Digital Commons Network^™

Philsongs: A Study Of Campfire Music Performed At Scouting America’S Philmont Scout Ranch (2014 To 2021), Ellyn Rager

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This dissertation focuses on Philmont Scout Ranch, a national Scouting America high adventure base in New Mexico and the largest youth camp in the world, arguing that music at Philmont serves as a cultural force that fosters an intensive communal bond among staff and campers by blending participatory and presentational music-making practices, while producing and reinforcing memories of Philmont through interpretive performances that negotiate the place’s historical narratives. Using surveys, interviews, and Thomas Turino’s framework of participatory and presentational music-making to interpret the author’s 100 hours of field recordings, this study examines aspects of Philmont’s musical habits between 2014 and …

A Method For Beginners Volume 1: The Intersection Of The Yaqui Tribe And Guitar Pedagogy, Daniel Preciado Arreola

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This dissertation is divided into four chapters. The first is an introduction explaining the project; the second describes the Yaqui Tribe's background, significance, and musical traditions, primarily based on three sources: the thesis Sones de Pascola by Cristian Salvador Islas Miranda, the biographical book El Viaje de Mechabili by Daniel Librado Luna, and the album Juya Ánia. The third chapter details the methodological framework and development process used to construct the guitar method presented in Chapter 4. This fourth chapter consists of the first volume of an ongoing multi-volume guitar method—authored by me—focused largely on the melodies from the aforementioned …

Cantate Fratres: Forming And Sustaining Traditional Catholic Music, Liturgy And Culture In The Institute Of Christ The King Sovereign Priest, Reyers P. Brusoe

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest is an understudied member of the Traditional Catholic and Latin Mass Communities whose unique approach to Catholic liturgy, culture, and formation offers a sustainable model for the Catholic Church's longevity and renewal. This study is the first of its kind, combining the theoretical positions of affect theory, ecomusicology/musical sustainability, and the musicology of religion to explore and explain the success of this growing classical community. This dissertation examines Church documents, theological literature, and multidisciplinary academic sources as a foundation for the study.             In studying the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, …

“Literally Made Me Cry”: The Impact Of Course Material Costs On University Of Kentucky Students, Stephen Krueger

Library Reports and White Papers

The Student Course Materials Cost Survey was administered September 16 – October 6, 2024. It was open to current students at the University of Kentucky (UK). The goals were to help UK Libraries better understand how the cost of course materials affects students at UK and to provide a snapshot of student spending across the university. The questions were based on similar research done at other institutions in Virginia (Virginia Course Materials Survey, 2021) and Florida (2022 Student Textbook and Instructional Materials Survey, 2022). Other work based on those surveys includes the 2023 Illinois Course Materials Survey (CARLI, 2023) and …

“Single Girl, Married Girl:” Female Perspectives On Marriage, Maidenhood, And Motherhood In English-Language Folk Music, Avery Schanbacher

Libraries Award for Undergraduate Scholarship

In 1928, the Carter Family released “Single Girl, Married Girl.” The recording featured only Sara and Maybelle Carter, and in three short stanzas, highlighted the vastly differing lives of the single girl, who dressed fine and went where she pleased, and the married girl, with a baby on her knee, who rocked the cradle and cried. Sara and Maybelle Carter weren’t the only people who knew this song – before they recorded it for Ralph Peer at the famous Bristol sessions, it was alive as a part of musical traditions not just in their home in Scott County, Virginia, but …

A Comparison Of Informal Choral Singing Experiences, Christopher Powell

Theses and Dissertations--Music

A traditional choir relies on the interest and participation of the population in communal singing. However, drawing willing participants into a traditional choir program can often prove challenging to music educators, community choir directors, and leaders of religious music programs. One of the most prevalent informal singing groups in the USA is Sacred Harp. Sacred Harp “singings” have been around since the early years of The Sacred Harp itself. These singings occur regularly in multiple locations across the country and around the world. These events have an open atmosphere and, despite the mostly Christian material, have no expectation of a …

Honk!: Meaning And Activism In 21st Century American Street Bands, Isaac Maupin

Theses and Dissertations--Music

In this dissertation, I explore activism, music, and meaning through the lens of HONK! Bands in the United States. HONK! A Festival of Activist Street Bands began in Sommerville, Massachusetts, in 2006. Since its inception, the festivals have grown on a national and global scale. The festivals, however, operate as a convenient organizing structure for the bands themselves and are not a primary focus of this work. Instead, I examine activism, learning, and value as systems within the HONK! culture (each topic with a devoted chapter) to, through a phenomenological lens, better understand how HONK! bands fit within American culture. …

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.

