Music Commons^™

How Bebop Came To Be: The Early History Of Modern Jazz, Colin M. Messinger

Student Publications

Bebop, despite its rather short lifespan, would become a key influence for every style that came after it. Bebop’s effects on improvisation, group structure, and harmony would be felt throughout jazz for decades to come, and the best known musicians of the bebop era are still regarded as some of the finest jazz musicians to ever take the stage. But the characteristics of bebop can easily be determined from the music itself. [excerpt]

Sound As Artifact, Jeff Benjamin

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

A distinguishing feature of the discipline of archaeology is its reliance upon sensory dependant investigation. As perceived by all of the senses, the felt environment is a unique area of archaeological knowledge.

It is generally accepted that the emergence of industrial processes in the recent past has been accompanied by unprecedented sonic extremes. The work of environmental historians has provided ample evidence that the introduction of much of this unwanted sound, or "noise" was an area of contestation. More recent research in the history of sound has called for more nuanced distinctions than the noisy/quiet dichotomy. Acoustic archaeology tends to …

0802: Kay Wildman Collection, 1900-2006, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The Kay Wildman Collection explores the history of music in Huntington, WV. This collection consists of oral histories, photographs, newspaper clippings, and research materials. In most of the oral histories you will find a copy of the interview on a CD and a typed outline of the interview. A diary by Robert Grant, a member of numerous musical groups in Huntington, can also be found in this collection. This diary covers the period of time Grant was a student at Marshall University with some additional entries that go beyond that period of time.

Ronald Stevenson, Composer-Pianist : An Exegetical Critique From A Pianistic Perspective, Mark Gasser

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This exegetical critique makes a conceptual summation of Ronald Stevenson’s life’s work for the piano and his contributions as a composer‐pianist. Chapters one and two provide a profile of Stevenson as a pianist, examining the aesthetic and musical concerns that defined his long career, as well as precedents and antecedents of his pianism. Of particular interest are the ways that Stevenson coalesces aspects of the ‘grand manner’ and his obsession with a pianistic bel canto style. Chapter three examines Stevenson’s remarkable output in terms of piano transcriptions. His conceptualization of this as ‘capturing the essence’ of the original composer is …

The Development Of Attentional Skill In A Rapid Serial Visual Presentation Task: Effects Of Extended Practice On The ‘Attentional Blink’, Greg Simmons

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Undergraduate Seminar On Irish Musical Culture In Ireland And The Irish Diaspora In America, Including The Influence Of Irish Music On Appalachian Folk Music Culture, Frieda Eakins

Masters Theses

The following project establishes a concise, yet multifaceted design for a seminar on Irish musical culture. While it was initially developed as a course for its author to teach in the undergraduate, on-ground classroom, this project provides a framework adaptable enough for use by other instructors and/or for additional music seminars. This project is unique in its two-fold purpose in that the design and resources are directed to assist the instructor with streamlining course curriculum preparation, while the course content specific to the project when utilized offers students in the undergraduate college classroom a better understanding of Irish musical culture …

Hopkin, Rachel Claire (Fa 586), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding Aid and full text paper (Click on "Additional File" below) for Folklife Archives Project 586. Independent study project conducted by Rachel Hopkin on George R. Gibson, a banjo player from eastern Kentucky. The project, contained on two DVDs, includes photos, audio interviews and transcripts, a paper, bibliography, and field notes. Participating in the interview are Gibson and musicians John W. Haywood and Kevin C. Howard, who describe Gibson’s influence on them. This project was executed for the folk studies program at Western Kentucky University.

Hast, Louis H., Sr., 1827-1890 (Sc 2588), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2588. Bound volume of selected works, short biography, and miscellaneous items and tributes to Louis H. Hast, Sr., Louisville, Kentucky. This volume was compiled by his daughter Emma Wilder Hast, and presented to the Filson Club by Lisette Hast, both of Louisville, Kentucky.

