Performing Difference: Exploring the Social World of the Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Youth Chorus
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Performing Difference: Exploring the Social World of the Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Youth Chorus by Benjamin Patrick Leske Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2017 ORCiD ID: 0000-0001-7667-0244 National Music Therapy Research Unit Melbourne Conservatorium of Music The University of Melbourne Abstract This thesis explores member experiences of the Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Youth Chorus (the Youth Chorus), Australia’s first community choir for Same Sex Attracted and Gender Diverse (SSAGD) young people. SSAGD young people are more likely to experience social exclusion for their sexuality and/or gender identity in Australia. This thesis uses an interpretative phenomenological approach to analyse interviews with ten members, exploring the nuanced ways in which the youth chorus supports wellbeing and identity formation through choral musicking in a community setting. It is guided by a broadly hermeneutic interest in better understanding the complex individual and collective experiences of choir members. Findings, considered through the lens of Tia DeNora’s sociological framework of the music asylum (DeNora, 2013), suggest that the youth chorus offers a place of safety within the structures of the choir and with the support of its establishing choral organisation, Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Chorus Inc. The youth chorus affords its members a place of ontological safety as a foundation to make music and socialise, within a musicking community where queer is the norm rather than exception. This position of safety is central to the choir’s music and health ecology (Ansdell, 2014), upon which the construction and performance of difference is expressed musically and socially. The youth chorus provides its members with a musical and extra-musical platform to test out, rehearse, and publicly perform musical and social identities of difference, but where members at times also value sameness and conformity. I bring a critical perspective to the study, interpreting individual and collective identities within a gender and queer theory context. This lens highlights a tension between outwardly queer choir identity that celebrates difference and seeks to destabilise, against the value of the youth chorus as a musical ecology that affirms stable SSAGD identities. ii Reflecting on the choir experience, I suggest there is a combination of paradoxes and tensions apparent. Paradoxically, understandings of choir as an exclusive place or clique contribute to the sense of safety and inclusiveness. I suggest this sense of exclusivity, which directly challenges the inclusive public profile and worldview of the youth chorus, offers a distinct perspective for community music scholars. I examine these attributes with reference to several formative conceptual ideas of Lee Higgins (2012). I suggest the youth chorus and choral singing offers a place of gentle activism as members navigate their individual gender identity and sexuality journeys. Reflecting on recent studies of choral pedagogy, I consider implications, challenges, and opportunities for community choral leaders and facilitators who must balance these tensions when working with SSAGQ young people in choral music settings. iii Declaration The following declaration page, signed by the candidate: This is to certify that: i. the thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD except where indicated in the Preface, ii. due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used, iii. the thesis is fewer than 100 000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. Signature: ______________________________ Name: ______________________________ Date: ______________________________ iv Table of Contents Abstract ii Declaration iv Table of Contents v Glossary xiii List of Figures xv List of Tables xvi List of Appendices xvii Dedication xviii Acknowledgements xix I: POSITIONING 20 Chapter 1: Beginnings 21 Catalyst 22 Paula. 22 “Troubling” my positive assumptions about choral singing. 23 Presenting My Story 24 My privileges. 24 A reflexive welcoming of my cancer diagnosis into this research. 25 Introducing the Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Chorus Inc and its Youth Chorus 26 A “choir within a choir”. 27 A choir for young people outside of formal education settings. 28 The instinct driving this study: An at-risk cohort of young people. 29 LGBTI identities as “horizontal” social identities. 30 Going beyond “at-risk”. 31 Valuing Language: A Choir of Same Sex Attracted and Gender Diverse People 32 Queer. 34 Sexuality. 35 Gender. 36 Collective labels. 36 Scholarly Motivations and Beginnings 37 An interest in community music, health, and wellbeing. 