Samuli Korkalainen : The Standardisation of Lutheran Congregational Singing and Liturgical Melodies in Nineteenth-Century Finland and Ingria

This study focuses on attempts to standardise Lutheran congregational singing and liturgical melodies in nineteenth-century Finland and Ingria. The research question is how and why congregational singing was standardised both in general and in liturgical melodies in particular. The purpose of the study is to gain a deeper understanding of the philosophical, theological, political and societal background of the standardisation process as well as the interaction between congregational singing and other (music) culture. My key concepts are standardisation, congregational singing and liturgical melodies.

The method of this study is a close and critical reading of sources. Rather than strictly following one particular theory, I applied many different theories and theoretical trends. My main research perspectives are local, translocal and transnational which I use to open up the nature of dynamic contexts and to analyse different levels of the process of standardising congregational singing and liturgical melodies. This study is based on printed and hand-written primary source materials, including hand-written chorale books and altogether twenty-two printed collections of liturgical melodies published in Finland and two in Ingria. The secondary source material was applied to provide the liturgical, cultural, administrative and political context in which these documents appeared.

There are three main chapters in this thesis. Firstly, I dig into the thoughts and ideas that created the inspiration for standardising congregational singing; this includes the aesthetics of Romantic philosophy, different trends of Lutheran theology as well as political and societal changes and thoughts in nineteenth-century Finland and Ingria. From there, I turn my attention to what was done in practice; how was the standardisation process put into action, which phenomena impacted it and what kind of interaction there was between the Lutheran church and the other forms of Finnish and Ingrian (music) culture. The third main chapter focuses on the impact of the abovementioned thoughts and ideas and the process of standardising congregational singing on liturgical melodies. Local, translocal and transnational networks are evident in everything I explore, and the use of the concept of standardisation has proved useful.