Women's History Commons^™

Homage To Eleanora: A Musical Journey Through The Billie Holiday Songbook, Keith A. Dames

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Billie Holiday was a singer, songwriter, vocalist, bandleader and composer in the fields of music, black culture and more specifically the genre of jazz. The primary focus of this study is Billie Holiday’s discography, music, and compositions as treated in relation to the black culture of production. This study will explore a secondary content analysis of Billie Holiday’s music, musicianship, musicality and compositional skills within the American jazz mainstream, broader jazz audience and world at large. This project will take an analytical look at the structure and form of the compositions of Billie Holiday. Billie Holiday is credited with composing …

All Roads Lead To Darrington: Building A Bluegrass Community In Western Washington, James W. Edgar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through the mid-twentieth century, a significant pattern of migration occurred between Appalachia and the Pacific Northwest, with Washington’s thriving timber industry offering compelling economic opportunities. Many workers and families from western North Carolina settled in the small mountain town of Darrington, Washington, frequently accompanied by their banjos and guitars. As a group of young bluegrass enthusiasts from Seattle established relationships with Darrington’s “Tar Heel” musicians, a collaborative music community formed, laying the foundation for the region’s contemporary bluegrass scene.

Drawn from a series of ethnographic interviews, this project illuminates the development of a bluegrass community in western Washington, while identifying …

Williams, Michael Ann (Fa 459), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and interview transcriptions for Folklife Archives Project 459. Interviews related to Sarah Gertrude Knott and the National Folk Festival conducted by Michael Ann Williams and Hillary Glatt as part of a joint project for the Kentucky Oral History Commission and Western Kentucky University. The audio interviews did not come with this collection. Interview transcriptions may be accessed by clicking on the "Download" button to the right and then clicking on the hyperlinks in the finding aid.

Listen To Liston: Examining The Systemic Erasure Of Black Women In The Historiography Of Jazz, Victoria E. Smith

Theses

"First you are a jazz musician, then you are black, then you are a female. I mean it goes down the line like that. We're like the bottom of the heap." - Melba Liston (pg 2) The historiography of jazz has consciously and unconsciously excluded women. This exclusion is exacerbated when one examines the intersection of race and jazz for black women. This essay argues that due to overwhelming societal expectations, gendered language, and physical threats of sexual assault and violence, black women had to create alternatives spheres of affirmation and musical expression because jazz culture stymied their access to …

Girl Groups In The Bronx: Race Gender And The Pursuit Of Respectability, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.

Gender, Politics, Market Segmentation, And Taste: Adult Contemporary Radio At The End Of The Twentieth Century, Saesha Senger

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This dissertation explores issues of gender politics, market segmentation, and taste through an examination of the contributions of several artists who have achieved Adult Contemporary (AC) chart success. The scope of the project is limited to a period when many artists who figured prominently in both the broader mainstream of American popular music and the more specific Adult Contemporary category were most commercially viable: from the mid-1980s through the 1990s. My contention is that, as gender politics and gendered social norms continued to change in the United States at this time, Adult Contemporary – the chart, the format, and the …

Building Brand Kurdistan: Helly Luv, The Gender Of Nationhood, And The War On Terror, Nicholas S. Glastonbury

Publications and Research

In the early 2000s, the Kurdistan Regional Government hired a US-based firm to begin a public relations campaign called “The Other Iraq.” Since that time, it has worked with a number of PR and lobbying firms to build a cultural, political, and financial apparatus that I refer to as Brand Kurdistan. This apparatus aims to prove to Western audiencesthat the Kurds are a liberal exception in an illiberal Middle East, and to build prospects of KRG’s eventual national independence. This article explores the connections between Brand Kurdistan and the gendering of Kurdish nationalism, focusing particularly on Kurdish pop diva Helly …

Women In Music: Letting A Long Story Be Long Contemplating Women’S Sonic, Musical, And Spiritual Experiences In Prehistory, Deborah J. Saidel

Theses and Dissertations

Situated within deep history, this study explores the auditory and spiritual lives of Paleolithic women. It considers their personal agency in mediating the spiritual power of sound and how doing so contributes to a multifaceted musicality. The theoretical framework involves a wide spectrum of topics, from ways of rethinking the writing of history and reckoning with time, to sound studies and the study of acoustics in ancient sites, to a critical examination through a feminist lens of normative disciplinary scholarship in anthropology and archaeology, religious studies, and musicology. I explore potential audio-visual-lithic relationships for their implications for deepening an understanding …

Friends Of Musselman Library Newsletter Spring 2016, Musselman Library

Friends of Musselman Library Newsletter

From the Dean (Robin Wagner)

Library Receives 9/11 Commission Papers (Fred Fielding '16)

Library News

Digital Scholarship Fellows

From Paupers to Presidents

Fair Use Week

Reading About Race

Student Workers Save the Day (Nadia Romero Nardelli '19)

Life in the Fishbowl (Brittany Barry '17)

In Memory of Douglas R. Price; Former Aide to Eisenhower

Special Purchases

From the Piano Bench (Jay P. Brown ’51, Doug Brouder ’83, Julie Caterson ’84 and Mr. & Mrs. Michael Fiery)

