Music Education Commons^™

Ecuadorian Vocal Anthology In Four Rhythms, Wagner Mauricio Pástor Pazmiño Dr.

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Ecuador is a pluricultural and multilingual territory with four natural regions, several musical genres, and interpretations. Amazon, Galápagos, Mountain Range, and Coastal region. In the following dissertation, the author develops concepts of four traditional rhythms, their composers, and harmonic and phonetic characteristics from the mountain range region of his homeland, Ecuador.

The present document is a descriptive study of vocal Andean music and the application of the operatic style in classical vocal technique for performance practice.

The dissertation will support a lecture recital to fulfill the doctoral program's requirement in voice performance from the University of Kentucky.

The Dilemma Of Empty Halls, Joanna Lauer

Musical Offerings

Today, live classical concert attendance is low, a fact which threatens the careers of professional musicians. This paper examines recent statistics of classical concert attendance, theories as to why attendance rates are low, marketing methods for target audiences, and finally, recommendations to solve the dilemma of empty concert halls. To encourage concert attendance, classical music must be tastefully marketed to present-day audiences through the experience of technically excellent, musical, and interesting live performances. Ultimately, the relationship between art and its audience (the consumer) reveals that the key to the dilemma is the audience.

Pange Lingua, Gustavo Leone

Department of Fine & Performing Arts: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Jesuits were expelled from the Spanish colonies in South America in 1767, leaving behind a remarkable musical legacy that was buried for over two hundred years. But the music did not disappear completely. Thanks to the Chiquitos people of Bolivia, the music was played and preserved throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.

In 1985, Swiss architect Hans Roth discovered 9,000 of these musical manuscripts and in 1990 UNESCO declared the churches of the Chiquitos a “patrimony of humanity”. Dr. Gustavo Leone of Loyola University Chicago's Department of Fine and Performing Arts has painstakingly retrieved and restored several of these …

Defining Music Of A Questionable Past: A College Musician’S Approach, Noah Whetstone

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In recent years, social movements have raised awareness on issues like whitewashing and the oppression of minority voices in fields such as music. These social movements have drawn attention to the cultural appropriation that sometimes occurs in music classrooms. Outcomes from recent legislation proposals and social conflicts across the United States threaten to limit educational opportunities. Although many people have understood these pieces of legislation to affect topics such as history and English, it may also affect music education. When choosing music to teach their students, music educators are often challenged as many songs have questionable pasts and make references …

Gender, Self-Identity, And Vocal Music Education: Student Experiences At The University Of Puget Sound In The 1990s, Liana Greger

Summer Research

Vocalists are the only music students whose instruments are their bodies. As a result, “finding a voice” is an incredibly sensitive process shaped by systems of education. Based on twelve semi-structured interviews with University of Puget Sound choir and voice alumni from the 1990s, this research examines the effects of collegiate music education on the musical identity negotiation of undergraduate vocalists, specifically concerning the effects of gender conceptions embedded in classical music cultures. Interview analysis revealed the salience of gender in mediating choral belonging, the importance of body image in shaping singer identities, the impact of masculine music theory education …

Qui Té Por Dels ‘Rosalía Studies’? Guia De Perplexos, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Molt a principis dels anys noranta del segle XX, quan jo començava a veure la possibilitat de doctorar-me, la musicologia era, si se’m permet una caricatura, una disciplina de capellans i arxivers. A l’Estat Espanyol, per exemple, la carrera oficial encara no existia, si bé hi havia estudis i tesis a algunes escoles de doctorat de filologia o història de l’art. El mot «musicologia», de fet, ni tan sols era acceptat o pràcticament acabava d’entrar en alguns diccionaris prescriptius. Sense estudis reglats, els aspirants a musicòlegs emulaven la feina, la metodologia i les temàtiques dels seus mestres.

