Choirs in Two Countries — A Study of Community Music Therapy for the Older Adults in Norway and Japan

Individualism and Collectivism in Norway and Japan

Considering these studies, let us focus on individualism and collectivism in Norway and Japan. Hofstede et al. (2010) reported that the IDV score of Norway is 69, and Japan 46, which suggests that Norway is more individualistic than Japan. However, the difference is not very large as some may assume (Norway: 17th out of 76 countries, Japan: 35th). The top 30 countries in the IDV score are all Western countries, so Norway ranks in the middle of this group. Japan’s score is 46, which puts Japan at an only moderately low level for individualism, and the second highest among Asian countries (pp. 95–97). Therefore, Japanese might be seen as collectivistic by Western standards but seen as individualistic by Asian standards.

Triandis (1995) noted that there is a tendency towards collectivism in Scandinavian cultures where in-groups are more important and collectivism regulates behaviour more tightly in family and social settings than in the United States. He concluded that Scandinavia must be seen as a moderately individualistic region, with many horizontal collectivist elements (Triandis, 1995, pp. 98–99). Concerning Japan, he noted that vertical collectivism was a powerful cultural pattern pre-World War II, but after the war, confronting the individualism of the United States occupational forces, it shifted from vertical to horizontal collectivism. He also called attention to within-culture variations: the older Japanese are still rather vertical, and the younger generation is moving both in the horizontal direction and toward individualism (p. 89).

These studies suggest that the cultural differences between Norway and Japan, though considerable, are not so extreme as expected. Recent research on individualism and collectivism has even questioned the basic idea that Japanese are collectivistic (Takano, 2008; Yamagishi, 2002) and the idea of Americans as individualists is also open to reconsideration (Oyserman, Coon, Kemmelmeier, 2002). However, it is probably correct to say that Japanese culture is more collectivistic than Norwegian. Further research in this field will uncover more about these aspects of culture.

Case Study of the Present Research

Our analysis of two cases aims to uncover some of the ways differences might manifest and be managed. The first is our case from Japan. Since 2006 our group has conducted a CoMT project in an old shopping arcade where the older adults often visit to help promote health and create new bonds through music. At the time the present study was conducted, in 2013, we held open style sessions where everyone could drop in during their shopping. The number of the participants was about 20 (female 90%, male 10%), and the average age was about 76 (the age range was 65–87). All the participants lived in their own homes, mostly alone or in couples. Some of them had chronic diseases, and most of them lived nearby except for a few participants who lived far and came by bus. We held concerts every year, and the participants sung as performers on stage. The CoMT project is still ongoing, with a larger amount of participants (40–45). In general, the effects of the project so far have been very good; most of the participants feel that sessions are pleasant and good for their health. It helps them to meet various kinds of people and recreate a new sense of community.

Stige described the second case in the 2010 book Where Music Helps. A senior choir was created by a group of pensioners in Sandane in 1992, with music therapist Grete Skarpeid as the first conductor. The choir had 20 singers, aged 70–92, who had an average age above 80. They lived in their own homes and were relatively healthy; although one member had Alzheimer’s disease and lived in an institution. They gathered to sing once a week for 2 hours, some coming in from quite far away. They sometimes performed in concerts, during which their vivid and energetic singing amazed the audience (Stige, 2010, p. 246–247, p. 254–257).

Stige carried out the music sentence completion task then, in which the members could produce multiple responses to queries such as: “Music is…”, “For me, singing in a choir is … ”, “When I sing, then … ,” “Without music … ” He also established a collaborative exploration with Solgunn Knardal, a music therapist and the conductor of the choir at that time, who interviewed all the members of the choir as part of her thesis. Stige gave detailed reflections on the choir, using the results of the task and the interviews as empirical material.

These cases from two very different countries share common features: the participants were well-older adults living in their own homes and participated in choir activity once a week. A similar number of participants were involved (about 20), and they also performed at concerts in collaboration with young students. The points of difference are: the Japanese members were a little younger than the Norwegians; there were more men in the Norwegian group than in the Japanese group; the session duration time of the Japanese group was half of that of the Norwegian group; most of the Japanese members lived nearby, whereas some of the Norwegian members lived quite far away. A final difference is that the Japanese participants lived in a much bigger and more urban area. Although such differences exist, we considered much of the basic therapy conditions to be similar.

