If, as i suspect, my regular readers did a quick double-pump past the letter on page four so as not to miss our regular little chat, then neither of you will have the foggiest idea what the “Help The WholeNote Thrive” panel to the left of this is all about. And even less of a clue what I’m talking about when I explain that we chose the number 3,000 for the campaign because its 1/10 of the number of copies we regularly print.
So I will make a deal with you. Go back and read the letter on page four, and when you come back I will not say another word about any of all that. Promise.
Ah, good, you’re back. So let’s continue. The title of this Opener, as I expect most of you know, refers to a sweet and silly little rhyme that goes “Spring is sprung, the grass is riz; I wonder where dem boidies iz.” Truth be told, though, wondering where the birdies are is not something we do a whole lot of around The WholeNote, especially in the spring, because if it’s canaries we’re talking about, we know exactly where they are — all ten dozen of them: they are singing merrily away in the 11th annual Canary Pages Choral Directory nestled at the heart of this issue.
With a tenacity outstripping a whole platoon of Papagenos in search of a dowry, our dedicated directories team has been shaking the trees Southern Ontario-wide, rustling up profiles from choirs across the region. Once again, choristers, would-be choristers, lapsed choristers and choirs looking for new choristers have a match-making meeting point. Thank you Adam and Karen for making it happen.
Granted, it’s not all the choirs out there, by any means, but it’s a great base to build from, from which the joy of singing along can root and flower.
As for the “spring is sprung, grass is riz” part of the rhyme, sad to say, these days it’s the spring that’s harder to spot than the birdies, what with climate change goosing the year from ice to full-blown summer in what seems to be only a matter of weeks. You can tell by the way the so-called summer festivals edge their start dates back towards early June every chance they get. Used to be we could publish a May issue without the word summer being spoken in it. Now June seems to be imitating sisters July and August every chance it gets.
Where am I going with all this? Tiptoeing towards a major announcement — namely that this year we’ve decided to bow to the inevitable and accept that June is a full-blown part of the summer, and that the best way for us to serve our readers is to bring out a combined June/July/August issue that we can put in your hands well in time to plan. Just think! No more having to cross refer two issues of the magazine for information on one festival or summer series.
Much more about this in the coming weeks. But for now all our best for sweet music and no rough winds to shake the darlin’ buds of May in this all too short of seasons.
—David Perlman, publisher@thewholenote.com
