Participatory and multidirectional music-making. Small-scale singing events as creators of a...

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Participatory and multidirectional music-making: small-scale singing events as creators of a counter-aesthetic?

INGRID ÅKESSON

The activity of taking part in music is an aspect that is often neglected in contemporary Swedish discourse on musical culture. As in several other Western late modern societies, in Sweden mainstream mental images of music tend to be dominated by the general conception of music as a product that is performed by the few for consumption by the many. The focus of attention in the media is chiefly upon institutionalized, professionalized and commodified aspects of music, irrespective of genre – for example, on works of art, on large-scale concerts and festival organizations, on best-selling albums, music videos, sales statistics, and on higher education in music, such as conservatories. One consequence of this situation is that the dynamic character of music as an on-going process and as a fluid phenomenon is seldom noticed. In the academic world, as well as in the media, it is difficult to encourage much interest in the music-making of non-professionals, or in expressions of small-scale, non-commercial music-making. These kinds of music-making nonetheless involve large numbers of people, although the activities of the individuals involved attract little economic gain and have a relatively low status.

I would like to contribute to the discussion on taking part in music-making from a starting point that accentuates the concept of music as a process and as a widespread human activity. While a shared point of departure in the programme The Conditions of Music-Making1 is the examination of music as a process in different contexts and the study of the different kinds of dialogue and negotiation between music makers and surrounding discourses of music, here I have focused especially on participation. I investigate participation in musical situations where the boundaries between roles and functions become blurred, and where positions may be at least temporarily interchangeable. The wider framework for my discussion acknowledges the concepts of fluid boundaries and overlapping categories related to diverse kinds of active music-making in society, and to prescribed or chosen roles within music-making – such as soloist, leader, music producer, music consumer, participant and/or artist. Within this frame I look at contemporary Western folk music milieux as

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comprising two currents: one current emphasizing professionalization, stage performances, and visibility on the market and in the media, and another current stressing participation and musical continuity.2 Basing my analysis on a range of case studies comprising events involving traditional singing in Sweden and Scotland, I discuss some of the interrelated qualities or characteristics attached to the idea of taking part in small-scale musical events. This discussion forms a part of my own project, Music for listening or music for doing? Music-making between professionalism and consumption in late modern society.3

I take an interest in the relationship between participatory (music-making with others) and presentational (music-making for others) qualities of musical activities, how they might blend and overlap, and the kinds of role-shifting that can be perceived in the same contexts. Another characteristic that I examine is the phenomenon of multi-directional music-making – that is, the flow of simultaneous communication in several directions or a sequence of communications with a mobile focus that may occur within a musical group and/or during a musical event. Do musical situations which exhibit such characteristics involve aesthetic ideals other than situations where aesthetics are closely attached to big concerts and other musical ‘products’? If so, what are these ideals?

Fluid Categories and Blurred BoundariesComposers and artists may include communication within concert situations and with audiences in their creative work, as in Arvidsson’s examples. However, I would like to emphasize that audiences are, to a certain extent, made up of music makers – people who are active in small-scale and informal musical contexts, outside or on the margins of more established musical arenas, such as large festivals and institutions. The music market, as well as cultural institutions such as conservatories and concert halls, depends at least partly on this broader, informal, ‘everyday’ musical activity, performed by a wide circle of music makers. All genres of music – and especially small genres such as jazz, early music, independent rock, and traditional music, with fairly small audiences and constricted space in the economy and the media – need an audience with knowledge of the genre. While this knowledge may be acquired by listening and studying, many audience members achieve their (embodied) knowledge by participating in music-making. Both those who are generally regarded as music producers or creators, and those who in the media discourse represent the music consumers and audience, can in certain circumstances be regarded as agents in a pattern of overlapping circuits with fluid boundaries, not as agents existing in separate spheres. These overlapping circuits in which different music-related agents exist are visually represented in Figure 1. Here, the dotted lines imply that many of the musical activities within the two overlapping circuits might be placed in different positions in the field, according to circumstances, or that the two main labels ‘music producer’ and ‘music consumer’ are not always valid. For example, events such as festivals and workshops often comprise different activities in a range from active music-making to listening/acting as audience – for example, dancing or joining in choruses – and there might be moments of teaching and learning, or talks and discussions. Choirs, orchestras, dance troupes, and projects of different kinds may include both professional and amateur musicians, and involve the musicians in a great amount of creativity that differs from that of the music industry.4


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Figure 1 A Diagrammatic Representation of the Blurred Boundaries between Music Producers and Music Consumers in Sections of the Swedish Music Scene

