蜜芽传媒

Good Morning

I sang O Come All Ye Faithful for the first time this year on November 30 at the first of many carol services since then. Ridiculously early yes 鈥� but people of all ages do want to sing carols 鈥� and to sing them a lot.

Over the next few weeks many more people than usual will visit a Cathedral or a church for a service. They will sing carols and songs and hit notes (well try, anyway) which certainly brings people together to celebrate the quintessential Christmas spirit.

I鈥檝e just enjoyed Gareth Malone鈥檚 most recent TV series The Choir: best in Britain. Of course the emphasis is on the vocal performances of the groups but what I found equally, if not more interesting, was how the art of singing united unlikely groups of people together; a group of mum鈥檚; members of a community project; students on a campus. They just wanted to sing.

We sing for a whole variety of reasons. For a bit of fun, of course; did you see the great clip of James Corden singing in his car with Michelle Obama for instance? But at great moments in history, in the civil rights movement in the United States, in the quest to overcome apartheid in South Africa and in what鈥檚 known as the Singing Revolution as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania wrestled for their independence 鈥� singing became a form of activism, a natural participatory medium through which people seem to joined together, not only in song but in spirit.

A beautiful voice or wonderful lyrics can transport us out of ourselves. We remember loved ones through special songs and, as our lives develop, there are lyrics and songs sung which will forever speak of a time and a place.

Psalm 96 is the singer鈥檚 Psalm. 鈥淪ing to the Lord a new song鈥� it says urging the hearer to be upbeat in their our outlook on life by using their voices. The Psalmist sings of his happiness [through praise], of telling out how he really feels deep down [proclaiming it]. Singing a new song, finding the right words, means you don鈥檛 need to hold back. And this Psalm is popular because singing in worship also often takes people somewhere else; to a spiritual place which is hard to explain: aware, always, through the act of singing of other voices which surround and therein support them.

So as the carol season deepens and we enjoy well known lyrics and tunes, it really doesn鈥檛 matter what sounds comes out of our mouths. For when we sing of the bleak mid-winter, or the silent night or our hopes and fears of all the years being overcome: we tell out. we proclaim something within us which, through song, reverberates in a quite different way.

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