a brief word about singing

Bleh.  I've been home sick today and have just spent five or so minutes trying to articulate what I think about the act of singing.  So rather than mucking about why don't I just put it in dot point form:

• We all sing, though the vast majority of us wouldn't dream of singing in public.  We respect, somehow, those who do.
• There's something inherently personal about the act of singing - we are revealing much of who we really are when we sing. 
• Singing is a key part of maintaining community.  The national anthem, hymns, the club song, Khe San on the pub jukebox. 
• We pass songs down through generations.  Nonsense children's songs and lullabies, story-songs.  Songs of personal importance.

I've been prompted in part by the wonderful experience of seeing Finnish acapella group Rajaton perform recently.  My oh my, they were something.  Just... just great, really.  Sort of poppier than I expected - I went in expecting much more traditional music from the region than they performed.

I've picked up a video of their song Butterfly to add to this post - it's not the clip they did for it, just a photo of the group, deliberately chosen so there's no distraction from the music. 

There's something about this song, it sort of captures a sense of sadness, of fleetingness -

Love me, love me on the leaves
Before we say goodbye
Love me, kiss me with the breeze
You will be my lullaby