Not Just A Good Ole Boys Club: Studying The Personal, Performance, And Professional Roles Of Women In Bluegrass, Lydia Hamby

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates gender disparities in professional bluegrass music. Through a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative data from festival lineups and qualitative interviews with six professional female bluegrass musicians, this research provides a comprehensive view of gender dynamics in the industry. The quantitative analysis of eight major festivals in the Appalachian region reveals that women comprise on 8.87% of performers on average, indicating systemic exclusion. Qualitative data from interviews and participant observations at Blue Highway Fest explores the social and institutional practices that sustain these disparities, revealing roles such as the “singer girl” sex appeal, manager, and token female. This …

El Salvador’S Cultural Memory And María De Baratta’S Piano Music: Kushkatan, Nahualismo, And The Representation Of Indigeneity, Alejandro Jose Arroyo Alberto

Dissertations

Following independence from the Viceroyalty of New Spain between 1821 and 1823, the United Provinces of Central America entered a period of cultural redefinition, as emerging national frameworks sought to integrate diverse ethnic and historical legacies. After a century, in early twentieth-century El Salvador, a revival of Kushkatan—a pre-Hispanic Indigenous territory within present-day El Salvador—gained symbolic traction among intellectual elites during a politically volatile era marked by social upheaval and cultural realignment. Within this historical context, Cuzcatlán Típico (1951) by María de Baratta, published by the Ministry of Culture, stands as the first ethnomusicological study dedicated to Indigenous music in …

Beyond Just The Negros’ Art: Langston Hughes And The Poetic Renewal Of Black Musical Tradition, Samuel Adewumi

All Theses

Where do we begin the study of Black music in America? Is there even a beginning to it? As a poet, how does Langston Hughes contribute to its continuance during the Harlem Renaissance? These are some of the questions that shape the trajectory of this research. In it, I set a precedent for African orature in future studies of Black music in America. Essentially, I trace the survival of African orature and Langston Hughes’s role in the sustenance and utility of its style and themes in the early 20th century. Through it, I argue that Hughes’s poetry serves not as …

"All The Songs I Stole": Ballad Collection And The Conditions Of Collective-Making In Johnny Cash's Prison Concert-Albums, Camryn J. Bruce

All Theses

In the mid-to-late twentieth century, singer-songwriter Johnny Cash recorded and released three live prison concert-albums composed of many ballads and songs drawing upon a ballad tradition. I question the degree to which these albums, as performed and commercialized ballad collections, create realities of unity between Cash and his audiences. Reviewing three ballads for their aspects of balladry and performance, this thesis finds that Cash’s albums echo and make echoes of isolating conditions and possible collectivities, demonstrating a fragility of “folk” in the shifting scenes of music and prison.

“Death Leaves A Heartache No One Can Heal:” Musical Subversion In The Irish Caoineadh Tradition, Charissa Joy Garrigus

Graduate Thesis Collection

My thesis details the subversive, inherently feminine nature of Irish caoineadh (keening). This research focuses on how a practice with pagan, druidic roots survived in a culture that was experiencing intense religious and structural upheaval including the arrival of Protestant English settlers, tensions with the Catholic church, and longstanding pagan traditions. I contend that early modern Irish lament (caoineadh/keening) was inherently subversive due to its feminine liminality, its origins from druidic ritual, and its musical, poetic, and lyrical content that was often condemnatory of patriarchal Christian and English power structures. This thesis investigates three main topics occurring from ancient times …

Tuning Out The Dark: Music As A Defense And Folk Solution, Melanie Kimball

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Music across cultures and throughout history is a tool for engaging with the supernatural. It shares similarities with apotropaic magic. Through research and ethnographic fieldwork, I argued that even in modern times, individuals use music as an apotropaic remedy for fear and negative emotions. These remedies reflect strategies identified by Jeannie Thomas, including companionship, magical substance, neutralization, and displacement. Modern apotropaic music regulates emotions, re-establishes personal relationships, creates safe environments, and provides a means of control.

Contributors used music to combat various negative feelings, selecting genres that matched their emotional needs. In the absence of family and friends, music reaffirmed …

"Sunda Modern"; Gendered Modernity In Sundanese Performing Arts, Andrew N. Weintraub

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

In this article, I offer new ways of seeing and hearing Sundanese women singers in modern post-independence Indonesia. I propose a dynamic and historical approach to show how individual female singers shaped new material realities and symbolic meanings of modern Sundanese identity (Sunda modern) from the early 1950s through the mid-1970s. My approach emphasizes difference, uniqueness, and novelty in singers’ public image, on-stage presentation, vocal style, and musical repertoire. I contend that singers’ ability to branch out and cross over – by engaging the national (for example, singing in the national language) and the global (for example, Western-inflected …

Sundanese Performing Arts In The Us As Legacy Of The Center For World Music, Kathy Foley

