My former colleague Rod sends a link to an article commenting on Joel Spolsky’s metaphor of developers as singers.
I think the auther has a good point. The high voices are the most visible (audible?) parts of the choir, but although the basses and altos aren’t as flashy as the tenors and sopranos, without them there’d be no substance.
Although, when the music you’re trying to sing is a horrendous mix of Byzantine plainchant, Medieval polyphony, Baroque counterpoint, overwrought Romanticism and the bright ideas of half a dozen avant-garde poseurs, written on scraps of papyrus, torn-off lambskin scrolls, hippie pressed-flower paper and Soviet-era personal hygiene products in no discernable order, and half the choir is singing in Panjabi and the other half in Cantonese, and six or seven new singers are shoved on the already miniscule risers every four or five bars, things get a little interesting.