Ethnomusicology Commons^™

A Study Abroad Immersion And Reflection Of American Liberal Arts Students In Cyprus, Mark Reimer, Yiannis Miralis

Journal of Global Awareness

Ensemble tours abroad, with a liberal arts focus, provide a rich, unique, and highly educational opportunity to make music while experiencing the history, people, language, and culture of another country. Pre-tour preparation, however, requires research and a trusted relationship between the director and the host to ensure that the musicians in both countries enjoy the same degree of excitement and desire to learn from one another. The following article is research that was conducted for an American college wind ensemble tour to Cyprus. In addition to reviewing several books and journals, the authors listened to hours of classical, folk, and …

The Vagina Dentata: A Case For Unlocking Mouths, Loosing Hips, And Spreading The Gospel Of Healing Women's Sexual Performance Anxiety, Alisha Lola Jones

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

This article explores how vagina dentata folklore—stories and imagery about a mythical "toothed vagina"—connects to the ways Black religious communities often cultivate silence around women’s sexual lives, particularly within the “Worth the Wait” and Word of Faith movements. Ignited by womanist religious ethnographer Monique Moultrie’s scholarship on sexual silence in these movement, I take seriously the musicological chasm by exploring how these ministries influence Black women’s sexual agency and moral decision-making through inequitable theological procedures and discourses. The vagina dentata metaphor emerges as a symbol of constrained appetites—respiratory (larynx), digestive (intestine, anus), and reproductive (uterus, vagina)—reflecting broader sociocultural and religious …

Indigenous Metal: Rage, Rejects, And The Reconstruction Of Culture, Louis W. Asbury

Master's Theses

Metal music’s latest frontier is Indigenous metal, combining explorations of Indigenous identity with the heavy and aggressive stylings of the music genre. To explore this new subgenre, this study asks to what extent can metal music be used as a political tool and what are some of the broader effects of metal bands working to better their communities. This thesis utilizes case studies of two notable Indigenous metal scenes, the Rez metal scene in the Navajo Nation and the Māori metal scene in Aotearoa. By collecting data from these scenes, including lyrics, videos, interviews, and audience interactions, this thesis thoroughly …

Has K-Pop Lost Its Koreaness?, Madison J. Gusler

Capstones

Since the 2010s, the global expansion of K-pop has been undeniable, with music from Korean idol groups resonating with fans around the world. We’ve seen the industry adapt to cater to this global audience, placing emphasis on non-verbal aspects of performance such as choreography and set design, and integrating more English lyrics in their songs. K-pop has always had multinational, multicultural influences in its production, yet the music has remained distinctly Korean. But as the industry expands into new markets, faces new challenges, and adapts to convey greater global appeal, the public must contend with the idea of a K-pop …

Resurrecting The Muse: Kithara And Lyric Poetry Performance Practice In Greco-Roman Antiquity, Abigail Petersen

Honors Projects

Both students and pedagogues of classical studies are familiar with the inherent musicality of Greek and Latin poetry, and they also widely accept the idea that poets sang their works to accompaniment on a kithara, or large lyre. However, little work has been done to perform works of poetry according to this tradition, and thus many modern attempts at oral recitation feature a forced and pedantic rhythm that bores the listener and fails to do justice to the revered art of Greco-Roman poetry. Through a review of primary and secondary sources, I examine the construction of the kithara, the context …

Methods In Environmental Studies, Erika Dunagan, Maya Mendoza, Posey Graber, Alex Cullins, Emma Mcginnis, Ally Nepomuceno, Isabella Buchan

Featured Student Work

This publication is a collection of undergraduate research conducted in the Methods in Environmental Studies course at the University of San Francisco in Fall 2024. The student-led projects explore the intersections of place, policy, ecology, and cultural identity through applied environmental research methodologies. Topics include a decolonial examination of the Forest Park Mound Group and Indigenous resilience in St. Louis; a comparative study of Navajo cosmology and ecological justice; a social and environmental impact assessment of Costa Rica’s National Decarbonization Plan; a psychogeographical analysis of Golden Gate Park and its impact on the psyche, emotions, behaviour, and health of urban …

How Is Music History Important And How Can Music History Be Included Into Our Regular Music Curriculum?, Abby Michalak

