Ethnomusicology Commons^™

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 …

Gender, Politics, Market Segmentation, And Taste: Adult Contemporary Radio At The End Of The Twentieth Century, Saesha Senger

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This dissertation explores issues of gender politics, market segmentation, and taste through an examination of the contributions of several artists who have achieved Adult Contemporary (AC) chart success. The scope of the project is limited to a period when many artists who figured prominently in both the broader mainstream of American popular music and the more specific Adult Contemporary category were most commercially viable: from the mid-1980s through the 1990s. My contention is that, as gender politics and gendered social norms continued to change in the United States at this time, Adult Contemporary – the chart, the format, and the …

Syriac Chant And The Limits Of Modality, Sarah Bakker Kellogg

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

A book review is presented for Sense and Sadness: Syriac Chant in Aleppo, by Tala Jarjour. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. 250 pp. ISBN: 978-0-190-63525-1.

Building Brand Kurdistan: Helly Luv, The Gender Of Nationhood, And The War On Terror, Nicholas S. Glastonbury

Publications and Research

In the early 2000s, the Kurdistan Regional Government hired a US-based firm to begin a public relations campaign called “The Other Iraq.” Since that time, it has worked with a number of PR and lobbying firms to build a cultural, political, and financial apparatus that I refer to as Brand Kurdistan. This apparatus aims to prove to Western audiencesthat the Kurds are a liberal exception in an illiberal Middle East, and to build prospects of KRG’s eventual national independence. This article explores the connections between Brand Kurdistan and the gendering of Kurdish nationalism, focusing particularly on Kurdish pop diva Helly …

Mediating Gospel Singing: Audiovisual Recording And The Transformation Of Voice Among The Christian Lisu In Post-2000 Nujiang, China, Ying Diao

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The contemporary gospel singing of the Nujiang Lisu in China’s southwestern Yunnan province seems to have been predominated by new media technologies and recorded popular mutgguat ssat music. The prevalence of Christian audiovisual recordings reflects more than a shift in the materiality of Lisu religious practices. Moreover, it speaks to the transformative ways that the Christian Lisu have engaged with technologies for their gospel singing as a practice of religious mediation. New musical styles and expressive forms have been disseminated through recordings and further institutionalized in the worship service and other religious settings. Drawing on a material approach from the …

The Acoustics Of Justice: Music And Myth In Afro-Brazilian Congado, Genevieve E. Dempsey

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

For the Afro-Brazilian musicians of popular Catholicism, or Congadeiros, who live precariously on the urban and rural margins of Brazil, ritual undergirds their struggles for subsistence, spiritual fulfillment, and racial equality. When Congadeiros create ritual, they enter into a tradition begun in the seventeenth century in Brazil by their enslaved African and Afro-descendant ancestors who intoned songs of redemption. In keeping with their ancestors’ evocations of dignity during slavery, worshipers in the present day embed multiple kinds of vested interests within ritual festivity to achieve racial equality. This article explores Congado, the ceremonies of these disenfranchised musicians, to …

Music, Politics, And Sociality: Ethnic Tensions And The Performance Of Gikuyu Nationalism, Peter Njagi Mwangi

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This thesis examines how some selected Gikuyu popular music propagates ethnic tensions in Kenya by promoting Gikuyu nationalism at the expense of Kenyan nationalism. This music derives its themes from the historical period of the Mau Mau armed struggle against British colonists and connects this struggle with everyday experiences of the Gikuyu people. Memory and the performance of everyday life in this music solidifies the Gikuyu community as tied to a common destiny and distances other Kenyan communities from this destiny. The music consolidates Gikuyu ethnic nationalism and authenticates the position of the community as superior and a dominant force …

We Are One: Singing, Sisterhood, And Solidarity In Appleton-Area Women's Choirs, Lauren Vanderlinden

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Despite its relatively small population, the city of Appleton has a large and thriving women’s choir community. Between the Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir, which serves hundreds of girls every year, and Cantala, the women’s choir at Lawrence University, opportunities for involvement in nationally-recognized female-voice ensembles range from second grade all the way through to college graduation. Using the theories of Foucault, Bourdieu, Butler, Green, and Bentham, this project explores the women’s choir culture of Appleton in an attempt to discover the core values of these two influential programs. I accomplished this by conducting ethnographic research in the form …

The Healing Power Of Music And Chants Amongst The Ahl-E Haqq People, Azadeh Vatanpour

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis examines current practices of music and prayers in the context of Jam ritual among the Ahl-e Haqq, a vernacular religion group in Iranian Kurdistan. I examine the construction and sacralization of the sacred instrument of the Ahl-e Haqq, tanbūr. I also explore the sacred prayer, kalām, and the association of prayer and music. Through the ethnographic method, participant observations, and interviewing religious figures and master musicians during the fieldwork in Sahneh, Iran, I investigate the relation of the Ahl-e Haqq prayers and music, and their effect on healing during their sacred ritual performance. Drawing primarily on scholarship from …

Panorama Of Popular Haitian Music And Folklore, Jean Wilner S. St Jean

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Haitian music has been influenced by the people who lived on the island from the native before the Columbus discovered Haiti to the United States occupation. This country is rich in culture which has impacted by the Creole identity. The overview of the different kind of Haitian music by categories and subcategories from the beginning to now. The government, the religion, the social class, and population play an important role in the popularity and acceptance of certain music.

