Socio-Psychological Effects of Choral Singing in the Process of Resocialisation
Text by Tim Conitz (Freie Universität Berlin)
Art by Pablo Dohms
Music is an integral part of social and cultural life for many people, while choral singing politically appears to be part in various collective actions by (new) social movements in the past as well as nowadays. Apart from its non-violent form, its subjective experience is transformative, and creates a sense of community and a feeling of comfort and trust. For that reason, I will draw back on personal experience and examples from Estonia and the USA to look at the relation of the policy of disciplinary measure and musical interventions in the matter of reintegration of incarcerated people. Therefore, I consider initiatives of singing to have a positive impact on all its participants to help with social reintegration.Though, I ask, what are the public and psychological implications of musical education in correctional institutions such as prisons? And what effect does choral singing have on social bonding and moral conduct in a situation of life crisis? Starting from the relation between music and social movements, I initially mention observations from the Estonian Song Festival Laulupidu. Furthermore, I argue that we live in a disciplinary system within which different authorities and institutions monopolize powerful positions and shape our way of socialization. I ultimately propose that choral singing represents an artistic anthropo-practice as a form of dialogue to reintegrate convicted people throughout an anti-oppressive pedagogy because it empowers their emotional perception, agency, and reconciliation.
The Policy of Disciplinary Measure, Social Crisis, and Power of Music
My motivation for writing this essay issues my interest for the role and power of music in (new) social movements which I examined 2021 for my Bachelor thesis (Universität Leipzig) in the case of the Singing Revolution in the Baltic States, specifically the phenomena of the Estonian Song Festival Laulupidu. More generally speaking, I learnt that singing and listening to music can provoke and affect strong emotional reactions in line with the lyrics and body movements. Musical activities help the participants imagine their community as vivid and connected through singing and breathing together. For example, at Laulupidu, up to a hundred thousand people (choir singers and the audience) partially sing together as one (choir) and summon their cultural and national identity. Observing this left me with an ambivalent feeling that reminded me of totalitarian regimes and ideologies regardless of the non-violent character of singing or the aim of this event. Despite that, combined singing voices’ sheer volume and assertiveness drew me into their ban and touched me deeply. Either organized at specific places and for specific events or even spontaneously, people among (new) social movements generally demonstrate the ability of music to shape non-violent action empathically for social and political changes, too. This may often stem from people’s feelings of injustice or experiences of economic and ecological crises or structural violence.
The separation of powers in Western democratic societies involves a judicial system to guarantee the rights of everyone. However, different forms of punishment are implemented by state authorities to control, to discipline, and to correct peoples’ behaviour. Also, a very advanced Prison-Industrial-Complex (PIC) has developed worldwide differently. We observe more criminalization following increased permission of state authorities’ powers of action. Secondly, we stagnate with a constructive, proactive engagement in social reintegration and rehabilitation of imprisoned people. Therefore, I ask, what are the public and psychological implications of musical education in correctional institutions such as prisons? And what effect does choral singing have on social bonding and moral conduct in a situation of life crisis? Accordingly, this essay will make an argument for the socio-psychological relevance of choral singing in the modern western criminal justice system.
Sociability and Correctional Institutions
From an empirical perspective, psychological anthropologists should focus both on the individual and the leaders of discourses, as their representation was unbalanced in the study field of social movements in the 1970s (Honigman 1975). Meanwhile, the body of research on music education in correctional institutions has increased since the 1980s and can now stand on its own (Lee 2010). In this regard, it can be helpful to observe and engage in people's psychological experiences with critical and alternative educational models, especially in settings of conflict transformation. As the relationship between education and the criminal justice system seems to be somewhat contradictory, music education enacts a democratic enterprise within an authoritarian institution on the one hand, while on the other it enables an individual engagement with society (Shieh 2010, 23). As I critically look at educational and correctional institutions, I observe that PIC and education as such represent a form of social control that both have permeated the entire social body, problematically lowering the level at which it has become acceptable to be punished. Based on this, one potential situation for prisoners would be to isolate themselves and avoid misconducting or to be punished from inmates and guards. Considering that the research on musical interventions about the psychological wellbeing of prisoners seems utterly important to me, Choral singing can be a powerful sociocultural medium to form reliable collective groups. Consequently, the development of sociability might be associated with a distinct set of mental processes which indicates that educators should pay special attention to the social interaction they facilitate (Cohen 2012, 53). In this regard, I remember two aspects about my participation in a basketball tournament in a Berlin male youth prison in Moabit years ago, as part of the initiative Berlin Streetball Night. A main goal of this collaboration was to build a bridge – dialogue – between two very different everyday life realities of adolescents and young adults creating a breakout through sports from their daily routine. In that way, this encounter raised more consciousness and sensibility for the importance of group activities to foster societal support in difficult life moments.
