Tranquillity, transcendence, and retreat: the transformative practice of listening at Evensong

Thesis

Choral Evensong is sung every day in Anglican churches across the UK, attracting thousands of people each week to its congregations. In the context of declining Anglican church attendance overall, Evensong’s appeal has been attributed, anecdotally, to its music. This thesis reports the findings of a musicological study conducted to investigate why people go to Evensong, what they experience while they are there, and how the music of Evensong is implicated in these motivations and experiences.

The study took an interdisciplinary approach based on the sociology, and the social and applied psychology, of music. It adopted a multi-method approach incorporating participant observation, 43 in-depth interviews; an immersive, real-time experimental study involving 26 participants; and two surveys which elicited more than 2,100 responses.

Drawing on the findings of each of these methods, the thesis locates Evensong within the framework of music in everyday life, as a powerful and trusted technology of the self. It argues that emotional and cognitive transformation are central to many people’s experiences of the service, and it demonstrates that the attainment of tranquillity, transcendence, and a sense of retreat are particularly highly valued and frequently reported outcomes. It suggests that these are pursued through an active and sophisticated listening practice involving both agency and its relinquishment, and argues that notwithstanding participants’ often parallel practices, objectives, and results, their experiences of Evensong are characterised as much by plurality as similarity. It is proposed that it is the multiplicity of ways of listening that Evensong affords that enables so many ‘sorts and conditions’ of listener to be satisfied by it.

The thesis has ramifications for our understanding of the types, modes and practices of music listening in which people engage to pursue cognitive and affective objectives; of the mechanisms by which the same music can elicit different experiences among diverse groups of co-present listeners; and of the creative uses to which listeners can put live musical events.

Authors: King, K

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-jvkx1gnxg
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: music listening; sacred music; choral Evensong
• Subjects: Musicology