Ethnomusicology Commons^™

Homage To Eleanora: A Musical Journey Through The Billie Holiday Songbook, Keith A. Dames

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Billie Holiday was a singer, songwriter, vocalist, bandleader and composer in the fields of music, black culture and more specifically the genre of jazz. The primary focus of this study is Billie Holiday’s discography, music, and compositions as treated in relation to the black culture of production. This study will explore a secondary content analysis of Billie Holiday’s music, musicianship, musicality and compositional skills within the American jazz mainstream, broader jazz audience and world at large. This project will take an analytical look at the structure and form of the compositions of Billie Holiday. Billie Holiday is credited with composing …

German And Mexican Music In Central Texas: Historical Connections And Present Possibilities, Amy Aline Beckman

Masters Theses

German and Mexican music have a shared musical ancestry due to immigrants interacting since the late 1800s in central Texas. Comparing these genres reveals both commonalities and distinctions regarding style, orchestration, and thematic material. The differences between the genres create cultural boundaries reflecting nationalism that sometimes reinforces racial tension, while the commonalities are opportunities for empathy and open-mindedness through the globalization that occurs from shared musical experiences. While the historical connections between Germans and Mexicans in Central Texas are well-documented, the present-day status and effects of these connections have not been researched thoroughly. This project builds cultural profiles of both …

All Roads Lead To Darrington: Building A Bluegrass Community In Western Washington, James W. Edgar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through the mid-twentieth century, a significant pattern of migration occurred between Appalachia and the Pacific Northwest, with Washington’s thriving timber industry offering compelling economic opportunities. Many workers and families from western North Carolina settled in the small mountain town of Darrington, Washington, frequently accompanied by their banjos and guitars. As a group of young bluegrass enthusiasts from Seattle established relationships with Darrington’s “Tar Heel” musicians, a collaborative music community formed, laying the foundation for the region’s contemporary bluegrass scene.

Drawn from a series of ethnographic interviews, this project illuminates the development of a bluegrass community in western Washington, while identifying …

Vatican Ii, Liberation Theology, And Vernacular Masses For The Family Of God In Central America, Bernard J. Gordillo

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The Second Vatican Council (1962–65) instituted reforms in the Catholic Church that included changes in language and music employed in the liturgy, inspiring a proliferation of sung vernacular masses throughout Latin America. Drawing on archival and ethnographic research undertaken in Nicaragua and the United States, this article examines three Central American vernacular masses—Misa típica panameña de San Miguelito (1967), Misa popular nicaragüense (1969), and Misa campesina nicaragüense (1975). Each mass emanated from communities founded as part of the transnational Familia de Dios (Family of God) movement, which established programs of religious education, leadership training, and community building among impoverished …

The King With The Vīṇā Flag – Perspectives Of Rāvaṇa In Film, Achintya Prahlad

Journal of Religion & Film

Rāvaṇa, the ten-headed Rākṣasa (‘demon’) king of the epic the Rāmāyaṇa, is the most fascinating of all the antagonists in films based on Hindu mythology, so powerful that even the Sun cannot rise without his orders, and celebrated as an unparalleled musician-scholar and great devotee of the god Śiva. His passion for the vīṇā, a string instrument with divine associations, is so great that this instrument adorns his royal flag as its emblem. His consciousness of his supreme powers and great knowledge soon gives way to ahaṅkāra (hubris) and lust, which leads to his eventual downfall and death at the …

Sacred Music In Colonial Era Hispaniola: The Evangelization Of The Taino People, Tito J. Gutierrez

Student Theses

During the 15th-18th centuries, the major European religious orders; the Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, and Jeronymites, journeyed to the newly colonized American territories in an attempt to convert the multitudes of natives peoples living there. Along with prayer books, crucifixes, and religious images, these missionaries brought sacred European music to American shores in an attempt to attract the native people to the Catholic faith.The use of music as a tool for conversion of native people in places such as Mexico, South America, California, and the South West United States, have been well researched and documented. However, the research of the spiritual …

Ja Rusyn Byl (I Am Rusyn): Household Folk Music As Resistance To Oppression, Spencer Mcneill

