Digital Commons Network^™

A Conductor’S Guide To Lucrecia Roces Kasilag’S Misang Pilipino (1965), Denise Ysabel Ellis

Theses and Dissertations

Composer Lucrecia Roces Kasilag (1918-2008) is a National Artist for the Philippines and a UNESCO International Artist of the World. Though she has many more accolades and triumphs to note, both national and international, Kasilag is not well known outside of her native Philippines. One factor that obscures this composer from the world is that much of her work is unpublished, as are other historical Filipino composers’ works.

Kasilag composed her first Misang Pilipino in 1965 to commemorate the 400^th year of Christianization in the Philippines, but multiple editions of the work were written and used for different occasions. …

Appalachian Dreams: Traditional Folk Songs In Concert Literature For Classical Guitar, Jackson Douglas Roberson

Theses and Dissertations

Transcriptions and arrangements of works for other instruments make up a substantial portion of the concert literature for the classical guitar. Additionally, the classical guitar’s connections with folk music traditions from around the world are undeniable. While much of the folk-inspired repertoire for guitar engages with the musical traditions of Spain and Latin America, this document will examine a work for solo guitar that uses traditional Appalachian folk music as source material: John Duarte’s Appalachian Dreams.

Appalachian folk music is a primarily oral tradition, and documentation of the music did not appear until the late nineteenth century. This project …

Global Sounds: Uncovering Music From Popular Refugees As A Space For Counternarratives, Henrique Villela

Theses and Dissertations

As episodes of mass displacement become the subject of worldwide headlines, the news media discourse on refugees seems often to reduce the refugee experience to either depictions of helpless victims or threatening foreigners. However, dynamic media such as music can prove a useful avenue through which refugeeism may be creatively discussed in a new light. Utilizing a counternarrative lens, this thesis presents a textual analysis of music albums from K’naan, M.I.A., and Wyclef Jean, prominent refugee musicians who utilize global expressions of rap to address refugee experiences. Through both points of shared realities and individual perspectives, these artists engage in …

Does Gender Matter? Gendered Relations In The Recording Studios, Diane Wong

Theses and Dissertations

Only 8.6% of all recording engineers currently employed in the United States are women. To understand the influence of a woman’s gender in their recording career, this study presents their experiences from multiple angles – the recording studio business, women engineers’ obstacles, the recording education pipeline, and diversity and inclusion in the industry.

Como Lo Recuerdo: A Remembrance Of Mexican Folk Songs From Our Residents’ Hearts, Arturo Treviño Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Educators today face the challenge of finding either the individual in the community or the community in the individual. This study applies Jeff Titon's idea on communities as musical ecosystems to explore the sustainability of John A. Lomax's April 1939 Southern Collection field recordings, examining how and where these musical works exist in Brownsville, Texas today and investigating the meanings of these Mexican folk songs to Rio Grande Valley community members. In this work, I put the Lomax song collection in greater cultural, historical, and musical context, and argue that the songs can assist Rio Grande Valley individuals in both …

Adapting North American Fiddle Bow Technique To The Double Bass, Spencer Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

Because of the pioneering work of Edgar Meyer in expanding the role of the double bass in American folk music, many bassists are inspired to engage with fiddle music in the way fiddlers do. Thus, bassists who perform in fiddle and string band traditions may seek greater artistic freedom and expression by shifting between a variety of accompanying textures to playing melody and improvised bowed solos.

In seeking to discover how bassists successfully adapt fiddle bowing techniques to the double bass, I have interviewed two bassists who are deeply involved in Americana music traditions, Paul Kowert and Ethan Jodziewicz. From …

“Started From The Bottom”: The Ascension Of Hip-Hop As A Sonic Art Form, Benjamin Nile Stewart

Theses and Dissertations

For over four decades, hip-hop has been a part of the American soundscape, drawing from influences of jazz, rhythm and blues, disco, etc. Hip-hop is one of the cultural bridges between African Americans and the world. This paper will focus on the artists, culture and its ascent to high art.

