Bobby McFerrin’s ‘Circlesongs’ and the Politics of Play

I’m usually wary, as a secular Jew in a Christain society, of any whiff of organized religion. But to become part of McFerrin’s communal canvas is to come as close to a religious experience as I’ve ever had. Circlesongs unsettles the distinction between the spiritual and the secular: it all comes full circle.

If you’re not “wow-ed” or easily moved, you’ll definitely learn something. McFerrin often tells stories about his father, Robert McFerrin Sr., who was the first African American to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. As he tells it, “I used to hide under the piano as a kid. And so I heard some of his voice lessons.”

When he described these lessons to me, they sounded painstakingly detailed. But “Papa would take a mediocre singer and turn them into a really fine instrument.” With Circlesongs, McFerrin revises his father’s method by making play the most powerful pedagogy, teaching us that we are in fact our own best teachers.

Though singing collectively is an ancient practice, McFerrin’s Circlesongs gives it new meaning today. “I’ve been thinking a lot about musicians’ role during this time,” he told me, “the political unrest that’s going on in the world, on the planet. The threats to our everyday lives and the role that singing can have.”

Because we’ve spent the past five years fearing the rise of fascism, and the last two terrified of each other’s breath, Circlesongs is paean to the democratic principle of shared air. The performance reminded me of the etymological meaning of inspiration: to allow yourself to be breathed into. Even though the audience is vaccinated and masked, it’s still the first time—in a long time—where everyone laughing and singing around me felt less like a burden and more like a blessing.

Thus, McFerrin’s Circlesongs offers play as not just an aesthetics but a politics, a way not of escaping the problems of the world but a way of shaping them. “This might sound really naïve,” he says “but the first thing the politicians should do is sing. Talk later. They should first become acquainted with each other’s songs and dances and rituals.” Singing for him is not simply a celebration of victory nor a palliative for defeat, but a practice, something you do to instantiate change in the world everyday.

It’s no coincidence, then, that the show starts at 12pm. People are hungry for incorporating improvisation into their daily lives, and Circlesongs offers that nourishment weekly. If you can make it, but especially if you can’t, pay attention to the last thing you said—because every breath has the potential to take flight into song.