Conceptual Framework and Previous ResearchThe classical ethnomusicological view of music in society, chiefly focusing on the mutually interrelated structure of musical conceptions, musical behaviour, and the social context of music,5 has been continuously supplemented and enriched by ideas and concepts from several areas of research. For example, a number of studies of different aspects of musicking have been published since Christopher Small coined the term in 1989.6 Though not all of these studies use the term musicking, the focus of each is often directed towards the multiple roles of music in people’s lives and outlooks on life. Within cultural studies and sociology, as well as within studies of the psychology of music, the act of listening to music is often the focus – for example, in Tia DeNora’s study of the implications of listening in everyday life7 or Alf Gabrielsson’s study of emotionally strong musical experiences.8 The Swedish musicologist Lars Lilliestam9 has further expanded the concept of musicking to incorporate an even wider spectrum of activities around music including thinking, reading and talking about music.

Studies such as these throw light on musicking as an extensive phenomenon in society; however, in spite of their merits they tend to concentrate on the use of music created and performed by others and disregard or overlook aspects associated with active music-making and participatory qualities. Thomas Turino’s discussion of presentational and participatory music-making as two independent but often also interdependent modes, or types of artistic practice, is a much-needed recent contribution.10 Among other things, he comments on the possibility of assuming various performance roles in participatory music-making, which leaves space for experts as well as beginners to contribute to the same event with full satisfaction. This view allows for another, more co-operative approach to the presumed dichotomies of professional-amateur and producer-consumer. From the viewpoint of psychology, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi points out that one situation where flow may appear is when all participants reach their individual optimal balance between skill and challenge.11



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I have found some further inspiration concerning ‘taking part in music’ from the works of writers dealing with pedagogy or children’s mental and physical developmental processes. One example is Howard Gardner’s concept of musical/rhythmical intelligence as one of seven human intelligences alongside of others that include verbal/linguistic, bodily/kinaesthetic and visual/spatial intelligences.12 Another example is Jon Roar Bjørkvold’s concept of ‘det musiske menneske’, which approximately translates as ‘the muse-related human’.13 Both authors discuss the innate capacity for music-making and other forms of creativity in human beings.

Folk Music Milieux As for traditional/folk music, several studies have been published of the so-called post-revival period that occurred in the West from the 1990s onwards.14 Generally speaking, this period was characterized by a change of focus. Previously, traditional/folk music was mainly part of a revival movement involving enthusiasts, participatory events, and non-commercial contexts.15 During the post-revival period the ‘folk and world music genre’ was established and a more formalized and institutionalized structure for transmission as well as performance was introduced. The studies mentioned focus on professionalized and sometimes avant-garde events and contexts (for example, cultural hubs such as the Sibelius Academy of Helsinki), where traditions are largely disembedded from their historical frames of reference. However, parallel with the development of post-revival, professionalized, and media-centred milieux we also find the development of musical milieux where the relationship between artists and audience is blurred by the alternation of roles and by multidirectional communication, and where music-making is characterized by elements of interaction, informality, and spontaneity.16 In Scotland (as well as in Ireland and parts of England) the early folk song revival of the 1950s created a milieu with strong links between revival singers and singers within family or local traditions. Singers such as Scottish Traveller Jeannie Robertson bridged the gap between ‘traditional singer’ and ‘artiste’ by giving concert tours as well as being recorded for archival purposes as a carrier of tradition.17

In Sweden, during most of the twentieth century attention was mainly directed towards instrumental music; only a small number of traditional singers performed at festivals and concerts, and there were few younger adepts. When in the mid-1980s Sweden experienced the beginning of a vocal vogue, the older singers were gone and younger singers had to turn to archival recordings to re-create traditional singing styles and repertoires.18 As a result, vocal traditions are mostly passed on today at courses and in formal education with the use of elaborate pedagogic tools, and the prevailing aesthetic is in favour of technical perfection and elaborate arrangements. Generally, singing traditions seem to have a somewhat higher status in areas such as Scotland and Ireland than in Sweden; possibly this is partly due to a stronger tradition of singing in public and a history promoting pride in regional cultural heritage.