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

The Rusyns are a people indigenous to the Carpathian Mountains and its surrounding areas. Despite attempts by the Ukrainian government and surrounding nations to silently erase Rusyn culture from history, the Rusyn people have a distinct identity independent from that of any bordering nation. This unique identity is best outlined through Rusyn folk songs which depict pastoral images of the Carpathian homeland and patriotic tales of Rusyn ancestry. Much work to date has already been done documenting post Velvet Revolution revival of Rusyn culture. Because of this, I will instead focus on the lesser-known time prior and leading up to …

Songs Of The Sea And The Sailor: Demystifying The Mythology Of British Sailing Culture, Henry Strobel

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

Sea shanties have generally been accepted as the main relic of the culture of British sailors: a mythology that permeates the 19th and 20th century describing the harsh, unforgiving and yet in many ways romanticized life at sea. The repertoire of this time was eventually written down and catalogued by folk music collectors such as Cecil J. Sharp, who were hoping to record and preserve the British identity for generations to come. However, in researching the etymology of these songs as well as the first-hand accounts of sailors, there is a significantly greater layer of complexity to this history than …

Furthering Cultural Understanding Through Music, Sophia Abukamail

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project explores the role that music plays in fostering cultural understanding and equity by discussing the sociopolitical implications of musical collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli musicians. In order to do this, the paper will dive into the history of the conflict between Palestine and Israel, detail instances of musical collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli musicians, show how music is helping to bridge the divide between these two cultures, and examine the intentions and consequences of such collaborations as they relate to music, politics, and society. The purpose of this project is to investigate the ways that music can affect …

Talk This Way: A Look At The Historical Conversation Between Hip-Hop And Christianity, Joshua Swanson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Christianity and Hip-Hop culture are often said to be at odds with one another. One is said to promote a lifestyle of righteousness and love, while the other is said to promote drugs, violence, and pride. As a result, the public has portrayed these two institutions as conflicting with no willingness to resolve their perceived differences. This paper will argue that there has always been a healthy conversation between Hip-Hop and Christianity since Hip-Hop’s inception. Using sources like Hip-Hop lyrics, theologians, historians, autobiographies, sermons, and articles that range from Ma$e to Tipper Gore, this paper will look at the conversation …

Tearing Down The Wall: An Analysis Of Pink Floyd’S 1979 Rock Opera, Darla Testino

Backstage Pass

No abstract provided.

Current Efforts In Sustaining Peranakan Chinese Music In Melaka, Zin Guan Goh

Student Works (2020-2029)

Peranakan Chinese (Straits-born Chinese) music such as dondang sayang may not be a familiar folk music to the modernized Malaysian community, however, there are associations and organisations that thrived on to sustain the musical culture in Melaka. In the advanced influence of popular culture and modernity, efforts of sustaining local culture and Peranakan Chinese music becomes more challenging. Thus, this study aims to investigate the various efforts put on in sustaining the musical culture and its consequences in terms of authenticity in present Melaka. The past literatures reveal scholarship on Peranakan Chinese music in Malaysia came to a halt in …

Agency And Contemporary Recording Production, Eliot Bates

Publications and Research

Recording production is a complex, multistep, typically collaborative process that entails a shifting set of individuals inhabiting changing roles within spaces that house consider­ able amounts of specialized technology. As these roles and technologies feature promi­ nently in the aesthetics of Anglophone and Francophone popular music, they have been studied within such milieus for the longest period. This scholarship tends to understand the creative act as either the result of a prominent individual or something determined by the technologies used within studios. However, recent ethnomusicological scholarship has shown it is much more difficult to clearly situate agency within recording production, …

Williams, Michael Ann (Fa 459), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and interview transcriptions for Folklife Archives Project 459. Interviews related to Sarah Gertrude Knott and the National Folk Festival conducted by Michael Ann Williams and Hillary Glatt as part of a joint project for the Kentucky Oral History Commission and Western Kentucky University. The audio interviews did not come with this collection. Interview transcriptions may be accessed by clicking on the "Download" button to the right and then clicking on the hyperlinks in the finding aid.

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.

The Mighty Handful: The Effect Of Nationalistic Music On Post-War Russia, Ella Uren

Conspectus Borealis

No abstract provided.

