This is Brian Eno, on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday (November 23, 2008), discussing the virtues of ensemble singing:
When you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That’s one of the great feelings — to stop being me for a little while and to become us. That way lies empathy, the great social virtue.
Read (and listen to) the full piece at npr.org. (Thanks for the tip, Michael P.)