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Case Studies: Ballad Singing in Different ContextsWithin traditional singing, both singers and scholars accord a special position to ballads and other narrative songs. Besides ballads having been the focus of a huge amount of research,19 they are also well represented at so-called traditional singing weekends and similar occasions. Many of these songs have parallels and variants in multiple languages and cultures and can be conceptualized as an all-European phenomenon, although with many textual and musical aspects of strongly local character. Ballad singing, with its connection to myths and folk tales, popular history, and jocular culture, seems to continue to attract new generations of singers and listeners. In Scandinavia and the English-speaking world many versions of ballads have been elaborately arranged and recorded by folk music artistes; however, the genre also lends itself extremely well to participatory performance. The so-called Medieval Ballad (more or less equivalent to the Child Ballad) has especially been characterized as an intermedial art form comprising and combining narrative, poetry, tunes, singing performance, and, in some cases, dancing, as well as having been constructed as a sequence of dramatic scenes – in short, as a genre which uses a mixture of communicative media to carry forth the content.20 This combination of a variety of inherent forms of expression within one genre seems to open it up for different kinds of interaction within a smaller or larger group of people. It is also a possible basis for an aesthetic that is more suited to participatory performance, storytelling, and a spirit of community than to a high level of musical perfection and elaborate stage performance by professional musicians. This statement does not mean that musical or performance skills are lacking in ballad performance with stronger participatory elements; it is rather a question of which elements are most heavily emphasized.

Within the project mentioned above, I pursued fieldwork at different types of participatory narrative singing events in Sweden and Scotland during the years 2009 to 2012. This was partly a continuation and completion of my earlier study of Swedish post-revival traditional singing.21 Methods used were chiefly participatory observation (or rather, combinations of participation and observation), extensive questioning, and in-depth interviews. There were two main reasons for choosing Scottish milieux alongside the Swedish ones. Firstly, whereas the kind of small-scale traditional singing festivals that have been arranged at several places in Scotland during the last ten years or so had no real equivalent in Sweden, they seemed to constitute a more vivid and extensive example of the musical/social patterns I wanted to study. Secondly, Swedish and Scottish/British revival and generation structures could reveal similarities and differences between them. Especially interesting was the greater amount and impact of family and local traditions, and the considerable number of singers with their roots in the 1960s revival, that I perceived in Scotland. This contrasted with the now-heavy reliance on archival recordings and formal folk music education in Sweden, and the fact that in Sweden it is almost exclusively young, professionally educated singers who are engaged for events such as concerts and workshops. Cases of Narrative Singing in SwedenMy Swedish examples are two cases of ballad singing and dancing workshops in Sweden in 2011. The first workshop was held during a weekend in April at a youth hostel in Skäggesta,



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south-west of Stockholm, and was part of a series of singing and dancing weekends that have been held irregularly over a number of years. These weekends are led by more or less the same people – in 2011, the leaders were three singers/pedagogues: Marie Länne-Persson, Gunnar Nordlinder, and Karen Petersen. The second workshop was a two-hour Sunday afternoon session in December 2011 held in a church hall in Slaka, outside of Linköping in the south-east of Sweden. It was part of a series of short workshops held once a month by Marie Länne-Persson as a part of a musical regional development project that also includes a ballad blog.

The kinds of activities represented by these two events are generally pursued by a small but devoted, loosely constructed crowd of singers who meet at different kinds of events to learn new ballads, develop the interpretation of ballads they know, meet other enthusiasts, sometimes teach one another ballads, and to find ‘flow’ within the singing and chain dancing. Of the three leaders mentioned here, one is a music teacher and the other two are chiefly self-taught musicians, all with plenty of experience. Only – or at least chiefly – the so-called Scandinavian medieval ballads are used; some of these ballads were orally transmitted in certain Swedish-speaking areas until the latter half of the twentieth century.

There is no continuous tradition of dancing to ballads in Sweden; the present movement (which started during the revival of the 1960s) is an offspring of the Scandinavian Faroe dance style revival of the early 1900s.22 Although ballad dancing is a revival phenomenon, this activity is an interesting example of contemporary participatory use of traditional ballads. The lead singer sings the verses and leads the dancing; the others join in the chorus and do their part in giving pulse and flow to the dance. They may also join in the verses when they know the song, and sometimes different participants alternate as lead singers. Several of the participants are also polska23 dancers and thus have a strong interest in both singing and dancing; some have studied ballad and song traditions for years and have a large repertoire. The weekend events attract participants from different parts of the country and can accommodate twenty to thirty participants. The short Sunday workshops attract more local and regional interest and gather some fifteen persons on each occasion, some of whom return each month. According to Marie Länne-Persson most of the participants in the short Sunday workshops are women, although at the weekend workshop there was a more even distribution according to gender.

