Sound Association

The children wait impatiently behind the curtain; it’s almost their turn to be on stage. The curtain closes, signaling intermission. The children file one-by-one onto the risers, taking their seats behind the orchestra and in front of the adults. The conductor hushes the excited kids, indicating that the audience can hear them through the thick, velvet curtain separating the performers from the spectators.

The curtain rises and the children sit up in their seats, hoping to look as grown-up as the adults behind them. First the adults sing, some songs in English, some not. The children do their best to sit still, but some are tapping their feet to the rhythm, some are scratching their skin through the itchy material that is their holiday performance attire.

Now the children get their chance to sing. They rise from their chairs in unison and sing like angels. Though the songs seemed very long in their rehearsal room, their actual performance time seems to fly by and the children are done before they know it. They sit again, not allowed to leave the stage until they’ve sung the final song with the adults. Their adrenaline wearing off from the anticipation of performing, many of the children don’t sit quite as straight as before, and some begin to doze off as the orchestra plays their selection of instrumental Christmas songs.

And then the orchestra begins to play Sleigh Ride in a style akin to Boston Pops.

The children still doze on their chairs, exhausted from all the rehearsing and excitement of performing.

A simple instrument made of two pieces of wood attached by a hinge, the sound produced by them slapping together makes for a very good whip crack.

Every member of the audience was simultaneously aware that the children had been dozing and were now wide awake at the “crack of the whip.” Heads popped up, bodies jumped at the startling sound and the older children who were old enough to stay alert laughed at the sight.

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This is the visual memory I have every time I hear Sleigh Ride play on the radio at Christmas time. It is one of my fondest memories of being a member of the Pacific Chorale Children’s Chorus. I, of course, was not one of the sleeping children. I was an amused older child, smiling at the puzzled looks on the younger children’s faces. No matter how many times I hear Sleigh Ride play during the Christmas season, I always see this scene in my head, and I always end up smiling and chuckling a little at the reminder.

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