Individual Thought Patterns: Women In New York's Extreme Metal Music Scene, Joan M. Jocson-Singh

Theses and Dissertations

Extreme metal music (EMM) is both an umbrella term and a sub-category of heavy metal. Although women have a small but steady presence in heavy metal, this number shrinks when applied to the EMM scene. Using ethnographic research, participant-observation and interviews, this study surveys women in New York's EMM scene to address participation, gender performativity and feminist musicology.

War Of The Worlds: Music And Cosmological Battles In The Balinese Cremation Procession, Michael B. Bakan

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Abstract

This article explores processional action as a form of cosmological intervention in Hindu-Balinese cremation processions, focusing on the multiple and intersecting functions of a particular type of Balinese instrumental music ensemble: the gamelan beleganjur. It explores the alternately “enlivening and protective aspects” (DeVale 1990, 62) that underlie the use of beleganjur music in the ngaben, or cremation ritual, showing how beleganjur’s sonic power and rhythmic drive serve to combat malevolent spirit beings, strengthen and inspire processional participants in their efforts to meet challenging ritual obligations, and grant courage to the souls of deceased individuals embarking on their …

Music And The Migrant: A Transnational Account Of Cumbia, Irene L. Mekus

Audre Lorde Prize

This paper looks into the cultural synthesization and the transnational ties of cumbia between Latin America and the United States. Three case studies look at the story of migrants and their transnational ties through cumbia and are analyzed through an ethnomusicology framework.

The Future Of Arabic Music: No Sound Without Silence, Nesma Magdy Khodier Vcuq

Theses and Dissertations

For centuries, Arabic music has been intrinsically linked to Arab culture and by extension bonded to the environmental landscape of the region, reflecting their emotions, moods, and behaviors. Numerous technological advancements in the latter half of the twentieth century, have greatly affected the rich legacy of Arabic music, significantly impacting the natural progression of traditional Arabic musical genres, scales, and instrumentation.

This thesis serves as an introduction to generative methods of music production, specifically music generated through gestures. Through generative music, and its unique ability to map gestures to different musical parameters, music can be produced using computer algorithms.

The …

Rama, Raga And Rava: A Study On The Implicit Cultural Connections And Complementary Nature Of Music And Culinary Arts In India, Aaron Schwartz

e-Research: A Journal of Undergraduate Work

The relation between food and music is strong and readily apparent in the cultural traditions of India. The importance of the relation goes so far that relevance falls on what song the chef listens to while they prepare a meal, and what is being played while the meal is eaten. The musical pitch is intricately connected to the taste of the food, with bitter flavor represented by lower pitch and sweeter flavor represented by higher pitch. People will report experiencing different sensations upon reacting to identical food products, based on the music that accompanies that meal. The effect of this …

“Why Do You Sing To Me?”: A Case Study Of Form And Function Of Children's Songs In The Caribbean Diaspora Culture In South Florida, Finley Walker

Masters Theses

How does a child gain a musical identity? Music resides in the depths of personhood. Even before birth we are all touched by its power. Music is a language in that it communicates--thoughts, feelings, desires, information, and more. As children grow physically and mentally, they also grow musically. A person's musical development will be directly influenced by their culture and family. The following qualitative study looks at the form and function of children's songs, specifically children's songs from the diasporic Caribbean culture in South Florida. Twenty-one interviews, including 53 participants, were conducted to see how children's songs might play a …

“Bëggel Sa Réew :” Negotiating Contestation And Citizenship Through Hip Hop Production In Guédiawaye, Dakar, Dylan Mcdonnell

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Hip hop cultural production has flourished in Senegal since the early-1980s, especially in Dakar, the administrative and economic capital, since the early 1980s as both a medium of engagement with “global” flows of musical influence and a localized platform for socio-political and contestation and organization. In the past ten years, high-profile rap and hip hop personalities based in communities centered in the banlieues (the disfavored, often impoverished neighborhoods surrounding Dakar) have begun to realize formal structures of professionalization and education in the elements of “urban culture.” This paper focuses on research done at Guédiawaye Hip Hop Center and Association, an …

Adapting & Appropriating Art From Afar: Negotiating A Global Identity Through Popular Culture, A Study Of Salsa In The Senegalese Context, Elizabeth Bockenfeld

