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Icelandic Men and Me: Sagas of Singing, Self and Everyday Life by Robert Faulkner (review)

In Icelandic Men and Me: Sagas of Singing, Self and Everyday Life, Robert Faulkner explores the function and meaning of singing in the daily lives of a group of amateur adult male singers from rural Iceland. He aims, successfully, to ‘theorize about how singing is used in the construction, representation and maintenance of personal and social identity’ (p. 4), or more specifically ‘how Self is located in singing; how singing constructs, regulates, maintains and changes Selfçtheorized as intertwined social, physical and spiritual elements; and how singing plays a key role in the performance of [men’s] gender identity’ (p. 186). Faulkner’s methods for researching, analysing, and theorizing these topics are impressively interdisciplinary. He describes himself as ‘a music psychologist entering, some might say stealthily, ethnomusicology and sociological domains’ (p. 9); his personal experiences as a singer, conductor, and music educator, as well as his current academic appointment in education, clearly also influence his methodology and interpretations. He strives to integrate approaches from these fields in his focus on the experiences and perceptions of individuals. His primary data comprise narrative personal accounts in the form of fifteen in-depth interviews and thirty diaries collected from members of the male choir Hreimur in a rural community in north-eastern Iceland. Focusing on these men’s perceptions of their own experiences, these data are analysed through a phenomenological framework adopted from psychology (namely, Jonathan Smith and Mike Osborne’s ‘Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis’, in Jonathan Smith (ed.), Qualitative Psychology (London, 2003), 51^80) and further informed by ethnomusicological approaches towards the study of individuals (e.g. Timothy Rice’s May It Fill your Soul (Chicago, 1994)). Faulkner’s comparative and critical reflection on research methods across disciplines (in chs. 1 and 8) is one of the greatest strengths of the book. The field of ethnomusicology is critiqued for not paying enough attention to psychological work on selfhood and individual identity (and rightly so, in this reader’s opinion, given the field’s long-time interest in identity studies). A psychological/sociological approach of presenting and analysing numerous brief quotations is enriched through the cultural contextualization and thick description afforded by Faulkner’s extensive twodecade immersion in the culture. The insights garnered from his personal experiences as first conductor and teacher and later researcher in the local musical community give the volume a strong ethnographic feel, which is complemented by brief but engaging sections of autoethnography. The integration of these multidisciplinary approaches is highly effective and will probably serve as a model for others. I only wish the author had taken the integration one step further in his phenomenological framework by engaging more in the ethnomusicological practice of analysing how the researcher’s experiences in the field transform his understandings (as detailed by Rice in May It Fill your Soul). The discussion of these various frameworks, intertwined with background information about the author and Iceland, make chapter 1 an engaging read. The rest of the book is clearly organized. Three chapters introduce us to the people and the culture. ‘Baldur’s Saga’ (ch. 2) paints a vivid picture of rural Iceland and some of the changes it has undergone in the twentieth century through the story of one man, Baldur, and his lifelong singing experiences. ‘Icelandic Sagas and Songs’ (ch. 3) provides an overview of the different vocal genres practised in Iceland, from classical to folk to popular. Though the primary repertory of the casestudy choir is classical, participants in this study sing across all of these genres, and this is another strength of the book, the holistic examination of individuals’ musical experiences in contrast to the usual academic compartmentalization of music by idiom. ‘My Saga’ (ch. 8) contains a short auto-ethnography of the author’s childhood singing experiences, which illuminate striking contrasts between English urban and Icelandic rural culture in relation to learning experience and the everyday practice and significance of singing. Most notably, Faulkner’s childhood singing experiences at home were for the primary purpose of preparing for public performances, while many of the participants in his study sing at home primarily for personal and social gratification.