Teel, Jacob, 1777-1835 (Sc 20), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 20. Two manuscript music books written by Jacob Teel of Allen County, Kentucky, a Methodist minister And a music teacher; and a biographical sketch of Teel, which includes Napier family information, written by Johncy W. Weldon in 1933.

Fun With Civil War Sheet Music, Emily A. Francisco

Blogging the Library

One project I haven’t blogged too much about yet is the Civil War Sheet Music exhibit for the Main Floor. Initially, Meggan only asked me to come up with a tentative list of pieces to display from the resources available; now, though, I’m finding myself assigned to the task of organizing, mounting, and labeling the exhibit. It’s a cool assignment, because it’s so different from everything else I’ve been working on this summer. [excerpt]

Strahm, Franz Joseph, 1867-1941 (Sc 474), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 474. Postcard and letter written by Franz Joseph Strahm, while on a visit to Germany, to Walter Pearce, Bowling Green, Kentucky. The picture post card is of Strahm’s birthplace, and the letter concerns opera in Germany. Includes two cards of Pearce showing the grades he received in Strahm’s music classes at Western Kentucky State Teachers College, Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Nelson, James S. (Fa 161), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 161. This collection contains a master’s thesis entitled “Hillbilly Music and Early Live Radio Programming In Bowling Green and Glasgow, Kentucky: Country Music as a Local Phenomenon,” written by James Nelson in January 1994 for the department of Modern Languages and Intercultural Studies at Western Kentucky University. Also included is a cassette tape of old-time music from south central Kentucky entitled “Railroad Through the Smoky Mountains,” by Jim Bowles, as well as an obituary for Jonell F. Simunick.

Strahm, Franz Joseph, 1867-1941 (Sc 454), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 454. Four letters from Franz Joseph Strahm, professor of music, Western Kentucky University, and his secretary to Virginia Helm regarding concerts, piano lessons, and musical compositions. Also one from Alice Strahm in 1950, and a photograph of Strahm at the piano.

Pain, William (Sc 425), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 425. Original and typescript copy of a ballad, “Lovly Molie,” composed by William Pain, Logan County, Kentucky.

Travelstead, Nelle (Gooch), 1888-1974 (Sc 621), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 621. Letter from Nelle (Gooch) Travelstead, Bowling Green, Kentucky, to Mrs. Joe Bryant Helm, Smiths Grove, Warren County, Kentucky, thanking her for coming to Bowling Green to play the piano for events.

Civil War, 1861-1865 - Songs (Sc 418), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 418. Holographic copy of the words of a Confederate song entitled “The Southern Wagon.” The song was composed during the Civil War as a parody of the song “Wait for the Wagon.” Author is unknown.

Advertisements; 2012-05-20, The Royal Serenaders Male Chorus

Advertisements for Events

No abstract provided.

The Spirit Of Triumph, James Anderson Depreist: The Life, Career And Music Of An American Conductor, Darryl Eric Harris Sr.

Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to present an organized account of the life, career and music of this prominent American symphonic conductor. James Anderson DePreist is an African American conductor/composer, educator and spokesman for the Americans with Disabilities who has achieved prominence in the symphonic field while overcoming many obstacles, both physical and social. In addition to having have conducted orchestras all over the world, this maternal nephew of famed contralto Marian Anderson is best known as the arranger/composer of Theme For The Cosby Show, the 1988–1989 season, as recorded by the Oregon Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to a …

Ua68 Arts & Letters :The Magazine Of Potter College At Western Kentucky University, Karen Schneider, Editor-In-Chief, David Lee, Dean

PCAL Publications

No abstract provided.

