29 Apr Oh Grief! Oh Joy!
Oh Debbie Nargi-Brown has done it again. Sharing this song in community holds transformative powers… I find again and again Debbie’s songwriting has a particular knack for validating and embracing our shadows while still luring us back into the light.
This was a joy to record with Debbie and my Wholehearted Chorus in January, 2020, and I updated the recordings here to include parts in July 2024, when this song became the theme song of our 2024 chorus season. Enjoy!
Composer & Copyright
Original song copyright Debbie Nargi-Brown. Please contact the composer before recording or performing for profit.
Recording
Recording made with Debbie Nargi-Brown singing and conducting members of Wholehearted Chorus, tracked here with additional vocal layers to demonstrate the vocal parts more clearly. Rayner Marx on guitar and Chris Gourlay on cajon.
Here’s the original recording made with Debbie and Wholehearted Chorus in 2020.
Lyrics
Oh Grief, Oh Joy!
Held in the very rhythm of my beating heart
Oh Grief, Oh Joy!
May you come together so I don’t fall apart
Breathe in, breathe out
Gather your strength
Breathe in, breathe out
Remove all doubt
You are held (x3)
Surrounded, grounded (by Love)* By Love is added at the end of the song
Dig down into your roots
That’s where is all begins
Reach up into the stars
Embrace all that you are
Teaching Notes
Key: G# (I moved this up one half step from Debbie’s original key to be more friendly for lower male voices.)
Guitar chords: Capo I G C G D
This song is a bit wordier than most songs I quickly teach in community singing settings but people tend to pick it up pretty quickly, nevertheless. I teach it in 3 sections: Section A is the first two stanzas, Section B is the “you are held” section and Section C is the “dig down into your roots section.” For ease, I don’t teach the harmony in these settings and simply add it with my own voice, inviting any sopranos with good ears to join me.
In the arrangement here for Wholehearted Chorus, the melody is with the tenors, baritones and altos. The alto part is separated out only because of a harmony split on the final words “by love”.
Level of teaching speed/ difficulty (1 = very easy, 10 = very challenging)
I’d love to use this in a worship service, but am looking for copyright information to print along with the words. Can you help me with that?
Thank you
I was introduced to this song by Andrea Wenger in her Centering in Sound series. Listening to it again this morning I am uplifted and inspired to shine my light too.
The warmth of all the voices in the simple rhythms and melody, along with the powerful lyrics – and then the drumming – enliven me.
I will be sharing this with other shining lights.
Just revisited this song as California is burning, COVID is raging and so many are suffering and longing for the lives we lead a year ago. This song is such a support. Being reminded to breathe, gather your strength and trust that the grounding love around us will pull us through.
Oh thank you o much for this…. I have a choir that I have been taking for 26 years and it is a very special and intimate group of beautiful people. One of our members is about to pass over and because of Covid and other strange forces I haven’t been able to say goodbye to her. I sent her husband a recording she had asked for of us singing which he has been playing to her and as she drifts in and out of consciousness she mouths the words. I have needed something that I could sing myself, and now… the tear are flowing…. I will share this in our strange Covid Zoom meetings which still allow us to sing, and know that I can hold that space for Ingrid with everyone else so again….Thank you, what a gift!
Brings me to tears. Very powerful! I will share this with my dancing circle of women! Thank you!
Beautiful song Debi and ALL!! xo
What are the guitar chords for this? Thank you!
I’m sorry I don’t have them Elan – try reaching out to Debbie!
Sounds like these 2 sections:
|: G | C | G | D 😐
G | C | G | C | G | C | G | D |