The weekend I attended, on 9–10 April 2011, was dedicated to one ballad, variants of ‘The Two Sisters’. Workshops are usually focused on singing and dancing; while several sessions were dedicated to learning purely musical aspects, on this occasion the focus of the weekend as a whole was centred on the lyrical narrative. Much of the time was dedicated to the participants’ interpretations and mental inner images – both literal and symbolic – of the narrative elements in the lyrics and of the dramatic scenes that are the building blocks of the ballads. Drama and drawing were each used during one session, and small group work alternated with whole-group discussions and performances. Themes that emerged were sibling jealousy and family patterns, rules for marriage in patriarchal societies, and different interpretations of the symbol of the magical singing harp telling hidden truths. The leaders followed a schedule, and acted as leaders of the ballad singing and the dance, but there was room for spontaneous elements both in the scheduled activities and during the breaks.



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These events generally have a rather low level of formality, and interaction is the ultimate purpose. This is not a presentational musical activity which is created for stage performance; it is a social event. Participants may have different levels of skill and knowledge and take roles according to their ability. At the event in question some singers performed ballads solo in the evening session while the others listened, but, apart from that, the whole event was dominated by participation. Everybody took part in the group-based dramatization and performance of selected ‘ballad scenes’, using singing, dialogue, movements, gestures, and so on, and everyone likewise participated in the drawing of pictures of the same scenes.24

The shorter workshop commenced with a two-hour set of singing and dancing, where the participants performed some ballads, which the group had been singing, and also rehearsed two versions of the ballad of ‘St Stephen and Herod’, which for centuries has had a central position in Christmas time singing traditions in Sweden (the workshop was held in December). Some of the time was dedicated to improving chorus singing, dance steps, pulse, and physical movements. This set was followed by coffee and a one-hour discussion of ballad themes and motifs viewed from different angles: historical and folkloristic as well as psychological. In this group, as well as at the weekend workshop, several participants took a great interest in the various levels of symbolism to be found in ballad narratives, and also in gender- and power-related issues. Ballads that the group had been singing at earlier occasions were again brought to the surface. For example, the ballad motifs of rape and of the punishment of women for becoming pregnant in irregular circumstances were discussed from several viewpoints, such as singing these texts to an audience where the singer suddenly senses that some person present has a strong emotional reaction, maybe due to her own experiences. In these talks, some participants expressed views based on their interest in symbols, archetypes, and dream interpretation in connection with the New Age movement, whereas others were interested mainly in variants, old singers, and pre- or early modern history.

Reflections on the Swedish CasesAt both events I was especially interested in the many-faceted modes of understanding and using ballads that were displayed by both leaders and participants. One basic fact is that the participants, especially those attending the weekend, were well used to singing and dancing ballads; the same kind of workshop would have been hard to conduct among inexperienced ballad singers. Further, I found that the high level of ballad knowledge and contextual consciousness among the participants was important for the level of the extra-musical participatory activity. Although the workshop leaders gave their interpretations of the meaning and performance of the ballads, and used their pedagogical skills to further deepen the participants’ interest, both the weekend and the afternoon session were characterized by multifaceted dialogue and multidirectional communication as the participants’ ideas and interpretations were presented and discussed.

As I was attempting to map out the nature of the participatory qualities of the events, one conclusion that emerged was that, to a great extent, ‘taking part’ in these two cases meant talking and physical action, while the singing and dancing rather constituted a (necessary



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but already familiar) backdrop. This was quite different from my earlier experience of ballad workshops, where a focus on musical and rhythmical aspects prevailed. My conclusion is that inviting the participants’ free-flowing, contemporary and not necessarily historically founded interpretations of (universal) narratives and different possible symbolic levels is one of several ways to enhance the relevance of traditional ballads in the present, and is a way which is used in combination with the singing and dancing. The interest in the discussions held in these two cases may also signify that a majority of folk music lovers in Sweden are found among the ‘urban middle class’ and have not grown up with the songs but encountered traditional singing as adults.

The fact that at such workshops the main attention is sometimes directed towards extra-musical levels is in itself an interesting comment on the conception of ‘participatory music-making’. It might be regarded as a contemporary attempt at creating an equivalence of ‘traditional referentiality’,25 or in other words, common frames of reference within the group of performers/dancers/listeners. The extra-musical action might certainly be regarded as a way of musicking that is closely connected to, but differs from, actual, active music-making. On the other hand, the weekend workshop leaders pointed out that the work with narrative and symbols which took place on the Saturday resulted in a stronger presence in the moment, more convincing singing, and better rhythmical awareness in the singing and dancing on the Sunday. The musical and the extra-musical levels seemed to co-operate.

