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Background
Choir singing is a popular activity in Norway, engaging somewhere
between 2% and 4% of the population on a weekly basis (Eiksund, 2019,
pp. 17–18). Chorus America (2009) estimated that 42.6 million adults
and children regularly sing in one of 270,000 choruses in the US, while
in Europe it is suggested that more than 37 million adults take part in
1 The Choir as a Field of Tension – Between the Minor and the Major (Eiksund, 2019).
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group singing (Welch et al., 2019, p. v). Naturally, such a phenomenon has
attracted an increasing amount of research. Choral research is difficult
to define, but can be described as a multidisciplinary field, requiring a
range of research strategies, theoretical perspectives, and methodologi-
cal approaches (Geisler & Johansson, 2014, 2019). In a Norwegian con-
text, existing choral research may be structured according to whether
it emphasises factors like society, musical practices, or human proces-
ses (Eiksund, 2019, pp. 20–23). This aligns with the findings in Geisler’s
(2010) global choral research bibliography, where most titles fall under
the categories of choir history and sociology, choir pedagogy, and choir
music and health. In the newly published Oxford Handbook of Singing
(Welch et al., 2019), seven chapters are dedicated to the “collective ‘choral’
voice”, with contributions focusing on e.g., youth choirs, social identity,
intonation, and musical leadership, revealing the great variety of topics in
which choral research is developing today.
One topic in choral research that does not show a similar multifac-
eted diversity of strategies and perspectives, is the notion of motivation
in choir participation. To ask why human beings sing in choirs seems
like an obvious question, and this may be the reason why research on
this topic accordingly offers obvious findings. On the one hand, studies
emphasise musical factors as important for choir participation (Balsnes,
2009; Einarsdottir & Gudmundsdottir, 2016; Schjelderup, 2005); while on
the other hand the emphasis is on social factors as crucial for choir par-
ticipants’ motivation (Einarsdottir & Gudmundsdottir, 2016; Follestad,
2013; Hollen, 2010; Lindland, 2011; Myrmel, 2007; Stewart & Lonsdale,
2016; Theorell et al., 2020; Weinstein et al., 2016). Balsnes (2009) also
suggests combining these two factors, the musical and the social, as a
central theme in choral practice: “Choral practice must continually
balance between these two dimensions to let people enjoy themselves”
(pp. 236–237, my translation). This established dichotomy between musi-
cal and social factors in choral practice contributes to a clear and simple
understanding of how motivation in choir participation manifests itself,
giving choir member and choral researcher alike a conceptual approach
to the inner motivational workings of a global phenomenon. Still, con-
sidering the richness of contexts encompassing the many forms of choir
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and that Western theories are universally applicable and culturally inde-
pendent (King et al., 2018). Even though the current study does not focus
exclusively on learning per se, and is placed geographically on the west
coast of a Western country, I still believe the points made are very helpful
in interpreting the data. In the spirit of a universalist perspective, I will
in what follows advance theories, which in different ways highlight moti-
vation as a phenomenon, from a psychological, sociological, as well as a
culturally imaginative (King et al., 2018) point of view. Maslow’s (1943)
theory of human motivation, and Ryan and Deci’s self-determination
theory (2000) are chosen as starting points as they represent etic
individual-psychological approaches, which have also been used in rele-
vant choral and music research.
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the role of autonomy and entitativity. Also, SDT has received criticism
for not adequately exploring culturally and contextually sensitive bottom-
up phenomena (King & McInerney, 2016; King et al., 2018; Nolen, 2020;
Nolen et al., 2015).
2 In Bourdieu’s philosophy of science, «motivation» in a traditional sense does not have a place.
His philosophy of human action breaks with concepts like «motivation», «subject», «agent» and
«role», but focuses more on the relationship and mutual influence of the objective structures
(fields) and the embodied structures (habitus) (Bourdieu, 1997, p. 12).
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Through this process I ended up with five main categories: (1) motivation,
(2) ownership, (3) identity, (4) social group, and (5) society. The motiva-
tion category contained a diverse set of interview excerpts that in one way
or another expressed something about the “why” of choir participation.
