One man's opinion

Mom and I have been listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir ever since our dating days of the very early 1950s.  We remember when it was only on radio and there was no "Orchestra at Temple Square".
 (And the narrator was Richard L. Evans.)

We dearly love the choir and have many of their DVDs.

But after last week's telecast I'm beginning to wonder if I didn't like the choir better when I couldn't see it.  This thought occurred to me because they sang three numbers that we used to call "Negro Spirituals."  (In this politically- correct day and age I'm not sure what I should call them.)

Somehow watching beautifully dressed and impeccably coifed women and men in matching suits and ties, each holding the music at precisely the same  angle,  all eyes carefully watching the director, faces seriously concentrating......well it just didn't look right.  Not when they were singing "When the Saints Go Marching In" and especially not when they were singing "Get on board little children, get on board little children, get on board...."

  I longed for a choir of free-spirited singers who get so caught up in the music that their facial expressions and body language overflow with  emotion, the way African--American choirs would do it.

As the saying goes, "It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing."

But then, that's just one man's opinion.
You are encouraged to agree or disagree.