Safety, identity, transmission and enculturation: An investigation of four formative aspects of choral cultures on music majors in undergraduate auditioned and non-auditioned collegiate choirs

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the perceived impact of four elements of choral cultures in lives of undergraduate music majors within the contexts of auditioned and non-auditioned choir settings. Specifically, this study sought to determine: 1.) Do the elements of safety, identify, transmission, and enculturation demonstrate a formative influence in shaping the attitudes about choral cultures in undergraduate collegiate choirs? 2.) Is there a difference between how these experiences are perceived in terms of music majors in an auditioned vs. non-auditioned setting? 3.) Did choir members perceive their ensemble participation would impact their future music teaching careers, and if so, in what manner?;A survey instrument, adapted from the literature (Hylton, 1980; Adderley et al, 2003; and Morrison, 2001), was organized into three sections: demographics, twenty-five Likert-type scale questions and seven open-ended questions. The survey was piloted by undergraduate music majors at a large, southeastern American university (N = 23, n = 11, non-auditioned choir; n = 12, auditioned choir). Participants in the study (N = 154; n = 68, non-auditioned choirs, n = 86, auditioned choirs) were undergraduate music majors from seven choral ensembles at three American universities. Factor analysis of the survey instrument revealed factor loading above .600 for fifteen of the twenty-five questions, which shaped survey revisions.;Mean scores comparison of the quantitative data indicated seven questions of the fifteen tied in rank order significance across the two choir types. Mean score rankings per category indicated category ranked importance across both choir types to be safety - identity, enculturation and transmission . Significant differences were noted within the categories and between the two choir types in the categories of identity, transmission and enculturation.;Free response data was codified for emergent themes and code word frequency using HyperRESEARCH™, a qualitative data software program and were reported by frequency rank order. Frequency tallies indicated the highest code word tally in the category of enculturation (64.4%). The non-auditioned choir type perceived the category ranked importance to be enculturation, safety, identity and transmission, while the auditioned choir typed ranked the category importance as enculturation, safety, transmission, and identity. 13.6% of total coded words were evidence of flow experiences in choral rehearsals, across both choir settings (5.6% for the non-auditioned choirs and 8% for the auditioned choirs). Both quantitative and qualitative data indicated the auditioned choir members perceived their choral experience as more directly applicable to their future music teaching careers than the non-auditioned choir participants. Behaviors of safety, identity, transmission and enculturation in choral rehearsals, recommendations for choral music teaching and suggestions for further research were given.