enough of us there yesterday that we could take turns singing...

Much appreciation goes out to all the various organizers for putting together a huge amount of music in about 1.5 hrs of rehearsal with an ad hoc group of 120. And everyone was so well-behaved! I mean, not one person complained about the incense. Stop and think about that for a moment: 120 singers all individually held their tongues about incense at the same time. Truly, Mich was loved by her peers.

Not all of the music was choral. For one of the prelude pieces, Robin Sutherland (SFS's keyboardist) played William Bolcom's Graceful Ghost, a rag Bolcom wrote as a reminiscence of his father. Sutherland took a more leisurely tempo than Bolcom did on this recording (audio clip), but it was a perfectly appropriate portrait of phlegmatic Mich, ambling along, unruffled and bemused. After the homily, Ka'ala Carmack, who like Mich is a Honolulu native, stepped up with ukulele in hand to sing Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's famous Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World. And that was when just about everyone lost their shit. It was so damn beautiful, and so right. You can listen to IZ's original version in its entirety here (1.2MB).

It was a heavy morning, but one full of aloha and great music. I hope we were able to give Mich the celebration she deserved.

As a postscript, here's a piece of Nahuatl poetry I was introduced to a couple days ago by Señor P-S. Something for us all to chew on:

it is not true that we belong here (it is not true)
we are just wanderers through this world
we are just like butterflies of quick flight
we will soon disappear

it is not true
it is not true that we came to live in this earth

we just came to sleep
we just came to dream

Comments

[Maureen Chang]

Thank you to you and all the singers who attended my sister Mich's service. The beautiful sound of your voices served as a balm to the hurt and pain my family was suffering at the time. I am grateful to be the younger sister of a person loved by so many. Aloha and Much Mahalo,
Maureen Chang
Honolulu, Hawaii