Abstract
Four-part harmony arrived in Iceland about a hundred and 50 years ago as part of the resurgence of national romanticism inspired by European and, in particular, Nordic nationalist movements. Following this musical revolution, singing in the home and wider community, was purposefully employed in the rebuilding of nationhood and in the creation of tradition. In particular, Male Voice Choirs were quickly established all over this sparsely populated and remote island and became significant agents on the building site of Icelandic identity. They dominated public vocal arenas and the male voice choir phenomenon was embedded in the Icelandic national psyche throughout the twentieth century. Fifty years have now past since Icelandic independence from Denmark, and during that time, in one of the most dramatic economic, social and technological revolutions of modern times, Iceland has risen to the very top of the United Nations Human Development Index, only to see its economy dramatically implode in the 2008 global financial crisis. The author of this chapter, who lived and worked in a rural community in Iceland for nearly 20 years, traces the history of the European male voice choir movement, its emergence and growth in Iceland and then examines what contemporary male voice choristers have to say about their singing. The chapter offers a dialectical, historical and local interpretation of how singing genders identity and configures plural, complex and even contradictory versions of masculinity.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adelaide Leidertafel 1858. (2002). A history of the Adelaider Liedertafel 1858. Retrieved February 17, 2010, from http://www.alt1858.org/index.htm
Adorno, T. W. (1976). Introduction to the sociology of music (E. B. Ashton, Trans.). New York: Continuum.
Björnsdóttir, I. D. (2001). Hin karlmannlega raust og hinn hljóðláti máttur kvenna: Upphaf kórsöngs á Íslandi. Saga, 39, 7–50.
Bly, R. 1990. Iron John: A book about men. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Butler, J. P. (1999). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.
Connell, R. W. (1995). Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity Press.
DeNora, T. (2000). Music in everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
DeNora, T. (2003). After Adorno: Rethinking music sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Durrenberger, E. P. (1996). Every Icelander a special case. In G. Pálsson & E. P. Durrenberger (Eds.), Images of contemporary Iceland : Everyday lives and global contexts (pp. 171–190). Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press.
Durrenberger, E. P., & Pálsson, G. (1989). Forms of production and fishing expertise. In G. Pálsson & E. P. Durrenberger (Eds.), Images of contemporary Iceland : Everyday lives and global contexts (pp. 3–18). Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press.
Erlmann, V. (1996). Nightsong: Performance, power and practice in South Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Faulkner, R. (2006). The vocal construction of self: Icelandic men and singing in everyday life. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, University of Sheffield, UK.
Faulkner, R., & Davidson, J. W. (2004). Men’s vocal behaviour and the construction of self. Musicae Scientiae: The Journal of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music, 8(2), 231–255.
Faulkner, R., & Davidson, J. W. (2006). Men in chorus: Collaboration and competition in homo-social vocal behaviour. Psychology of Music, 34(2), 219–237.
Fine, G. A. (1987). One of the boys: Women in male-dominated settings. In M. Kimmel (Ed.), Changing men: New directions in research on men and masculinity (pp. 131–147). Newbury Park: Sage.
Grágás. (1980). The Codex Regius of Grágás with material from other manuscripts (Vol. 1) (A. Dennis, P. Foote, & R. Perkins, Trans.). Winnipeg: University of Manitoba.
Hall, C. (2005). Gender and boys’ singing in early childhood. British Journal of Music Education, 22(1), 5–20.
Helgason, J. (1875–1888). Söngvar og kvæði (Hörpuheftin). Reykjavík, Söngfélagid Harpa and Jónas Helgason.
Ingólfsson, Á. H. (2003). “These are the things you never forget”: The written and aural traditions of Icelandic Tvísöngur. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. UMI 3091584.
Jakobsson, G., & Páll, H. J. (1990). Fiðlur og tónmannlíf í Suður-Þingeyjarsýslu. Reykjavík: Jakobsson and Jónsson.
James, W. (1890). Principles of psychology (2 Vols.). New York: Henry Holt and Co.
Kimmel, M. S., & Kaufman, M. (1994). Weekend warriors: The new men’s movement. In H. Brod & M. Kaufman (Eds.), Theorizing masculinities (pp. 259–288). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Simon, J. (2004) Singing democracy: Music and politics in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s thought. Journal of the History of Ideas, 65(3), 433–454.
Smith, J. A., & Osborn, M. (2003). Interpretative phenomenological analysis. In J. A. Smith (Ed.), Qualitative psychology (pp. 51–80). London: Sage.
Smith, J. G., & Young, P. M. (2010). Chorus (i). In Grove Music Online. Resource document. Oxford Music. Retrieved February 27, 2010, from http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com:80/subscriber/article/grove/music/05684
Stebbins, R. A. (1996). The Barbershop singer: Inside the social world of a musical hobby. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press.
Steingrímsson, H. (2000). Kvæðaskapur (Icelandic epic song]. In D. Stone & S. L. Mosko (Eds.). Reykjavík: Mál og mynd. Retrieved October 15, 2011, from http://www.music.calarts.edu/KVAEDASKAPUR/Chapter%20V.html
Ternstrom, S., & Karna, D. R. (2002). Choir singing. In R. Parncutt & G. E. McPherson (Eds.), The science and psychology of music performance: Creative strategies for teaching and learning (pp. 269–284). New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Watkins, K. (2005). Human development report 2005. New York: United Nations Development Program.
Wood, C. A. (1992). The climatic effects of the 1783 Laki eruption. In C. R. Harrington (Ed.), The year without a summer? (pp. 58–77). Ottawa, ON: Canadian Museum of Nature.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Faulkner, R. (2012). Icelandic Men, Male Voice Choirs and Masculine Identity. In: Harrison, S., Welch, G., Adler, A. (eds) Perspectives on Males and Singing. Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2660-4_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2660-4_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-2659-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-2660-4
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)