September 11th Memorial Sing, The Living Room, NYC

"SEPTEBER 11TH MEMORIAL SING: Sacred Harp at the Living Room, NYC" CD  
  This is a draft.  I still need 
the names of all the singers who attended 
for the cd I will give to the firefighters, the  American
Folklife Center and Berkley Moore who maintains a 
Recording Index which appears on fasola.org.
Corrections and comments are welcome.



 

We had six song dedications.  


The first two were written by Rev. Everett J. Wabst,
Chaplain, Former FDNY Firefighter.

“This song is dedicated to:

William Prechtel
Richard Kelly, Jr.
Edward J. Day
Matthew S. Rogan
John F. Heffernen
and 
Michael F. Cammarata

Of  Ladder Co. 11 as a Farewell and Thank You, a prayer that
you'll never forget us or the service of those that follow.”
# 347 "A Christian's Farewell", both verses.

 

“This song is dedicated to the firefighters as part of this
community who offer the supreme sacrifice for their fellow citizens: all who
have been saved and all who have perished, in recognition that we all die
together when we are called.”
47b "Idumea", First and Last verse”

 

The third, for Mike Shwartztein who could not attend, was
“dedicated in loving memory to Allan Shwartzstein.”
86 "Poland", 1st and 2nd verse only.

Laura Warman dedicated #146, “Hallelujah” “to Victor, the
kindest person I ever met.”

Mary Ellen Schrock dedicated # 171, “Exhortation”, for
her colleague’s mother.


"When I Am Gone", # 339, was led by Lauren Bock in memory of Kevin Conroy.


And lastly, Susan Hanson, dedicated, 473 “Carmarthen” to her
son, Jared, in gratitude for his survival of that day.

To commemorate the day Aldo Ceresa led “All is Well”, 
Bradford West, “Clamanda” and Brenda Pena, "My Shepard Guides".

Although Dean McNeil was unable to attend he asked that we
sing #340, “Odem”.







  
 
The Memorial was very moving.  Singers came for Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey and
New York for September 11. There was an amazing convergence of context and voices and the songs
were never seemed more beautiful or more profound.



I was surprised that we did not have an “audience” since the press releases and listing notices said there 
would be a special sing and performance, an extension of "The September Concert" that Bradford West 
had organized.  The Sing was listed as usual in the local downtown newspapers and several places online 
and that did bring in several new, first time singers.  But I can only assume that people who wanted to mark 
September 11 in a meaningful way went to the larger ceremonies at Ground Zero or St. Patrick’s.  


The Memorial Sing was, however, described by Matthew Barton in an internal report at the American
Folklife Center.  The report contrasted the comprehensive, official ceremonies at Ground Zero 
with the very focused, community-based remembrances such as ours. 


I did wonder why our local firefighters did not attend since we had arranged the special song 
dedication for them.  But they had spent the morning at solemn ceremonies and were only
too glad to spend the afternoon at B3 bar where the local hipsters were very happily buying 
them beers.

 

I don’t think any of us would begrudge them that. 

 

Thanks to:

Kshama Ananthapura

Matthew Barton

Lauren Bock
      

Aldo Ceresa 

Richard Dibella 

Joanne Fuller

Linda Grigg 

Linda Griggs 

Susan Hanson

Inga Knets

Violet Krumbein

Holly Laws

Andrea Meek

David Pier

Kate Richardson

Stan Richardson 

Richard Schmeidler

Mary Ellen Schrock

Claudia Smigelski

Ian Smiley.  

Jenna Strizak

Lauralee Thompson

Renuka Vijayanathan

Laura Warman

Lauren Weintraub

Bradford West