Why They Sing

I believe music is god given

Singing is an act of creation, of bringing into the world something that wasn't there before.

Singing is a natural expression of my spirit—at the same time it can be soothing, energizing, crying, laughing, angelic or down in the dirt blues...it's all good!

Singing is energy going out into the world to create even more sympathetic energy. It can change the world.

I'll bet it was someone listening to music that first created the concept of heaven!

Congregation: "With gratitude we celebrate the gifts shared. With wonder and delight we receive. May the melodic offerings continue to touch our hearts and nurture our spirits."

Singing simply puts a song in my heart that I can share!

I sing to create an uplifting atmosphere for myself and others--to dispel the bleak mid winter.

I sing for the pure joy of it. I sing for that spine-tingling sensation when you know you and your fellow singers have touched those who listen.

Singing brings me joy and energy and makes me dance.

I sing because it opens doors; doors inside and out.

I sing because it helps me understand the power inside me, and how to use it fearlessly and gently. Oh yes, and it feels mighty fine, too.

Congregation: "With gratitude we celebrate the gifts shared. With wonder and delight we receive. May the melodic offerings continue to touch our hearts and nurture our spirits."

There are feelings too complex to express in words that can somehow be conveyed through singing.

Singing is alive with emotion and expressing myself that way makes me feel whole.

Learning the songs that touch different people's hearts is a way of knowing them better.

Singing is channeling a feeling. You open your mouth and out comes something amazing that makes other people feel like you do. You're happy. They're happy. You're empowered. They become empowered.

I sing because I can and found it the best way for me to express my joy or sorrow, and I can sense that people are sending back their own feelings.

But it also allows me to step into the emotional shoes of the composer—to step beyond an intellectual empathy with another person and imagine that I really feel what he or she wanted to convey. So even if the lyrics are not something I would write, I have a deeper understanding of another human being.

Congregation: "With gratitude we celebrate the gifts shared. With wonder and delight we receive. May the melodic offerings continue to touch our hearts and nurture our spirits."

Why do I sing? Yes, it feeds the soul; it brings me back to a childhood of singing in the car or while doing the dishes with my family; it engrosses me in something beautiful.

Music, especially classical music, has been part of my life since childhood. Our car never had a radio, so we sang as we drove along. I especially love harmonic chords, and the sounds that are made as different vocal lines are woven together into a whole.

I started singing in a choir when I was 12. The initial attraction was the glazed donuts that our choir director astutely laid out to get us to early rehearsal on Sunday morning. But then it hit me how much fun it was to make music. It gets more fun and more rewarding every time.

Congregation: "With gratitude we celebrate the gifts shared. With wonder and delight we receive. May the melodic offerings continue to touch our hearts and nurture our spirits."

I sing because of the joy and camaraderie it brings into my life. Music expands my world.

My great pleasure in singing in the choir is the opportunity to bring the music I love to others.

Because I can, and no one has run screaming from the building, yet, even if I don't quite always "sing in harmony!"

I sing because I love making music with UUs and other people I care about.

A raggle-taggle choir such as ours, with a good director, can realize the essence of the music. Individually, we're not much, but together, the sound we make is bordering on magnificent...by singing, my life is filled with the very best.

Making connections with the choir brings an even fuller sense of community with friends, with other UUs, and with the divine interconnected web of life.

I love the challenge of making the notes all come together and blend with other voices. Making music together is the ultimate expression of community harmony.

Congregation: "With gratitude we celebrate the gifts shared. With wonder and delight we receive. May the melodic offerings continue to touch our hearts and nurture our spirits."

This responsive reading was collaboratively written by almost every member of the choir of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church (Augusta, ME). Choir members were asked to respond in 50 words or less to the question, "Why do you sing?" Portions of their full responses were then woven into this responsive reading.