Honors Projects

From a music education major's perspective, music history is rarely taught in high school and middle schools today. Music history can teach so much to students, including context, style, and even why pieces were written. Through this paper, we explore why music history is an important topic to be taught in schools and how music programs across the country can include it into their curriculums through smaller sized lesson plans. This paper includes a sample curriculum that goes through the different period of music and a unit for "spotlights" for countries that are rarely represented in high school and middle …

Manifest Destiny, A Repeat Of History: Scoring Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, Emilie Montoure

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

In this paper I will examine Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining through the lens of Manifest Destiny. Using this angle, I discuss how protagonist Jack Torrance takes on the role of a settler as he cares for the Overlook Hotel and becomes verbally abusive and controlling to his wife and son. I use the disconcerting, avant-garde scores of Twentieth Century modernist composers Béla Bartók, György Ligeti, and Krzysztof Penderecki to analyze how this story of westward expansion is conveyed. This chilling soundscape involving extreme dissonance, complex rhythms, layering of sounds, and unconventional techniques scores Jack’s psychological descent into murderous …

Jewish Worship, Music, And Technology During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jeffrey A. Summit

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

This article examines the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Jewish worship and considers a range of worshippers’ reactions to livestreamed and Zoom prayer services. Focusing on the Jewish Emergent Network, innovative communities who are known for cultivating vibrant, participatory music in worship, leaders discuss the challenges of not being able to sing together online, the Jewish legal ramifications of using technology on the Sabbath and the on-going changes they believe could occur as virtual worship returns to in-person prayer. These leaders also discuss surprisingly positive developments in online prayer, as congregants deepened interpersonal relationships in discussion breakout rooms, discovered …

Sacred Recitation Of The Tibetan Yungdrung Bön Tradition: The Kharnatsang Collection Of Skad And The Arrangement Of The Three Heart Mantras, Christiane Strothmann

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The digital age has long dawned in many of the Tibetan Monasteries in exile. Thus, the inclusion of internet platforms and the usage of digital communication technologies was naturally part of my ethnomusicological collaboration with the Tibetan Bön monastic chant leader and scholar Geshé Dawa Namgyal Kharnatsang on the sacred recitation of the Yungdrung Bön tradition of Menri Monastery in Dolanji, India. In this article I will offer insights into Kharnatsang’s and my motivation to develop a hybrid collaboration and discuss the role and impact of the digital technologies on the traditional chain of transmission. I will draw on two …

The Voice Of Azerbaijan: Experiencing Recordings Of Hajibaba Huseynov And Post-Soviet Muslim Musical Identities, Polina Dessiatnitchenko

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Singer and poet Hajibaba Huseynov (1919–1993), revered by some as the “voice of Azerbaijan” is one of the most popular stars featured in recordings of classical devotional ghazal poetry. Curiously enough, video or audio recordings of his recitations seem to be especially moving, often becoming the focal point for audiences of musicians and poets at public live performances, private meetings, lessons, and virtual contexts. While fans of the ghazal genre are found at every turn, I limit my analysis to the subculture of poets, musicians, experts, and especially ardent fans of traditional Azerbaijani arts. Relying on ethnographic data gathered in …

Coltrane’S A Love Supreme: Mediations Of Immediacy In Jazz Ritual And Recitation, James R. W. Crockford

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

This paper explores the ritualized performance ethic of John Coltrane’s later career, which is charged with a determined exploration of freedom and spiritual ascendance through participative and gestural immediacy. Conceiving of this music as a spiritual and political tool for embodied transformation, this paper traces this ethic at play in Coltrane’s iconic 1965 album A Love Supreme, identifying ways the work effects a mediation of immediacy. Through focus on the album’s closing “Psalm” recitation, its parallels in Coltrane’s other works, and their analogue in traditions of ecstatic liturgical and political oratory, this paper demonstrates the consistent priority Coltrane gives …

Written History And Lived Legacy Of Cape Town Jazz, Grace E. Runner

South Africa: Multiculturalism and Human Rights

This paper examines the historical and current implications of Cape Town Jazz in juxtaposition with the genre's written history and lived experiences of four key members of the jazz community. Drawing from the interviews with a musician, promoter, educator, and enthusiast, this study explores the influence of Cape Jazz as a subgenre rooted in the Coloured community's cultural heritage and the apartheid struggle. While Cape Jazz remains practiced through its legacy, the current jazz scene in Cape Town reflects a broader global influence that is evolving through younger musicians' interpretations of local and global musics. Key areas of issue as …