In what follows, I will present the results from the analysis through
the concepts of central and peripheral motivations, developed from the
current study. These concepts are created to accommodate the great vari-
ety of motivational factors found in the data material in a meaningful
manner. Based on these concepts, I will propose and discuss a contextual
model of motivation, showing how this may enable an understanding of
the motivational aspects of choir participation that transcends the estab-
lished discourse on this topic.
Peripheral
motivational factors
Central
motivational
factors
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It is a struggle to get everything to go together when you have kids who come
home from school, their homework needs attention and then they may also
want to attend activities, before I leave for choir at six. And it was not very long
after I started, when he [the husband] said, “We have to cut down on some-
thing. Maybe you have to cut out [the choir]?” And I just, “No!”. [laughter]
It’s like the one thing I do only for myself, that is, I go out the door and know
that everything will work out at home […]. But [the choir] is only me, and it’s
only for myself. And to be able to do that, it is unbelievably vital, so I think he
actually understood how important it was and said, “OK, I understand how
important it is to you, it’s all right.”6
For Sonja the choir was an arena where she could be herself in a different
way than was possible in her everyday life at home. To leave her home
and its responsibilities for a little while was an opportunity to validate
important aspects of herself, also for her family.
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The Social Community. The choir is a social meeting place where rela-
tions form between choir members. For many the choir is a place where
they meet the same people regularly over time, generating an environ-
ment conducive to important and long-lasting social relations. The social
community is always an important part of a choir, but whether this com-
munity is experienced as something positive or negative, or something
central or peripheral, depends largely on the individual choir member.
Since choir participation (normally) is voluntary, it also is a community
one can choose to leave.
Something the choir can offer is contact with others who share an
interest in music and song, and many of the study’s informants expressed
how important this was. Sara talked about how choir participation made
it possible for her to form new friendships and acquaintances based on
an interest in music: “To get to know people that I would never say hello
to, or that live in other places and I would never have met […]. So, new
friends and new acquaintances, and people that share my interest. Yes,
this is special, and really fun, because none of my [normal] friends sing
in choirs or do anything like this”.
The social community is clearly an important motivational factor for
the participants in this study, in the sense that it to some degree is present
in all choir members. You cannot escape being part of the social commu-
nity. A well-working social community may be the motivational factor
that carries the choir member through periods of generally low moti-
vation, but difficult social relations may also be the factor that pushes a
member out of the choir. In some cases, the choir may have profoundly
different social functions for its members, operating more as a primary
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group for some and as a secondary group for others, forcing the mem-
bers to navigate through competing norm and value systems. If the choir
members expect very different things from the social community, this
may create tension and difficulties (Eiksund, 2019, pp. 209–249). Due to
this complex picture expressed by the study’s informants, I have placed
the social community as motivational factor between the central and
peripheral. As with the rest of the factors in this “between” category, the
social community has the potential to be a central motivational factor
for the individual choir member, but did not appear as such on a more
general level in this study’s data material.
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Motivational Culture
Motivation has traditionally been examined as an individual phenome-
non, a view reflected in the variety of motivational factors expressed by
this study’s participants. Based on the study’s data material another issue
seems to be connected to this specter of motivational factors, and relates
to the collective aspects of a choir. A motivational culture is a description
of the predominant central and/or peripheral motivational factors of a
group, which also includes a description of whether and to what degree
these factors are shared and communicated amongst the group’s mem-
bers. In some sense the motivational culture of a choir is the sum of each
member’s personal motivational profile, but a personal motivational pro-
file and a choir’s motivational culture are not necessarily identical. An
individual whose personal motivational profile differs significantly from
the motivational culture of the choir may experience social tension and a
lack of understanding. This perspective may be helpful in understanding
why individuals struggle to “find their place” in a choir. At the same time
there exists a reciprocity in the relationship between the individual and
the group, where the individual both affects and is affected by the moti-
vational culture of the choir.
