Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Church Music Leaders In The Usa: Prioritizing Technical Competence And Inclusion, Heather Maclachlan

Music Faculty Publications

Church music leaders in the United States pursue two priorities: technical accuracy and fluency in the music-making of their church ensembles, and, including as many volunteers as possible in those same ensembles. At times, the prioritization of technical competence and inclusion conflict, because volunteers whose playing or singing is less than competent seek to be included in church music groups. Facing this ethical dilemma, church music leaders operate ethically; that is, they employ strategies and develop policies based on their understanding of their responsibilities to other people (Warren 2014). During interviews, they verbally espouse an ethic of deontology, but in …

The Brief But Shining Life Of Paul Laurence Dunbar, A Poet Who Gave Dignity To The Black Experience, Minnita Daniel-Cox

Music Faculty Publications

Paul Laurence Dunbar was only 33 years old when he died in 1906.

In his short yet prolific life, Dunbar used folk dialect to give voice and dignity to the experiences of Black Americans at the turn of the 20th century. He was one of the first Black Americans to make a living as a writer and was seminal in the start of the New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance.

Revolutionary Songs From Myanmar: Reconsidering Scholarly Perspectives On Protest Music, Heather Maclachlan

Music Faculty Publications

Since the February 1, 2021 military coup in Myanmar, Burmese musicians have been creating and circulating anti- coup songs. This article describes a representative sample of these songs, explaining how the lyrics reference important tropes in Burmese life and history. Further, the article argues that these anti-coup songs, while they can be understood as protest music, do not fit precisely into categories previously delineated for protest songs. Nor do these songs provide a neat answer to the question that scholars so often pose of protest music, to wit: do these songs work to persuade listeners to take an anti-authoritarian position? …

Music And Incitement To Violence: Anti-Muslim Hate Music In Burma/Myanmar, Heather Maclachlan

Music Faculty Publications

his article examines a corpus of Burmese-language anti-Muslim hate songs archived on YouTube. Burma/Myanmar is the site of recent genocidal violence perpetrated against Muslims, and these songs are part of the hate speech campaign that undergirds this violence. Using the definition of incitement articulated by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the article shows that the lyrics of these songs constitute incitement to violence. Further, the comments written by YouTube listeners provide evidence that the songs provoke additional dehumanizing speech. The songs and their creators are therefore complicit in the recent violent persecution of Muslims in Myanmar.

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A Comparison Of Music Therapy Apporaches Utilized With Persons Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asd), Sally M. Gibson

Honors Theses

Music therapy is a clinical practice wherein music is used in the context of a therapeutic relationship to address client needs relating to their physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and spiritual health and wellbeing. Two contrasting approaches to music therapy treatment have been identified by Bruscia (2014) as outcome-oriented and experience-oriented. Both approaches provide opportunities for clients to reach their health-related goals, but the planning and implementation of therapy is different from each approach. The purpose of this project was to examine how these two orientations are represented in the professional literature related to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This paper includes …

Music Therapy In Adult Medical Settings: Recommendations And Advocacy For Sustainable Programs, Margaret Moore

Honors Theses

This thesis research provides advocacy, strategies, and recommendations for sustainable music therapy program structures in adult medical settings. A review of the related literature justifies the need for and benefits of music therapy programs in adult medical settings. Recommendations for establishing and growing a music therapy program in these settings are based on semi-structured interviews conducted with three music therapists who have successfully implemented cost-effective and sustainable programs. Important considerations identified for program development include what to incorporate in a development pitch, the workload and well-being of the music therapist, and staff perceptions and relationship to the music therapy program.

Burmese Buddhist Monks, The Seventh Precept, And Cognitive Dissonance, Heather Maclachlan

Music Faculty Publications

Burmese Theravada Buddhist monks have varying degrees of involvement with music; this study of 22 monks from across Burma/Myanmar reveals that most of them often listen to recorded music. At the same time the monks acknowledge that Buddhism’s Seventh Precept is (or ought to be) a guide for their behavior, agreeing that to be “attached” to music is to violate their monastic rule. They therefore experience cognitive dissonance, and they respond to this dissonance in predictable ways - that is, in ways documented by researchers working with Western populations. They differ, however, in their phenomenological experiences of attachment.

