Digital Commons Network^™

Folkloric Musicians Among The Bugakhwe, Robert Veith

Masters Theses

Increased access to global media by traditional culture in remote parts of Africa has, in many cases, seen indigenous music marginalized in favor of imported forms. In some places, a folkloric tradition thrives, though this music may face extinction if those who practice it do not document their art in a way which can be passed down to future generations. For this project, I recorded seven musician/composers of the Bugakhwe, a Khoisan people group living in the Okavango Delta region of Botswana. Two were given enough studio time to create a complete CD-length set, so as to show off the …

Ancient Greek Music: The Aulos And The Kithara, Carina Carbone

Honors Projects

The aulos was one of the foremost woodwind instruments in ancient Greece; likewise, the kithara was one of the foremost string instruments. They varied in both form and function throughout time and by region. Given the popularity of both instruments, there are many surviving art pieces which illustrate them and their uses. There are also surviving samples of the instruments themselves.

Australia’S Microtonal Modernist: The Life And Works Of Elsie Hamilton (1880-1965), Talisha Goh

Theses : Honours

This dissertation represents the most complete account to date of the life and works of Australian composer Elsie Hamilton (1880-1965). Through examining the theories of the Anthroposophical movement, I demonstrate how her music feeds from this belief system, and also demonstrate how Hamilton’s stance is congruent with the modernists of her generation. In addition, I position Hamilton’s modal system within the complex mathematics of Greek musical theory (as conceived by her collaborator, Kathleen Schlessinger). Finally, I provide modern editions and electronically manipulated sound files to all of Hamilton’s surviving compositions. Elsie Hamilton’s story is fascinating. This dissertation welcomes her into …

Tunetracker: Tensions In The Surveillance Of Traditional Music, Bryan Duggan, Norman M. Su

Conference papers

We describe the design and deployment of the first system ever to dynamically track and publish records of folk music playing. TuneTracker is a software system that has been, at time of writing, deployed at a pub in Dublin, Ireland for five months. It captures, stores, and posts the names of tunes played in Irish traditional music sessions on a public website. This paper makes two contributions: (1) drawing from a two year ethnographic study of trad musicians, it details the design and development of a system to track and publish traditional musicians’ practices while respecting the ethos of tradition, …

Every Town Is All The Same When You've Left Your Heart In The Portland Rain: Representations Of Portland Place And Local Identity In Portland Popular Lyrics, Meghan Andrea Kearney

Dissertations and Theses

This study looks at how place and local identity of Portland are described within music lyrics from Portland, Oregon popular indie-rock artists. Employing a constant comparative analysis on a set of 1,201 songs from 21 different popular Portland indie-rock artists, the themes of landscapes and climate were found to represent place, and themes of lifestyles and attitudes represented local identity. Reviewing the uncovered themes showed a strong connection between representations of place and local identity within lyrics and common stereotypes or understandings of the city of Portland and its indie-rock music scene. The results of this study illustrate how place …

Marshall University Music Department Presents A Senior Recital, Jason Arnoldt, Saxophone, Jason Arnoldt

All Performances

No abstract provided.

Folk/Traditional Music Of West Virginia Arranged For Classical Guitar Ensemble, Júlio Ribeiro Alves

Music Faculty Research

My motivation for writing this book grew from my desire to better understand the people and the music heritage of West Virginia and to share the findings of my experience, with the guitar community, in the form of guitar ensemble arrangements.

Elements Of Traditional Folk Music And Serialism In The Piano Music Of Cornel Țăranu, Cristina Vlad

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

The socio-political environment in the aftermath of World War II has greatly influenced Romanian music. During the Communist era, the government imposed regulations on musical composition dictating that music should be accessible to all members of society. Composers were therefore barred from writing works that were considered too complex or avant-garde for the standards of the nation. Many composers struggled with this official ideology because they wished to follow their own natural styles and desired to synchronize with Western compositional trends of the time, including aleatoric and twelve-tone serial music. Even before the government relaxed the restrictions on composition at …

Women's Chorale And Schola Cantorum, Department Of Music, University Of Richmond

Music Department Concert Programs

No abstract provided.