Sculpting Time: A Performance Guide To Four Fragments Of Time By Marcus Siqueira, Luis Felipe Vargas Magdaleno De Moraes

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This dissertation investigates the musical and phenomenological aspects of Four Fragments of Time by Marcus Siqueira (b. 1974) and provides a performance guide for this work. Furthermore, this dissertation analyzes previous guitar works by the composer, seeking to understand Siqueira’s compositional idiosyncrasies and to provide context for the interpretation of Four Fragments of Time. This dissertation includes a biography of the composer, an analysis of the compositional process of Four Fragments of Time, an analysis of the recurrent idiomatic procedures in Siqueira’s guitar works, and an overview of the collaborative process between the composer and the author. Additionally, an analysis …

Mediating Authenticity: An Ethnographic Portrait Of Experience At U.S. Popular Music Festivals, Elizabeth Navarra Varnado

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This ethnographic study of U.S. popular music festivals subverts the impression of festivals as strictly ‘presentational’ live music events by utilizing a nuanced approach that is grounded in ethnographic fieldwork, historical analysis, and participant interviews.

Interlocutors, drawn from the author’s personal network of festival attendees, musicians, and promoters, reflect on “particularly positive festival moments,” the social and emotional benefits of festivals, and the corporeality of festival aesthetics. Discourse and published media play a vital role in festival participants’ perception of the festival field and their place within it; therefore, this study draws inspiration from the tripartite focus of iconic festival …

The Three E’S Of Horn Repertoire: From Excerpts To Etudes To Employment, Briana Pepilascov-Childers

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This project explores effective solutions for practicing orchestral excerpts, a challenge often faced by young musicians preparing for auditions. It introduces a method of adapting practice ideas and composition to facilitate a more profound understanding of fifteen orchestral excerpts. While primarily directed at horn players, the concepts and techniques explored in this study are applicable to musicians of all instruments, offering specific ideas, practice tips, and original etudes tailored to each excerpt. These etudes serve a dual purpose by addressing technical aspects of both the horn and the excerpt itself while familiarizing the musician with the standard orchestral repertoire commonly …

Viola Music Written By Costa Rican Composers: Analysis Of Three Compositional Trends In Costa Rica, Karen Soto Huertas

Theses and Dissertations--Music

What could come from a country that just this past year celebrated 200 years of independence that was only discovered in 1502 and was under the yoke of the Spanish Empire for over 300 hundred years? What contribution to the art music community could this third-world country, Costa Rica, bring to the table? Specifically, what contributions could Costa Rica make to the viola repertoire, which status as a soloistic instrument was raised only 100 or so years ago? How could a small country contribute to the repertoire of this often-forgotten instrument? To answer these questions, I have embarked on research …

Leveraging Cultural Assets Of Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Individuals In Music Therapy: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study, Emma Grace King

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The purpose of this thesis was to explore how music therapists can engage in cultural humility and leverage cultural assets of those who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD). The primary research question involved in this study was: “In what ways can music therapists leverage cultural assets of CLD individuals in practice?” Sub-questions were: “What awareness, knowledge, and skills do music therapists need to grow in culturally sensitive practice?” “How can music therapists whose first language is English effectively serve linguistically diverse individuals?” “What steps might music therapists take to effectively serve culturally diverse individuals?” and “How might cultural and …

John Wesley Work Iii: Arranger, Preserver, And Historian Of African American Traditional Music, Kaylina Madison Crawley

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This study focuses on John Wesley Work III’s life and career in response to the scarcity of existing research and publication devoted to him. To expand the scholarship focused on Work and to deepen the history of African American artistry, this dissertation analyzes his additions to concert repertoire through his arrangements of spirituals, investigates his scholarship, and performance— including his activities as Director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers — and provides a foundation for further analytical study of African- American sacred music. Methodology utilized in this thesis includes construction of a biographical narrative based on primary sources and analysis of …

Shining A Spotlight On Female African American Composer Evelyn Simpson-Curenton, Iris E. Fordjour-Hankins