The Vocal Point: Honoring A Legacy: The Final Conversation With Arthur Woodley, Justin John Moniz, Minnita Daniel-Cox

Music Faculty Publications

AMERICAN BASS ARTHUR WOODLEY APPEARED with prestigious opera companies around the U.S. and abroad, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Seattle Opera, L'Opera de Montreal, Opera Philadelphia, Dallas Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Pittsburgh, Opera, New Orleans Opera, and Opera Theatre of St. Louis. His many roles included Varlaam in Boris Godunov, Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, the Four Villains in Les contes d'Hoffman, Kuno in Der Freischütz, Banquo in Macbeth, Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress, Sulpice in La fille du régiment, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Rocco in …

Introduction To Special Issue, Music In World Religions: A Response To Isabel Laack, Heather Maclachlan

Music Faculty Publications

This article serves to introduce a special issue of Religions, titled Music in World Religions. A 2015 article by religion scholar Isabel Laack claimed that the study of music and religion has been neglected by Laack’s peers in the field of religions. Responding to Laack, I argue that scholars of music have been making important contributions to the study of music and religion and, indeed, have been addressing the twelve specific topics she highlights for decades. After summarizing academic works which respond to Laack’s twelve categories of inquiry, I introduce each of the articles in this special issue, showing that …

Making Culture-Centered Music Therapists: Resources For Working With Latinx Young Adults, Michaela A. Miller

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the lack of music therapy literature related to this topic and identifies considerations music therapists should take when working with Latinx communities. I illustrate how social justice and culture-centeredness can be integrated into music therapy practice with the identified communities. I use interviews collected from Latinx university students to learn about the diverse musical preferences and cultures that different members of Latinx communities hold. I describe necessary changes in the American Music Therapy Association’s Competencies for Music Therapists to equip music therapy students to better work with diverse populations. Finally, I provide examples of music experiences and …

From Prop To Partner: The Evolution Of Female Roles In American Opera, Mariah J. Berryman

Honors Theses

For many years, women in opera have been in service to their plots. They have always been present but have either been relegated to passive roles in their own stories or actively considered societal outcasts. They were dramatically stereotyped as either airheads or witches, mothers or daughters, love interests or foes to be conquered. And, along with the character stereotypes came typically associated vocal stereotypes. Lighter and higher voices were assigned to roles that portrayed virtue, innocence, and other general characteristics of the “feminine ideal.” Conversely, lower voices were assigned to sinful, outcast, “fallen women.” These vocal stereotypes are especially …

"Jesus Is Not A Foreign God":Christian Music-Making In Burma/Myanmar, Heather Maclachlan

Music Faculty Publications

Christians in the Southeast Asian country of Burma, also known as Myanmar, make up approximately five percent of the national population. The Christian community of Burma includes both Catholics and Protestants, and the Protestants are divided into many denominations. Baptist Christians are predominant among this group, and they provided most of the ethnographic information upon which this article is based. In the article I argue that twenty-first century Baptists in Burma fulfill both aspects of a “twofold legacy” bequeathed to them by Adoniram Judson, the first Baptist missionary to Burma, and that their fulfillment of this legacy is manifest in …

Safeguarding Curricular Self-Experiences In Undergraduate Music Therapy Education And Training, James Hiller, Courtney Belt, Susan Gardstrom, Joy Willenbrink-Conte

Music Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to put forth a model to support the psychological safety of undergraduate students as they engage in a form of experiential learning called self-experiences. Self-experiences pair active engagement in learning episodes with learner self-inquiry. The need to safeguard curricular self-experiences is grounded in the American Music Therapy Association’s Professional Competencies and Code of Ethics and the Certification Board for Music Therapists’ Board Certification Domains. We first explicate several types and benefits of self-experiences and identify potential risks and contraindications that may compromise learners’ psychological safety and even cause harm. Next, we describe …

The Impact Of Singing Engagement On Food Intake Of Individuals With Alzheimer’S Disease And Related Dementias: A Multi-Site, Repeated Measures Study, James Hiller

Music Faculty Publications

Malnutrition among older adults with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) is a serious and long-recognized health concern. Identifying nonpharmacological means for enhancing the volume of nutrition intake is an urgent need. Researchers have explored the use of music and music therapy as nonpharmacological avenues in this regard, but most music-based studies related to food intake focus on receptive interventions wherein participants are exposed to recorded music during meal times. The purpose of the present research is to investigate whether residents with ADRD would significantly increase their volume of food intake during the midday meal immediately following 30 minutes of …

The Philosophy Of Dance, Aili W. Bresnahan

Philosophy Faculty Publications

This encyclopedia entry surveys the field of philosophy of dance both within and beyond Western philosophical aesthetics.

Developing A Model For Clinical Song Analysis, Or Why Music Therapists Still Need Music Theory And Musicology, Lesley Wray

Honors Theses

In the music therapy literature, there is a distinct lack of research on clinical song analysis. Analyzing songs can be beneficial for music therapists when choosing songs to use in a session, when discussing songs with a client, and when arranging songs to play with or for clients. In this thesis, I start to bridge the fields of music therapy, music theory, and musicology to create a language of analysis upon which music therapists can draw for clinical song analysis. I focus first on foundational concepts such as timbre, style, and form, which I explain through the analysis of four …

Music Therapists’ Knowledge Of And Attitudes Towards Sustainability: Instruments, Sarah Whitehouse

Honors Theses

Sustainability has become a common point of conversation and concern in today’s society. The purpose of this project was to explore salient issues, attitudes and practices in music therapy sustainability. Information was gathered through an in-depth review of the materials used in the make and manufacturing of commonly used instruments in music therapy practice. In addition, a survey was sent to music therapy professionals with the MT-BC (Music Therapist – Board Certified) credentials to ascertain current knowledge of and attitudes toward sustainability within the profession.

