Quote from a new book

From a book that arrived yesterday;

In more sentimental books on music from the past, one sometimes encounters the romantic claim that a certain era or people ‘loved to sing,’ ‘filled their waking hours with song,’ ‘had melody in their souls,’ and so on. The modern musicologist or ethnomusicologist ardently avoids writing anything redolent of such happy platitudes. But perhaps our predecessors were onto something. For the more we explore early modern English thought, the more it appears to indicate a society intrigued by singing to a remarkable degree, both in theory and in practice. Singing played a vital role in England’s devotional life during this era; and it would not be too much to assert that the nation’s devotional life, in turn, ultimately affected its social, moral, and political spheres as well. —Brown, Singing and the Imagination of Devotion, page 1

<idle musing>
There is a lot to commend this thought. I have found over the years that people who sing tend to be happier people. I don't know which engenders which, but it is just an observation.
<idle musing>