Building Community Choirs in the Twenty-First Century

Sarah Jane Gibson

Description

This book explores how five community choirs construct and imagine collective identity formations in Northern Ireland. Original insight is provided through ethnographic research conducted between 2013-2018. Working with five choirs in disparate locations, with different repertoires and demographics resulted in the creation of an integrated comparison that drew out both diversity and commonalities of approach revealing the malleability of choral practice.



The research is framed through communities of practice, a theory of learning through engaging with other people in a common endeavour. Research findings demonstrate how choirs re-imagine identity through the manner in which they organise, rehearse, and perform. Choirs develop a distinct choral identity and ethos highlighting both the musical and social importance of the community of practice. Research suggests that choirs re-imagine multiple conceptions of identities within their groups, including gender, later age, religious faith, inclusivity and ethnic diversity, that can both influence broader structures of community in the region, and be influenced by them.



Community choral practice in Northern Ireland is under-researched. As such this book provides unique insight into how members of community choirs are attempting to transcend sectarian boundaries through their practice, developing academic understandings of identity formation, community music-making and choral practice.

Musical Examples

List of Tables

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations



1. Introduction 

2. Conceptualizing ‘The Choir’ 

3. Organization: The Donaghadee Community Choir

4. Rehearsals: The Nada Choir

5. Performance: The Open Arts Community Choir

6. Sustainability: The Queen’s Island and Victoria Male Choir

7. Ethos: Féile Women’s Singing Group

8. Re-imagining Identity through Singing

Appendix 1: Choirs Located in Northern Ireland in 2016

Appendix 2: Musical Repertoire of the Five Choirs

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• organisation
• EDUCATION
• MUSIC
• Multiple signal classification
• Ethnomusicology
• Choir
• Anthropology
• Choral

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 18 avril 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781789387988
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Building Community Choirs in the Twenty-First Century
Music, Community, and Education
Series Editor: Lee Higgins
Music, Community, and Education is a focused monograph series that provides scholars and researchers with a platform for disseminating conceptually rich and empirically distinguished work that explores questions related to the impact music-making can have on those that participate and the cultural, political and economic context through which it happens. To be accepted for publication, manuscripts must be judged as providing significant contributions to advancing cutting-edge research, promoting a wider discourse and promoting the application of research and scholarship to policies and practices that improve our understanding of music, community and education. Monographs are intended to address their topic without being unduly narrow. They should be comprehensible to and engaging for a general readership whilst valuable for scholars with shared research interests. Each book is expected to be written in a single voice even when it involves a collaboration between multiple scholars. Book proposals are welcome in any of the following areas that address questions relating to music-making: inclusivity, participation, social justice, democracy, power, community and pedagogy.
Building Community Choirs in the Twenty-First Century
Re-imagining Identity through Singing in Northern Ireland

Sarah-Jane Gibson
First published in the UK in 2023 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2023 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright 2023 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
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This is a peer-reviewed publication.
To Andrew and all the other singers I have met along this musical pathway.
Contents
Musical Examples
List of Tables
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations

1. Introduction
2. Conceptualizing The Choir
3. Organization: The Donaghadee Community Choir
4. Rehearsals: The Nada Choir
5. Performance: The Open Arts Community Choir
6. Sustainability: The Queen s Island and Victoria Male Choir
7. Ethos: F ile Women s Singing Group
8. Re-imagining Identity through Singing

Appendix 1: Choirs Located in Northern Ireland in 2016
Appendix 2: Musical Repertoire of the Five Choirs
Bibliography
Index
Musical Examples *
Musical example 4.1: Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan a Bollywood Song by Geeta Dutt and Mohammed Rafi.
Musical example 4.2: Hej Haj , a Czech folk song.









* All musical examples were transcribed by the author.
Tables
1.1 Choir demographics.
6.1 Ulster male voice choirs.
Figures * 1.1 Map of the counties of the island of Ireland. Population density of Ireland Map, 2002, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. 1.2 Map of Donaghadee in relation to Belfast. Map Data © 2022 Google. 1.3 DCC, Donaghadee Presbyterian Church, October 2015. Photo courtesy of Janet Moore. 1.4 Féile , rehearsing in west Belfast, June 2015. 1.5 OACC, rehearsing in west Belfast, February 2015. 1.6 QIV Titanic Centre, 2012. Photo by Frazer Smyth Photography, courtesy of Queen's Island Male Choir. 1.7 Nada Choir, Queen's University, Belfast, May 2015. 2.1 Map of choirs located in Northern Ireland in 2016. Map Data © Google 2022. 2.2 Choirs by musical style. 2.3 Choirs by gender. 2.4 Musical style by decade founded. 3.1 Album of the Donaghadee Primary School Choir. 6.1 QIV, St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, 2007. Photo by Jim Wilkinson, courtesy of Queen's Island Victoria Male Choir. 6.2 QIV, Tralee, 2018. Photo by Bryan Gormley, courtesy of Queen's Island Victoria Male Choir.