Although the body scan at the entrance told otherwise and the presence of a few guards in the gymnasium was relaxed, my awareness of the setting hindered me from an unprejudiced approach towards the inmates I played Basketball with. Otherwise, I felt like I had contributed to the purpose of a program’s dialogue, though there wasn’t sufficient space and time for personal exchange between all basketball players. Likewise, I knew that any involvement of prison outsiders was restricted by the guidelines of the prison and overseen by the authorities. This limited the quality and the grade of my personal interaction with the male prisoners within the official program. So, I felt the difference between a purposeful activity and the direct and personal dialogue between inmates and “outsiders” when thinking of the sport activity which wasn’t there to start a lively conversation but enable them to perform in a constrained public circumstance. After eating takeaway food with my teammates around Berlin Central Station, I noted, we did not really talk about this situation we were into. Rather beforehand some buddies taunted each other and were playing down their nervousness, I remember. So, I also went home somehow relieved, a bit proud of myself and encouraged, but eventually I realized too I had experienced a lesson of conduct.
I mention this experience because it showed me two different things: Firstly, group activities can provide temporary psychological relief for almost everyone by playing sports and thereby gaining more self-confidence and self-esteem, for example. Secondly, the physicality of social interest in divergent life realities and emotional coping set in motion a direct confrontation with areas of social control.
Cultural and Psychological Aspects of Music Practice
Following this personal sports experience at prison, I reckon that it can be sensible and meaningful to permeate those mental and physical barriers by mixed group activities (inmates and “outsiders”). Then, I mainly want to build a case for the potential of choral singing likewise. Music can be seen as another form of “playing by the rules”, but rather it is the most affective and emotional art form humans produced. It has the potential to bring one into ecstasy or to pluck one’s heartstrings. Research on infants proves that every human being reacts instinctively and emotionally to music (Brisola and Cury 2015; Doja 2014; Trehub and Trainor 1998).[1] Also, in a cross-cultural analysis of singing, the concept of tonal aesthetics as systemized in Western society does not similarly replicate, but usually refers to a therapeutical remedy to emotional and psychological illness, and by that - the sustaining of life (Rao 2005, 249). Respectively, I consider what one senses as harmonic as culturally shaped, and mathematically defined by the proportional qualities of any tonal system. The song’s tempo, strong shifts in volume, rhythm (a syncope), stress, or linguistic elements can be additionally touching. Therefore, every musical event and performance is highly structured and structuring at the same time. In other words, a song follows precise formal rules and is chosen according to the occasion while it communicates different affective information that guide the participants of choral singing in prisons shaping their limonoid process. Hereby, I deduce that the value of singing in today’s world consist in the alteration of subjectivity and social integrity.
Identification Process, Ethics and Emotions Through the Practice of Music
Shadd Maruna (2011) emphasizes that an extension of reintegration rituals and the development of (institutional) rituals to (trans)form political and social processes facilitates a successful re-entry of incarcerated people in a supportive and helpful way. For now, nearly any convict must handle the seemingly irreversible label of stigmatisation and degradation that limits personal participation and freedom of mobility (Maruna 2011, 12). A cross-institutional project like a community choir with imprisoned persons could be promising because the process of reintegration will only work with continuous inclusion and solidarity from the public (Maruna 2011, 18). Another example of the beneficial quality and potential of singing is explored by Mary Cohen (2009, 2012, 2019). She focuses on the relation of music and correctional education within the context of incarceration and human rights. Her studies confirm that the quality of political attitudes towards crime and criminals shapes the policy of punishment (Cohen 2012, 2007, 266–74). Furthermore, she notices that citizens are affected in their attitude concerning prisons by a misinforming and distorted report (Cohen 2012, 46f).