Warning: Music Therapy Comes With Risks, James Hiller, Susan Gardstrom

Music Faculty Publications

Bob Marley sings, “One good thing about music—when it hits you, you feel no pain.” Although this may be the case for some people and in some circumstances, we dispute this statement as a global truth. After all, couldn’t any phenomenon commanding enough to alleviate human pain (ostensibly instantaneously) also harbor the potential to catalyze undesirable, even injurious, effects? And couldn’t this influence then logically extend to music employed within the context of a therapeutic process? As music therapist and Concordia University Associate Professor Dr. Laurel Young writes, “the ‘miraculous’ effects of music as featured in popular media along with …

Review: 'Improvising Improvisation: From Out Of Philosophy, Music, Dance, And Literature', Aili W. Bresnahan

Philosophy Faculty Publications

This book review attempts to interpret the meaning and value of Gary Peters’ book in a way that is true to the kind of book, an experimental improvisation, that it purports to be. As such, it grapples with the difficulties of evaluating the merits of a philosophical discussion within a book that claims not to be philosophy and case studies in performance that beg the question of whether they accurately exemplify the (non-)philosophy they are meant to support. Despite these difficulties, this review ends with the conclusion that this book does, in fact, convey something essential about the nature of …

“Thy Kingdom Come”: Catholicism And The Nueva Canción, 1966-1982, Elizabeth Turnwald

Honors Theses

Within Latin America’s tumultuous political atmosphere during the 1960s through the 1980s, a grassroots musical genre called the Nueva Canción emerged. Meaning “new song,” it sought to unify the poor and marginalized through a combination of folk influences, indigenous musical styles, and politically-charged lyrics. Although they achieved similar commercial success to U.S. contemporaries such as Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Joan Baez, the folkloristas [folksingers] of the Nueva Canción often incorporated references to and elements of Catholic liturgical practice. Considering the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and the advent of a Latin American Liberation Theology, the time was ripe …

Al Pie De La Cruz, Esteban Reyes S.M.

Musical Compositions about the Marianist Charism

Song about Mary

La Mirada (Unido A Ti Maria), Esteban Reyes S.M.

Musical Compositions about the Marianist Charism

No abstract provided.

Put On Christ, Stanley J. Zubek S.M.

Musical Compositions about the Marianist Charism

Become Christ by way of the five silences

Yo Tengo A Maria (Al Pie De La Cruz), Esteban Reyes S.M.

Musical Compositions about the Marianist Charism

Song about Mary

Holy Is His Name, Robert Lahey S.M.

Musical Compositions about the Marianist Charism

Mary's Canticle, the Magnificat

I Am A Brook, Mike Nartker S.M.

Musical Compositions about the Marianist Charism

Chaminade is persistent like a brook; it never gives up

To Know, Love And Serve, Maria A. Smith

Musical Compositions about the Marianist Charism

No abstract provided.

Women’S Perceptions Of The Usefulness Of Group Music Therapy In Addictions Recovery, Susan Gardstrom, Abigail Klemm, Kathleen M. Murphy

Music Faculty Publications

This study represents our attempt to uncover aspects of group music therapy that women with addictions perceive as useful toward recovery – factors that have yet to be clearly identified in existing literature. Women in residential treatment for addictions to heroin and other substances were surveyed following group music therapy sessions involving vocal and instrumental re-creation, listening, and improvisation. Qualitative content analysis of data revealed four major findings. We learned that treatment is, in fact, seen as useful by these particular women and that Yalom’s theory provides a meaningful framework for identifying, understanding, and fostering mechanisms within the group music …

Resistances In Group Music Therapy With Women And Men With Substance Use Disorders, Susan Gardstrom, James Hiller

Music Faculty Publications

In this paper, we explore client resistances in group music therapy with women and men in residential treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs). We describe how we have encountered resident resistances on women's and men's units within a gender-specific treatment facility and offer suggestions for pre-empting and addressing such resistances, offering both nonmusical and musical strategies and techniques. We emphasize a person-centered approach and an experience orientation, in which we view our primary responsibility as providing opportunities for the men and women to engage meaningfully with music, self, therapists, and other residents in order to identify problems and explore alternatives …

(Mis)Representation Of Burmese Metal Music In The Western Media, Heather Maclachlan

Music Faculty Publications

Heavy metal music is performed in Burma (also known as Myanmar) by two distinct groups of musicians: generalists, who are part of the mainstream music industry, and underground bands, who differentiate themselves from the mainstream industry in a number of ways. Importantly, the underground performers insist on presenting nothing but their own original songs. Western-educated journalists have recently published a number of articles about these underground bands, equating their original creations with resistance against the military junta that controlled Burma for the past half-century. The author argues that the metanarrative revealed in such media reports does not accord with the …