* Unless otherwise indicated, photographic images were taken by the author.
Acknowledgements
There are many people who have supported and encouraged me during the writing of this book.
I would like to thank my friends and colleagues, Professor Suzel Reily, Dr Ioannis Tsioulakis, Dr Sarah MacLeave, Dr Martin Dowling, Dr Evanthia Patsiaoura, Dr Hilary Foye, Dr Gordon Ramsey, Dr Dave Camlin, Dr Kayla Rush and Janine Magnin, for reading my work, discussing it and providing insightful feedback. I would also like to thank the members of the International Centre for Community Music at York St. John University. It has been a privilege to learn from this team of experts and gain a deeper understanding of the philosophy behind community music.
I am grateful to my parents Raymond and Elizabeth Matthews and my in-laws, Brian and Jean Gibson. My husband, Andrew, has provided unsurpassable support. I would also like to acknowledge my son Jonathan, whose life mirrors the growth of this research project, and my daughter Anna.
Finally, I'd like to thank all the singers in the choirs who allowed me to participate in their practice: for their friendship, collaboration and support, not only as a researcher, but as I adjusted to becoming a mother. This book would not have been possible without them.
Abbreviations
DCC, The Donaghadee Community Choir.
IRA, Irish Republican Army.
OACC, The Open Arts Community Choir.
QIV, The Queen s Island Victoria Male Choir.
SDLP, Social Democratic and Labour Party.
UUP, Ulster Unionist Party.
UVF, Ulster Volunteer Force.
1 Introduction
It was June 1994 and South Africa was breathing a sigh of relief as Nelson Mandela began his presidency. I was at Durban International Airport about to depart on my first overseas choir tour as a member of the Kwazulu Natal Youth Choir. The predominantly white choir, led by an Afrikaans conductor, was singing farewell to our family and friends. We ended our recital with Nkosi Sikelel iAfrica , a hymn associated with the anti-apartheid movement that would soon become part of the South African National Anthem. At 16, I did not know the history of the song we were singing, nor the variety of meanings it had to all the people listening. As we began singing, airport staff, fellow passengers and family members began joining in until it was a mass choir of multicultural voices momentarily united in a shared musical experience. That was a pivotal moment in my life, setting me on a musical pathway that has drawn me across oceans, impacting both my personal and professional life.
Nearly fifteen years later, I was once again struck by the remarkable way in which choirs build community. Whilst teaching music at a primary school in London, I noticed how boys would stand at the door to the music room during choir rehearsals, but rarely join the group. I met with the school council and discussed what I could do to help boys feel more comfortable joining a choir. They gave me a list of requests: not during break time because it interrupts football, not after school when it clashes with a sports activity and, finally, a choir that only comprised boys. I met with the head teacher and we worked out a day and time when we could run the group. I expected between ten and twenty boys to join. Much to my surprise, I was confronted with 50 eager, boisterous boys at the first rehearsal. In the two years that I ran the choir, its size remained consistent. One element that appeared to make the group special was that the boys saw it as something that belonged to them. If a girl tried to enter the music room during rehearsals there were loud shouts of Girl Alert! Girl Alert! This choir renewed my academic interest in ethnomusicology and the role of music in people s lives.
My husband s family is from Northern Ireland. Through many conversations, I was struck by the similarities between his experience growing up and my own, particularly regarding understanding one s identity and sense of belonging in a divided society. It led me to consider the role of choral practice within such environments, particularly in the aftermath of conflict. Do choirs have a role in reconciling divided societies and re-imagining identity? How, in Northern Ireland, a society within which music has often been used to construct, express and sustain distinct identities, is this malleable musical genre currently being used to re-imagine identity and community formation? I investigate these questions through ethnographic research with five community choirs from Northern Ireland: The Donaghadee Community Choir (DCC), Nada Choir, Open Arts Community Choir (OACC), Queen s Island Victoria Male Choir (QIV) and F ile women s singing group.
In western Europe, choirs probably engage in the greatest number of people directly involved in some form of regular music-making, with statistics suggesting that 22.5 million singers participate in choral activities in the European Union ( Bartel and Cooper 2015 ). With such high numbers of participation, clearly choral singing remains vitally important to people living in contemporary Europe. My research provides insight into a valued pastime in Northern Ireland, a region that has received little attention in choral research.
This book is about identity, community and the choir. It explores the relationships between members within a community choir, and the community c