Music Commons^™

Chowtal Rang Bahar: A Treasury Of Chowtal Songs From India And The Caribbean, Ramnarine Sasenarine, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Bronx Soundscape: Reflections On The Multicultural Roots Of Hip Hop In Bronx Neighborhoods, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.

Lewis, Fred (Sc 1777), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1777. Musical scores for songs transcribed by Fred Lewis for the Hawaiian guitar.

North Indian Sufi Popular Music In The Age Of Hindu And Muslim Fundamentalism, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

A Documentation Of The Videography Process For Maintaining The Mountains: The Preservation Of Appalachian Music, Steven O. Middleton

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Caudill College of Humanities at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Steven 0. Middleton in May of 2008.

From Bulls To Music: Social, Religious, And Economic Aspects Of A Pilgrimage To Nuestra Señora, La Vírgen De Altagracia, Angelina Tallaj

Publications and Research

Every August 10th, about 800,000 pilgrims begin a five-day pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Virgin of Altagracia in Higüey, Dominican Republic. In this paper, I will show some interesting aspects of this pilgrimage’s economy that, while not unique to this pilgrimage, become much more tangible because of the presence of bulls as alms. I will continue, through the study of the music making and ritual, to show the role that music (and especially improvisation) plays in the social and devotional aspects of this pilgrimage. By examining the complex web of assumptions and expressions that contains the acts of music …

The Mass. Memories Road Show: Some Notes On Bridging And Bonding, Joanne M. Riley

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

Four years ago, the Mass. Studies Project at UMass Boston launched a cultural heritage project that we dubbed the “Mass. Memories Road Show,” a real-world mashup of PBS’s Antiques Road Show (people bring their personal stuff to a local event for professional perusal) and the Library of Congress’ American Memory Project (digitize historic stuff and share it with the world). Our ambitious goal was – and still is! – to visit each of the 351 communities in Massachusetts, inviting residents to bring in photographs that reflect themselves and their families in that community. At the public “Road Show” events, we …

Tonalidad, Tradición, Y El Sabor Del Son Cubano, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

A discussion of dual tonicity in Cuban popular music.

Scholarly Monographs On Rock Music: A Bibliographic Essay, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

Purpose This article is an overview of scholarly monographs on rock music from 1980 to the present. It provides an overview to the literature for practical purposes of collections development as well as giving the reader insight into key issues and trends related to a interdisciplinary topic that attracts scholars from many disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.

Design/methodology/approach This bibliographic essay, focusing on works related to American culture and of a general nature, includes an overview and historical background; a discussion of how music and ethnomusiciological scholars approach the topic; geographic approaches; literature on four key icons (Elvis, …

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Deconstructing The Corrido's Validity: The Transformation Of The Corrido Into The Narcocorrido, Wayne D. Meals

Theses & Dissertations

The classic corrido is a part of Mexican tradition and is woven into Mexico's rich cultural history. Listeners have endeared corridos for generations simply for the storytelling. They characterize small Mexican communities and their iconic heroes and represent the hope and courage that they must have in the face of injustice, oppression or danger. The protagonist in the corrido, commonly possessing the characteristics of Robin Hood, is a constant theme. This hero character also meets with an untimely death, usually the result of betrayal. The heightening of the element of conflict and violent death has transformed the classic corrido into …

Kaya Hip-Hop In Coastal Kenya: The Urban Poetry Of Ukoo Flani, Divinity Lashelle Barkley

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In the global world of the 21st Century, music is one of the few things that has the ability to cross physical as well as cultural borders, which is why my Independent Study Project (ISP) focuses on the role of hip-hop music in the youth culture in Kenya’s largest coastal city, Mombasa. Throughout history, music has proven its artistic power; inspiring people to resist oppression, challenge inequality, and even claim salvation.

This enduring characteristic of music is central to my ISP which explores the emergence of hip-hop in Kenya as well as the evolution of Ukoo Flani, one of the …

A Place In The World: Mh2o’S Construction Of A Peripheral Identity, Ryan Schutt

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Hip Hop and, more specifically, Rap music, has been a culture rooted in the notion of the social periphery, the section of society excluded from mainstream, capitalist, bourgeois society. It has historically been a way for this voiceless, disenfranchised, and alienated population to criticize, question, and protest its societal position. The Movimento do Hip-Hop Organizado uses this medium as a way of politicizing and mobilizing the excluded members of Brazilian society. Using Hip-Hop, the organization constructs a socially informed, politically aware, and critically conscious community that is united through their common identification with Hip-Hop culture and MH2O. The case is …

The Music Of Senegal: A Way Of Life In West Africa, Lucien Delabruere

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

“Music is in the veins and blood of the Senegalese people” (Bakayoko 2007). This paper aims to take a look into the reason for why this is. By examining the historical and present context of music in Senegal, one can better understand the social aspects of its music. In addition, analyses concerning the rhythmic and pedagogical importance will help provide a better picture for how we, as Westerners, can try to comprehend this rather undocumented subject.

