The self-perceptions of young men as singers in Singaporean pre-university schools

Abstract

The persistence of young men in choral singing activity has been widely studied in North America, with emerging parallel research in Europe (Freer, 2013; Harrison & Welch, 2012). There has been little such research in Asia. This study, of 12 young men enrolled in Singapore’s pre-university schools, collected both written narratives and drawn imagery to explore participants’ musical identities, perceptions of choral singing, and reasons for continued or discontinued participation in choral music. The report details the analytical methods used for understanding the visual imagery (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). Four a priori hypotheses were developed based on relevant, existing literature (Bell, 2001). Findings of the study related to these hypotheses were as follows: 1) individual decisions to enrol in choral music were mediated by peer influence; 2) individual decisions to remain or withdraw from choral singing were influenced by the perception of both individual vocal skills and musical issues within the ensemble; 3) there was no stated relationship between choral music and either masculinity or sexuality; and 4) there was no stated impact of the adolescent changing voice on choral participation or self-perception as a singer.