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“Harmony through harmony” is a phrase we like a lot around CASA. It neatly sums up a powerful experience we’ve all had: seeing positive personal and social change arise from singing a cappella music. Whether you hear it or sing it, it’s pretty hard not to get the message of cooperation and mutual respect. No one needs to say, "Hey now, cooperate." It's obvious from listening. Beauty transcending culture, class, race, sexual orientation, education and every other conceivable division springs up from the subtleties of dynamic phrasing and ringing intonation. The experience is miraculous. And as it echoes in those who witness it, it inspires the miraculous.
So how could the Yale men’s group, Baker’s Dozen, singing the Star-Spangled Banner at a party on their San Francisco tour have inspired such hateful violence from some 20 Sacred Heart Cathedral students crashing a party in honor of the a cappella group? Surely the wounded, recovering men of the Baker’s Dozen have asked themselves this question countless times since the incident. And can there be any answer? Or are explanations meaningless?
Events like this are unthinkable for most of us. They are barbaric, divisive and grotesque. We're overcome with anger and revulsion.
But there’s good that cannot be crushed, even by senseless violence. And there’s a lot of it.
Everyone at CASA has asked me if there isn’t something we can do to help show our solidarity to the Baker’s Dozen. The spirit of compassion and protectiveness is as inspirational as the act was shocking.
CASA is here for the Baker’s Dozen. Whatever they need, we’ll help. That’s what we do. And we thank the many CASA members who wrote to us with that same giving sentiment, a reminder that CASA is a place where everyone in contemporary a cappella stands together.
CASA’s mission, to foster and promote a cappella, has to take on new meaning in the light of these events. The lessons inherent within a cappella are desperately needed.
Can any of us imagine the members of a rival a cappella group committing the violent acts of the Sacred Heart Cathedral students? It seems a virtual impossibility. Why? Because, even at our competitions, even at the height of our rivalries, a cappella is about creating, amplifying, enhancing. Destruction and hatred –these are things that cannot take root in this soil.
Harmony is a value. And best of all it's a value taught by doing, by experience. There's no need to preach. If you're in it, you get it.
If only everyone lived in a world like CASA.
Maybe that's exactly the right response. Stepping up. Speaking out against intolerance. Supporting CASA’s outreach programs, like Tunes To Teens. Attending a cappella events like the East Coast A cappella Summit. Seeing groups perform. Sharing your artistry and your perspective.
Let’s all spread a little harmony through harmony.
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