In Process And Practice: The Development Of An Archive Of Explicit Stylistic Data For Irish Traditional Instrumental Music, Martin Tourish

Doctoral

The study of style in Irish traditional music is very much in its infancy. Although current authors locate its beginnings in the 1980s, valuable information can be found from as far back as the eighteenth century. While style is a much-discussed topic, to date it has not been the subject of a major study. Through what is termed ‘the oral tradition’, much of the genre’s stylistic features are transmitted as implicit knowledge. This type of knowledge is difficult to measure, consciously use and share and while these difficulties have been highlighted in one EU-level report, they are also well known …

The Music Identity Project, Brent C. Talbot

Sunderman Conservatory of Music Faculty Publications

At MayDay Group Colloquium 24 in East Lansing, MI, Sandra Stauffer (2012) charged that: "If we want change, we need to start telling different stories . . . we work with beginning teachers, and we worry about teacher identities. We tell them a story...one that does not serve them well. A story that they will be prepared. Maybe we should tell stories of self-making, of re-making and replacing ourselves. Of preparation as a constantly evolving teacher story. Maybe then transformation can be the norm."

Sandy’s comments of transformation resonated strongly with the very project I was presenting at the same …

Robert Burns, James Johnson, And The Manuscript Of "The German Lairdie", Patrick Scott

Studies in Scottish Literature

Reports, illustrates, and assesses a fragment of manuscript music now in the G. Ross Roy Collection at the University of South Carolina, for Burns's song "The German Lairdie," headed in Burns's hand, and possibly with the music in his hand also. A note with the fragment, which was exhibited as Burns's autograph in 1896, states that it had been sent by Burns to the Edinburgh editor and publisher James Johnson, for inclusion in his Scots Musical Museum.

Samoa Stories Of Faith, Thomas Powell, Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The Samoan Islands are home to a rich and fascinating history and culture which is slowly disappearing as other world influences continue to have an impact on them. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, it is our responsibility to seek to preserve our heritage, both for our own enlightenment and for the benefit of future generations. Having served my mission in Samoa I have been able to experience firsthand the wonder and beauty of their culture and also to see the many changes it is undergoing.

Teaching World Music In An Elementary Setting: Effective Teaching Strategies And Classroom Materials, Calyna Mc Allister

Masters Theses

The world we live in today is increasingly a global society. As such, the various cultures of the world come into contact with one another more often. Students today need to have experiences with different cultures in order to participate effectively in this globally minded world. An excellent way to expose children to these cultures is through the use of world music in the general music classroom. The need for world music from a music education standpoint has been addressed over the past few decades. However, little has been done to address the teaching methods associated with world music or …

A Study Of How Selected Public School Junior-High Students Perceive The Effect Of Popular Music On Classroom Behavior, Christopher Mc Allister

Masters Theses

The objective of this study is to further the understanding of how junior-high students in the public schools perceive the effects of popular music on their behavior in the classroom. Two primary research questions serve as the foundation for this study. The first question investigates how themes disclosed in interviews of selected public school junior high students help to explain their personal perceptions of how popular music affects their behavior in the academic environment. The second question seeks to determine whether students that listen to a particular genre of popular music have different or similar perceptions of how music affects …

In Search Of The Original "Skewball", Seán Ó Cadhla

Articles

The well-known horseracing ballad ‘Skewball’ has been widely documented in oral tradition on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as on numerous English broadside printings. It recounts the tale of a mid-eighteenth-century horserace held at The Curragh of Kildare, in which a heavily-backed mare is comprehensively beaten by a relatively unknown skewbald gelding leaving the mare’s owner — along with much of the assembled onlookers — significantly out of pocket. The ballad became widely popularised in North America where it was first published in a song book in 1826 (Benton 1826:3-4). It was later subsumed into African-American song tradition, …

Fearless: Alice Broadway And Gamelan Gita Semara, Alice C. Broadway

SURGE

Next week a group of education students and members of Sunderman Conservatory’s Gamelan Gita Semara ensemble are fearlessly traveling to Ubud, Bali for three weeks for a musically and culturally immersive experience. The group, led by Dr. Brent Talbot has a packed itinerary. Much of the trip will be devoted to working with a local gamelan teacher to learn about different styles of the drumming art. While there, they will also be attending an arts festival and collaborating with locals on various projects. [excerpt]

“You Got To Know Us”: A Hopeful Model For Music Education In Urban Schools, Frank Martignetti, Brent C. Talbot, Matthew Clauhs, Timothy Hawkins, Nasim Niknafs

Sunderman Conservatory of Music Faculty Publications

Urban schools, and the students and teachers within, are often characterized by a metanarrative of deficit and crisis, causing the complex realities of urban education to remain unclear behind a wall of assumptions and stereotypes. Within music education, urban schools have received limited but increasing attention from researchers. However, voices from practitioners are often missing from this dialogue, and the extant scholarly dialogue has had a very limited effect on music teacher education. In this article, five music educators with a combined thirty years of experience in urban schools examine aspects of their experiences in the light of critical pedagogy …

When The Cradle Falls: The Subversion, Secrets, And Sentimentality Of Lullabies, Lauren R. Castro

Music

No abstract provided.