In the shared singing and dancing, the chief aesthetic ideals are connected to pulse, rhythm, and a high level of musical, motional and mental intensity, not to perfect voice qualities. Alongside of the musical/aesthetical side of the ballad workshops, the social participation and the shared contextual knowledge and thoughts are what create meaning. That may seem quite natural to anybody who has taken part in a number of participatory folk music events, but today the ballad workshops clearly represent a counter-aesthetic in relation to the ideals of the professionalized folk music sphere, which are more focused on perfect sound, professional technical equipment, and experimental arrangements.

Cases of Narrative Singing in ScotlandMy Scottish case studies were two ‘Traditional Singing Weekends’: one in Cullerlie, east of Aberdeen, in July 2009, and the other in Colessie, Fife, in May 2010. Both are festivals that are held once a year, and which started some ten years ago. The Cullerlie festival, held during a weekend in July every year,26 was initiated in 2000 and is supported by the Elphinstone Institute of the University of Aberdeen. The activities of the Institute focus on the folklore of North-East Scotland, and the Director of the Institute – Ian Russell – is also a singer and a member of the festival organising committee. This weekend was originally centred round the former bothy ballad singer Tom Reid and his wife Anne, and bothy ballads from the North-East still have an important position, although other ballads and narrative songs are performed as well.27 The site for the festival is their farm, Cullerlie Farm Park, which is still kept in the family. The family have continued with earlier practices such as using traditional farming techniques and Clydesdale horses, and have turned the farm into a museum open to the public. The festival mainly takes place in the tearoom which holds



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about a hundred people, with the addition of a big marquee for the public Saturday evening concert which attracts many visitors from the area.

The Fife Traditional Singing Festival (known as the FifeSing)28 has been held in May each year since 2003 in a countryside restaurant in Colessie. It was initiated by the singer and ballad enthusiast Peter Shepheard, and is run by a small group of local singers and musicians. Bothy ballads are sung here as well, but focus is chiefly placed on the Child ballads,29 more or less the equivalent of the Scandinavian medieval ballads or other ‘classical’ ballad corpuses of the world. However, here the term ‘ballad’ has a wider definition than in Scandinavia and comprises many newer narrative songs. Each year the FifeSing is recorded by the organizers with the use of one stationary microphone, and a CD is compiled by Peter Shepheard from a selection of the performances. These live performance CDs contain solo performances given mostly by the invited guest singers of the year, and with festival participants joining in choruses. They are sold via Shepheard’s record company, Springthyme, and the main purchasers are ballad enthusiasts (a similar procedure for creating recordings is used in Cullerlie, but chiefly for the documentation of the Elphinstone Institute and only one CD/DVD has been issued, of the 2008 Singing Weekend).

Scottish, English, and Irish singers and repertoires are represented at both the festivals, and sometimes singers from Canada or the United States also attend. Some eight to ten guest singers are specially invited to perform in (chiefly unplugged) concerts, to run workshops or to give talks. These singers, as well as several of the other participants, often have long experience in stage performance, teaching, and recording; many have a family tradition while others have found their way to traditional singing via the 1960s revival. Singers from a younger generation, mostly in their twenties and often undertaking a folk music degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (formerly the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama) or Newcastle University, are regularly invited as well. Some singers also perform as storytellers, and a talk or workshop might be given by a collector, photographer, or somebody from a folk music archive or institution.

One especially interesting aspect of both festivals from the viewpoint of ‘taking part’ is the mixture of unplugged concerts, singarounds, and workshops/talks. The levels of formality, participation, interaction, and spontaneity change with each type of session, and might change with different session leaders. At concerts only invited singers perform, but everybody who knows a song will join spontaneously in the chorus, at least after a few verses have been sung by the soloist alone. In a singaround the leader may either ask certain people to sing one song each (and perhaps opening up for voluntary solo singing), or the whole session might be open for anyone present who wants to sing a song to do so. In the latter case the turn-taking may move around the room from one person to the next one, or each singer may just start singing spontaneously when somebody else has finished. The level of openness varies with the time allotted and the number of participants, as well as different habits among different circles of singers. A workshop might involve a talk that is illustrated by film or sound recordings, an interview with a key person, or the teaching of a couple of songs. The constant occurrence of these items on the programme highlights the significance that is attached to contextual knowledge of the whole song culture by organizers and participants.



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Another characteristic is the limited size of the events: the maximum number of participants is about a hundred, with the locale creating the limit. At Cullerlie, in particular, the singarounds often run parallel with a workshop, or a couple of singarounds are held simultaneously (except for the Friday evening singaround which is open for all weekend participants and thus goes on for several hours). These gatherings then become more intimate and even more informal. However, even with a hundred people present everyone can see and hear each other in the room, and participants sing from wherever they are sitting or standing and without entering a stage or using a microphone.

