The Effects Of Operatic Voice Type On Singer Identity,
2025
West Virginia University
The Effects Of Operatic Voice Type On Singer Identity, Adelaide J. Mcdonald
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
Within Western art music, voices are typically classified using the Fach system, which is based upon vocal characteristics and separates singers into the categories of soprano, mezzo soprano, contralto, counter tenor, tenor, bass, and baritone. Over time, these categories have become embedded with social and cultural meaning within the operatic world, leading to the development of stereotypes and expectations surrounding singers, as well as social categories and identities, referred to in this study as “sociocultural vocal categories” and “sociocultural vocal identity,” respectively. Currently, there are limited explorations of the sociocultural vocal categories and their associated stereotypes, with research on singer …
Commissioning And Recording Project Of New Works For Saxophone Focused On Promoting Mexican Composers And Educating Future Commissioning Saxophonists,
2025
West Virginia University
Commissioning And Recording Project Of New Works For Saxophone Focused On Promoting Mexican Composers And Educating Future Commissioning Saxophonists, Andres Efrain Santana
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
This document chronicles my process of commissioning and recording five new works by Mexican composers. To contextualize this experience, I provide a brief introduction of Mexican contemporary music history, an overview of second-hand accounts of the commissioning process, my personal experience of this process, and my assessment of the impact these works could have on the classical saxophone repertoire. As I have reflected on my own experience with historical and contemporary accounts of the commissioning process, it has become clear that personal connections between composers and performers and the patronage or funding linked to those relationships are just as important …
Cultural Immersion And Practices: Ellie Mannette’S Steel Pan Building Processes In Morgantown, West Virginia.,
2025
West Virginia University
Cultural Immersion And Practices: Ellie Mannette’S Steel Pan Building Processes In Morgantown, West Virginia., Timothy Clark Friedhaber
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
Ellie Mannette, among others, was one of the first builders of the modern steel pan. Born and raised in Trinidad, Mannette started building steel pans at a young age. Eventually, he gained employment with the United States Naval Steel Band, which opened opportunities for him to grow in his field. Through these opportunities and connections, Mannette arrived in the United States permanently in 1967. In the later part of his life, he moved to Morgantown, West Virginia, where he continued building, teaching his building processes, and tuning steel pans. The study aims to serve as an aid for other scholars …
Liner Notes On Black Trans Girlhood: Afrofuturist Affect & Black Popular Music As A Praxis Of Self-Fashioning,
2025
Virginia Commonwealth University
Liner Notes On Black Trans Girlhood: Afrofuturist Affect & Black Popular Music As A Praxis Of Self-Fashioning, Shawn J. Williams
Theses and Dissertations
Liner Notes on Black Trans Girlhood: Afrofuturist Affect & Black Popular Music as a Praxis of Self-Fashioning interprets Black musical performance in identity-making, with a focus on how music and Black trans identity intersect and informs Black trans girlhood. As such, Black trans girls render ourselves legible, i.e. understood without shame or judgment, by constructing our identities through the music by Black women we listen and dance to, or watch and sing. These musical connections affirm the possibilities of Black femme expression. This expression of Black femininity is due to what I call an Afrofuturist affect, by which I refer …
Floating Signifiers: Ai, Semiotics, And The Crisis Of Meaning In Music,
2025
Dartmouth College
Floating Signifiers: Ai, Semiotics, And The Crisis Of Meaning In Music, Kehinde Aruwajoye
Dartmouth College Master’s Theses
This thesis examines how AI-generated music disrupts traditional meaning-making processes in musical expression. Through semiotic analysis (Saussure, Peirce) and cultural theory (Hall), I demonstrate how AI produces technically proficient but culturally hollow compositions, what I term "floating signifiers." Case studies reveal AI's inability to replicate the lived experiences that give music its depth, despite accurate stylistic reproductions. The work identifies three fundamental losses: contextual grounding, authentic hybridity, and historical consciousness. I propose ethical frameworks for human-AI collaboration that preserve music's essential humanity while leveraging algorithmic capabilities. Ultimately, this research shifts the debate from technical possibility "Can AI compose?" to cultural …
