Lift Your Voice!

Abstract

Lift Your Voice! Robert Edwin SINGING A CAPPELLA TO ZYDECO Click for larger view View full resolution Robert Edwin When I learned that the April 16, 2022 World Voice Day theme was "Lift Your Voice," my initial reaction was, "Great—global karaoke!" In my mind, I could hear billions of people around the world vocalizing their own personal statement, be it a song, a poem, or even a polemic. The WVD committee wasn't saying "lift your voices" or "lift our voices" or even "lift your voice together with others." What they were saying in essence was, "Lift your voice, people, in whatever way you choose to do it—in joy, in sorrow, in anger, in celebration, in love. It's your time to express who you are and what you are feeling." A noble idea. Then I thought, "Could we possibly build community out of individuality?" The world's a hot mess, literally and figuratively, so vocalizing together might lead to better things. We could start by finding someone else who is lifting their voice in a similar fashion to ours. Duets could lead to quartets and expand to even larger tets. For example, the classical folks singing the Schubert art song "An die Musik" could seek out each other, as could the rockers singing the Twisted Sister anthem, "We're Not Gonna Take It." The classical poetry lovers could bond, as could the contemporary slam poets. The "All is lost, we're doomed" and the "Everything is fine, just chill" groups both could find sympathetic ears and voices. The sense of "I'm not alone in my song (or poem or polemic)" would mitigate the sense of existential isolation. The "Am I the only one who feels this way?" could become "Others feel just as I do and we can share those feelings together." To narrow the focus on the World Voice Day theme to singers, I thought, "How could we create even bigger vocal groups?" There's a finite number of people who would lift their voices with "An die Musik," just as there would be a limited number of people whose statement would be "We're Not Gonna Take It." Expanding the groups would be a bit more challenging, so I thought, "The world consists of many nations. Could the people of each nation join in singing their own national anthem?" For the sake of unity, a lot of folks would have to put aside their personal thoughts, feelings, beliefs, ideologies, et al., to be able to sing as one. For example, in the United States of America, many people do not like the War of 1812-based "Star-Spangled Banner" as a national anthem. For the less vocally gifted, it's rangy, hard to sing, and it has very dated and somewhat convoluted lyrics. There are those who would prefer the national anthem to be Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," a much more singable folk song. There would be strong support from religious individuals for Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." African Americans might [End Page 507] opt for the James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamund Johnson song "Lift Every Voice and Sing," often referred to as the Black National Anthem. For the sake of unity, let's say all the nations of the world could put aside their internal differences and join together in singing their respective national anthems. Billions of people around the globe in tribal, cultural, and nationalist vocal unity could be yet another step in the right direction toward community. Then my thoughts turned to a truly World Voice Day experience—the entire world singing a single song together in global unity. What, though, would be the song we'd all sing? The one that immediately came to my mind was the 1985 Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie song "We Are the World," which speaks profoundly to the aforementioned unity. We are the world, we are the children. We are the ones to make a brighter day, so let's start giving. There's a choice we're making, we're saving our own lives. It's true, we make better days just you and me. The...