Ana Hofman, Sekcija za interdisciplinarno raziskovanje ZRC SAZU

It is the evening of December 11th in Vienna’s 15^th district, and I am sitting with Jana, Lejla and Šarlot, eagerly awaiting the screening of a documentary about a unique community choir on the occasion of its 4^th anniversary. We are in Brunnengasse, known as a migrant district of Vienna, at the AU Gallery, and it is starting to crowd with men, women, and children of all ages and various ethnicities, all of them warmly greeting each other. In this setting, through the documentary and a public rehearsal that soon begun, I became acquainted with a most interesting Viennese singing collectivity, the 29^th of November Choir. Vienna is a city known for its music and one can expect many different musical networks, organizations and professional bodies. And yet, the people of this choir, many of whom I met at the documentary screening, do not define themselves as musicians per se. Rather, they claim radical amateurism, musical self-education, and self-organization. Why?

Experimental Sonic Collectivity

Members of this self-labeled “punk choir” use collective singing to “shout” social problems, “scream” social anger and discontent, and “give voice” to those whose opinions are suppressed. The choir cherishes a diverse repertoire including partisan songs, worker songs, revolutionary songs, pop music, and folk pieces from former Yugoslavia, as well as the so-called repertoire of the “global left” – the most popular songs of various social movements ranging from the Spanish civil war to recent social movements.

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