Sing for Your Life: What We Can Learn from the “Singing Cultures”

Chorus America: How did you get interested in singing and healthy aging?

Julene Johnson: In my work, I study cognitive impairment in aging. I was up for sabbatical and looking for creative topic in a related area.  I got a Fulbright fellowship to go to Finland to study older singers, because the Scandinavian countries have a strong music tradition throughout the lifespan. I wanted to go to a culture that really valued music and it so happened that the place I was assigned—Jyväskylä—is where choir singing in Finland started.

What was the choir culture like in Jyväskylä?

The town of Jyväskylä had about 125,000 people and approximately 40 community choirs, ranging from those for kids all the way up to those for folks in their 90s. There were six choruses dedicated just to older adults. I was trying to understand how a community can support and value choir singing through the lifespan. It was so impressive.

The older choral singers who participated in the study in Jyväskylä sing on average 33 years, so this is something that is a lifelong activity. The children’s choirs would transition into young adult choirs. Then those young people would have an opportunity to sing in the adult choirs. And because the adult choirs are high quality, with their own competitions in Finland and in other countries, they have a serious rehearsal and performance schedule. If it becomes too hard for older adults to keep up with the younger voices, they make the decision to transition into one of the senior choirs.

However, I did meet a woman who was 80 who was still singing with a highly active women’s choir. She told me, “Maybe next year I will transition to the senior choir.” Her voice was just amazing.

A couple of the senior choirs are focused on a theme. One was a veteran’s choir made up of men from the World War II era. Another was made up of retired rail workers. They sing in the choir to keep up some of their work relations. Another mixed chorus was sponsored by the university as part of their continuing education for adults.

What did you discover in your research about singing and wellness for older adults?

We asked the older singers specifically about their quality of life—using a standard scale from the World Health Organization. We also administered a depression questionnaire because depression is common in older adults and is associated with bad outcomes. We also looked at physical quality of life—things like how happy are you with the physical aspects of aging. The final scale was looking at resilience and their ability to respond to stressful situations in life and their attitudes toward how they would respond. It is not just how much stress somebody has had in life but how good are you at coping with that stress.

In addition to that, my colleague in Finland, Jukka Louhivuori, asked the choir singers what they thought were some of the important aspects of choir—was it the social support, was it that they were feeling refreshed, was it an emotional expression outlet for them, was it that they were attending cultural events?

We are now looking at the relation between these quality of life questions and the perceived benefits of choral singing. For example, 117 singers completed the questionnaires. Half of them said that being a member of the group was very important. Half said that having artistic and emotional experiences as part of the choir were very important. Half said social contacts in the choir were really important. Forty percent said improving self-confidence was another reason they would sing in the choir. As you go down the list, the other benefits were developing singing skills, artistic expression, increasing knowledge of music. The desire to perform was the least important (11 percent). 

My colleague has studied young people’s choirs in other parts of the world. In South Africa, they sang in the choir more for the music reasons rather than the social group support reasons. That was an interesting difference.

Any surprising or moving moments for you personally as you went around to these choirs?

I spent a lot of time at rehearsals listening and I sang in a couple of the choirs just to get the experience of what it was like. The thing that is shocking to me is how strong their voices were, and how musically competent all of the singers were.

I think the strength of the singing in Finland is attributed, in part, to the high quality of the choral directors. I had to keep reminding myself that these were not professional choruses. These were community choruses, and the choral directors most of the time were volunteering their time. They told me this is how they gave back to the community.

There is a really good warm-up, focused on the voice, but also on stretching the body. I think the frequent concerts given meant that there was always something you were working toward. A lot of time in the U.S., the senior choirs are singing the old-time favorites. They are beautiful tunes—don’t get me wrong. But in Finland, the senior choirs often sing a challenging repertoire. The expectations are high and it is backed up by many years of singing. And if you are singing in the choir there is often an opportunity to have a private lesson. Student voice teachers often did that on the side.

How do the Finnish deal with the issues of the aging voice?

There is a lot of folklore around how to keep your voice strong throughout life, but not much research about it. I don’t know what was allowing these people to maintain their voice. You could say, well, they have been singing in a choir for 30 years. Some were singing in a choir for up to 70 years. So it’s like being an athlete. You’ve been working these muscles for a long time.

Also, most of the time they were singing a cappella. That trains your voice and your auditory system. You have to pay much more attention to the music, when you don’t have any additional accompaniment. It keeps your mind and ears well oiled.

Also, the repertoire. You have to learn new pieces. That is another important part of keeping that skill, rather than just singing the songs you have been singing for 70 years. You are teaching your voice to learn new things. You are not just recalling the old things.

What can we learn in the U.S. from singing cultures like the one in Finland?

In Finland, access to music is one of the fundamental basic rights of a human being. So, in addition to the music, they have access to health care, a pension, and free education. Having the arts as important as education or health care or retirement, puts it up there as something valuable in their society.

In the U.S., I see that music programs are often one of the first things being cut. If, as a country, we valued the creative arts more that would not only strengthen the quality of our society, but it would also provide access to the creative arts to a lot more people. Raising the importance of music would be something we could learn.

In Finland, it was so important to have access to choirs across the lifespan—not just children’s and adult choirs but to really think about access to choir throughout life. I know that many folks in the U.S. retire from their choir when they get too old and think their voice cannot handle it anymore. It was amazing to see how the Finns really could sing from a very young age up until the golden years and they were supported for that.

My goal is to make the creative arts a recommendation for promoting health in older adults, like exercise is. I hope to contribute to the research to help with that. There is a lot to be done if you think about how long it took for exercise to be recognized as a very important thing to do to age well. Participating in music, and the creative arts, is just as important. 

Johnson and her colleagues at UCSF have received funding through the National Institutes of Health to start a series of choirs for low-income and minority older adults in San Francisco. The goal is to research the impact of choral singing on their health and well-being.

Resources

SULASOL, the Finnish Amateur Music Association, gives awards for obtaining different choir skill awards, such as learning a specific repertoire of songs from memory. Here is a photo of several members of a male chorus comparing their awards.
 
Here is the oldest men’s chorus in Jyväskylä
http://www.sirkat.fi/en/
 
Johnson’s research was featured in a segment about music and health on the PBS Newshour February 27, 2012.