Jonah Blog March 21

Breathing Deep, Breathing Together

It seems as if we have just begun rehearsals and yet we have now blocked five of our scenes. Have you noticed how dependent we are upon one another as we sing or speak the chorus lyrics? One character—God—appearing as a storm, or a voice in the head, or a dream, or the narrator of events—thirty people must speak as one. This becomes somewhat complicated when some of us are in the balcony and some in the chancel, or when we are separated by an aisle or two.

We can remain connected as a character by observing our breath: we can breathe together in anger in scene one when God addresses Jonah as a parent would a lazy child: “Jonah………. Jonah, get up!” (Have you said something like this to a teenage child?) Or in empathy as the chorus sings the words “Out of the depths I cry to Thee Oh God” as Jonah laments his fate stuck in the belly of the whale. Each time the chorus sings, they present a unified idea, and this idea is always formed on the unified breath of the chorus. Part of our job as chorus members is to breathe together, to sense when the person beside us and the person across the aisle are ready to breathe and to do so as one cohesive entity.

Every time we rehearse we will be working towards the goal of a unified group breath. Every time we breathe, we inhale as if we are yawning, we always feel the breath low in the body, then exhale sound and emotion as we sing or chant our words. There is great satisfaction in breathing this way. It is a chance for body, mind, and spirit to connect in meaningful expression. Once you are able to do this I predict that you will never want to breathe any other way when you sing.

Spirituality and the Breath

Last year I read a book by Canadian educator Brent Davis (2004) called Inventions of teaching. In the book, Davis said, “matters of the spirit are, literally, matters of the breath” (p. 159). When considered in this way, a fundamental element of spirituality and singing is shared in the breath. The observation of deep, intentional breathing is the foundation for all good singing.

Deep, intentional breathing is also the foundation for any meditative practice. In an article called Plumbing the depths of being alive, (Irwin, 2007) a researcher said, “the breath of life is common to all human beings, and when we breathe deeply we feel intensely alive” (p. 1401). When we breathe together as a group we can feel the power of a unified group breath. A group breath can show compassion, empathy, annoyance, fear—any emotion that we wish to express. When thirty people breathe with the same emotional feeling, the group can have a powerful impact. As we learn to breathe together, we will assume that power, becoming the force that Jonah must reckon with as he tries to run from God. How much fun is that?

It is exciting for me to facilitate this choral technique in Jonah. I hope that you enjoy the process as we let the breath bring us together as the “Voice of God”. The unified breath will be our communication with our audience, our connection to each other, and our personal expression in telling the Jonah story.

All together now…breathe in…breathe out.

Marie