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Those who are interested in learning more about Evelyn Simpson-Curenton (b. 1953) will find it challenging to find scholarly material on her life and music. She is best known for her arrangements of spirituals that were sang and recorded by Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman (whose concert recording Spirituals in Concert was released in 1991). Simpson-Curenton is also known for her choral work, “Psalm 91,” made famous by Oakwood University’s Aeolians. Though she is self-published, her absence from compilations, volumes, and anthologies for solo voice and piano is regrettable. This dissertation provides well researched scholarly information about her musical life …

The G7 Suite: Score And Analysis, Joseph C. Dunn

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The G7 Suite is a multi-movement chamber work that combines elements of European Art Music, Indigenous Music from Latin America, and various representations of American music. The melodic material is derived from the national anthems of the Great Seven nations: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Each melody is re-set to new music genres and aligns itself to the rules and expectations within each idiom. This compilation is more than a series of arrangements or reharmonizations of the anthems; these are new compositions based on melodic elements from previous works.

This analysis of The …

Inside Outside: The Cultural Paradox Of Salvation Army Brass Bands In America During The Age Of Nationalism, Nathan Miller

Theses and Dissertations--Music

By the turn of the twentieth century, the sight and sound of a little brass band of uniformed evangelists on street corners declaring war on sin became ubiquitous in American cities. Although Salvationists came to hold a cherished place in society, Americans greeted their initial invasion with contempt. They came with a message of transformative redemption for the poor and disenfranchised, loudly declaring that anyone and anything could be made holy and fit for God’s Salvation Army. This included minstrel tunes and other rough musics appropriated from the working-class Americans. However, eventually their music had less in common with poor …

Zappa’S Remembrance Of A Forgotten Style: The Relationship Between Frank Zappa And Doo-Wop As Illustrated In Cruising With Ruben & The Jets, Benjamin Adamo

Theses and Dissertations--Music

One of Zappa’s many cherished styles of music was the doo-wop of the mid-1950s through the early 1960s. His love for the style culminated in 1968 with a poor-selling and often forgotten doo-wop record, Cruising with Ruben & The Jets. While the record earned little praise from critics and fans, Zappa considered it as a landmark of his early career, as evidenced in his autobiography. This thesis investigates Zappa’s relationship to doo-wop and “perversion” of the style as it culminated in Cruising.

As revealed through autobiographical entries and interviews with Zappa, Ray Collins, and other collaborators, Zappa devised …

Postminimalist Choral Music: A Pedagogical Perspective, Joshua John Chai

Theses and Dissertations--Music

After the strict processes of mid-twentieth-century minimalism, a new musical style has emerged which retains extensive use of repetition, but is generally more aurally accessible, based in non-functional triadic harmony, and flexible in its compositional structure. Frequent use of non-minimalist resources, musical resources from multiple styles in a single composition, and quotation from previous historical periods define this flexibility.

American choral music has many popular compositions that exhibit characteristics of this new musical style, in part because of its accessibility relative to earlier minimalist styles, and in part because it adapts easily to the choral setting. At the same time, …

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 …

Partita For 8 Voices & Wind Ensemble: A Transcription Process, Kaitlin May Bove

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Partita for 8 Voices (2012) is a groundbreaking a cappella work that earned its composer, Caroline Shaw, the record of youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013. While the work continues to receive performances from its premiere ensemble, Roomful of Teeth, no transcription of the piece to any other ensemble type existed at the beginning of this DMA project. The author sought to transcribe a piece by a living female composer with no work for band into the wind band medium. The resulting transcription, Partita for 8 Voices & Wind Ensemble, adds a new work to …

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 …

A Critical And Performance Edition Of Agustin Barrios’S Cueca: Comparative Analysis Of Form, Notation, And Performance Practice Of Barrios’S Work To Traditional Chilean Cuecas From The Beginning Of The Twentieth-Century, Enrique Sandoval-Cisternas

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Agustin Barrios's guitar music has become increasingly popular over the last forty years. After his death, a revival of interest in his compositions began in the 1970s, motivated by a series of publications and recordings of his music by important guitar performers at that time. The most important of these recordings came from the Australian guitar performer John Williams, who was interviewed in 1976 by ABC Television Australia for a film about the Paraguayan composer. The next year, Williams recorded a collection of fifteen works in his album John Williams-Barrios: John Williams Plays the Music of Agustín Barrios Mangoré. …

Max Neuhaus, R. Murray Schafer, And The Challenges Of Noise, Megan Elizabeth Murph