Stige and his colleagues gave us permission to use the ‘music sentence completion task’ for our study. Stige also proposed we add two further queries, in order to develop further understanding of the interpersonal relationships within the group: “My co-singers in the choir are…,” and “The conductor of the choir is…”. Our aim in this research is to understand how culture influences CoMT, and to use that information to help us consider how can we help older adults to live a more vivid and sociable life.

Participants

The Norwegian participants were 15 members of the Senior Choir who were present on a rehearsal day (Stige, 2010, p. 258). The Japanese participants were19 members of the CoMT project who were present on a rehearsal day in 2013.

Measures and Procedure

In Norway, the music sentence completion task was distributed to the participants on a rehearsal day and they filled it in after the break, just before they started singing. Fourteen participants filled in the form themselves and Solgunn Knardal, the conductor, helped the one participant with Alzheimer’s disease (Stige, 2010, p. 250 & p. 258).

In Japan, the music sentence completion task was distributed to 19 participants (18 females, one male) on a rehearsal day in 2013 before the session started. The researchers told the participants that they were free to write anything they wished or not to answer at all, if they preferred, and that there would not be any consequences if they did not submit the questionnaire. The researchers also told them that the answers should be submitted without names and be put into envelopes, to insure anonymity. The researchers explained that the results were only to be used in this project, and the participants who agreed to these aspects were welcome to take part. Eleven people submitted on that day and another eight people took the paper home and submitted it on the next rehearsal day. They all filled it in themselves.

The Norwegian data was taken from Stige’s two chapters, Chapter 17, “Action; Caring for Music: The Senior Choir in Sandane, Norway” (p. 245–251) and Chapter 18, “Reflection; Practicing Music as Mutual Care” (p. 253–274) in the book Where Music Helps (2010). In these chapters there is a lot of information, including the survey answers, the participants’ comments, the descriptions of the conditions, the process of the sessions, and the background of the participants. We compared his points with our results. The two studies were not originally designed to be considered together. Nevertheless, we felt that some kind of comparison of results would be useful for understanding aspects of the cultural issues involved in CoMT.

Summary

Concerning the first query, “Music is…”, the number of the Norwegian statements (43) was almost twice as large as in the Japanese case (24), and the Norwegians used a wider vocabulary than the Japanese. Most of the respondents, in both cases, mentioned positive experiences and the positive effects of music (in Norway: 93%, in Japan: 100% responded in this way). Three Norwegian respondents talked about the social aspects of music, but only one Japanese person did so. General or abstract aspects of music were mentioned in the Norwegian statements, whereas none of the Japanese respondents referred to abstract qualities of music. The Japanese respondents seemed to see music as a personal matter, as their answers mainly focused on the relationship between music and themselves, such as “a reason for living” (seven respondents), “my power”, or “pleasure”. The Norwegians gave some clear opinion as to types of music they did not like, but the Japanese did not do so. This may be an example of individualistic and collectivistic thinking, in that the Norwegians thought it okay to say things directly, whereas the Japanese often think of that as being rude or too self-assertive.

As to the second query, “For me singing in a Choir is…”, there was more focus on community in the Norwegian statements than the Japanese one. In Norway, 73.3% (11 out of the 15 respondents) gave statements focusing on community and collaboration, whereas in Japan 36.8% (7 out of 19 respondents) mentioned choir activity as a type of bond (community). This seems rather to contradict the general opinion of Japanese society that it has a more group focused character. Seven respondents (46.7%) of the Norwegian respondents focused on the aesthetic experience of singing in the choir, whereas only 10.5% (two respondents) of the Japanese respondents mentioned aesthetic experience, which suggests that the Japanese respondents had less interest in considering abstract notion of music in connection to their personal experiences or feelings.