Rhythm Against Poethics,
2025
University of Central Florida
Rhythm Against Poethics, Jayvyn Dacas
Honors Undergraduate Theses
This thesis stages an auto-poetic ethnography that listens to, and moves with, the anterior spaces of Black life. Those murmurs, hums, musical hesitations, and infrastructural vibrations that refuse capture by dominant epistemic regimes. Drawing from Ramon Amaro’s reading of Sylvia Wynter, Katherine McKittrick and Alexander Weheliye’s reflections on sound, Fred Moten’s insights on displacement, and Tendayi Sithole’s attention to the phonographic, the project situates music production as method and unworlding. Through engagements with the 808, sampling, sound systems, and embodied listening across Florida. Spaces like the warehouse, the party, record stores, and community become the work of Black voices, and …
Transformation Of Buddhist Musical Practices From The 7th-13th Centuries As A Response To Political And Social Disorder In Medieval India,
2025
Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School
Transformation Of Buddhist Musical Practices From The 7th-13th Centuries As A Response To Political And Social Disorder In Medieval India, Stephan I. Duran
Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal
This article gives an account of the development of Buddhist musical practices on the Indian subcontinent from their earliest, datable instances, to the disappearance of Buddhist institutions from India proper, demonstrating the persistence of descendant traditions of Sanskrit Buddhist chant and song in contemporary Japanese, Tibetan, and Newar esoteric Buddhist communities. It is argued that the Buddhist musical theory and praxis of these three cultural spheres both preserve features of ancient and medieval Indian Buddhist music and sonically illustrate the transition from political and social order to de-centralized social organization, a shift that took place between the 7th and …
A Study Abroad Immersion And Reflection Of American Liberal Arts Students In Cyprus,
2024
Christopher Newport University, Virginia
A Study Abroad Immersion And Reflection Of American Liberal Arts Students In Cyprus, Mark Reimer, Yiannis Miralis
Journal of Global Awareness
Ensemble tours abroad, with a liberal arts focus, provide a rich, unique, and highly educational opportunity to make music while experiencing the history, people, language, and culture of another country. Pre-tour preparation, however, requires research and a trusted relationship between the director and the host to ensure that the musicians in both countries enjoy the same degree of excitement and desire to learn from one another. The following article is research that was conducted for an American college wind ensemble tour to Cyprus. In addition to reviewing several books and journals, the authors listened to hours of classical, folk, and …
The Vagina Dentata: A Case For Unlocking Mouths, Loosing Hips, And Spreading The Gospel Of Healing Women's Sexual Performance Anxiety,
2024
University of Cambridge
The Vagina Dentata: A Case For Unlocking Mouths, Loosing Hips, And Spreading The Gospel Of Healing Women's Sexual Performance Anxiety, Alisha Lola Jones
Yale Journal of Music & Religion
This article explores how vagina dentata folklore—stories and imagery about a mythical "toothed vagina"—connects to the ways Black religious communities often cultivate silence around women’s sexual lives, particularly within the “Worth the Wait” and Word of Faith movements. Ignited by womanist religious ethnographer Monique Moultrie’s scholarship on sexual silence in these movement, I take seriously the musicological chasm by exploring how these ministries influence Black women’s sexual agency and moral decision-making through inequitable theological procedures and discourses. The vagina dentata metaphor emerges as a symbol of constrained appetites—respiratory (larynx), digestive (intestine, anus), and reproductive (uterus, vagina)—reflecting broader sociocultural and religious …
Indigenous Metal: Rage, Rejects, And The Reconstruction Of Culture,
2024
University of San Francisco
Indigenous Metal: Rage, Rejects, And The Reconstruction Of Culture, Louis W. Asbury
Master's Theses
Metal music’s latest frontier is Indigenous metal, combining explorations of Indigenous identity with the heavy and aggressive stylings of the music genre. To explore this new subgenre, this study asks to what extent can metal music be used as a political tool and what are some of the broader effects of metal bands working to better their communities. This thesis utilizes case studies of two notable Indigenous metal scenes, the Rez metal scene in the Navajo Nation and the Māori metal scene in Aotearoa. By collecting data from these scenes, including lyrics, videos, interviews, and audience interactions, this thesis thoroughly …
