Could the world could be a better place if more of us learned to sing from the same hymn sheet?

The magic of singing in a choir is not just that we feel good at the end of it – for all of the scientific reasons that we now know. It is that through the ear, we come to trust others, listen to their breath, move as one and become less, in order for the music to become more. If you want to experience this on an Olympic level, try singing Gregorian chants with a group and remember that the monks would have learned this music not though the eye but through the ear.

The unity of chanting monks is of course a metaphor for their binding belief in God – the spell, if you like. If the group doesn’t move as one, the spell is lost. How is this uniformity achieved? Through a deep awareness of others. No one can lead from the outside in chant. Everyone needs to be inside the music, committed to its forward momentum, which is what music is really all about. Music is not a vertical art form but a horizontal one. It...