As to the third query, “When I sing, then…”, the number of the statements is almost the same (Norway: 29, Japan: 30), and the number in the Japanese case is the largest amount given in all the six queries. As this query is focused on private feelings, the Japanese respondents might have felt it easier to answer. While 83.3 % (25 statements) of the Japanese statements were focused upon positive emotional experiences, the Norwegian statements were more varied, such as: positive or painful emotional experience (48.3 %: 14 statements); statements on identity and transcendence (five or six statements: 17.2–20.7%); possibility of using and training cognitive functions (three statements: 10.3%).

As to the fourth query, “Without music…”, the number of the Norwegian statements (22) was the smallest of the four queries considered, and less than the Japanese number for this query (24). The reason of this is not clear, but the Norwegians might have thought that they had to hurry to complete the latter questions, as the task was carried out after the break, just before they started to sing again. The content of answers do not show much difference between two countries. Both Norwegian and Japanese respondents wrote: “I will feel lonely,” “The world will become dark,” “I will lose a reason for living,” etc. Eighteen of the Norwegian statements (81.8%) focused upon the description of a sad and grey world, whereas 25% (six statements) of the Japanese statements focused on a grey world. The Japanese respondents tended to focus more upon their own mental and physical states, 45.8% (11 statements) of the Japanese statements were on the negative feelings and 20.8% (five statements) were on the physical damage (getting sick or dementia). The Norwegian respondents might be more optimistic, as two statements mentioned the countermeasures they may take if they were without music and two respondents outright rejected the query itself as an impossibility. One Japanese statement also questioned the basis of the query itself. The people of both countries seemed to feel that music, or singing in the choir was an indispensable part of their lives.

As to the fifth query, “My co-singers in the choir are…”, 73.7% (14 respondents) of the Japanese group wrote that the members of the choir were nice and pleasant, and 15.8% (three respondents) of them answered in a more concrete way, such as the name of the choir and the number of the choir members. Concerning the Norwegian respondents, Stige wrote that they were active and autonomous, taking a positive role in running the choir. Stige observed a strong sense of hospitality, also of community and friendship among the participants. He noted that they claim choir singing is social. The Norwegian group had a board to discuss organizational aspects, which seemed to encourage mutual relationship. The Japanese group had no board and did not take part in organization.

As to the sixth query, “The conductor of the choir is…”, all of the Japanese respondents gave a positive evaluation, in which 61.5% (16 statements) were focused on the conductor’s character, 26.9% (seven statements) referred to the conductor’s leadership as a teacher, and 11.5% (three statements) mentioned the atmosphere the conductor created. The Norwegian members also gave a high evaluation to their conductor, on her positive character, her interest for each member, and her relevant feedback to the members, which provided a high degree of mutual trust among them. The Japanese members seemed to pay more attention to the conductor’s personal character than the ability of conducting or managing the choir, whereas the Norwegian members seemed to focus more on the quality as a conductor than her personal character.

Basic Cultural Differences

Self-expression

As musical performance is strongly connected to self-presentation, to consider how people in the both countries express themselves will be helpful to understanding both choirs. As a whole, the Japanese participants seemed to restrain themselves more than the Norwegians. In the third query, “When I sing, then…”, the Norwegian members noted their emotional experiences (including painful ones), body, identity, or cognitive functions, whereas the Japanese focused mainly on changes in their personal positive feelings, and there was no statement on identity and transcendence. The Japanese members did not openly express this romantic aspect of the self. We suppose that this does not mean that the Japanese participants actually feel less painful feelings or have less romanticism than the Norwegian participants. It may derive from a cultural difference, as Japanese tend to restrain themselves in expressing their true feelings or thoughts, in order to maintain the harmony of the group. Although it is an anonymous open completion task in which people do not have to worry about the possibility that someone will know what you wrote, the habit of restraining the self may be too strong.

