2 days ago
Joining a choir is good for you and for the country
T his month, Estonians held their quinquennial Song and Dance Festival, a massive celebration of choral singing and folk dancing at the highest level.
Over the days-long festival, Estonians projected joy and unity, not to mention delightful sounds. In the UK, meanwhile, community choirs are ageing and shrinking. That's a shame, because singing with others brings friendships and health benefits alike.
More than 32,000 singers, nearly 11,000 dancers and some 80,000 spectators (in mostly pouring rain) were actively involved in this year's festival in Estonia: roughly 9 per cent of the country's population. And that's despite an application process for performers and ticket limitations for spectators.
Countless others watched the televised performances at home, as they always do, because they were seriously impressive.
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The UK, too, has an extraordinary choral culture. Our cathedral choirs are the envy of the world. But community choirs, once mainstays of social engagement, have fallen on harder times. The Bowling Alone phenomenon in the US, described in the book of that name by Robert D Putnam, has hit this most communal of activities, leaving choruses with ageing memberships and struggling to recruit.
Gareth Malone's TV show The Choir got people excited about singing together but the high notes failed to last. Covid delivered a further blow. Not even Wales's famous male choirs have been spared. Meanwhile, loneliness is increasing and so is societal fragmentation. To itself and the world, Britain often projects a culture of bickering.
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That's a shame, because we've got choirs at every level of ability and joining one brings an instantaneous social network. It also offers the opportunity to meet people from every walk of life and to collaborate with them on a worthy project. Choral singing even brings health benefits: it exercises the brain, helps relieve pain and is thought to aid the immune system.
Imagine what choral singing could do for us individually, for our communities, for the NHS, even for foreign policy. David Lammy, a former boy chorister at Peterborough Cathedral, ought to know. Do a good deed for yourself and the country and join a choir.
Elisabeth Braw is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council
