In response to @mbkriegh’s In Praise of the Choir:
This post reminds me of Austin Kleon’s writing on Brian Eno’s concept of “scenius”:
I myself feel the same way about choral music, as well as a variety of other forms of collaborative art (theatre, movies & TV, video games). I’ve been a choral singer and I’ve been a soloist, and for the longest time I thought my worth as a singer was to be measured by how often directors wanted to give me solos. But over time, I’ve come to realize that people don’t want a choir or chorus full of bad singers, that being a choral singer is a special skill, and that I tend to get chills more often listening to a good choral piece than a solo.
I acknowledge that I live and work on unceded Lumbee, Skaruhreh/Tuscarora, Cheraw, Catawba, Saponi, Occaneechi, and Shakori land. I give respect and reverence to those who came before me. I thank Holisticism for the text of this land acknowledgement.
We must acknowledge that much of what we know of this country today, including its culture, economic growth, and development throughout history and across time, has been made possible by the labor of enslaved Africans and their ascendants who suffered the horror of the transatlantic trafficking of their people, chattel slavery, and Jim Crow. We are indebted to their labor and their sacrifice, and we must acknowledge the tremors of that violence throughout the generations and the resulting impact that can still be felt and witnessed today. I thank Dr. Terah ‘TJ’ Stewart for the text of this labor acknowledgement.