Reflections on the Scottish CasesThe small scale of these singing weekends is crucial in relation to several aspects of ‘taking part’. Both the physical size of the room and the mental approach to participation must allow for alert and open-minded listening and a performance that is – at least at some times – unamplified. You could say that the individual and personal rendering of a song is the centre of participants’ attention, and may focus on whether or not the singer has a beautiful voice or on the singer’s storytelling and interpretative ability. It is obvious that a singing festival is regarded as something wider and more multi-directional than big concerts which have only professional singers performing and others making up the audience. In other words, the ‘taking part’ is important.

A continuous succession of presentational and participatory elements is created by the alternating between solo verses and joint singing in the choruses, and also by the individual change between singing and active listening – if we regard this active listening as a kind of participatory ‘musicking’. The singarounds, in particular, provide an occasion that literally involves multi-directional communication as the attention of all present continuously follows each new singer around the room, with a constant shift of focus. A kind of momentary ‘stage’ is created and immediately abandoned. In addition, there are numerous intertextual allusions and jokes that are both explicit and implicit, and that make up parts of this flow of communication.

Another aspect of blurred boundaries is the role-shifting between being ‘artist’ or solo singer and part of the ‘audience’ or listening participant: for instance, a singer who was an invited guest performer one year often comes back as an ordinary visitor/participant next year and vice versa. These previously-invited singers are usually asked by the organizers to sing a couple of songs during the weekend, but otherwise they take part in the same manner as everybody else. The festivals accordingly serve as recurring meeting-points not only for amateur singers but also for many of the very skilled and experienced performers. Workshops, talks, and public interviews all give room for the dissemination of contextual knowledge, and the creation, or strengthening, of common frames of reference within the milieux.

As for aesthetics, it is obvious that the very fine skills and voice qualities of many singers are much appreciated. At the same time, it is acceptable for singers of any ability to join in the singing, even at concerts. The CDs produced by Peter Shepheard contain both the voices of guest singers, who are sometimes also known as stage and CD artists, and the voices of other participants joining in. Similar recordings are also produced from other local



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singing projects.30 In Sweden, recordings from a ballad workshop might be put on a website, but a CD where the professional singers’ voices are mixed with others would probably not be produced. I have observed that the counter-aesthetics of ballad workshops and joining in with the soloist are relatively stronger in Scotland; in the Swedish context this ideal exists chiefly in live music-making.

Similar Patterns in Other Musical MilieuxWithin other music genres we also find cases that constitute an alternative to the music producer-music consumer model presented in Figure 1. These cases involve participants alternating roles or fulfilling different functions, and also multidirectional music-making. Although my case studies and interviews concern live, small-scale events within the area of traditional singing, the discussion of these aspects of ‘taking part’ may also, however, be applied to music-making within a wider area and regardless of genre – for example, to certain kinds of choir singing, to playing in a band or orchestra, to participatory or social dancing, or to attendance at workshops, courses, or summer music camps. One such context might be the area of choir-singing or band-playing that relies on aural/oral tuition. These forms of music-making often include songs or tunes composed or arranged by different members of the group. They usually have as their ideals performance without sheet music, eye-to-eye contact with the audience, some stage choreography, and a performance arrangement either without a director standing at the front or with several people alternating as directors.31 In these kinds of activity-centred contexts, music might be combined with expressions of poetry, storytelling, drama, dance, lighting or visual arts.32 Many of these events and activities are run by experienced and skilled singers and musicians who are, however, not always professionally educated, and the other participants are (often deeply committed) amateurs. Events take place within rather small community or affinity groups built on either local or musical/cultural bonding. They are quite outside the media limelight and are of negligible importance to the music industry, but in numbers they make up a great part of the musical activities in a society. Music research might benefit from more knowledge of alternative musical behaviour, and from discussing these to reveal more extensive conceptions of what music can mean to performers.33

Concluding Remarks The starting point for my paper was the conception of partly blurred boundaries between overlapping circuits of categories such as music producers and music consumers, professionals and non-professionals, artists and audience. I also wished to focus on the relations between presentational and participatory music-making. As an illustration I have presented several case studies of singing events where participants’ roles and positions are more or less interchangeable, where communication within a group often is multidirectional, and where different forms of social and musical intercourse alternate.

