Hold the
Whole Sky Up

Program Note

Hold the Whole Sky Up was written for a street that had just finished repainting itself, and it has never once been performed by fewer than nine people. It is not a difficult song. The chorus is four words long and one of them is the.

Follow the gold ball. It lands on the syllable exactly when you should be singing it, and it hops early so you have a moment to breathe. If you lose it, wait — it comes back around every eight bars, patient as a metronome with a good attitude.

The key slider is there because there is no such thing as a wrong key, only a key that isn't yours yet. The tempo slider is there because some nights are faster than others. Adjusting either one re-cues the band from the top; they don't mind, they've had worse.

At the end of the bridge the whole arrangement lifts a whole step. You will feel it before you hear it. Everyone always does. That is the entire reason the song exists.

Bulb count, top row: sixty. Bulbs currently out: one — third from the left — and we have decided we like it there. · The bouncing ball is enamel, not light; it is repainted each spring from the same tin as the ceiling. · Miss Delphine Aubry sang this in E♭ for eleven years; we have set it in C so that you can reach it, and she has forgiven us in writing. · House rule: the last chorus is sung standing, and if you cannot stand, you may simply raise the arm you have. · The applause you hear at the finale is real applause, recorded in this room, on a Tuesday, for a stranger's birthday.