‘If you ever saw an Opera singer naked’: The social construction of the singer’s body

Abstract

This article analyzes the process by which a singer’s body is turned into an instrument that produces music. Through practice, singers develop bodily habits and a ‘corporal memory’ consisting of techniques, sensations and positions, all of which are used reflexively when singing. This ‘tool kit’ enables singers to deconstruct their bodies, mobilizing necessary bodily functions and synchronizing them to meet the requirements of the musical text. Using Bourdieu’s concepts of habit and habitus, I illustrate how singing classes become arenas where corporal capital (habit) and cultural capital (habitus) are formed and transformed, enabling singers to enter the professional world. Data were gathered via participant observation in private classes, a music school, a university-affiliated academy of music and master classes at a conservatory, since the studio is the social arena in which both forms of capital are developed and sustained.