I suppose that is the reasoning behind RiverSing. It's basically a gigantic sing-along on the banks of the River Charles, led by musicians from the Revels. What an awesome way to bring the community together to sing songs that honor the river and the changing of the seasons.
The event kicked off in Winthrop Park in Harvard Square, with face-painting and stilts-walking. Then the Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band led a procession down to the river, followed by hulahoopers, dragon puppets and hundreds of people. The Revels performers took to the stage near the Weeks footbridge, while the audience was invited to sprawl out along the river with blankets and picnics.
Volunteers passed out lyrics so everybody could sing along to folk favorites like The Water is Wide and Michael Row the Boat Ashore. (Not all the songs followed the river theme, but many did.) One song was written especially for this event - Sing to the Charles - a sort of ode to Boston's beloved waterway (not the first of course - but Dirty Water by the Standells was not included in this particular event).
The crowd favorites were the ones that everybody knows. It's pretty amazing when hundreds of voices join together in spontaneous celebration of something so simple as a seasonal change.
A bell was rung to signal the setting of the sun, and we said goodbye to summer.
The sky was dark by the time the grand finale took place. River Hymn is a call and response between the singers on the shore and a saxophone player on a barge in the middle of the river. The barge was decked out in lights, with a sun and moon on either end, and sax-player Stan Strickland sounding the melody. The barge circled around three times, as the singers and the sax called back and forth to each other.
Beauty is before me. Beauty is behind me, above me and below me.
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