Basque Radical Rock: The Punk Ethos In Basque Identity, Edurne Arostegui

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

This paper aims to chart the origins of the so-called Basque Radical Rock movement and its varied use by different social groups, from political organizations of the time to anarchist, marginalized youth needing to express the pessimistic view of their present circumstances. Basque Radical Rock represented a growing sense of modern Basqueness and difference that shaped the scene, moving away from pastoral images toward urban decadence. Although politics did influence the growth and spread of music throughout the Basque Country, many did not feel represented by these causes. The youth’s backlash against socio-economic conditions and their nihilistic view of the …

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 …

Fusiones Y Confusiones Del Concierto De Aranjuez En El Jazz: Reflexiones De Un Oyente, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Este artículo lo conforman una serie de reflexiones sobre Sketches of Spain (1960) de Miles Davis y Gil Evans, centrándose en su versión del Concierto de Aranjuez de Joaquín Rodrigo (1940). Inspirándose en los escritos de Edward Said y Homi K. Bhabha, el autor analiza la grabación como un artefacto cultural caracterizado por su “inestabilidad formal” y su “indefinición” o “condición intermedia” (in-betweenness) convirtiéndolo en un álbum que no es ni clásico ni jazz; ni español ni no-español; ni tradicionalista ni moderno, entre otras dualidades. Sketches es una obra de arte que desafía categorías y habita los intersticios de las …

Why Hip Hop Began In The Bronx- Lecture For C-Span, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.

Transformational Leadership: Flow, Resonance, And Social Change, Enas Elhanafi

The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs

No abstract provided.

South Africa As A Dynamic Teaching Experience, Robert A. Simons, Christine Dickinson

The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs

No abstract provided.

Jazz, Jobs, And Justice: From The American South To South Africa And Beyond, C. 1960-Present, Regennia N. Williams

The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs

No abstract provided.

Critical Review Of Break Beats In The Bronx: Rediscovering Hip-Hop’S Early Years, Corey Lionel Spencer

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.

“Native American Folk Song Suite”: A Study Of Traditional Native American Melodies, The Role Of Music In Native American Society, And Its Translation To The Modern Wind Ensemble, Preston Parker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Music holds a sacred place for the many Native American tribes of the United States. Over the past 150 years, ethnomusicologists Dr. Theodore Baker (1851-1934), Dr. Frances Densmore (1867-1957), and John Donald Robb (1892-1989) have preserved these songs by sitting down with indigenous Native Americans and recording their music straight from the source. Through these recordings, these ethnomusicologists created a springboard for composers, including myself, to study the past and create new music that honors the traditions and culture of Native Americans. I have applied my new knowledge of these musical techniques and traditions to create a work for wind …

Peace, Love, And Politics: How Woodstock Of 1969 Epitomized The Relationship Between Social Movements And Music, Jacklynn Ramsey

Politics Summer Fellows

This research analyzes the role that music plays in social movements in the United States, focusing on Woodstock of 1969 as a pivotal moment. By examining the 1969 Woodstock through an academic lens, I illustrate the intrinsic relationship that exists between music and politics, specifically through social movements. First, I explore the relationship that music and politics have had historically and extrapolate why they are interconnected. Then, I dissect two different movements, paralleling them from their roots to present day, analyzing the integral role that music has had in them. Those movements include the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives …

North Of Ourselves: Identity And Place In Jim Wayne Miller’S Poetry, Micah Mccrotty

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Jim Wayne Miller’s poetry examines how human history and topography join to create place. His work often incorporates images of land and ecology; it deliberately questions the delineation between place and self. This thesis explores how Miller presents images of water to describe the relationship between inhabitants and their location, both with the positive image of the spring and the negative image of the flood. Additionally, this thesis examines how the Brier, Miller’s most prominent persona character, grieves his separation from home and ultimately finds healing and reunification of the self through his return to the hills. In his poetry, …

La Preservación Y Evolución De La Música Tradicional Andina Y Una Modernización De La Identidad Indígena, Evan Tannenbaum

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La música es una componente clave de la cultura, y en los andes la música siempre ha constituido un gran identificador y definidor del espíritu indígena y autóctona. Pero la música no es estática: es un ser vivo que cambia en conjunto con la sociedad que se representa. Por lo tanto, por estudiar la música, podemos aprender sobre la cultura y como ha cambiado—como ha transformado, modernizando con una globalización de la identidad. Entonces, en esta investigación, exploro la música indígena en los andes, hablando con músicos y musicólogos, además de leyendo y estudiando sobre la música para aprender cómo …

Girl Groups In The Bronx: Race Gender And The Pursuit Of Respectability, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.

The Multiracial Bronx: A Unique Cultural Incubator In Post War America, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.