Music Pedagogy In Venezuela’S Plains: Making Space In Alma Llanera, Elaine Sandoval

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation argues that the process of institutionalizing traditional música llanera (plains region music) education in Venezuela is informed by a hierarchical spatialization of the capital, Caracas, and the historically agricultural- and livestock-producing region known as the llanos, or the plains. Drawing on Lefebvre’s The Production of Space (1991), I argue that the representations of space that have defined the llanos region and música llanera often obscure the lived space of music-making and dwelling in the llanos. This dissertation is based on fieldwork in Guárico state between 2016-2018, where I observed the state-funded Alma Llanera program, which had been …

Tradition, Pedagogy, And Internet Open-Access Music Libraries, Erin Tallman

Pomona Senior Theses

In this paper I take up the topic of open-access digital music libraries, specifically the ways performance and pedagogical traditions interact with and are impacted by open-access or public domain sheet music libraries on the internet. I first consider how traditions of performance and pedagogy have become misaligned in the case of viola repertoire and its historical context. I then turn to questions of copyright on the internet and copyleft practices as they relate to internet open-access libraries such as IMSLP, finding that they often are simply a new medium through which to uphold existing patterns, despite their apparent potential …

Re-Forming Music: Martin Luther’S Impact On Church Music Through The Lutheran Reformation, Soraya Peront

Musical Offerings

Martin Luther is regarded as a seminal figure in 16th-century Europe, having a profound impact on the development of the Protestant Church as it separated from the Roman Catholic Church. Though Luther is most commonly known for his theological influences during the time, his upbringing and musical education strongly influenced his theological beliefs. Not only did this result in a development of a new Christian denomination, but Luther permanently changed the way music was written and performed in the church. How is it, though, that we can credit this musical change to Luther? Through an examination of Luther’s musical understanding …

Sacred Music In Colonial Era Hispaniola: The Evangelization Of The Taino People, Tito J. Gutierrez

Student Theses

During the 15th-18th centuries, the major European religious orders; the Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, and Jeronymites, journeyed to the newly colonized American territories in an attempt to convert the multitudes of natives peoples living there. Along with prayer books, crucifixes, and religious images, these missionaries brought sacred European music to American shores in an attempt to attract the native people to the Catholic faith.The use of music as a tool for conversion of native people in places such as Mexico, South America, California, and the South West United States, have been well researched and documented. However, the research of the spiritual …

Fostering Music Performers In The 21st Century: A Contemporary Professional Perspective Toward A New Curricular Agenda For Graduate Study In Music, Andre Januario

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

What if the core curriculum for graduate students in music performance were designed to prepare students to succeed in the world of the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

This dissertation offers a hypothetical answer: a structured and systematic academic curricular framework for music graduate students of performance of concert music (especially those in terminal degrees, such as doctoral students), along with music instructors, professional music performers, school administrators, and college professors, seeking to prepare such students for achieving and maintaining a music career more in keeping with the current work environment, especially those skills demanded by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the …

Furthering Cultural Understanding Through Music, Sophia Abukamail

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project explores the role that music plays in fostering cultural understanding and equity by discussing the sociopolitical implications of musical collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli musicians. In order to do this, the paper will dive into the history of the conflict between Palestine and Israel, detail instances of musical collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli musicians, show how music is helping to bridge the divide between these two cultures, and examine the intentions and consequences of such collaborations as they relate to music, politics, and society. The purpose of this project is to investigate the ways that music can affect …

Exploring Moroccan Music Through Experiential Learning, Tai Knoll

Honors Projects

As a music educator, I value a comprehensive and well-rounded music education that is inclusive and dynamic – an education that introduces students to the global world they live in and fosters compassion and understanding of cultures different from their own. However, I did not fully understand how I could provide that for my students and how to do so in a respectful and appropriate way that did not other or appropriate the culture I was attempting to honor. That desire to learn more about teaching world musics and representation in the classroom drove me to pursue answers through the …

Authenticity And Practicality: Evaluating And Performing Multicultural Choral Music, Jesse Noote

Dissertations

Many choral music educators believe that multicultural music is a vital part of any choral curriculum. However, the research shows that these same choral directors are reluctant to select multicultural octavos because they lack training in non-Western music, which prevents them from effectively teaching and performing this music authentically. The purpose of this dissertation is to equip choral directors with the necessary tools for bridging the gap between desiring to perform and actually performing multicultural octavos.

Six authors have provided authenticity checklists that are designed to help music educators evaluate and perform multicultural music. This research synthesizes those lists to …

Reimagining The Flute Masterclass: Case Studies Exploring Artistry, Authority, And Embodiment, Sarah Carrier

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This work explores the flute masterclass as an aesthetic, ritualized, and historically reimagined cultural practice. Based on fieldwork that took place between 2017 and 2019 in the United States, in Italy, and on the social media platforms Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, I argue that the masterclass—an extension of the master/apprentice system that dominates learning in the classical music tradition—is characterized by embodied qualities of artistry and authority. These qualities are not inherent, but are perceived through subjective, social, familied, and affective bodies.