Generally, the perception and emergence of proper conduct on various sides, alongside worthiness and competence, are largely influenced by socio-creative approaches like choral singing to improve self-esteem (Cohen 2019, 108–109). Following Micheal Foucault’s idea of “disengaged listening” (developed in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison, 1979), singing can help convicted and incarcerated people who are most likely disapproved of social reliability to negotiate their subjectivity (Kramer 2003, 134f). Therefore, music can be understood “as an agency of socialization” (ibid.). To grasp the diverse ways to engage and participate in music, Christopher Small (2010) conceptualized what he calls musicking, and Mary Cohen (2007) devotes her PhD to harnessing this notion in music performance in the prison context. Following the technical proposition and proportion of musicking, Small sees music performance to evoke and transmit a specific mood through musical formulas and schemes. For Martin Clayton (2016) this means that all cultural and social relationships build upon the role and use of music (Clayton 2016, 47–58). In that way, whoever polices a disciplinary practice of music will enjoy its subjective power and hence see it as a form of freedom (Kramer 2003, 135). Although there can be a discrepancy between the musical and semantic meaning of musical performance, the first type understands its socially constructed character as part of its content and describes it as a lived experience (Kramer 2003, 138).
Most strikingly then, music is effective because of its ambiguity and intentional fugitiveness. Depending on the combination of genres, music could engender complex imagery of divergent and conflicting aspects. Émile Durkheim (in The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, 1912) calls this state collective effervescence which stands for a particular degree of intensity caused by collective life practices. This concept supports the argument that inmates could have a positive experience of psychic activity during choir rehearsals because of dealing musically with the same feelings. A choir’s performance mostly follows a theme or motif which intensifies the extent of identification with value and the feeling of personal belonging in relation to social order and norms. While a performative danger persists in intensifying self-centeredness and narcissistic self-affirmation (Clayton 2016, 56), Cohen (2009, 2012) observes that participants in her projects experienced their relationship with others and self-gratification as significant regarding the common goal of choral singing (Cohen 2012, 52). For that matter, several creative and practical activities like singing in a group can reduce negative outcomes and could build camaraderie among the choir members (Cohen 2012, 49). In addition, learning to breathe consciously is a side effect of (choral) singing which helps to enable thinking-in-action (Rao 2005, 250). Therefore, tonal aesthetics are not as essential as the meaning referring to singing-in-action to reclaim one’s subjectivity, bodily and mentally. And this ultimately motivates the ethical discernment of participants.
Breathing is vital as it is a metabolic process within our body connecting us to the world around and let us dwell on our actions. For example, before entering a new situation, like an honour ceremony, exam, job interview or competition a lot of people practice a calming breathing technique to encourage themselves. Furthermore, breathing enables people to listen to others, experience their part-taking, and adjust their mindset if necessary. Elizabeth Brown V. Brisola and Cury (2015, 404) describe this transformative and inclusive character of music as following:
As people sing, they are creating a song, a personal unique sound, building a castle of the song in the air, and in this way, making it possible to integrate feelings, thoughts, and relationships, in other words, integrating themselves. (Brisola and Cury 2015, 404)
Furthermore, Cohen (2009, 61; 2019, 115) emphasizes that the presentation of prison choirs inside or outside of the prison offers a space for inmates to connect emotionally with close and distant people, family members, and volunteers. The engagement in prison projects of both inmates and citizens can have a positive influence on their mutual understanding of the criminal justice system and their positionality. Other than this, little happens to raise the public awareness about the conditions in correctional institutions. Firstly, there could be more factual and well-founded information presented in the media, at schools and higher education institutions about detention conditions and secondly, more support for direct psychosocial and creative interventions should exist from the early stage of imprisonment. Upon that, other public events could follow for long-term prisoners to perform and show personal or group achievements of (therapy) practice.