The participatory and interactive elements, and as well the emphasis on narrative, interpretation, and discussion, dominate in the Swedish cases. These cases differ from the character of events in the ‘folk and world music genre’, with its focus on professionalization and perfect sound. Hence they might be said to create what is today regarded as an alternative



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and more ‘traditional’ aesthetic, and which includes participation. The Scottish events are manifest examples of blurred boundaries between participatory and presentational performance, and between preconceived categories such as artist versus audience and professional versus amateur. They seem to highlight the somewhat stronger position of family and local traditions in Scotland, as well as the fact that the Scottish/British revival structure reveals the existence of a comparatively large number of skilled and experienced singers with their roots in the 1960s movement. These singers have performed in concerts and on records for many years, but still partake in participatory singing. I regard the studied cases of small-scale singing festivals as one type of events that contribute to the maintenance of an aesthetic – and a wider conception of music-making – which differs from the image of music as a product that is made by the few for the consumption by the many. My discussion of a small selection of conditions for taking part in music illustrates a number of aspects of the dialogue and negotiation between music makers and the surrounding discourses of music, and which is reflected in our joint research project.

Notes1 This research programme was accomplished at the Department for Culture and Media Studies at the University of Umeå by Alf Arvidsson, Susanne Holst, Marika Norström, Dan Lundberg, and Ingrid Åkesson. The participants have concentrated on different aspects of music-making within art music, jazz, folk music, and rock music in the space between official cultural policy and the music market on the one hand, and participation, identity, and aesthetics on the other. See also, in this publication, Alf Arvidsson, ‘Introduction’.2 This categorization is of course simplified and the situation is more subtle – I have written more extensively about the subject in Ingrid Åkesson, Med rösten som instrument: Perspektiv på nutida svensk vokal folkmusik [With the Voice as an Instrument: Perspectives on Contemporary Swedish Folk Music] (Stockholm: Svenskt visarkiv, 2007), pp. 103–33, but there is no space for that discussion here.3 This was my post-doctoral project at the University of Umeå, connected to the programme The Conditions of Music Making – Between Cultural Policy, Economics and Aesthetics, and carried out 2010–2012.4 The issue of creativity and re-creativity in music genres built on by ear-principles is extensive and needs to be treated separately. It is one main theme of Åkesson, Med rösten som instrument, and is also discussed in Ingrid Åkesson, ‘Re-creation, Re-shaping, and Renewal Among Contemporary Swedish Folk Singers: Attitudes Toward “Tradition” in Vocal Folk Music Revitalization’, STM Online, 9 (2006) <http://musikforskning.se/stmonline/vol_9/akesson/index.php?menu=3> [accessed 2 April 2013].5 See basic texts such as Alan Merriam, The Anthropology of Music (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1964); John Blacking, How Musical is Man (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1973); and Timothy Rice, ‘Toward the Remodelling of Ethnomusicology’, Ethnomusicology, 31 (1987), 469–88.6 Christopher Small, Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1998).7 Tia DeNora, Music in Everyday Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).8 Alf Gabrielsson, Strong Experiences with Music: Music Is Much More Than Just Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).



