Crow Sister, I don't think anyone who has posted in this thread has recommended that everyone should sing all the songs together at a song circle or that the songs in a book should be the only ones sung. We have talked about the existence of such groups, but I've said I find them frustrating and I think everyone else who's posted here agrees.

What some of us are saying is that ONE type of song/singing consists of a group of people singing together, preferably with harmonies, and singing the same words (unless someone's doing a canticle or counterpoint).   There are some exquisite songs that call for several or more people singing together all the way through and really lose something when done as solos or the like.   To preclude that type of song and then say all the options are there is just not accurate.