BS: collective effervescence

Subject: BS: collective effervescence
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Jun 26 - 03:59 PM

I understand collective effervescence to be a peak experience in group form.
I read that this term was coined by Emile Durckheim shortly before World War I.
My chorus director sent us choristers a link to an article about it.
The New York Times published it, and its author was Adam Grant.
I got shut out of it because I don't subscribe.
But the article was within the last five years, and it is much quoted elsewhere.

The Mudcat has had a thread on peak experiences by another name, however those experience were not limited to group experiences but could be had by individuals as well.

Collective effervescence is obviously not limited to musical gatherings,
but must surely include those that are especially uplifting.
Anyway, I wanted to share that with my fellow Mudcat members.
A quote from the article:
"Joy shared is joy sustained."

Subject: RE: BS: collective effervescence
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jun 26 - 04:35 PM

I heard a conversation about this in the last day or two on a radio show, but I can't remember which one. How the collective joy of an ecstatic moment is really good for groups of people. (Something about a study with people in headphones listening to different things or the same thing, and how study participants in proximity when all listening to the same thing responded, even with headphones.)

That article sounded familiar and I looked it up, from 2021. Here it is as a Gift Article that anyone on this thread should be able to read.

There’s a Specific Kind of Joy We’ve Been Missing
July 10, 2021

By Adam Grant

Dr. Grant is an organizational psychologist at Wharton focused on how people find motivation and meaning in daily life.

Here is the first part of it:

In late June, over 15,000 vaccinated people packed in to watch the Foo Fighters reopen Madison Square Garden. When the band brought the comedian Dave Chappelle onstage to sing the Radiohead song “Creep,” the audience erupted in the closest thing I’ve seen to rapture in a solid year and a half.

No one cared that Mr. Chappelle was off key. They were all participating in an experience that was unimaginable just months earlier. One day they’ll tell their grandchildren about that night, when New York City came back to life and their favorite band performed another band’s song, and they tried to carry a tune with a legendary comic doing lead vocals.

Most people view emotions as existing primarily or even exclusively in their heads. Happiness is considered a state of mind; melancholy is a potential warning sign of mental illness. But the reality is that emotions are inherently social: They’re woven through our interactions.

Subject: RE: BS: collective effervescence
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Jun 26 - 08:03 PM

Thank you, Stilly! Now I can read the article as well.

Subject: RE: BS: collective effervescence
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Jun 26 - 11:15 AM

Well, it has happened occasionally at the FSGW Getaway. Usually it's just group fun singing, but I remember one time late at night in a fairly dark room.... there had been a number of moving songs about life and war..etc. Finally, someone in the shadows sang "I never found my El Dorado" and when it ended, there was just silence..no applause or comments.. and quietly, people just got up and went off to bed.

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=30018

Subject: RE: BS: collective effervescence
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Jun 26 - 11:18 AM

I love the idea of a Declaration of Interdependence.

Subject: RE: BS: collective effervescence
From: Helen
Date: 07 Jun 26 - 11:36 PM

A friend I have known for just over 50 years suddenly became ill and passed away a week ago. I wrote a tribute speech for her funeral. This is the section about our mutual love of music, especially making music together with friends for over 40 years and the combined effects on all of the members of the group.

...

"We also shared a love of music, especially playing music with others but it wasn’t until the mid ‘80’s that our long-running friendly music session group started and it is still going today, 40 or more years later. The group has evolved over the years, people come and go, the focus of the group changes but it is still going. [My friend] always impressed me with the huge number of tunes she could play by ear, and how confidently she played them.

"[My friend] and I both went to the Newcastle Folk Club in NSW Oz and also the Newcastle Folk Festivals and other festivals in the area. I call the folk music scene “DIY music” (i.e. do it yourself music) because a major focus has always been on learning to play music and/or sing songs in company with other people who love making and listening to music.

"Making music for ourselves has the added bonus of giving pleasure to the people hearing it – as long as they don’t hate Irish music, of course ;-( but we had a lot of other styles of music on our list too. During COVID restrictions we started finding parks where we could play and almost every time we played at least one person would thank us because they loved hearing the music.

"We abided by the COVID restrictions but we also started meeting weekly because playing music together was good for our mental and emotional health. We busked now and then, and we have always made a point of doing it on St Patrick’s Day. We even made it onto the local News during COVID in 2020."

...