The Music Of A Kalinga Peace-Pact Celebration: Making Place Through The Soundscape, Glenn Ress Stallsmith

Masters Theses

Music and place are two phenomena that have been objectified by researchers in the past. This thesis treats both as social processes created by subjects in local, specific contexts. The Kalinga peace pact system forms an intricate web of bilateral agreements between forty or more culture groups in the northern Philippines. Each agreement is celebrated when it is formed or when a peace pact holder from one group passes the responsibility on to his son. This thesis examines eight musical scenes at one peace pact ceremony celebrated in the Mangali culture area in April 2005. It analyzes the music performances …

Images And Lyrics: Representations Of African American Women In Blues Lyrics Written By Black Women, Danette Marie Pugh-Patton

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this thesis is to examine to what extent representations of double jeopardy and the stereotypical images of African American females: Mammy, Matriarch, Sapphire, and Strong Black Woman emerge in the blues lyrics of Alberta Hunter, Gertrude "Ma" Rainy, Memphis Minnie, and Victoria Spivey, using the theoretical framework of Black feminist rhetorical critique. The findings in this research entail several meanings regarding the lives of African American women during the 1920s and 1930s. Representations of racism, sexism, and classism also appear in the theme of relationships with various subthemes. The focus of this study is to explore the …

Mode, Melody, And Harmony In Traditional Afro-Cuban Music: From Africa To Cuba., Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Don Dance: An Expression Of Karen Nationalism, Heather Maclachlan

Department of Music Faculty Publications

How do Karen people define themselves as Karen? This question has particular import for one community in New York State—the Karen of Utica. The two hundred members of this group affirm their distinctiveness in part by celebrating a day that is special to Karen people worldwide. Since their arrival in Utica in 1999, every January they dance the don dance, a dance created and practiced only by Karen people. This article will discuss the performance of the don dance in another context: in a refugee camp in Southeast Asia, the dance functions to create and reinforce a particular ideal of …

Peace Through Music: Music And Multiculturalism In Fiji, Felice Carey

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The music of Fiji is as diverse as its population, and acts as both a mirror and catalyst to the culture. Indo-Fijians and indigenous Fijians have been the main players in Fiji’s multiculturalism, and are therefore focused upon. This paper explores the ways in which music is used to extol the benefits and cope with the problems of Fiji’s multiculturalism through cross-cultural listening (viewed from a perspective of radio) and fusion music. Fusion between Indo-Fijian and indigenous Fijian music is especially important – although extremely rare, it is in many ways a metaphor for attempts at racial reconciliation in Fiji.. …

The Riddim Method: Aesthetics, Practice, And Ownership In Jamaican Dancehall, Peter L. Manuel, Wayne Marshall

Publications and Research

The Jamaican system of recording and performance, from the 1950s to the present, constitutes a distinctive approach to notions of composition, originality and ownership. Emerging from a tradition of live performance practice mediated by (and informing) sound recordings, the relative autonomy of riddims and voicings in the Jamaican system challenges conventional ideas about the integrity of a song and the degree to which international copyright law applies to local conceptions, as enshrined in decades of practice, of musical materials as public domain. With the spread of the ‘riddim method’ to the sites of Jamaican mass migration, as evidenced by similar …

Structural Analysis Or Cultural Analysis? Competing Perspectives On The "Standard Pattern" Of West African Rhythm, Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

Polyrhythmic dance compositions from West Africa typically feature an ostinato bell pattern known as a time line. Timbrally distinct, asymmetrical in structure, and aurally prominent, time lines have drawn comment from scholars as keys to understanding African rhythm. This article focuses on the best known and most widely distributed of these, the so-called standard pattern, a seven-stroke figure spanning twelve eighth notes and disposed durationally as <2212221>. Observations about structure (including its internal dynamic, metrical potential, and rotational properties) are juxtaposed with a putative African-cultural understanding (inferred from the firm place of dance in the culture, patterns of verbal discourse, …

Summer 2006, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format. "The WMPG 'Zine"

A Country That Ain’T Really Belong To Me’: Dominicanyorks, Identity And Popular Music, Angelina Tallaj

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Saga Of A Song: Authorship And Ownership In The Case Of ‘Guantanamera’, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Flamenco In Focus: An Analysis Of A Performance Of Soleares, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Tan Dun's Eight Memories In Watercolor: Insights Into Performance, Zhen Zeng

Theses : Honours

"Shostakovich, as· a composer also living under a dictatorship, taught me to express deep humanity. From Takemitsu, I learned that Western and Eastern instruments can be part of the same color palette. John Cage led me to discover structures and sounds as yet unknown, by always keeping an open mind. I owe deepest thanks to these three composers, whose contributions to music have also helped me develop myself---as a composer from a·. traditional culture, growing up in a high-pressure society, living in a now international world." (Tan Dun) The global reach of Tan Dun's music reached its zenith recently at …

Thai Popular Music: The Representation Of National Identities And Ideologies Within A Culture In Transition, Lamnao Eamsa-Ard

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Thai popular music always reflects and reproduces the concerns of Thai people in changing times especially in regard to issues relating to identity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the preservation of Thai identity and the ideologies surrounding it and the adoption of Western innovation in Thai popular music. The issues surrounding the identity and ideology of Thais, such as class, gender and ethnicity are explored within the area of Thai popular music. I use ethnography as the major tool for gathering and analysing the research data. Using triangulated ethnographic techniques, involved in-depth interviews, focus …

Summer 2005, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Summer 2005

Three Violin Sonatas By Twentieth Century Mexican Composers: An Alternative To The Standard Violin Literature With Pedagogical Application, Martha Placeres

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The project "Three Violin Sonatas by Twentieth Century Mexican Composers: an Alternative to the Standard Violin Literature with Pedagogical Application" has as its objectives to introduce violin music by Mexican composers to the community of the Rio Grande Valley, to demonstrate how these works can become part of the standard violin repertoire, and to develop pedagogical strategies for teaching these pieces.

To start this project, it was necessary to choose and incorporate the following composers: Manuel Maria Ponce Cuellar because he is the most known and prolific composer in Mexico and also well-known around the world; Blas Galindo Dimas because …

Spring 2005, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format.