Has K-Pop Lost Its Koreaness?,
2024
Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism
Has K-Pop Lost Its Koreaness?, Madison J. Gusler
Capstones
Since the 2010s, the global expansion of K-pop has been undeniable, with music from Korean idol groups resonating with fans around the world. We’ve seen the industry adapt to cater to this global audience, placing emphasis on non-verbal aspects of performance such as choreography and set design, and integrating more English lyrics in their songs. K-pop has always had multinational, multicultural influences in its production, yet the music has remained distinctly Korean. But as the industry expands into new markets, faces new challenges, and adapts to convey greater global appeal, the public must contend with the idea of a K-pop …
Resurrecting The Muse: Kithara And Lyric Poetry Performance Practice In Greco-Roman Antiquity,
2024
Bowling Green State University
Resurrecting The Muse: Kithara And Lyric Poetry Performance Practice In Greco-Roman Antiquity, Abigail Petersen
Honors Projects
Both students and pedagogues of classical studies are familiar with the inherent musicality of Greek and Latin poetry, and they also widely accept the idea that poets sang their works to accompaniment on a kithara, or large lyre. However, little work has been done to perform works of poetry according to this tradition, and thus many modern attempts at oral recitation feature a forced and pedantic rhythm that bores the listener and fails to do justice to the revered art of Greco-Roman poetry. Through a review of primary and secondary sources, I examine the construction of the kithara, the context …
Methods In Environmental Studies,
2024
University of San Francisco
Methods In Environmental Studies, Erika Dunagan, Maya Mendoza, Posey Graber, Alex Cullins, Emma Mcginnis, Ally Nepomuceno, Isabella Buchan
Featured Student Work
This publication is a collection of undergraduate research conducted in the Methods in Environmental Studies course at the University of San Francisco in Fall 2024. The student-led projects explore the intersections of place, policy, ecology, and cultural identity through applied environmental research methodologies. Topics include a decolonial examination of the Forest Park Mound Group and Indigenous resilience in St. Louis; a comparative study of Navajo cosmology and ecological justice; a social and environmental impact assessment of Costa Rica’s National Decarbonization Plan; a psychogeographical analysis of Golden Gate Park and its impact on the psyche, emotions, behaviour, and health of urban …
How Is Music History Important And How Can Music History Be Included Into Our Regular Music Curriculum?,
2024
Bowling Green State University
How Is Music History Important And How Can Music History Be Included Into Our Regular Music Curriculum?, Abby Michalak
Honors Projects
From a music education major's perspective, music history is rarely taught in high school and middle schools today. Music history can teach so much to students, including context, style, and even why pieces were written. Through this paper, we explore why music history is an important topic to be taught in schools and how music programs across the country can include it into their curriculums through smaller sized lesson plans. This paper includes a sample curriculum that goes through the different period of music and a unit for "spotlights" for countries that are rarely represented in high school and middle …
Manifest Destiny, A Repeat Of History: Scoring Stanley Kubrick's The Shining,
2024
Chapman University
Manifest Destiny, A Repeat Of History: Scoring Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, Emilie Montoure
Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
In this paper I will examine Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining through the lens of Manifest Destiny. Using this angle, I discuss how protagonist Jack Torrance takes on the role of a settler as he cares for the Overlook Hotel and becomes verbally abusive and controlling to his wife and son. I use the disconcerting, avant-garde scores of Twentieth Century modernist composers Béla Bartók, György Ligeti, and Krzysztof Penderecki to analyze how this story of westward expansion is conveyed. This chilling soundscape involving extreme dissonance, complex rhythms, layering of sounds, and unconventional techniques scores Jack’s psychological descent into murderous …