Internal Relationships

This issue can be seen in the results of the fifth and the sixth queries. The fifth query, “My co-singers in the choir are…”, addresses the internal relationship among participants and the sixth query, “The conductor of the choir is…”, addresses the relationship between the conductor and the participants. Both the Norwegian and the Japanese participants seemed to maintain good relationships and have nice feelings towards each other, and we can suggest they probably have a pleasant time during choir activities. It may be more important for older adults than for people in other generations to have times that they feel comfortable and their identities assured, as opportunities for such situations decreases with age. At the same time it is still interesting that there seemed to exist subtle cultural differences between two countries concerning how they perceive their selves and how they express it.

Sense of Community

Although the concept ‘Sense of community’ is a specific term used in Community Psychology, we use this in a more general way here to mean the way participants think about their community, in this case specifically the choir. The result of the second query, “For me singing in a Choir is…”, brought out an interesting aspect of culture. We assumed that a sense of community would be stronger in the Japanese group, as collectivistic cultures value group conformity. But the answers seemed to show the opposite: there were twice as many Norwegian statements on community as there were Japanese ones. Stige (2010) mentioned that for most of the singers in the Norwegian group their positive personal experiences and benefits in relation to areas such as memory, physical functions, and emotions were linked to the experience of the choir as community (p. 264).

For people from an individualistic society, it may be taken for granted that an individual has their own Self, which is clearly separated from others. The individual is seen as the minimum unit within a community. The size of community varies, from micro to macro, but the relationship between individual and community is constant despite that. That is to say, an individual is at the center of a group of concentrically arranged circles and is influenced by the environment of each, but basically has a large degree of autonomy within each sphere, as Urie Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) model of ecological systems theory indicates.

Whereas for Japanese, Self may not so clearly mean the segregated individual as this concept is more integrated with the group. The border between Self and In-group (family, friends, or people we are very close to) is more obscure, and I is often more like We. An In-group should not be divided but be uniform, which forces the constituent parts to act similarly. A wider community consists of these In-groups and although there is a clear border between different in-groups, conflicts between them are rarely seen openly. This appears to be because in Japan such conflicts are seen as threatening the wider group cohesion. Conformity may be respected in both countries, but in Norway it is perhaps attained through respecting others as individuals and through a process of individuals discussing and working through problems, whereas in Japan it is attained through following others with far less open discussion involved.

A sense of community is normally nurtured under complex conditions, so the differences as to the duration time of session, age, and geographical distance of participants might affect the results of the second query. Apart from this, it seems to us that for the Norwegian people, the bond between people in a community is considered to be something to consciously ‘create’. Whereas, for the Japanese, community is something ‘given’, in which they manage to live somehow. Choir activity is beneficial for both people, for the Norwegians in creating community, and for the Japanese in releasing stress, although of course songs also contribute to strengthen bonds amongst Japanese people.

Role of Music

As to this issue the results of the fourth query, “Without music…”, are related. The results showed the importance of music for the participants of both countries: for them a world without music is dark and hopeless, in which they would lose a reason of living. This is perhaps something that affects every generation. Recently several studies in anthropology and cognitive science consider how songs functioned as a type of communicative skill in the first stages of humankind (Benzon, 2001; Levitin, 2008; Mithen, 2005; Wallin, Bjørn & Brown, 2000). Based on the new evolution theory and developed in collaboration with neuroscience and archaeology, these studies indicate how song is essential to humans. It appears that music effects all generations.

However, for older adults, especially in modern society, musical activities seem to have a more important role than for the young. For them music can be even more vital in terms of the role it plays in their quality of life. For example, helping to improve their physical condition, forming bonds with other people, regaining self-esteem, participating in society, and so on. Bunt and Stige (2014) noted that older people use music both in spite of and because of various health issues. By in spite of they mean strong interests in music despite troublesome issues they may have and because of indicates a conscious use of music as a tool for maintaining health (p. 151).

In a review of research concerned with the potential for music to contribute to the well-being of older people, Creech et al. (2013) suggested that active participation in a range of musical activities may contribute to enhanced cognitive, social, and emotional well-being (p. 93). They reported that active group music-making within community contexts may be particularly powerful for enhancing the health and well-being of older adults as they move through the Third and Fourth Ages, and active engagement with music within social settings has great potential to contribute to the fulfillment of basic psychological needs (p. 90 & p. 98).