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

Presentation of Sundanese arts in the US by non-Sundanese grew from a program of the Center for World Music (CWM), an incubator for Sundanese performing arts practice in the San Francisco Bay area in the 1970s. Those (both Sundanese and American) coming out of that encounter engaged in intercultural teaching and performance of music, dance, and wayang (puppet/human dance theatre) in the US in the then developing programs leading to a BA or graduate degree in ethnomusicology, dance, or theatre arts. Performances by Sundanese gamelan groups with American artists in and beyond the university also developed. While such groups persist, …

Antimelody, Field Recording, Gerakan Musik Eksperimental, Dan Hantu Baru Yang Menolak Hantu Lama Hauntology, Aris Setyawan

Multikultura

This article challenges the traditional definition of music, limited to seven fixed elements: melody, harmony, rhythm, pitch, tempo, dynamics, and texture. The author suggests that all sound can be considered 'sound art,' blurring lines between music and other auditory experiences. In Mark Fisher’s hauntology, modern music is depicted as stagnant, trapped in a neoliberal pastiche that cancels the future by repeating past styles without innovation. However, this article highlights alternatives through experimental music, such as the album ANTIMELODY (2024), which uses field recording to present raw environmental sounds, challenging conventional musical structures. Movements like Jogja Noise Bombing and experimental music …

Decolonizing Java: Rethinking Gamelan, Bodies, And Cultural Authenticity, Citra Aryandari

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This article critically examines the complex interactions between Javanese identity, colonial influence, and karawitan (traditional Javanese music) through an autoethnographic methodology. By introducing the innovative concept of the ‘body as archive,’ the research explores how embodied experiences function as repositories of cultural memory and resistance. It deconstructs colonial interventions in karawitan, uncovering how documentation, standardization, and systematic recording processes altered the transmission and cultural significance of the art form. The research traces the transition from oral traditions to written documentation, highlighting the commodification of Javanese artistic expressions and the emergence of cultural stereotypes. A central focus of this study …

University Band: April 30, 2025, Mack Wood, Colby Powers, Jenny Gehrke, Charlie Miller, Christopher Bulding, Kendra Chaney, David Lukaszczyk

School of Music Programs

Center for the Performing Arts

April 30, 2025

Wednesday Evening

8:00 p.m.

Spring Concert: April 27, 2025, Andrew Bruhn

School of Music Programs

Center for the Performing Arts

April 27, 2025

Sunday Afternoon

6:00 p.m.

Spring Concert: April 27, 2025, Mark Grizzard, Tim Fredstrom, Andrew Bruhn

School of Music Programs

Center for the Performing Arts

April 27, 2025

Sunday Afternoon

3:00 p.m.

Finding The Singing Spruce: Musical In-Strument Makers And Appalachia’S Mountain Forests, Tammera Tace

The Southeastern Librarian

Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2023 ISBN: 9781959000006 248 p. $26.99 (Pbk)

Killing The Buddha On The Appalachian Trail: Walking On Through Self-Doubt And Aging, Sidney Gavel

The Southeastern Librarian

John Turner Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2024 ISBN: 9780820367736 364 p. $29.95 (Pbk)

Wind Symphony: April 25, 2025, Anthony C. Marinello, Colby Powers, Wes Smith, Jennifer Budlong-Brewers

School of Music Programs

Center for the Performing Arts

April 25, 2025

Friday Evening

8:00 p.m.

Notes From The Field - Conference Proceedings, Summer Fellows 2024, Center For Latin American, Caribbean, And Latino Studies (Clacls)

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

CLACLS presents proceedings papers from the second CLACLS Summer Fellows Showcase Conference, held on November 7, 2024. The day-long event showcased fieldwork results of CLACLS 2024 Summer Fellows, and was curated into five panels: “Feminist and Queer Critical Perspectives”, “Transnational Exchanges/Diasporic Experiences”, “Ecocritical Lenses”, “Social Movements, Cultural and Economic Practices and Political Imagination", and "Countering State/Official Narratives.”

Olympia Hs Concert Band And Isu Symphonic Band: April 22, 2025, James Spencer, T.J. Mack, Colby Powers, Alexis Piña

School of Music Programs

Center for the Preforming Arts

April 22, 2025

Tuesday Evening

7:00 p.m.

“En Clave” Tania León And Roberto Sierra: Autochthonous Music Of Cuba And Puerto Rico, Contemporary Music Composition And The ‘Puente’ In Between, Omar A. Ramirez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This document is in two parts. The first examines selected works of Latin-American composers Tania León and Roberto Sierra. Both composers cite their cultural background as a force that shapes their artistic expression. Many of their works are titled in Spanish, with compositions referencing their homelands in subject and narrative, and incorporate the autochthonous music(s) of Cuba and Puerto Rico. Elements of these afrodiasporic musical traditions can be found in their works: Alegre, Batá, Stride, (León), Loiza, and Concerto for Viola (Sierra), each examined here.