Theses and Dissertations--Music

In this dissertation, I analyzed Max Neuhaus’s (1939-2009) and R. Murray Schafer’s (b. 1932) commentary and work regarding noise, its control, and its relationship with the environment from the 1960 to the 1980s. Both Neuhaus and Schafer as well as those more directly involved with noise abatement research and policy were responding to the challenges and possibilities that noise posed in the latter twentieth century. In this project, I delved into these substantial links and argued that responding to and engaging with noise abatement policies was a key impetus to much of their work, which scholarship has yet to critically …

A Study Of Acculturation In Chinese-Mongolian Er’Rentai Folk Opera, Luyin Shao

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Er’rentai, or Mongolian dance and song duets, is a genre of folk opera in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. Er’rentai performances can be categorized into two styles—the “western-style” and the “eastern-style.” The aim of this thesis is to explore the acculturation in Chinese-Mongolian er’rentai genre in the following ways. First, I address the historical background of the western-style er’rentai. Then, I draw on fieldwork with Huo Banzhu, a famous er’rentai musician, to introduce contemporary state of er’rentai's development. Finally, I employ musical analysis to demonstrate the borrowings of Mongolian music and culture in the formation and transmission …

The Relationship Between Lowell Mason And The Boston Handel And Haydn Society, 1815-1827, Todd R. Jones

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The relationship between Lowell Mason (1792–1872) and the Boston Handel and Haydn Society (est. 1815) has long been recognized as a crucial development in the history of American music. In 1821, Mason and the HHS contracted to publish a collection of church music that Mason had edited. While living in Savannah, GA, Mason had imported several recent British collections that adapted for church tunes works by Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Ignaz Pleyel. His study with German émigré Frederick L. Abel allowed him to harmonize older tunes in standard counterpoint. In the historiography of American …

Harvest Festival By Yann-Jong Hwang: A Piano Duet Inspired By Taiwanese Folk Tunes, Wei-Sian Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The purpose of this study is to provide an introduction and analysis of Harvest Festival, a work for piano four hands by Taiwanese composer Yann-Jong Hwang. This work incorporates elements of traditional Taiwanese music that is largely unfamiliar to performers and listeners beyond the border of Taiwan.

With the exception of Professor Hwang’s own journal article on this piece, this project is the only study of Harvest Festival available in the United States or Taiwan. This research will be meaningful to both performers and piano teachers as an encouragement to include Yann-Jong Hwang’s work within their concert repertory.

This …

Redefining The Performance Degree Curriculum For The Crossover Saxophonist, Ian M. Cruz

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Many collegiate saxophone performance degree programs are overwhelmingly classical, adopting from other performance programs in the Western music tradition. However, there is a growing number of saxophone compositions that are “crossover” in nature. Crossover is a term used to describe the fusion of popular music styles in a classical setting. There is also evidence that collegiate music education as a whole is moving towards a more diverse curriculum, which emphasizes ethnomusicology. Due to this trend in composition and education, it is becoming increasingly important that saxophonists have the training of both classical and jazz disciplines.

The problem is that while …

Synchrony Of The Sublime: A Performer's Guide To Duke Ellington's Wordless Melodies For Soprano, Lisa M. Clark

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This monograph provides an in-depth examination of the background, musical, and performance issues related to Duke Ellington’s wordless melodies, as well as epigrammatic biographies of Ellington and three female vocalists whose voices he employed as instruments: Adelaide Hall, Kay Davis, and Alice Babs. As early as the twenties, Ellington innovatively used the voice as a wordless instrumental color—an idea he extended into both his secular and sacred works. His iconoclastic instrumentalization of the soprano voice in compositions such as “Creole Love Call”, “Minnehaha”, “Transblucency”, “On a Turquoise Cloud”, and “T.G.G.T.” merits consideration by scholars and performers alike; these artistically complex …

Stamping The Passport: University Of Kentucky Libraries As A Partner For Internationalization On Campus, Jennifer A. Bartlett, Jan Carver, Antoinette Paris Greider, Adrian K. Ho, Jennifer Richmond

Library Presentations

Each year the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences celebrates the cultural heritage of a country/region with its Passport to the World Program (PWP). The University of Kentucky Libraries International Programs has been an active contributor to PWP since 2010. We have coordinated liaison librarians’ collaboration with faculty from different departments to annotate and showcase relevant materials from the library’s collections in physical and online exhibits. We have also hosted lectures and movie screenings in which faculty introduce audiences to specific cultural features and practices.

Thanks to positive feedback and faculty recommendations, the library’s involvement in PWP went …