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members. In this situation, two characteristics follow: (i) the choir mem-
bers tend to emphasise peripheral motivational factors, and (ii) they lose
touch with central motivational factors. In Maslow’s terms, the “basic”
needs connected to the viability of the choir demand attention, preventing
the choir member from focusing on growth needs, like self-actualisation
and personal development. A safe environment, where members do not
need to worry about the choir’s future, economy, or social relations, makes
it easier for the members to focus on personal development, learning, and
musical and social peak experiences, hence creating a motivational cul-
ture dominated by central motivational factors. The connection between
central motivational factors, intrinsic motivation, and the experience of
meaningfulness of group membership or entitativity, also contributes to
the understanding of this picture, especially in relation to the experience
of assimilation, mastery, spontaneous interest, exploration (Ryan & Deci,
2000, p. 70), and a sense of well-being (Stewart & Lonsdale, 2016).
Motivational culture is also dependent on whether and to what degree
these factors are shared and communicated amongst the group’s mem-
bers. It is not uncommon that there exists a culture for not “indulging
in the gloom”, and rather focusing on the positive, (or in some case, the
complete opposite), which may lead to some motivational factors being
shared more than others. The personal motivational profiles of choir
members can also depend on the role they have in the choir. Members
of the board or the conductor may feel an extra responsibility for the
viability of the choir, making it harder to access certain central motiva-
tional factors. Still, for most members, motivation varies over time and
in different situations, making this picture anything but monochromatic.
Another interesting phenomenon can be observed in choirs that have
struggled over time, thus developing a motivational culture dominated
by peripheral motivational factors. When the choir “turns the corner”, for
example by permanently filling that vacant conductor position, or suc-
ceeding in recruiting new members after being too few for a sustained
period, something counterintuitive may occur. When things are finally in
order, and one expects the choir to progress and grow, it stops. The mobili-
sation that has been happening to keep the choir going through the rough
patches, seems to evaporate – some members may even leave the choir.
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Conclusion
It may seem like this chapter advocates heavily for central motivational
factors, pointing out the clear advantages and positives of letting these
dominate the motivational culture of the choir. This is not my intention.
If you ask me what the most important motivational factors in a choir are,
my answer will be all of them. All motivational factors carry with them
different kinds of traits, important in different situations, and the moti-
vational culture in any one specific choir is unique and an integral part of
the choir’s identity. If this study was conducted on another group of choirs
in a different part of the world, the selection and emphasis of motivational
factors would most likely be different. This has also been the point of this
study, to complement an etic approach (exploring established psychological
theories on motivation), with an emic approach. The emphasis on trying to
understand a “psychological phenomenon and its inter-relationships with
other phenomena from a native’s perspective” (King et al., 2018, p. 1048),
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the native in this case being the choir member from southern Sunnmøre,
has broadened the discourse on motivation in choir participation. This
has allowed a rethinking of the way motivation appears and functions
amongst choir members and in a choir. In the presentation of the findings
from this study I have tried to find the right balance between giving nar-
row and precise definitions, and providing a conceptual framework that is
open enough to be useful in analysing other contexts. Still, I believe and
hope that the contextual model of motivation I propose in this chapter may
prove to be both recognisable and applicable. This is not the fate of all new
choral research. Little or none of the increasing amount of choral research
ever comes into use (Johansson, 2011). Choral practitioners do not generally
use or benefit from these studies, and Geisler and Johansson (2019) suggest
two reasons for this: (i) underdeveloped forms of communication between
theory and practice, that is, between researchers and practitioners, and
(ii) the fact that choral research is distributed across a range of disciplines
that apply differing methodological and theoretical approaches (p. 779).
Nevertheless, choral research has an opportunity to make an impact on
active choral practice through offering new ways of speaking and thinking,
creating opportunities for changing how we experience and “do” choral
work and research (Eiksund, 2019, p. 293). To develop concepts and intro-
duce words that are relatable and fruitful for the choir community has been
an important motivation for this study, and I believe this chapter is a con-
tribution to this.
Looking forward, I welcome studies that apply and adapt the con-
textual model of motivation I propose in this chapter. One of the most
important contributions is the change from an individual to an emic and
contextually aware understanding of motivation. As a further develop-
ment, it would be very interesting to see this model used on other groups
than choirs where motivation is also considered a central issue.
References
Appelgren, A., Osika, W., Theorell, T., Madison, G., & Bojner Horwitz, E. (2019).
Tuning in on motivation: Differences between non-musicians, amateurs, and
professional musicians. Psychology of Music, 47(6), 864–873. https://doi.org/
10.1177/0305735619861435
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