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The following study is essentially an attempt to explore cross-cultural exchange and the resulting (re)creation of different forms of cultural expression. In its broadest sense it aims to explore the quotidian, cultural sides of globalization. It takes for its focus the re-appropriation of salsa music in Dakar, Senegal. Through interviews and participant observation in a number of salsa venues, I explore the various meanings Senegalese salseros put into salsa music and dance. Senegalese salsa is rooted in a very concrete historical background, while also holding meaning for the present. In short, the appropriation of salsa into the Senegalese context serves …

Tibetan Guozhuang In Diqing Autonomous Prefecture: A Comparative Musical Analysis, Christina Du Breuil

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The song and dance traditions of the Tibetan peoples of Diqing Prefecture are numerous and varied. Of these traditions, Guozhuang is cited as one of the oldest and most centrally traditional pieces of folk heritage. However, Guozhuang varies even within Diqing Prefecture. This paper addresses the basic form and structure of Guozhuang as well as variations between Benzilan and Shangri-la Guozhuang, two places separated not only by geographical distance but also the encroachment of development on traditional culture.

Chapter 11, Songs In Intimacy And Community In A Changing World: Sikaiana Life 1980-1993, William Donner

Sikaiana Ethnography

A chapter on song composition and performance in the Sikaiana ethnography. Songs were an important part of Sikaiana life in 1980-1993. There were two major song types: songs composed in a traditional Polynesian style, and songs composed for the more recently introduced guitar.

A related website is www.sikaianaarchives.com

The Symbolic Creation Of Cultural Performance At The Walnut Valley Festival, Maggie Colleen Cobb

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Through two years of ethnographic fieldwork and 19 interviews, I synthesize symbolic interaction and a sociological framework of culture to examine the ways in which the Walnut Valley Festival is created and experienced as a unique form of cultural performance, one that is always shifting in response to the emergent cultural creation and reception of attendees. No work to date combines the dimensions of both production and reception of music festivals as a unique form of cultural performance. In bringing back the oftentimes ignored affective dimension in cultural studies, I use Griswold's (2004) metaphor of a cultural diamond, examining the …

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 …

Tabuhan Dalam Ensembel Muzik Membranofon Melayu Kelantan Dan Campa, Mohd Yuszaidy Mohd Yusoff

Student Works (2000-2009)

This thesis discusses the percussion instruments of the Malay communities of Kelantan and the Chams, which is based on patterns of rhythm. This thesis concentrates on analyzing the comparative patterns of rhythm. Two headed drums are referred to for a comparison of patterns of rhythm. The two headed drums in Cham communities are called ginang. These comparative studies will examine the cultural ties between the two communities namely the Malay of Kelantan and the Chams. The relationship between musical instruments and spirits is also explored in this thesis. For both communities, musical instruments and spirits are closely related. Percussion instruments …

Vol. 18 No. 3 (1995): Pacific Studies Full Issue, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Pacific Studies is published two times a year by The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies, Brigham Young University Hawai‘i #1979, 55–220 Kulanui Street, Lāʻie, Hawai‘i 96762, but responsibility for opinions expressed in the articles rests with the authors alone. Subscription rate is US$40.00 yearly, payable to The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies. The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies (formerly The Pacific Institute) is an organization funded by Brigham Young University Hawai‘i. The Center assists the University in meeting its cultural and educational goals by undertaking a program of teaching, research, and …

Contributors: Vol 18 No. 3, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Contributors list of Vol. 18 (1995): Pacific Studies Full Issue 3

Vol. 18 No. 3 (1995): Pacific Studies Front Matter, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Pacific Studies is published two times a year by The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies, Brigham Young University Hawai‘i #1979, 55–220 Kulanui Street, Lāʻie, Hawai‘i 96762, but responsibility for opinions expressed in the articles rests with the authors alone. Subscription rate is US$40.00 yearly, payable to The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies. The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies (formerly The Pacific Institute) is an organization funded by Brigham Young University Hawai‘i. The Center assists the University in meeting its cultural and educational goals by undertaking a program of teaching, research, and …

Books Received And Book Notices, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Book Listing for the Vol 18, No 3 Edition of the Pacific Studies Journal

Melanesian Music On Compact Disc: Some Significant Issues, Peter Russell Crowe

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Representing African Music, Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

Of all the currents of change that have swept the humanities during the last half-century, the most far-reaching revolve around language. Philosophy, history, and literary criticism, among other language-based disciplines, have developed what is often presented as a largely unprecedented self-consciousness about representation. The message to scholars in nonlanguage-based disciplines is clear: to be taken seriously, one can no longer view language as a transparent window to an objective reality but must confront the foundational political and ideological baggage of the medium itself, as well as its constant slippage in the hands of the producer.