Roderick Williams: Sing Joyfully

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The title Sing Joyfully was actually suggested to me by one of its commissioners from the Saffron Walden Choral Society, as a working title for a piece of music that would eventually explore the pleasure to be derived from singing. The title immediately brought to mind the anthem by William Byrd, with which I then chose to begin this new piece, divesting the work of its religious nature by omitting parts of the text.

I decided, inspired by the nature of the commission, to collect some texts that specifically describe singing communally and what benefits this holds for the individual and for society as a whole. A passage from Thomas Morley¿s Plaine and Easy Introduction to Practical Music describes the narrator¿s discomfort at being unable to join his fellow guests in some convivial communal singing. This then leads into words from a research paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science by Eiluned Pearce, Jacques Launay and Robin Dunbar that details some scientifically observed benefits of communal singing. This paper was brought to my attention when I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of the book Why We Sing by Julia Hollander, published by Allen Unwin. Juliäs book is full of science on this topic, interwoven with wonderful anecdotal evidence from Juliäs own life and practice; she kindly permitted me to quote a few sentences from her uplifting book.

Finally, I asked choir members themselves from Saffron Walden to answer general questions about why they personally chose to sing and why they became members of this society. Some of these responses are woven into the text.

A final request of the commissioners was that there be an element in which the audience could participate. On the return of the initial Byrd point, the piece turns into a simple round with an extra part for any further members of the audience who wish to be included. Hopefully it won¿t just be the members of the choir who can experience the joy of singing together.

Roderick Williams