Chapter One outlines the main themes and the research design. Chapter Two is a case study that analyzes …

A Failure Of The Music Industry: The Frustration Of Women Of Color, Christina Estes-Wynne

Backstage Pass

Throughout the history of the music industry, women of color have not received the same recognition as their male counterparts because males have dominated the industry resulting in lack of female representation. Women have been oversexualized reducing their clout in their fields and the lack of acknowledgement of success, which discourages future generations of colored women from attempting to reach their highest potential.

The Impact Of Informal Music Learning On Fifth Graders' Music Learning Processes And Perceptions Of General Music Class, Alejandro Juarez

Music Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe qualitatively the learning processes and perceptions of music class that emerged in a fifth-grade general music setting in which informal music learning processes were the fundamental components of the pedagogical approach. Initial research questions aimed to examine the ways students perceived their previous music classroom, how they used music outside of school, how informal music learning strategies impacted them, and how they believed popular musicians learned music. Students in this action research study were 50 fifth graders in two classes. Data were collected using many ethnographic techniques including interviews, questionnaires, and video/audio …

Catalog Of Current Compositions, Dan Rager

Dan Rager

The Federal Music Project: An American Voice In Depression-Era Music, Audrey S. Rutt

Musical Offerings

After World War I, America was musically transformed from an outsider in the European classical tradition into a country of musical vibrance and maturity. These great advances, however, were deeply threatened by the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the consequent Great Depression. The nation that, for the first time, was developing an international reputation in the arts now faced a crisis of how to support them. Government sponsorship of the arts through the New Deal Federal One projects allowed struggling artists to survive economically during this era. In the realm of music, however, the Federal Music Project (FMP) had …

Santería In A Globalized World: A Study In Afro-Cuban Folkloric Music, Nathan Montgomery

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The Yoruban people of modern-day Nigeria worship many deities called orichas by means of singing, drumming, and dancing. Their aurally preserved artistic traditions are intrinsically connected to both religious ceremony and everyday life. These forms of worship traveled to the Americas during the colonial era through the brutal transatlantic slave trade and continued to evolve beneath racist societal hierarchies implemented by western European nations. Despite severe oppression, Yoruban slaves in Cuba were able to disguise orichas behind Catholic saints so that they could still actively worship in public. This initial guise led to a synthesis of religious practice, language, and …

Music Is The "Noise Of Remembering" Tracing The Origins, Influences, And Connectivities Of West African Music, Adam Friedman

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The popularity and universal reach of music genres such as Jazz and Hip Hop attest to the idea that these forms have been long established as a vital part of global musical culture. For people who are familiar with Afrocentric music, it is clear that styles such as Jazz and Hip Hop are rooted in, and inextricably linked with, African culture and history. What is more difficult to make sense of, however, is how and why transplanted African culture came to have such wide reaching impact in the new contexts in which it was taken up – because the stories …

Sacred Sounds: A Compassionate Listening Guide To Musical Worship, Madison Blonquist

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sacred Sounds was a collaborative, multimedia exhibition that showed in the Brigham Young University Harold B. Lee Library Level 1 Gallery from November 10, 2017-February 2, 2018. Its primary objective was to cultivate empathy among the three Abrahamic religions through the lens of music. While this project may communicate the overall vision of the curator, it was deeply collaborative and involved the creative contributions from several campus departments and drew upon the insights of leaders from local congregations. The following documentation is a portfolio of the exhibition space and its public reception. This project was made possible with generous funding …

From Swing King To Swing Kids: The Jazz Era Of ‘Big Band Orchestras’ In World War Ii, Katie Victoria Burnopp

Student Scholar Showcase

Known as the ‘King of Swing’, clarinetist and band leader Benny Goodman (1909-1986) threatened the Nazi cause during WWII. With intent of improving music pedagogy, the purpose of this research was to investigate swing music during World War II. The particular problems of this study were to: (1) identify how the swing music of Benny Goodman (1909-1986) influenced adolescents in the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Germany; (2) explore the Nazi party view on ‘swing’ music of the era; (3) examine how the music of Charlie and his Orchestra became used as a tool for Nazi propaganda; and …

Guitar Arrangements Of Selected Danzas Of Juan F. Acosta, With New Considerations Of His Music And Musical Life, Hermelindo Ruiz Mestre

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Juan Francisco Acosta (1890-1968) was a prolific composer, band conductor, and educator from Puerto Rico who created 1,256 original compositions. Even though his activities and influence were integral to the musical life of Puerto Rico in the twentieth century, many details of his life and works remain unknown.