El Guitarrista Y Sus Cambios De Codigos: Cruzando Fronteras Musicales [The Guitarist And Code-Switching: Crossing Musical Borders], Hector Manuel Aguilar

Theses and Dissertations

The guitar in border towns has links to many musical cultures that vary in their ways of being due to the customs of the specific space. Individual guitarists learn how to navigate the different environments because they understand the etiquettes needed to belong and participate in the musical circles.

In this autoethnographic work, I explore the various musical spaces that I have participated in through my musical journey growing up in Brownsville, Texas, to understand further how the individual musician embodies the style of music s/he performs. As a primary data source for my work, I use the experiences that …

Mariachi Programs At The University Level: Investigating Eurocentric Stereotypes, Clyde M. Guerra

Theses and Dissertations

The number of mariachi programs at the high school level continues to grow in the Rio Grande Valley and beyond. However, degree-granting mariachi programs are virtually nonexistent at the university level. The established university music education system and its implementation of classical techniques and styles encourages mariachi violinists to adapt to classical violin teachings. Because mariachi violinists may lack what is considered “formal” training prior to attending a university, they may experience a disadvantage in relationship to classically trained violinists. In this research, I will investigate the perceived attitudes that exist towards mariachi violinists, and the conditions under which they …

On Displacement And Music: Embodiments Of Contemporary Nubian Music In The Nubian Resettlements, Fayrouz Kaddal

Theses and Dissertations

Between 1961-1964, an estimated number of 113’000 Nubians, who were living south of the site of the Aswan High Dam, the area now beneath Lake Nasser, and Wadi Halfa, north of Sudan, were displaced to an area near Kom Ombo, 20 kilometres away from the Nile and 50 kilometres north of Aswan. This major project of resettlement occurred for the construction of the Aswan High Dam, Nasser’s signature mega-project. The 1961-1964 displacement was the culmination of earlier waves of relocation that Nubians witnessed during their recent history. In 1902 the British constructed the Aswan (lower) Dam by the first cataract …

A Roda De Choro In New York City: The Regional De Ny In A Global Imagined Community, Maurice Restrepo

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates two pillars of the NYC choro community: The Regional de NY and their roda de choro. It situates the group within a global community for whom choro has materialized a shared identity, explores instruments and their agency, and presents cultural themes and aesthetic priorities as conceptualized by the ensemble’s members.

Language Archive Records: Interoperability Of Referencing Practices And Metadata Models, Hugh J. Paterson Iii

Theses and Dissertations

With the rise of the digital language archive and the plethora of referenceable content, a critical question arises: “How easy is it for authors to use existing tools to cite the content they are referencing?” This is especially important as people use archived materials as evidence within published language descriptions.

Archived resource metadata is well discussed in language documentation circles; however, bibliographic metadata and its accessibility are less discussed. Discoverability metadata, a subset of archived resource metadata, serves aggregators like OLAC by declaring a resource exists. In contrast, bibliographic metadata functions within documents by declaring where to find a resource …

Teach Them To Groove : Jazz Pedagogy Strategies In Undergraduate Multi-Percussion, Rachel Agan

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Stylistic Analysis Of Edvard Grieg’S Slåtter, Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72, Zhiyuan He

Theses and Dissertations

Slåtter, Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72 is a composition for solo piano by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907). This set is one of his greatest contributions to piano literature, and shows his attempt to bring the traditional folk music to the rest of the world. The object of this study is to aid musicians toward a better understanding of Slåtter through a stylistic analysis of the work. The study includes historical information about the composer and his connection with nationalism in Northern Europe, and conveys how Slåtter can be considered a culminating work representing traditional Norwegian style characteristics.

The document …

The Alphorn In North America: “Blown Yodeling” Within A Transnational Community, Maureen E. Kelly

Theses and Dissertations

Musicians in North America have adopted the alphorn as a tool that builds community, enhances musical training, and interprets the Swiss tradition for a new generation. Meaningful combinations of experiences and identities combine to create a robust relationship and kinship among alphorn players in an intentionally international community.

