This singing: the Norwegian Singers through a Gramscian lens
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Abstract
The Singers is a term used to refer to a volunteer chorus association in existence
for nearly one hundred and fifty years in the U.S.A. The official names of the two
organizations to which the term refers are the Norwegian Singers Association of America
and the Pacific Coast Norwegian Singers Association of America. This thesis presents
the results of ethnographic case study research completed on the Singers via a conceptual
framework, grounded in the ideas of Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci, of and about
cultural hegemony.
The purpose of this study was to encounter the Singers through a Gramscian
framework and in so doing, discern ways in which the practices and functioning ofthe
Singers might suggest alternatives (philosophical and practical) to those extant in music
education where issues of cultural diversity are concerned. The questions that guided the
study were:
1. In what ways can the organization and practices of the Singers be disentangled
and understood through the concepts and ideas of cultural hegemony, folklore
and common sense as developed and articulated by Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci?
2. By undertaking a study of the Singers from a Gramscian perspective what
suggestions can be discerned for contemporary music education in the U.S.A.
insofar as it seeks to address issues of difference in a culturally-diverse
environment?
This analysis of the Singers endeavored to discover ways in which the
organization embodied Gramsci's ideas about organic intellectuals, for example, the
Singers' usage of terminology; generally, those in charge ofthe musical development of
an ensemble are referred to as the "conductor" but in the case of this organization are
spoken about as the "leader." Gramsci's concepts offer a perspective from which these
related but separate ideas can be contextualized and the significance of their distinction
understood.
The Singers exhibit much greater ethnic and cultural diversity now than when the
choruses first appeared in the U.S.A.; that is, they are far less explicitly Norwegian.
Therefore, the overall organic functioning of the Singers was analyzed via a Gramscian
framework in order to uncover the ways in which Norwegian-ness is interpreted and
understood by the group in the present, how it has changed and reasons as to why this
may have occurred.
Gramsci's ideas about the intersections of political and civil life address the ways
in which hegemony is expressed and experienced by the non-dominant through the
institutions of society. The implications of this study for music education can be located
in what it suggests for advancing a philosophical perspective from which issues of
cultural diversity are considered, spoken about, and eventually incorporated in the
education of students. This is to suggest that Gramsci' s ideas, manifested in this case as a study of the Singers, offer for music education ways in which to broaden understandings of the subtle ways hegemony operates in everyday life and thus, for countering and mitigating its effects in the musical education of students.
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This dissertation is being made available in OpenBU by permission of its author and is available for research purposes only. All rights are reserved to the author.