Dissertation: Selection of repertoire plays a significant role in the formation of choral identity
Choir singing is a popular activity in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania. In her dissertation, Leena Lampinen has investigated the significance of repertoire in the construction of choral identities in one Lutheran diocese in Tanzania. Lampinen’s dissertation “Our Songs and Other People’s Songs. Music and Identities in a Lutheran Diocese in Tanzania” will be examined at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki on 10 May 2021.
In her dissertation, Lampinen examines choral activity from the perspective of various individual and group identities. She interviewed ten Tanzanian choir directors and also conducted a more extensive survey. The topic of the dissertation stems from Lampinen’s own experiences after living in Tanzania for five years and participating in local church choir activities there. Among other things, the communal way of choir conductors came to the fore.
“The choirs participating in my research often had several directors, each complementing their choir’s activities with their own strengths. This expands the choirs’ musical resources, and I would like to see the same here in Finland.”
The choir director has many identities
Religious worldview and church context form the basis for the activities of the choirs studied by Lampinen. She found out that repetition and routines are important factors in creating cohesiveness within choirs and are emphasized in the context, in which choirs rehearse several times a week and participate in worship services every Sunday. Choirs see themselves as active agents: they convey the Christian message and support congregational singing.
Lampinen also found that the participants in the study possessed a variety of musical identities: they were choir directors, music teachers, composers, singers, performers of certain musical style, representatives of particular ethnic groups, and/or members of a religious community.
“An important part of the work of choir directors is musical collaboration, which creates a sense of togetherness and collegiality both within the Lutheran Church and ecumenically with the choir directors of other denominations.”
Repertoire-related choices build the identity of the choir
The selection of the choir repertoire is a process through which, among other things, the choir directors influence the image of the choir itself. On the other hand, the identity of the choir influences the repertoire selection. The choral repertoires of this study, incorporating a wide variety of musical styles, are meeting places for musical, religious, local, and ethnic identities. Lampinen found that choir directors classify their choirs’ repertoire, for example, as ‘our songs and other people’s songs’, ‘ordinary and special songs’, and songs ‘of the church and of the world’.
“Such classifications are also essentially related to the formation of different identities in the choirs,” Lampinen notes.
More information
Leena Lampinen
leena.lampinen@uniarts.fi
Online event: Public defence of the doctoral dissertation of Leena Lampinen, 10th May at 4 P.M
Title of the dissertation: Our Songs and Other People’s Songs. Music and Identities in a Lutheran Diocese in Tanzania.
Opponent: prof. Jean Kidula (University of Georgia)
Examiners of the dissertation: prof. Jean Kidula (University of Georgia), prof. Johannes Brusila (Åbo Akademi University)
Chair: University Lecturer, DMus, Jorma Hannikainen, Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki