Singing together bodily enacts the imagined community as unisonance

Evidence

Second, there is a special kind of contemporaneous community which language alone suggests – above all in the form of poetry and songs. Take national anthems, for example, sung on national holidays. No matter how banal the words and mediocre the tunes, there is in this singing an experience of simultaneity. At precisely such moments, people wholly unknown to each other utter the same verses to the same melody. The image: unisonance. Singing the Marseillaise, Waltzing Matilda, and Indonesia Raya provide occasions for unisonality, for the echoed physical realization of the imagined community. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 551

Categorization

• DEFINE: ‘Unisonance’ is the key term here — the physical, synchronous realization of the imagined community through shared song.
• XREF: Directly scaffolds how national belonging is felt bodily and emotionally rather than reasoned — foundational for Islamophobia readings on affective, pre-ideological national feeling. — connects to: Shared journeys among strangers create the sense of an imagined community — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 223; Music alone can harmonize the inner world with the outer soundscape; Shared synchronous ritual synchronizes the heart rates of participants and their kin — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 380 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Shared journeys among strangers create the sense of an imagined community #expands (0.78) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 223
• Shared synchronous ritual synchronizes the heart rates of participants and their kin #expands (0.75) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 380
• Music alone can harmonize the inner world with the outer soundscape #expands (0.72)