Music Against Segregation: Anti-Oppressive Pedagogy and Psychological Anthropology
I think we should consider implementing an anti-oppressive agenda (Hess 2014) in the criminal justice system because it would hopefully induce a societal transformation in a world at risk (cf. Beck 1992, Risk Society; 2008, World at Risk) shaping the reencounter between people after prison release. This agenda was developed for the area of music education and opts for counterhegemonic goals based on critical theoretical works such as racism, colonialism, and feminism. Juliet Hess wants to develop a radical paradigm in musical teaching that confronts students with the subject of inequity and privileges on the one hand, and on the other hand shows the relationality of music and the peoples’ intrinsic value (Hess 2014, 247). Then again, teaching through music proclaims a constructive pedagogy as Alla V. Toropova (2020) shows in her educational project of musical and psychological methods for self-understanding of university students. Therein she develops a process of self-knowledge and reflection that she calls the artistic anthropo-practices. In this regard, all types of musical behaviour convert into a practice of "taking care of oneself" in the discourse of power and aim for humanitarian education (Toropova 2020, 303; Foucault 1995 [1979]). Musical-psychological anthropology is led by the idea that the examination of music culture allows us to look at the psychological processing of value orientation. It should be carried out in an educational context with the purpose to foster an anthropo-practice of self-exploration. In the context of disciplinary institutions like prisons, it could mean to conceptualise an artistic, specifically, musical pedagogy. It also implies keeping the personal immersion, history of music and musical practices of one’s environment in mind, because that accounts for a better learning experience in the process of rehabilitation and reintegration. Learning in the context of community would continuously aim to avoid and overcome the reproduction of structural determinisms imposed by cultural practices and social actions in this vulnerable and liminal context of incarceration (Pelissier 1991). Restrictively, a prison is “a highly marginalized physical, legal, and social space” (Scott 2022, 80) where prisoners can be preconditioned in their educational participation by their multiple societal disadvantages and discriminations (Shieh 2010, 21). A transformative process can only be carried out if the individual problems of the inmates are accounted for by an alternative education program in line with, for example, Paulo Freire’s idea of a Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire 1968) and within a protected space (by the music community) (Silber 2005, 268–69). Thus, I highly agree with Jason B. Scott (2022, 90) who presents and advocates for more anthropological education because of the benefits of critical thinking on and restoration of subjectivity in its relation to inclusion and exclusion of marginalized people overall. Hence, psychological anthropology and the general public should engage more in critical teaching and music education to collaborate with – what I would call – communities in practice (in the style of “community of practice” by Lave and Wenger-Trayner (2011)) because doing social relationships is a relevant sociopolitical matter.
Conclusion
I have argued that community practice especially choral singing offers a lot of key benefits to the reform of the prisoner re-entry process. All participants - though singing cannot reach every prisoner - engage in multiple and different ways into an inclusive and solidary dialogue concerning feelings, moral order, and social harmony. The positive results of Cohen’s (2019) study are promising to create a transitional model of reintegration process for detainees. Meanwhile, the aspect of the PIC remains problematic because any continuity of social separation, as in dealing with homelessness, corrupts and strains the social system. Furthermore, the money spend on PIC comes from governmental funds which prisons tap to finance their economic infrastructure and internal services.
I want to conclude by emphasizing that most musical interventions have the potential to conduct a personal and social transformation regarding community building. Such interventions give all participants sufficient agency and proximity to non-violently handle the difficult situation of social convergence as well as to engage in dialogue. Therefore, I promote a critical anthropological pedagogy to challenge established disciplinary institutions in their constant reproduction of violent and correctional structures. I call for more reflexivity and engagement about sociability and the diverging space of moral judgement. A closer, musical encounter of social science or the public sphere with detained people is beneficial for social dynamics within societies.
Notes
[1] This technically has to do with the vibration and oscillation of the sound waves which generate frequency and rhythm.
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