A New Kind Of National: Modified String Quartet Practices In Post-Soviet Eurasia, Adam Taylor Lenz

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the practices of string quartet modification implemented by three post-Soviet Eurasian composers: Franghiz Ali-Zadeh (Azerbaijan), Vache Sharafyan (Armenia), and Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky (Uzbekistan). After an introduction to the geography of the region and the biographies of the composers, their works containing modified string quartet configurations are examined within three distinct modification practices. These practices consist of the addition of outside instruments, the addition of electronic components, and the alteration of performance practice. The evaluation of these techniques is carried out through musical analysis and examination of cultural context. After each work has been examined, the body of works …

Don Januario, Gustavo Leone

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

Don Januario is a traditional song from Bolivia. It was collected by musicians from the ensemble Florilegium, and published on their CD, Música de las Misiones y de la Plata (Sucre). This is an original version of the song and a series of variations in the style of the local baroque.

La Joya Isd Fine Arts: Teaching Mexican Identity Through Music And Dance, Katrena H. Henry

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The La Joya Independent School District has made a serious effort to cultivate and promote mariachi, conjunto, and folklórico programs at the middle school and high school level. Students give numerous performances throughout the year and these programs have exposed thousands of people to the music and traditions of Mexico and the border region. What draws so many students to these particular programs in La Joya ISD? What sense of "Mexican identity" do these programs create for its participants? Through observing various performances, interviewing educators, students, and community members, I explore why these programs are considered essential by the school …

Django's Caravan: The Journey Of The Gypsy King, Patrick Ray Monson

Music

The life and musical contribution of Django Reinhardt including musical and visual examples.

Finding Meaning In The Two-Finger Banjo Style., Jeffrey K. Elkins

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The two-finger banjo style languishes as a small footnote in the lexicon of old time banjo music—very important to a passionate (and lucky!) few, but not known by too many others. This research is a starting point to understanding the meaning of two-finger banjo; through a review of primary literature, interviews, witnessing performances, and individual investigation of playing two-finger banjo, I have been able to document some understandings about the style.

These understandings informed further appreciation of old time music, the old time music (and banjo) communities, and the art of making music in this way—while describing the journey, I …

Senior Recital: Tyler Tillage, Piano, Department Of Music, University Of Richmond

Music Department Concert Programs

No abstract provided.

Where Would Hip Hop Be Without Colleges And Universities?, Erik Nielson

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

Institutions of higher education have played a critical role in ensuring that hip hop music remains fluid and vibrant.

The Introduction Of The Black Conductor, Akeila Thomas

Undergraduate Research Conference

The conductor has become a position of great influence and necessity to the performing ensemble due to innovations in performance between the Baroque and mid to late Romantic periods. With such prominence given to the title, one such conductor has gained very little mention throughout the course of music's history. African-American musicians have played such a catalytic role in the shape and progression of Western music.

Que Bonita Es Esta Vida, Samara Martinez

Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

I Am Not Your Video Girl, Rashida Aluko-Roberts

SURGE

“We need girls who are willing to be up on stage with us and who are not afraid to go HAM dancing in front of a crowd. I know at least a few of you who have the confidence/jaw-dropping dance moves to pull this off.” [excerpt]

Discourse Analysis As Potential For Re-Visioning Music Education, Brent C. Talbot

Sunderman Conservatory of Music Faculty Publications

Discourse analysis holds great potential for re-visioning the field of music education. This paper explores works from Foucault, Blommaert, Scollon and Scollon, as well as others, to suggest a theoretical and methodological approach to analyzing discourse in settings of music transmission that takes into consideration who we are, what we do, and how we do it. Discourse is defined in this paper as meaningful, mediated language-in-place. By analyzing acts of speech as well as cultural objects (such as instruments, mallets, and bows) and concepts (such as a conducting gestures or solfege syllables) used as mediational means in situ, we can …