Icelandic men, male voice choirs and masculine identity

Abstract

Four-part harmony arrived in Iceland about a hundred and 50 years ago as part of the resurgence of national romanticism inspired by European and, in particular, Nordic nationalist movements. Following this musical revolution, singing in the home and wider community, was purposefully employed in the rebuilding of nationhood and in the creation of tradition. In particular, Male Voice Choirs were quickly established all over this sparsely populated and remote island and became significant agents on the building site of Icelandic identity. They dominated public vocal arenas and the male voice choir phenomenon was embedded in the Icelandic national psyche throughout the twentieth century. Fifty years have now past since Icelandic independence from Denmark, and during that time, in one of the most dramatic economic, social and technological revolutions of modern times, Iceland has risen to the very top of the United Nations Human Development Index, only to see its economy dramatically implode in the 2008 global financial crisis. The author of this chapter, who lived and worked in a rural community in Iceland for nearly 20 years, traces the history of the European male voice choir movement, its emergence and growth in Iceland and then examines what contemporary male voice choristers have to say about their singing. The chapter offers a dialectical, historical and local interpretation of how singing genders identity and configures plural, complex and even contradictory versions of masculinity.