Modernist sees surprising similarities between church and stadium chants

Somewhere between Hallelujah and goal celebration

A Polish priest showing where these ideas lead

Singing, community, goosebumps: Church hymns and football chants are more similar than one might think at first glance. A musicologist explains why both experiences deeply touch people.

Whether it's "Great God, we praise you" or "Schalalalala" - singing takes place in church as well as in the stadium. There are indeed similarities between the two types of singing, as musicologist Joachim Thalmann told the Catholic News Agency (KNA) in Nuremberg at the start of the Bundesliga season. For example, chants often move in the same pitch range as Gregorian chants, namely around the pitch C1. "This is because both are often sung by men, and that's a position in which most men can sing well," says the professor emeritus of musicology.

The phenomenon of contrafraction – giving a familiar melody a new text – is also present in football chants as well as in church hymns, Thalmann continued. For example, the Good Friday classic "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden" (O Head Full of Blood and Wounds) is based on a rewritten secular song. A similar situation occurs when football fans compose their cheers to easy-to-sing melodies from children's songs, carnival hits, or rock and pop hits. In both cases, this serves to promote dissemination and increase recognition. Some club anthems also utilize this principle.

Singing strengthens a sense of community

Elements such as singing, dancing, masking, and anesthetics can be traced back to indigenous religions, Thalmann continued. These things also occur in the stadium, such as chants, Mexican waves, fan scarves, and beer. Church services, like sporting events, are special times away from everyday life. Both create a sense of community, which is enhanced by singing. "In a church service, we experience that we can somehow more easily accept our earthly existence, with all its flaws and rough edges. Firstly, because we realize that we're all in the same boat, and secondly, because we get a glimpse of how things could be better."

Fans experience something similar in the stadium: "The difference is that there's a big lottery going on down on the pitch." However, the following applies: "If you've seen a good game, it builds you up. You leave the stadium stronger than when you entered." Football matches today often fulfill the function that Church services used to have: "They're a kind of social lightning rod and ensure that people can walk through life with their heads held high for a week."

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