When I was a choral student at university, I attended multiple lectures on the philosophy of music, where we attempted to get down to the why of the thing. There are those that believe music is good because it is useful—improved cognition, higher test scores, and the like. Others believe music is good because it is socially cohesive—some of my best friends I have made through choir. Still others see music as entertainment or a commodity.
Music is all these things at one time or another, but music is also good because it is music. Strip away the reasons for making it, and music is still an end in itself. We sing because the music is in us, and to not make it would be to deny a part of what it is to be human.
It is my hope that my involvement in AMC helps bring not only joy and entertainment and cohesion to ourselves and to our patrons, but that it also helps satisfy that ineffable part of us that craves communion with what is often called “the universal language”.
Written by Ross Wilcox, Atlanta Master Chorale Bass