Autochthonous musical elements are highlighted in score excerpts and described using …

Horizonte Fronterizo: The Vitality Of Community And Contemporary San Diego-Tijuana Border Art, Ruben L. Loza

Chicana and Chicano Studies ETDs

This research dedicates attention to different examples of music and visual art that encompass contemporary San Diego-Tijuana border-integrated art. By employing a participant-observer approach with the music component and conducting plática-based interviews with all involved artists, this work underlines the vitality of the artworks’ manipulation of the U.S.-Mexico border wall and community as a driving force in the elaboration and growing influence of these projects and pieces. By analyzing how these works act as vehicles for response, light is also cast on greater matters that lie beyond the border zone: propagation of fear, anti-immigrant sentiment, and misinformed anxieties.

26th Annual Isu Jazz Festival: April 11, 2025, Andy Martin

School of Music Programs

Center for the Performing Arts

April 11 and 12, 2025

Sobre El Arcoíris: The Queering Of Mariachi, Tyician Charles Knight

Music ETDs

Mariachi is an internationally renowned artform and tradition whose history spans over decades and several continents. However, there are many aspects still embedded in mariachi culture that remain problematic; machismo (toxic masculinity), alcoholism, and homophobia to name a few. While there has been an increase of mariachi scholars who have critically examined these issues, mariachi culture itself has yet to address the challenges brought forth by its history of gender discrimination and homophobia and embrace practical changes that would enable the creation of a more equitable environment and further develop this living tradition. This thesis analyzes the trajectory of queering …

Memory, Music, Manuscripts: The Ritual Dynamics Of Kōshiki In Japanese Sōtō Zen, Junko Oba

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

A book review is presented for Memory, Music, Manuscripts: The Ritual Dynamics of Kōshiki in Japanese Sōtō Zen, authored by Michaela Mross, by Junko Oba.

"Kol Mekadesh Shevi'i": A Liturgical Melody Sung At Home, Naomi Cohn Zentner

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

This article draws upon the unusual characteristics, origins and prevalence of the melody to the poem "Kol mekadesh shevii" [He who sanctifies the Seventh day] and discusses how it came to be recognized in the past seventy years as a signifier of Ashkenazi pre-Holocaust musical and religious culture and in particular as a sonic marker of liturgical sound, although it was sung at home. The Kol mekadesh melody came over time to represent two vastly different symbolic positions. As a melody adopted from non-Jewish sources bringing new, sometimes controversial sounds into the synagogue, and as a typical synagogal …

Defining A Filipino Vocal Habitus, Katherine Frances V. Molina

Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities Asia

Filipino Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) singers have gained a worldwide reputation for possessing a “beautiful voice.” Their success, however, is not simply a product of raw talent or vocal training but is rooted in a distinct habitus of singing, a set of learned and inherited musical instincts, technical tendencies, and expressive qualities. This essay aims to describe the elements that define a unique vocal habitus that nurtured Filipino CCM singers and that made them gain the worldwide reputation of having a beautiful voice. It states that the artistry is the result of centuries of musical evolution, combining indigenous practices, singing …

Civic Chorale: April 5, 2025, Macauley Allen, Tracy Marie Koch, Matthew Mancillas, Sidney Megeff, Olivia Schickel, Julia Smitendorf, Kristyn Szwajka

School of Music Programs

Center for the Performing Arts

April 5, 2025

Saturday Evening

6:00 p.m.

Creativity In Arts Organizations: Waterfire Providence Unites And Inspires, Tiana Degrace

Honors Projects in History, Literature, and the Arts

Community arts organizations serve as vibrant cultural hubs, uniting diverse networks and fostering creative expression through their dynamic administrative planning and management. This study examines the creative processes at WaterFire Providence, focusing on how administrative teams integrate creativity into their decision-making, and volunteer practices. Drawing from existing literature on arts organizations and music festivals, the research highlights the importance of spaces, audience engagement, and collaborative community involvement in event organizations. By analyzing the decision-making strategies that administrators employ across various stages of event planning and execution, this study sheds light on the interplay between creativity and organizational practices. Through qualitative …

Tradition And Transformation: The Changing Role Of Chestnuts In New England Contra Dance, Emilie Carroll

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

It is common knowledge that traditional music and dance are integral to many cultures, but we may not think of the traditions that shape our local community, such as the New England contra dance tradition. Contra dance is a form of folk dance brought by European settlers during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and like all living traditions, contra dance continues to change, yet its historical roots remain significant. In my research project, funded by a Research Experience and Apprenticeship Program grant from the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research, I studied a subset of older tunes called “chestnuts” which are …

Resonant Resistance: Music As A Tool Of Political Protest In Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Molly Davis

Indonesia: Arts, Religion, and Social Change

No abstract provided.

Examining Second-Grade Music Students’ Creativity And Agency During Game-Like Music Activities In Music Learning Centers, Hunter Knight Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to develop an understanding of my second-grade students’ creativity and agency in game-like music activities during peer-to-peer social interactions in music learning centers. Following were the guiding research questions for this study. During music learning centers: 1) How did students create game-like music activities, 2) What types of play did they demonstrate, 3) How did they describe their experiences, and 4) What music characteristics did they demonstrate? I collected data during three 50-minute second-grade music classes over the course of two weeks at St. Peter’s Catholic School (SPCS). I used the following data collection …