What is special about polyphonic music is that, eventually, my attention passes even from my own bodily awareness to an awareness of the corporate activity of singing the piece, which is not something I can do, not on my own. To be sure, my voice can contribute to filling up the acoustic space of Graybar Passage in a purely physical sense, like one tap among several helping to fill up a tub with water. But the musical character of the sound means that there is no single act in which I am uniquely engaged that creates the music, but only a special joint activity, for which many are necessary.

I don’t know when we’ll be able to sing together again. I know only that we must.