Newsletter Archives
The monthly Sing For Joy newsletter contains a letter from the program's host, Rev. Alexandra M. Jacob, along with a listing of music selections for each program and the corresponding scripture readings. If you'd like to receive a complimentary subscription, fill out our online request form to subscribe.
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August 2021 Newsletter (Year B)  Singing and Grief Will our experience with the Covid-19 pandemic make us better singers? If it left us merely grumpy and contentious, probably not. But something else might have happened also. Columbia University recently interviewed its own medical researcher/author, Siddhartha Mukherjee, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning and best-selling book, The Emperor of All Maladies, a biography of cancer. As you would expect, the interview dealt primarily with cancer research and treatment, but it also swerved briefly over into music, into singing in particular. In his teen years, Mukherjee studied singing with some of India's most renowned teachers of classical raga singing, and he continued his singing into his student years at Stanford University. Then he quit. Why? His interviewer summarizes by saying, there was "some intangible quality that he thought his singing lacked." Mukherjee himself put it this way, "I was just singing in an athletic way, like it was a sport. There was nothing behind it ... I had lived a relatively charmed life up until that point. I hadn't really experienced much loss. I hadn't treated cancer patients ... I just didn't have the grief you need." "Now," the interviewer reports, "decades later, Mukherjee has begun to sing again." On one level, that sequence of events sounds backwards. He quit singing because he did not have enough grief? And now has started singing again because his medical career with terminally ill patients has given him sorrow? Not a scenario one would call: singing for joy! Though that may be true on one level, there is also another level. Most music of the church finds its home on this other level. Music of the soul expresses the full range of emotion, a range that grows and deepens with human experience and maturity. That includes joy, of course, but it is joy of the deep-well variety that knows firsthand the sorrow of the world. This is not to disparage childhood. As a grandparent, I heartily approve of the innocent joy of young children; it is a pleasure to watch and share; and the singing of children's choirs touches me. Yet, Mukherjee's point stands. The emotional spectrum of church music runs all the way from a dirge-like chant of Psalm 51 on Ash Wednesday, to the ecstasy of, say, the "Hallelujah Chorus" at the conclusion of an Easter Vigil. But it doesn't take much reflection on the matter to grasp that even the singing of the "Hallelujah Chorus" is deepened and enriched, given that "intangible quality" that only "being acquainted with grief," as Isaiah 53 puts it, can give.
Peace be with you, 
Pastor Bruce Benson Support Sing For Joy Sing For Joy is supported by listeners like you. All gifts go directly towards our operating budget that makes Sing For Joy possible. To become a sustaining supporter of Sing For Joy, check the "recurring gift" option on our online giving form. August Playlists and Programs Playlists are ready now, and each show will become available to stream on the Friday before the week begins.
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