In August, Minister of Culture Jakob Engel-Schmidt and conductor and composer Phillip Faber came up with a proposal to strengthen morning singing in Danish schools. A proposal that pleases the researchers at the Unit for Singing Research at Aarhus University. The unit researches the communities of song. Now there is even more to be happy about - the Augustinus Foundation has chosen to provide support for the implementation and mapping of singing in Danish schools by supporting a study of the song's status and role in and outside the music courses.

Lea Maria Wierød Borcak, senior researcher at the Unit for Singing Research, says:

"At the Unit for Singing Research at Aarhus University, we are interested in singing in all its forms, but at the moment we are focusing on the communities of singing. In our current research into the singing habits of Danes, we have been able to point to a connection between singing socialisation in school, in childhood and participation in and joy of singing culture in adulthood. But the spread and role of singing in Danish schools is greatly under-eluated. We simply do not know how big a role singing plays in Denmark's primary schools. With this grant, we will investigate this by conducting a survey of the prevalence and importance of singing in Danish schools, both in the music subject and outside. How much does singing take up space in the everyday culture of Danish schools? How many schools have morning singing? How much work is done on singing professionalism in music lessons? How much does singing take up in other subjects?"

The Danish song tradition is the subject of increasing attention
Lullaby, children's song, morning song, community singing – as we know, dear child has many names – the Danish song tradition is, according to the song researcher, the subject of increasing attention. In addition to the Ministry of Culture's announcement to implement morning singing in Danish schools, several organizations and projects across the country, according to Lea Maria Wierød Borcak, are working on initiatives to strengthen singing culture and morning singing in schools.

"The renewed focus on school singing is rooted in the rediscovered interest in Denmark's strong singing tradition and in considerations about the socially and culturally formative effect of singing. Efforts to strengthen school singing are also based on a concern that the role of singing in schools has been weakened. However, we have no clarity on the status of school singing. Such knowledge is an absolutely necessary prerequisite for the development of initiatives and policies that can strengthen school singing, and this is what we want to provide together with our partners," she says.

Facts

• The Unit for Vocal Research was established in 2023 as a framework for the diverse academic approaches to vocal research
• Singing research has traditionally been distributed among these many different disciplines, but the international trend is currently towards a unification of the field under the term "song studies"
• The Unit for Song Research is interested in singing in all its forms, but in their ongoing projects they have a particular focus on the communities of song. How can singing and singing strengthen the sense of community and social cohesion? What mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion are at play in song? How has the role of community singing changed historically?
• The Unit for Singing Research has just received a grant from the Augustinus Foundation to carry out a survey of singing in Danish schools with DKK 315,322.

Contact

Lea Maria Wierød Borcak, Senior Researcher,
Centre for Grundtvig Research, Unit for Singing Research
School of Culture and Society
Aarhus University
Phone: +45 5091 5745
Mail: lmw@cas.au.dk