Agencies At War: Marshaling Places, Objects, And Sonorities In The Alta California Missions, Naomi R. Sussman

History Honors Projects

1769, Spanish Franciscan Junípero Serra initiated the missionization of Alta California. To transform California into a Spanish territory, Franciscan missions evangelized indigenous peoples. While traditional Alta California mission histories emphasize either Franciscan abuses or saintliness, reifying Native American subordination, most contemporary scholarship accentuates mutual hybridization but minimizes colonial power dynamics. Through archival and secondary research, this thesis argues that spatial interplay expressed neither syncretization nor unadulterated domination, but instead competing agencies within a physical and social “contact zone.” In this Alta Californian “contact zone,” material and sonic culture reinforced the continuous struggle for authority in the missions.

News - Georgia State University, Christian J. Steinmetz

Georgia Library Quarterly

A summary of news from Georgia State University Library. Includes 3 appointments, description of 2 travelling exhibits and a paragraph about a co-sponsored concert featuring the music of Johnny Mercer.

Shakers (Sc 358), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 358. Typed copy of letter written by Urban E. Johns, South Union, Kentucky, to Honorable McLean, Washington, D.C., regarding sheep husbandry in Logan County and South Union; a hymn (with words and music); reward certificates given to deserving pupils by teachers; and a list of members of the Brick House and the Square House, Union Village, Ohio, during the 1837-1867 period.

Shakers - South Union, Kentucky (Sc 357), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 357. Letters and postcard, 1893-1922 (3); words (2) and words and music to Shaker hymns (3); undated receipts (3); and notes about the Shakers compiled by Pauline Smith, Bowling Green, Kentucky, for a speech.

Strahm, Franz Joseph, 1867-1941 (Sc 258), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Mansucripts Small Collection 258. Letter written by Franz Joseph Strahm, music department faculty member, Western Kentucky State Teachers College, Bowling Green, Kentucky, to Mrs. Joe Bryant Helm, Smiths Grove, Warren County, Kentucky, declining an opportunity to play the piano in Louisville owing to his ill health.

Carpenter, Tom W. (Sc 247), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 247. Letter, 15 February 1895, to Mrs. Nellie Thomas, Bowling Green, Kentucky from Tom W. Carpenter, treasurer of the Methodist church, related to her $1.00 subscription for liquidating the indebtedness of the church and parsonage. Letter sent in Carpenter’s business envelope identifying him as an agent for various manufacturers of pianos and organs.

Essays (Sc 245), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 245. An essay by an unknown writer concerning the progress of musical education in this country compared to that in portions of Germany.

Taft, Ann Celine (Fa 49), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 49. Oral history interview with The Straightway Gospel Singers from Gallatin, Tennessee conducted by Ann Celine Taft for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Subsequent paper titled "The Straightway Gospel Singers" also included.

Autobiographical Sketch Of A Group Based Musician (Fa 48), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 48. “Autobiographical Sketch of a Group Based Musician,” a paper and interview executed for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Author chose to remain anonymous.

"Spectacular Opacities": The Hyers Sisters' Performances Of Respectability And Resistance, Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

This essay analyzes the Hyers Sisters, a Reconstruction-era African American sister act, and their radical efforts to transcend social limits of gender, class, and race in their early concert careers and three major productions, Out of Bondage and Peculiar Sam, or The Underground Railroad, two slavery-to-freedom epics, and Urlina, the African Princess, the first known African American play set in Africa. At a time when serious, realistic roles and romantic plotlines featuring black actors were nearly nonexistent due to the country’s appetite for stereotypical caricatures, the Hyers Sisters used gender passing to perform opposite one another as heterosexual lovers in …

Race, Hegemony, And The Birth Of Rock & Roll, Paul Linden

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

The Blues Had a Baby and They Named it Rock & Roll

On his Grammy winning album, Hard Again, McKinley Morganfield (a.k.a. “Muddy Waters”) sings his song The Blues Had a Baby and They Named it Rock & Roll.1 What are the racial and social implications of this rebirth? In this study, I will argue that the cultural context during the birth of Rock & Roll was such that Blues music had to be “reborn” in order to enter into the predominantly white mainstream. From the perspective of a Blues musician, Morganfield’s use of the idea of rebirth is a …