This project centers on Acosta’s contribution to the Puerto Rican tradition of the danza—a dance-based genre originating in the nineteenth century—through the study and arrangement of five of Acosta's danzas. Although Acosta composed most danzas for piano, he adapted them for performances by the municipal bands that he led …

Mbalax: Traces Of Tradition In Senegalese Hip-Hop, Mikayla Simeral

Masters Theses

What is mbalax and how is it adaptively transforming the modern-day culture of Dakar, Senegal? Throughout This this study, willI plan to provide a glimpse into the current hip-hop culture of Dakar, ultimately revealing how up-and-coming artists are implementing mbalax. The research for this study took place I was in Dakar, Senegal from January 26th - February 16th, and was completed my field research in both Washington D.C. and New York City from February 22nd-26th. During this time m, I was able to connect with multiple hip-hop artists, political activists/rappers, drummers, and sabar dancers were consulted. More knowledge was obtained …

A Glance At Astor Piazzolla's Histoire Du Tango: Lecture Recital, Elizabeth Ritter

Honors Projects

This project is a lecture recital including the performance of four musical works from different countries as well as a lecture Astor Piazzolla's Histoire Du Tango. The four pieces performed in this recital were Eldin Burton's Sonatina for flute and piano, the first movement of Astor Piazzolla's Histoire Du Tango, Hirota's Shikararete, and Bela Bartok's Romanian Folk Dances for piccolo and piano. Before performing the Piazzolla, there was a lecture which included the teaching of the musical aspects of the tango within this piece, a short biography of Piazzolla, and a historical look at the four movements of this piece. …

A Model For Patron-Driven Acquisition Of Print Music Scores: From Conception To Reality, Alan Asher, Trey Shelton, Jason Heckathorn, Aimee Barrett

Charleston Library Conference

This paper and presentation will explore the process of developing a unique patron-driven acquisition program for print music scores and monographs from concept to reality at an American Association of Research Libraries institution. Areas to be discussed include collection development considerations, information technology infrastructure needs, acquisitions workflows, and plan evaluation. The paper and the presentation will examine how partnering with a vendor to implement an innovative collection development plan can support the needs of the library users and the goals of library collection development officers and increase access to music scores and monographs in a fiscally responsible way. Readers can …

Musicalization: Early Childhood Music Access, Discourse, And Praxis In Nyc Charter Schools, 2014-2015, Andrew Aprile

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Over the past two decades, charter schools have become a hallmark of education reform in the United States. Concurrent with this movement is the increasing prominence of high stakes testing. While much research has sought to compare the effectiveness of charter schools and traditional public schools in terms of standardized assessments, scant attention has been paid to the role of arts and music in charter schools, and little has been done to distinguish the distinct strands of the charter school movement. Given what we know about the importance of music education and the growth of charter schools, it was the …

The Development And Continued Evolution Of The American Style Of Oboe Playing, Rebecka Rose

Masters Theses

Though the American school of oboe playing did not exist roughly a century ago, its popularity and impact, in all of its variations, currently extends throughout and beyond the United States. Marcel Tabuteau, the founding father of the American school, developed a new and unique style during the early part of the twentieth century. This style became a truly hybrid school grounded in the French oboe school, and developed through his playing and teaching at the Curtis Institute of Music into a style that encompasses beauty, expression, and the vibrancy that has come to typify the American school oboist. The …

Bimusicality: Pedagogical Insights For Music Educators From "Second-Music" Learning Experiences, Kerry Digiacomo

Masters Theses

This study explores the development of “bimusicality” in adolescent and adult music learners to discover correlations between this experience and second language acquisition processes. North American music educators need to be equipped to help their students grow in their understanding of diverse musical styles, genres, and traditions, and the ethnomusicological concept of bimusicality, in connection with existing research on second-language acquisition as a sociocultural phenomenon, offers a new frame of reference for understanding how music learners may interact with distinct musical styles. Survey research with a group of 98 adult musicians, followed by ethnographic interviews of 16 of these survey …