Place-Making Through Performance: Spoken Word Poetry And The Reclamation Of “Chocolate City”, Tiffany Marquise Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Predominantly situated in an area formerly known as Black Broadway, my research is based on long-term immersion in the District’s network of Spoken Word poetry and poets. Specifically, I focus on two key sites that offer contrasting depictions of open mic culture: Busboys and Poets, a D.C.-based chain located in several well-known neighborhoods undergoing gentrification, and SpitDat D.C., a grassroots (and often displaced) movement known as the area’s longest running open mic series. At these venues, many artists – especially native and long-term residents of the area – illustrate the Black experience along with a fascinating correlation between place, performer, …

Time Machine Research And Approach, Tarek Bouraque

Theses and Dissertations

Time Machine is a hybrid documentary that explores the logics of enslavement, colonialism, eurocentrism and their interconnectedness in our globalized world. Mustapha Azemmouri, born in 1502, undertakes a journey to the 21st century to recount his own story of enslavement and exploration, and reflects on a collective puzzle of 500 years of hidden history.

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

Theses and Dissertations

"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 …

Guia Prático, Álbuns Para Piano By Heitor Villa-Lobos: A List Of Piano Pieces By Level Of Difficulty With Stylistic Annotations, Verena Benchimol Abufaiad

Theses and Dissertations

The Guia Prático, Álbuns Para Piano is a collection of fifty-nine piano pieces distributed in eleven albums that reveals not only the active role played by Heitor Villa- Lobos in music education in Brazil during the 1930s and 1940s, but also his unique compositional style. The purpose of this study is to provide a list of the fifty-nine piano pieces of the Guia Prático, Álbuns Para Piano by level of difficulty and with stylistic annotations. This study is also intended to equip piano teachers with information so they can practice informed pedagogy with their students and to expose students to …

Music, Dance, And Tourism In Los Cabos, Mexico, Melanie E. Davis

Theses and Dissertations

For a thriving music and dance scene to flourish in tourist destinations, certain factors for performers must be present including economic stability, a baseline level of patronage, resilience to seasonal tourist fluctuations, and adaptation to demographic changes over time. In the Los Cabos arts community, local aesthetics are transformed and embodied by work of performers whose activities are multicultural and multilingual. Over the past fifty years, Los Cabos was transformed from a sleepy fishing village into a major international destination. The island-inspired arts scene includes live performances featuring cultural representations from other lands besides Mexico. Grounded in the humanities, I …

Tracing The Genesis Of The English Requiem Through Selected Works, V. Dwight Dockery, Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This document investigates the “English Requiem,” coined by the present author as a subgenre of the broader compositional genre of the Requiem. This subgenre demonstrates certain characteristics including grandeur in scale, implementation of non- standard religious text(s), especially the English Burial Service, and/or the utilization of (often secular) English poetry. The subgenre’s genesis is found in English composers’ response to the dead from the First World War (1914-1918), which coincided with the English Musical Renaissance of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The purpose of this document is to provide a clear understanding of the development of the English Requiem within …

An Examination Of Lukas Ligeti’S Thinking Songs: An Analysis Of Compositional Techniques For Ligeti’S Contemporary Solo Marimba Composition, Caitlin Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Thinking Songs by Lukas Ligeti is a contemporary solo five-octave marimba work containing five movements. Thinking Songs is expansive in terms of length, content, and marimba technique. This study explores compositional influences throughout the piece and unveils influences in both Western Classical music and African music. This document contains seven chapters and a bibliography. Each movement unveils unique compositional influences that will be explored. Movement One, “Dance,” reveals the music of the Chopi people and timbila xylophones to be a compositional influence. The standard lamento bass line, as well as György Kurtág are stylistic influences in movement II, “Lamento.” Movement …

