Unge synger højskolesange: En undersøgelse af unges sangvalg, bevæggrunde for og udbytte ved deltagelse i højskolesangaftener: En undersøgelse af unges sangvalg, bevæggrunde for og udbytte ved deltagelse i højskolesangaftener

Abstract

I specialet undersøger jeg, hvad der får unge anno 2017 til at deltage i højskolesangaftener. I specialet undersøger jeg specifikt 1) hvad synger de unge?, 2) hvorfor synger de unge? og 3) Hvad er en god højskolesang for de unge?. I specialet har jeg indsamlet sangønsker ved 17 sangaftener og lavet statistisk databehandling heraf. Derudover har jeg lavet et fokusgruppeinterview med 4 unge. Svaret på spørgsmål 1 blev, at de unge i højere grad vælger et rytmisk og moderne repertoire og i mindre grad et klassisk og ældre repertoire. Hvad angår spørgsmålet om de unges bevæggrunde for og udbytte ved deltagelse i højskolesangaftenerne viser det sig, at de vægter disse tre temaer: Danskhed, samvær og eksistens. Den gode højskolesang er for de unge en sang, der ikke er for let og ikke er for svær og ønsker. Derudover mener fokusgruppedeltagerne, at der i en kommende udgave af Højskolesangbogen kom flere sange med inden for genrerne folk og pop/rock.

This master’s thesis treats of young Danish adults’ participation in community singing arrangements where they sing songs from the Songbook of The Danish Folk High School. The main purpose of the thesis is to examine why some Danish young adults anno 2017 want to participate in these community singing arrangements which usually is seen as an old-fashioned activity when the Danish youth culture normally is associated with night on the towns and the use of social medias. In the master’s thesis I examine which songs the young adults are singing, why they are singing, and what a good song from the Songbook of The Danish Folk High School is to the young adults. The first question was examined through a statistical processing of the total amount of song requests collected at 17 community singing arrangements in Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Aalborg. The second question I examined through a focus group interview with 4 young adults who participate at the singing arrangements in Aarhus. In order to pick out 4 persons who are approximately representative of the young adults who participate in the community singing arrangements in Aarhus in general I carried out a questionnaire survey at 1 of these arrangements. The third question I answered using answers from the focus group interview. The main result of the first question is that the young adults prefer modern songs and song with a strong emphasis on the rhythmical elements over old and traditional songs. The answer of the second question was given with 3 themes that I found in the focus group interview. The 3 themes are existence, togetherness, and Danishness. The part about existence deals with these 3 aspects: Time, singing from the Songbook of The Danish Folk High School interpret as protest singing (Carlsen, 2004; 2006-2007) and epiphany. The most important results in the part ‘existence’ where that the community singing arrangements give the focus group participants an experience of being in an active and inclusive community in which – among other things - face-to-face-relations are important. As concerns the theme Danishness, singing from the Songbook of The Danish Folk High School give the focus group participants an experience of Denmark as an ‘imagined community’ (Anderson, 1991). Moreover, the focus group participants attitude to the national anthem is discussed. They look at the national anthem as a national symbol (Adriansen, 2003), and they have an ambivalent attitude to this. The answer of the third question is that the young adults prefer songs that are neither too easy nor to difficult. In answer of the third question also include their wishes for the repertoire in the future edition of the Songbook of The Danish Folk High School. Relating this question, they will prefer more songs in the genre of rock, pop/rock and folk. It turns out that their song whishes are in line with Jeppe Greve and Henrik Marstals attitudes (Greve, 2012). Finally I discuss the relations between Danishness and singing songs from the Songbook of The Danish Folk High School in relation to Wierød’s (2016) understanding of the meaning of community singing.

A master thesis from Aalborg University

Unge synger højskolesange: En undersøgelse af unges sangvalg, bevæggrunde for og udbytte ved deltagelse i højskolesangaftener: En undersøgelse af unges sangvalg, bevæggrunde for og udbytte ved deltagelse i højskolesangaftener