Singing can be considered an essential extent of human expression. However, socio-cultural norms in our Western culture determine what kind of singing is acceptable and what is not. People are divided into those who can sing and those who can’t. Singing is advisable only for those who can. In this research, I will examine amateur singers whose singing does not meet the requirements of “good singing” – and whose possibilities for vocal expression are therefore socially diminished.
In singing, the recognition of the interrelatedness of bodily sensations and voice is essential. For example, different pitches and timbres not only sound different but they also feel different in the singing body. It could be said that the aesthetic potential of singing is connected not only to the vocal sounds as an auditive phenomenon but also to the bodily sensations as a proprioceptive and interoceptive phenomenon. In this research, the interrelatedness of the body awareness and voice will be examined by bringing forth the situations where this connection is somehow challenged, broken, or almost non-existent.
This research belongs to the field of ethnomusicology. In addition, the focus is on the research of human voice and singing. The theoretical starting points are in the pragmatist aesthetics, somaesthetics, cultural phenomenology, disability studies, and voice studies. The methodology is based on ethnography.
The main research questions are: What kind of vocal experiences the Deaf, tone-deaf, and people with vocal disorders have? How the aesthetic body awareness becomes apparent in these experiences? And how these perspectives can increase our understanding of singing as a human expression more broadly? The aim of this study is also to point out the value of singing as an aesthetic activity, no matter what the aesthetic quality of the singing voice is when estimated more traditionally (e.g. singing in tune, sense of rhythm, voice quality).
The broader aim of this study is to reconsider the substantive question of what kind of bodily-vocal action can be perceived as singing. Could there be singing without clear pitches, distinct rhythm, or even without vocal sounds? I argue that by paying attention to the aesthetic potentials of the body awareness we can reach a deeper understanding of the experientially and socially meaningful aspects of singing. We can also get new insights on why singing is important not only for those who “can sing” but also for those who “cannot”.
The theoretical aim of this study is to develop a field of vocal somaesthetics that will examine human being as bodily, sentient, and vocal being. It will also explore the diverse vocal-sensory and aesthetic relations of a human being with his/her environment and with other people. In addition, vocal somaesthetics strives to democratize the vocal conventions of our culture by questioning the prevalent vocal norms and by bringing forth the vocal expressions that have remained marginal in our culture.
Anne Tarvainen, PhD
Postdoctoral study
University of Tampere,
Faculty of Communication Sciences
Funded by Kone Foundation
More information: http://annetarvainen.fi/postdoctoral-study.html