Exploration of the relationship between choral singing and successful aging

This paper describes a retirement village community chorus of 49 with the goal of understanding the place of choral activities in the lives of these older people. Group musical activity provides a link to previous satisfying experiences and serves as a preventive measure against alienation. However, the nature of the activity may be consistent with a willingness to give up some inner directedness. Additional research is recommended since the present design with a comparison group of 49 non-choral members did not allow separation of effects of selection from those of activity.