Walking between the beats. 

It's definitely summertime in CT. The weather has been gorgeous for days, and like so many others, I've been outside a lot. 

One of my favorite things about summer weather is the chance to walk outside...briskly...as in deliberate exercise walking. There's something wonderful about fast walking -- working up a sweat and really getting those endorphins going. I move at a 15 minute/mile clip (pretty impressive, right?)...but I can only do this while listening to great music. 

At least 99% of the time, the music that inspires my walks comes from our choir's repertoire. Much of it I'd never heard before actually starting to learn it during rehearsals. But as you know from your own choral experience, that music becomes part of you. It's as if you've never NOT known Lauridsen's, O Nata Lux, or Tavener's, The Lamb...or Rheinberger's, Abendlied, or Stopford's, For the Beauty of the Earth.

It's easy to understand how walking to Haydn's, The Heavens are Telling, can raise that pulse rate. Just standing in one spot and singing it is aerobic! 

But how is it possible to get a MAJOR aerobic work-out by listening to a slow, melodious piece like Elder's, Ballade to the Moon?

The answer is simple. You must walk between the beats...and the music must be utterly breath-taking.

What kind of music energizes you?

.