I agree with what you say about the foreign-language songs, Johnny J. I do speak several languages and am happy to sing in them if the opportunity arises, but I'm not fond of being asked to sing an "African healing song", or a "Maori wedding chant", or a "Hungarian lullaby", etc. Mostly the words are sung on a purely phonetic basis with no knowledge of what the individual words mean, or which ones carry the important sense of the lyrics. As you say, a little of this is fine and adds variety, but too much tends to make it difficult for me to stay engaged with the songs. That's why I'm heartened to hear that Saro is using a lot of our own traditional songs in her work wtih choirs.

Marje