Men in chorus: collaboration and competition in homo-social vocal behaviour

Abstract

The present article is part of an ongoing research project investigating the role of singing in the everyday lives of contemporary Icelandic men. Men in the study group are all members of a large male-voice choir based in a remote rural area of north-east Iceland. Whilst two other papers illustrate how the wider study implicates singing as a central construct of self and gender identity, this article focuses on men's perceptions of social processes in the learning, rehearsing and performing of songs. Emerging through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, themes are examined here within the theoretical framework of competition and cooperation and the context of the study's idiographic setting. Whilst competition and cooperation feature prominently in wide-ranging social science disciplines and are often perceived as having simplistic gender connotations, findings from this study illustrate the complexities of competitive and collaborative interaction as these particular men sing together in chorus. Furthermore, men's perception of singing in harmony implies that this vocal behaviour is not only a metaphor for human relationships, but an essential and enriching way of relating to others, fulfilling basic needs for vocal and social connectedness.