Research Reflections: The Spirit of Gettysburg (Timothy Sestrick)

Gift of Art

Old Gettysburg Back to Thee (Jenna Fleming '16, Avery Fox '16, Melanie Fernandes …

The Mass. Memories Road Show: Some Notes On Bridging And Bonding, Joanne M. Riley

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

Four years ago, the Mass. Studies Project at UMass Boston launched a cultural heritage project that we dubbed the “Mass. Memories Road Show,” a real-world mashup of PBS’s Antiques Road Show (people bring their personal stuff to a local event for professional perusal) and the Library of Congress’ American Memory Project (digitize historic stuff and share it with the world). Our ambitious goal was – and still is! – to visit each of the 351 communities in Massachusetts, inviting residents to bring in photographs that reflect themselves and their families in that community. At the public “Road Show” events, we …

Interview With Joe Hickerson Regarding Sarah Gertrude Knott (Fa 459), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of an interview with Joe Hickerson at the Library of Congress regarding Sarah Gertrude Knott and the National Folk Festival. Also includes discussions about folk music, folk musicians, and the National Council for the Traditional Arts.

Interview With Don And Priscilla Urner Regarding Sarah Gertrude Knott (Fa 459), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of interview with Don and Priscilla Urner conducted by Michael Ann Williams in 1995 about Sarah Gertrude Knott. Williams was a Folk Studies professor at Western Kentucky University. She used these interviews when writing her book: Staging Tradition: John Lair and Sarah Gertrude Knott (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2006).

Interview With Alan Jabbour Regarding Sarah Gertrude Knott (Fa 459), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of interview with Alan Jabbour conducted by Michael Ann Williams in 1995 about Sarah Gertrude Knott. Williams was a Folk Studies professor at Western Kentucky University. She used these interviews when writing her book: Staging Tradition: John Lair and Sarah Gertrude Knott (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2006).

Interview With Charles And Nancy (Martin) Perdue Regarding Sarah Gertrude Knott (Fa 459), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of interview with Charles and Nancy (Martin) Perdue conducted by Michael Ann Williams in 1995 about Sarah Gertrude Knott. Williams was a Folk Studies professor at Western Kentucky University. She used these interviews when writing her book: Staging Tradition: John Lair and Sarah Gertrude Knott (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2006).

Interview With John Ramsey Regarding Sarah Gertrude Knott (Fa 459), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of interview with John Ramsey conducted by Michael Ann Williams in 1995 about Sarah Gertrude Knott. Williams was a Folk Studies professor at Western Kentucky University. She used these interviews when writing her book: Staging Tradition: John Lair and Sarah Gertrude Knott (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2006).

Interview With Pete Seeger Regarding Sarah Gertrude Knott (Fa 459), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of interview with Pete Seeger conducted by Michael Ann Williams in 1995 about Sarah Gertrude Knott. Williams was a Folk Studies professor at Western Kentucky University. She used these interviews when writing her book: Staging Tradition: John Lair and Sarah Gertrude Knott (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2006).

Interview With Andy Wallace Regarding Sarah Gertrude Knott (Fa 459), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of interview with Andy Wallace conducted by Michael Ann Williams in 1995 about Sarah Gertrude Knott. Williams was a Folk Studies professor at Western Kentucky University. She used these interviews when writing her book: Staging Tradition: John Lair and Sarah Gertrude Knott (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2006).

Interview With Joe Wilson Regarding Sarah Gertrude Knott (Fa 459), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of interview with Joe Wilson conducted by Michael Ann Williams in 1995 about Sarah Gertrude Knott. Williams was a Folk Studies professor at Western Kentucky University. She used these interviews when writing her book: Staging Tradition: John Lair and Sarah Gertrude Knott (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2006).

Tarquinia Molza (1542-1617): A Case Study Of Women, Music And Society In The Renaissance, Joanne M. Riley

Joanne M. Riley

Tarquinia Molza (1542-1617), an Italian musician of the late Renaissance, worked at the Este court of Ferrara in the 1580's with several other women collectively referred to at the time as the "concerto delle donne." The vocal virtuosity of this group of women supposedly inspired famous male composers to write madrigals featuring ornamented soprano parts that undermined the equal-voiced madrigal ideal, and paved the way for the concertante principle of the Baroque.

However, contradictions and questions still surround the historical contribution of the "singing Ladies of Ferrara"-- questions that can be satisfyingly answered after examining the roles of both women …

The Carter Family: Traditional Sources For Song, Margaret Bulger

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The recorded repertory of the original Carter Family was analyzed for traditional influences. Of the 119 songs examined, it was found that fifty-five, roughly one-fourth of their total repertory, have definite roots in one or more traditional sources. The Carters employed traditional texts within their repertory throughout their professional career. Three genres of song were analyzed: sentimental songs, religious songs, and ballads. Of these, sentimental songs was the largest category with 113 songs. These songs were found to be remarkably similar in thematic content and moral sensibilities to Victorian parlor songs (ca. 1860-1910). The religious songs were shown to be …