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9 Lars Lilliestam, Musikliv. Vad människor gör med musik – och musik med människor [Musical Life: What Humans Do To Music – and Music Does To Humans] (Göteborg: Ejeby, 2006).10 Thomas Turino, Music as Social Life: The Politics of Participation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008)11 Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi, Flow: Den optimala upplevelsens psykologi [Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience] (Stockholm: Natur och Kultur, 1990), p. 99. 12 Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (London: Paladin, 1983).13 Jon Roar Bjørkvold, Det musiske menneske: Barnet og sangen, lek og læring gjennom livets faser [The Musical Human: Children and Song, Playfulness and Learning Through Life’s Phases] (Oslo: Freidig, 1989).14 See Tina Ramnarine, Ilmatar’s Inspirations: Nationalism, Globalization, and the Changing Soundscapes of Finnish Folk Music (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003); Juniper Hill, ‘From Ancient to Avant-Garde to Global: Creative Processes and Institutionalization in Finnish Contemporary Folk Music’ (PhD dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 2005); Caroline Bithell, Transported By Song: Corsican Voices from Oral Tradition to World Stage (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2007); and Ingrid Åkesson, Med rösten som instrument.15 See Tamara E. Livingston, ‘Music Revivals: Towards a General Theory’, Ethnomusicology, 43, no. 1 (Winter 1999), 66–85.16 See Turino, pp. 28–29; Michael Pickering and Tony Green, Everyday Culture: Popular Song and the Vernacular Milieu (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1987); and Eyðun Andreassen, Folkelig offentlighed: En undersøkelse af kulturelle former på Færøerne i 100 år [Vernacular Public Sphere: A Study of Cultural Forms in the Faroes During 100 Years] (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanums forlag, Tórshavn: Føroya Fróðskaparfelag, 1992), pp. 119–20.17 See James Porter and Herschel Gower, Jeannie Robertson: Emergent Singer, Transformative Voice (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995; East Linton: Tuckwell, [1999]).18 See Åkesson, Med rösten som instrument, pp. 163–83.19 Ballad research is an enormous area which lies outside the scope of this paper. See, for example, David Atkinson, The English Traditional Ballad: Theory, Method and Practices (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002); and James Porter (ed.), Ballads and Boundaries: Narrative Singing in an International Context. Proceedings of the 23rd International Ballad Conference of the Commission for Folk Poetry (Société Internationale d’Ethnologie et de Folklore), University of California, Los Angeles, June 21–24, 1993 (Los Angeles: Department of Ethnomusicology and Systematic Musicology UCLA, 1995).20 A research project focusing on Swedish Medieval ballads from the viewpoint of intermediality has been conducted at Linnaeus University from 2006. See Gunilla Byrman (ed.), En värld för sig själv: Nya studier i medeltida ballader [A World of Its Own: New Studies In Medieval Ballads] (Växjö: Växjö University Press, 2008) and Lars Elleström (ed.), Intermediala perspektiv på medeltida ballader [Intermedial Aspects on Medieval Ballads] (Möklinta: Gidlund, 2011).21 See Åkesson, Med rösten som instrument.22 There are almost no references or source material pointing to ballad dancing in Sweden, except that some of the ballad refrains rather clearly give the impression that a dancing tradition somewhat similar to the Faroese might have existed in some period between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries. In the Faroe Islands a continuous chain dance tradition has existed over several centuries. The recent phenomenon is built on interpretations of what could be historically possible. It is also performed in connection with so-called medieval cultural festivals by some dancers, but in most cases the aesthetic and social aspects are more strongly stressed than the historical. See Balladdans i Norden. Symposium i Stockholm 8–9 nov 2007 [Ballad Dancing in the Nordic Region](Stockholm:



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Svenskt visarkiv, 2008). 23 Polska, originally a continental couple dance, has developed many variations and subtleties in several Scandinavian districts. Polska dancing forms a small but strong subculture in Sweden, Norway, and Swedish-speaking Finland.24 Some documentation can be found on Slaka-Musiken <http://slakamusiken.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/balladhelg-i-skaggesta-oj/> and Korp <http://www.korpmusik.se/skaggesta%202011.html> [accessed 2 April 2013].25 See John Miles Foley, Immanent Art: From Structure to Meaning in Traditional OralEpic (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), pp. 7–12.26 Elphinstone Institute <http://www.abdn.ac.uk/elphinstone/events/cullerlie09/index.shtml> [accessed 2 April 2013]27 For information on bothy ballads, see: North East Folklore Archive http://www.nefa.net/archive/songmusicdance/bothy/index.htm; and Education Scotland, ‘Scotland’s Songs: Bothy Ballads’, <http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/scotlandssongs/about/songs/ballads/bothyballads/index.asp> [accessed 2 April 2013].28 See FifeSing <http://www.springthyme.co.uk/fifesing> [accessed 2 April 2013] where you can also listen to excerpts from recordings.29 ‘The Scottish Ballads’ <http://www.springthyme.co.uk/ballads> [accessed 2 April 2013].30 See Orkney Singers <http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/ORKNEYSINGERS/> [accessed 2 April 2013]31 Such groups have become quite common in Sweden since the 1980s – for example, mixed folk groups or choirs/singing ensembles who favour an aesthetic different from classical choir-singing. In Britain so-called ‘community choirs’ seem to be similar initiatives. 32 This area of musical activity is not much studied but is briefly discussed in Åkesson, Med rösten som instrument, pp. 95–102. My presentation there is partly built on my own experience of ‘non-formal’ choir-singing and similar movements. See also Katarina Elam, ‘Körsång och lust: En undersökning av körsång som sinnlig aktivitet och erfarenhet’ [Choir-Singing and Pleasure: A Study of Choir-Singing as a Sensual Activity and Experience], STM Online, 12 (2009), <http://musikforskning.se/stmonline/vol_12/elam/index.php?menu=3> [accessed 2 April 2013]. 33 Certainly valuable studies have been done on structures and movements in broad and ‘vernacular’ musical milieux, and of music-makers’ behaviour – for example, Ruth Finnegan, The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an English Town (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989); and Mark Slobin, Subcultural Sounds: Micromusics of the West (Hanover and London: Wesleyan University Press, 1993). There is, however, a need for new studies and new aspects.


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