38 Music therapy as my scholarly entry point. 39 Linking into Higgins’s contributions to community music. 41 Community-as-hospitality, gift-giving, and the welcome. 42 Workshops, facilitators, and the welcome. 43 v Locating My Practice Home 44 LGBTI choral music internationally. 44 Choral music in Australia. 46 LGBTI choral music in Australia. 47 Scholarly Contribution 48 Overview of the Thesis 50 “It’s an Insular Little Queer Bubble and We Love it in There!”: Hermione 52 Chapter 2: Establishing Key Concepts 56 Prelude: Social Exclusion 56 The Affordances of Music for Wellbeing 57 Background. 57 Exploring what music is. 58 Epistemology. 58 Communicative. 58 Music-as-action. 59 Developing social understandings of musicking. 61 Music and health ecologies. 62 Music as political and powerful. 63 Musicking for health, health musicking. 64 Community music. 65 “Thoughtful disruption”: Towards a definition of community music. 65 Community music policies and practices worldwide. 69 Community music practices in Australia. 69 Integrating alternative approaches. 71 Music therapy and community music. 71 Psychological approaches. 73 Community building, music, and belonging. 75 Benefits of group singing. 76 Choirs and community building. 79 Choirs and choral pedagogy. 80 Choirs, musical capital, and musical communities of practice. 81 Choral singing and social activism. 82 Identities of Music, Youth, Gender, and Sexuality 82 Background: Introducing Identity. 83 Establishing a socially-located self. 83 Individual identities. 84 Social identity theory (psychology). 84 vi Formed within an ecological social context. 84 Bronfenbrenner’s ecological understanding. 85 Musical Identities. 87 Psychological perspectives. 87 Sociological, educational, and therapeutic perspectives. 88 Musical leadership identities. 90 Youth identities. 90 Socially- and materially- conditioned. 91 Identity formation, gender, sexuality, and music. 93 Gender, sexuality, and queer studies in music education settings. 93 In music therapy and musicology scholarship. 94 Choirs, gender, and sexuality. 95 Challenging binaries of gender and sexuality in choral music. 96 Setting aside Cass’s staged model of identity formation. 97 A study of youth musical identities. 98 The wellbeing potentials of queer youth musicking identities. 98 “It Definitely Changed my Mindset on Everything”: Dylan’s Story 100 Chapter 3: Study Design 102 A: Designing the Project: Methodological Foundations and Changes 103 An axiological commitment to social justice. 103 Social justice in educational settings. 103 Defining social justice in music. 103 The youth chorus as a place where members sing for social justice. 106 Two choirs as my initial case studies. 107 Scholarly motivations and methodological priorities. 108 Developing a theoretically-informed picture. 108 Bringing out their experiences. 109 Bringing in my experiences, skills. 110 Initial commitment to constructivist grounded theory as method. 111 B: Parallel Tracks: Health Interruptions to the Research Design 114 Resolving a methodological way forward. 115 C: Revised Methodology: Hermeneutic Phenomenology, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) 116 Phenomenological perspectives. 116 Defining phenomenology. 116 Husserl’s phenomenological stance. 117 Hermeneutic and descriptive phenomenology. 118 The case for a hermeneutic phenomenology. 119 vii Revised methodology: Interpretative phenomenological analysis. 121 Room for narrative and creative elements. 124 Multiple hermeneutics. 124 D: Completing the Project: Methods for Data Collection and Analysis 126 Selection of case study choirs. 126 Recruitment of research participants. 127 Ethical considerations. 127 Plain language statement and consent form. 128 Commitment to transcription. 129 The interviews. 129 Interview guide and advice. 131 Pseudonyms, pronouns. 132 Post-interview: transcription and analysis. 133 Personal statement. 133 Transcription. 134 Order of interviews analysed. 135 Analysis. 136 E: Four Reflexive Reflections on the Interviews 139 Prelude. 139 “Ben knows more about that”: The silent, third person in the room. 139 Being excluded: Hermione’s tertiary omission. 141 The tempering influence of interviewers. 144 Exploring interviewing skills. 145 Bringing out the unique traits of choir members. 148 Eliciting deeper responses of members. 149 Balancing directedness and “setting free.” 150 Summing up content. 153 The final interview question as a catalyst. 156 “It Saved me from Going Backwards”: Malachi 159 II: INTERPRETING 162 Chapter 4: Interpreting the Results 163 Member Backgrounds and Understandings 163 Musical backgrounds. 163 Educational backgrounds, finding choir. 164 Descriptions of choir sites. 165 Tia DeNora’s Music Asylums Framework 167 Introducing music asylums. 167 viii Reclaiming the terminology: “Asylum” for wellbeing