Jewish Worship, Music, And Technology During The Covid-19 Pandemic,
2024
Tufts University
Jewish Worship, Music, And Technology During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jeffrey A. Summit
Yale Journal of Music & Religion
This article examines the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Jewish worship and considers a range of worshippers’ reactions to livestreamed and Zoom prayer services. Focusing on the Jewish Emergent Network, innovative communities who are known for cultivating vibrant, participatory music in worship, leaders discuss the challenges of not being able to sing together online, the Jewish legal ramifications of using technology on the Sabbath and the on-going changes they believe could occur as virtual worship returns to in-person prayer. These leaders also discuss surprisingly positive developments in online prayer, as congregants deepened interpersonal relationships in discussion breakout rooms, discovered …
Sacred Recitation Of The Tibetan Yungdrung Bön Tradition: The Kharnatsang Collection Of Skad And The Arrangement Of The Three Heart Mantras,
2024
Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen, Germany
Sacred Recitation Of The Tibetan Yungdrung Bön Tradition: The Kharnatsang Collection Of Skad And The Arrangement Of The Three Heart Mantras, Christiane Strothmann
Yale Journal of Music & Religion
The digital age has long dawned in many of the Tibetan Monasteries in exile. Thus, the inclusion of internet platforms and the usage of digital communication technologies was naturally part of my ethnomusicological collaboration with the Tibetan Bön monastic chant leader and scholar Geshé Dawa Namgyal Kharnatsang on the sacred recitation of the Yungdrung Bön tradition of Menri Monastery in Dolanji, India. In this article I will offer insights into Kharnatsang’s and my motivation to develop a hybrid collaboration and discuss the role and impact of the digital technologies on the traditional chain of transmission. I will draw on two …
The Voice Of Azerbaijan: Experiencing Recordings Of Hajibaba Huseynov And Post-Soviet Muslim Musical Identities,
2024
Waseda University
The Voice Of Azerbaijan: Experiencing Recordings Of Hajibaba Huseynov And Post-Soviet Muslim Musical Identities, Polina Dessiatnitchenko
Yale Journal of Music & Religion
Singer and poet Hajibaba Huseynov (1919–1993), revered by some as the “voice of Azerbaijan” is one of the most popular stars featured in recordings of classical devotional ghazal poetry. Curiously enough, video or audio recordings of his recitations seem to be especially moving, often becoming the focal point for audiences of musicians and poets at public live performances, private meetings, lessons, and virtual contexts. While fans of the ghazal genre are found at every turn, I limit my analysis to the subculture of poets, musicians, experts, and especially ardent fans of traditional Azerbaijani arts. Relying on ethnographic data gathered in …
Coltrane’S A Love Supreme: Mediations Of Immediacy In Jazz Ritual And Recitation,
2024
University of Cambridge
Coltrane’S A Love Supreme: Mediations Of Immediacy In Jazz Ritual And Recitation, James R. W. Crockford
Yale Journal of Music & Religion
This paper explores the ritualized performance ethic of John Coltrane’s later career, which is charged with a determined exploration of freedom and spiritual ascendance through participative and gestural immediacy. Conceiving of this music as a spiritual and political tool for embodied transformation, this paper traces this ethic at play in Coltrane’s iconic 1965 album A Love Supreme, identifying ways the work effects a mediation of immediacy. Through focus on the album’s closing “Psalm” recitation, its parallels in Coltrane’s other works, and their analogue in traditions of ecstatic liturgical and political oratory, this paper demonstrates the consistent priority Coltrane gives …
Written History And Lived Legacy Of Cape Town Jazz,
2024
Franklin and Marshall College
Written History And Lived Legacy Of Cape Town Jazz, Grace E. Runner
South Africa: Multiculturalism and Human Rights
This paper examines the historical and current implications of Cape Town Jazz in juxtaposition with the genre's written history and lived experiences of four key members of the jazz community. Drawing from the interviews with a musician, promoter, educator, and enthusiast, this study explores the influence of Cape Jazz as a subgenre rooted in the Coloured community's cultural heritage and the apartheid struggle. While Cape Jazz remains practiced through its legacy, the current jazz scene in Cape Town reflects a broader global influence that is evolving through younger musicians' interpretations of local and global musics. Key areas of issue as …