Studies Of Musical Borrowing: Borrowing As Compositional Tool In Béla Bartók's Second Piano Concerto And The Influence Of Luciano Berio On The Grateful Dead's Approach To Live Improvisation, Michael J. Crowley

Theses and Dissertations

J. Peter Burkholder’s typology of musical borrowing provides new ways of thinking about and understanding how composers and musicians incorporated influential ideas into their own compositions. This paper explores two cases of musical borrowing in order to gain a deeper understanding of the compositional styles of the chosen subjects. In the first study, I explore Béla Bartók’s use of Paraphrase, Modeling and Stylistic Allusion in his Second Piano Concerto, demonstrating how Bartók used borrowing as a compositional tool to develop his own innovative ideas. In the second study, I investigate how Luciano Berio’s compositional style influenced the Grateful Dead’s approach …

Exploring The Standard: A Look Into Modern Voice And Speech Curriculum, Taylor L. Bosta

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the current state of voice and speech education to discover if there is a standard of learning from university to university. By examining the history of voice and speech, discovering basic skills, breaking down teaching methodologies, and taking a look at current university and conservatory acting programs, the thesis discovers there is not a standard way of teaching, but there is a standard set of skills that should be upheld when planning voice and speech curriculum.

American Kathaks: Embodying Memory And Tradition In New Contexts, Anisha Muni

Theses and Dissertations

Kathak, a classical Indian dance, is practiced in the US by hundreds of practitioners. Through ethnographic research, this study asks how nostalgia, authenticity, tradition, and gender meet in the collective Kathak memory, examining what the study and performance of the dance symbolizes within American contexts.

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 …

Capturing The Ephemeral, Caroline L. J. Matteson

Theses and Dissertations

Music, it has been shown, has the potential to both create social cohesion and encourage conflict resolution (Koelsch, Offermanns, & Franzke, 2010). In a city with deep roots in slavery, music may be more powerful than language or the toppling of monuments to help create a cultural identity that every demographic can fit. Not only can music improve mood in an individual, but musical contagion affects large groups at once. Creating a space to equalize access to and share the experience of music—both making and appreciation—would give the city an opportunity for reconciliation and community bonding.

While a universal quality …

Analyzing And Comparing Selected Works For Violin And Piano By Chen Gang, Chen Guoquan And Bright Sheng, Liangjun Zou

Theses and Dissertations

Cross-cultural musical synthesis plays an important role in the creation of musical progress in the twentieth century. This dissertation is a study on the development of the use of Chinese folk elements in Western-style compositions by Chinese composers. Through analyses of different compositions by traditional Chinese composers, Chen Gang and Chen GuoQuan, as well as Chinese-born American composer Bright Sheng, the aesthetic variations produced by the synthesis of Western and Eastern music is examined.

Chapter One focuses on the development of Chinese violin music promoted by the efforts of several generations of composers. Chapter Two presents the background information of …

Evaluative Study Of Jazz History Courses At The Collegiate Level, Charles Lawrence Bergeron

Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to compare quantitative information concerning jazz history courses being taught in schools of music across America. The secondary purpose of the study was to solicit and analyze opinions from experienced jazz history instructors regarding the place and importance of these courses in college curricula. Curricula in use in university music programs that offer bachelor’s degrees in jazz studies must be evaluated regarding the content and relevance of subject matter presented in jazz history classes.

Questions concerning the number of semesters required to teach a continually increasing amount of material were paramount to this …

The Impact Of Hip-Hop Culture On Freshman Student Identity, David Shanks

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation is to explore the impact that hip-hop has on the identity of freshman students at Rowan University during the spring 2017 semester. The survey questions were geared toward answering the primary focus. The survey has 34 items, the first five questions were used to collect demographic information from the students including Gender, GPA, Ethnicity, Class rank, and Age. The next 29 questions divided into three factor groupings, these groups were used to investigate the identity of select freshman, what students believe about their knowledge of hip-hop culture, how committed these students are to hip-hop culture, …