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Chorus and Community Ed. by Karen Ahlquist. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2006. 323 pp. Bibliog. Index. ISBN 978-0-252-03037-6 (hbk). ISBN 978-0-252-07284-0 (pbk). US$65.00 (hbk). US$30.00 (pbk).
While exploring the exhibitors' section of the 2007 American Folklore Society conference in Quebec, I was delighted to discover a copy of this book, having searched for months for a publication to aid my own research into Scotland's gospel male-voice choirs. With thirteen chapters in total, the book comprises a variety of ethnomusicological insights into diverse choral traditions under the subheadings: A Communal Art; Grassroots Aesthetics; Minority Identities; The Activist Chorus; and In the Western Tradition. As the title might suggest, discussions tend to be biased towards the social function of choruses within their wider community, and this help to increase the book's appeal to include not only ethnomusicologists but those involved in wider areas of sociological enquiry.
Gregory Barz opens the book with a study of youth and adult kwayas, community singing groups attached to religious institutions in Dar es Salaam. Much of his focus is on how a kwaya supports its members, an emphasis that Melinda Russell adopts in her research among choral singers in Decatur, Illinois. Taking a similar approach to Ruth Finnegan in The Hidden Musicians, Russell's intention is to present an ethnographic overview of the area through accounts of histories, membership, performance venues, and...