Discourses of Tradition in Cathedral Music
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Durham E-Theses Let My Voice Be Heard: Barriers to Gender Diversity and Inclusion in Anglican Cathedral Music DOYLE, ENYA,HELEN,LAUREN How to cite: DOYLE, ENYA,HELEN,LAUREN (2020) Let My Voice Be Heard: Barriers to Gender Diversity and Inclusion in Anglican Cathedral Music, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/13806/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Let My Voice Be Heard Barriers to Gender Diversity and Inclusion in Anglican Cathedral Music A thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Enya HL Doyle DipLCM AFHEA FRSA Department of Music Durham University 2020 Abstract Since girl choristers were first included as permanent members of Salisbury Cathedral Choir in 1991, all-male choirs in Church of England cathedrals have undergone substantial transformation. Thirty-nine of the forty-two such cathedrals now offer musical provision in some form to girls, as well as continuing their commitment to boys. Women have also increasingly been selected for Choral and Organ Scholarships, Lay clerkships, and other leadership positions: to date five cathedrals have appointed a woman Director of Music. And yet, very few (if any) cathedrals can claim to foster a culture that seeks to eradicate the persisting interconnected barriers which create and sustain a double bind based on gender. As such, recognising and attending to these barriers is imperative. Using qualitative data collected by the author in twenty interviews at ten cathedrals in 2017/2018 together with promotional literature from individual cathedrals, and official Church of England documents, this thesis identifies and scrutinises four systematically related barriers which cumulatively impede gender diversity and inclusion in cathedral music-making today. These are that: 1. Opportunities for women and girls are shaped and restricted by institutional understandings of how to speak about gender, sex, and sexuality as a result of the Anglican via media ('middle ways'); 2. Rhetorics of tradition 'other' women by (re-)asserting a gendered hierarchy in various aspects of cathedral music-making; 3. The bodies, spaces, and voices involved in cathedral worship are affected by the unequal approaches to gender built into the material and embodied practices of the Church of England; 4. Music leadership is constructed, assumed, and enacted within a deeply gendered framework thereby creating and reinforcing obstacles to participation for women and girls. This thesis provides a foundation for practitioners and scholars alike to scrutinise the often subtle and underlying forms of exclusion which underpin cathedral practices, policies, and cultures. 2 Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................... 2 List of Tables .............................................................................................................. 6 List of Figures ............................................................................................................ 7 Statement of Copyright .............................................................................................. 8 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... 9 Prelude ..................................................................................................................... 12 I. Definitions and Foundations .................................................................... 18 (a) Sex and Gender ............................................................................................................ 18 (b) Gender Equality, Equity, and Parity ................................................................... 21 (c) Gender Diversity and Inclusion ............................................................................. 22 II. Sex and Gender in Musicology ................................................................. 23 III. Research on Gender and Choral Singing in the English Cathedral Context .................................................................................................................. 30 Methods .................................................................................................................... 36 I. A Feminist and Transdisciplinary Approach ........................................... 36 (a) Navigating My Position: Insider or Outsider? ......................................... 39 (b) Navigating Disciplines .............................................................................. 42 (c) Mixing Methods ......................................................................................... 45 II. Identifying Case Studies ........................................................................... 46 III. Sources ....................................................................................................... 51 (a) Semi-structured Interviews ...................................................................... 51 (b) Ethnographies ........................................................................................... 58 (c) Other Materials ......................................................................................... 60 ‘Mutual Flourishing’: Rhetoric and Gender in the Contemporary Church of England .................................................................................................................... 62 I. Navigating the Via Media: Exploring the Contemporary Church of England’s Pronouncements on Gender, Sex, and Sexuality .............................. 63 (a) The Via Media and the Identity of the Church of England .................... 65 (b) Gender, Sex, and Sexuality: Debates in the Anglican Communion ....... 70 (c) Women and the Twenty-First-Century Episcopate ................................. 74 (d) Sexuality and Same-gender Partnerships ............................................... 80 II. Socio-cultural Influences on Accounts of Gender in the Church of England’s Public Rhetoric .................................................................................... 86 III. The Impact of Gender(ed) Rhetoric in Cathedrals: A First Look ........... 93 3 ‘An unbroken chain’: Discourses of Tradition in Cathedral Music .................... 106 I. Argumentum ad Antiquitatem: Theories of Tradition ........................... 108 II. Tradition and the Church ....................................................................... 113 III. Tradition and Choral Music .................................................................... 118 IV. The Cathedral Tradition and Gender: Four Paradigms ....................... 134 Paradigm 1: Girls and Women Create a New Tradition .............................. 138 Paradigm 2: Girls and Women Supplement the Tradition .......................... 150 Paradigm 3: Girls and Women Transform the Tradition ............................. 155 Paradigm 4: Girls and Women Sustain the Tradition .................................. 160 The Quire as Liberation Zone? Understanding Bodies, Spaces, and Voices in Cathedral Music .................................................................................................... 169 I. 'Surrogate Masculinity', Androgyny, and Invisibility: Bodies in Cathedral Music-Making ................................................................................... 170 (a) Representation and Robing: The (In)Visibility of Women and Girls in Cathedral Services ......................................................................................... 172 (b) Gesture, Posture and Presence in Cathedral Services ......................... 181 II. "Gargantuan, vast, welcoming, enriching, glorious, thrilling"; Discovering the Cathedral Space ...................................................................... 191 (a) From the Outside, Looking In ................................................................ 192 (b) What’s Inside: Uses and Purposes of Space in Cathedral Services ...... 195 III. 'To Hear a Body': Voices in Cathedral Services ..................................... 202 (a) Words and Voice in the Cathedral Service: Speaking and Singing ...... 202 (b) ‘Voice of an Angel’: (De-)Problematising the Female Voice .................. 210 Three Times a Lady: Gender Diversity and Inclusion in Cathedral Music Leadership .............................................................................................................. 218 I. Theories of Leadership ............................................................................ 220 II. Stained Glass Ceilings: Leadership in the Church ............................... 227 III. 'A cute girl on a podium': Gender and Musical Leadership .................. 234 IV. "No glass ceiling now": Gender and Leadership in Cathedral