Benefit Concerts: Truly For The Benefit Of The Cause?, Emma C. Gardner

Mako: NSU Undergraduate Student Journal

Benefit concerts have been used as a fundraising method for urgent issues for centuries, beginning in 1749 with concerts put on by George Handel. The first modern benefit concert was the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, which proved that these concerts could raise large amounts of money for their cause. Live Aid was put on by Bob Geldof in 1985 Live Aid in response to the famine in Ethiopia. The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness in 1992 was staged following Freddie Mercury’s death and worked to raise money for awareness and a cure for HIV/AIDS. The Concert for …

Kajian Konseptual Silabel Ritme Gandang Minangkabau, Aryuda Fakhleri Fallen, Yudi Sukmayadi, Tati Narawati

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This article tryes to initiate the concept of Minangkabau rhythm syllables, which is a method in music learning related to audiation in rhythm learning, the urgency in this study explores the basic elements of the audiation system that can be applied to music learning related to rhythm syllables based on local approaches, taking into account previous concepts that have been popular in recent schools. In West Sumatra, the concepts of syllable rhythm such as Zoltan Kodaly, Kannokol, American Style Syllables, and Edwin Gordon are not so popular, but environments such as schools and art studios have their own ways of …

"If The Gyil Has Died, Dagara Itself Has Died": On The Relationship Of Dagara Music, Food, And Costume, Gordon Cortney

Honors College Undergraduate Theses

The Dagara people, located primarily in the Upper West region of Ghana, take pride in their careful preservation of traditional customs, amidst years of brutal colonization and ethnocide. Previous ethnomusicological research has recognized the gyil, a Ghanaian xylophone, as the focal point of Dagara society, noting how it interacts with and is inherent in all aspects of their culture. Recent developments to the gyil’s design, practice, and performance have created concern for a lost or dying culture among the Dagara. If the gyil is experiencing change, then so too is the rest of Dagara culture. In June and July 2022, …

“And The People Sang In All The Ways Of The City:” A Speculative Ethnomusicology Of Gondor, Kelsey A. Fuller-Shafer

Journal of Tolkien Research

The music of Gondor is one of the more elusive musical traditions in Middle-earth, described only briefly throughout the text of The Lord of the Rings, and thus often neglected in scholarship on music in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. However, an ethnomusicological line of inquiry brings to the fore questions of performance, perception, and meaning that contribute to our interpretations of the many levels of symbolic transformation seen in Gondor at the beginning of the Fourth Age. The evidence of both musical activity and silence in Gondor mirrors conclusions that have been documented in real-world ethnomusicological studies in …

The Cålåpitå Past The “Dull Edge” Of Extinction: A Shaggy Dog Story Of Repatriation And Refusal In Bali, Tyler Yamin

Faculty Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

Time And Imagined Futures In Eastern African Art Forms, Alex Perullo

Politics, Law, and Society Faculty Journal Articles

This article introduces the NJAS special issue “Art and Imagined Futures in Eastern Africa”, edited by Alex Perullo, Claudia Böhme, and Christina Woolner, and has not been peer-reviewed. Artists in eastern Africa use songs, poems, fiction, cartoons, and other artistic forms to explore their lived experiences and future possibilities. Through their art they can envision alternatives to their current experiences, contest social and political problems, and reveal the dangers of complacency. They can also grapple with regret at missed opportunities or develop a sense of longing for a future that could or should have been had different decisions been made. …

“Systems Are Changeable”: Reading Moments Through Movements Available, Lei X. Ouyang

Music Faculty Works

This article considers how recent moments of racism and violence in the United States, ethnomusicology, and the Society for Ethnomusicology are linked to larger movements. I examine the work of Asian American and Asian Canadian artists and activists to engage with conversations about violence, racialization, and solidarity. I bring these conversations in concert with recent discussions of racism in music studies to connect moments to movements and examine models for change through processes of decolonization. I call upon readers to embrace discomfort, listening, and reflection to engage with work that is relational and intergenerational and that demonstrates hope, care, and …

Metric Schemas And Projections In Three Colombian Folk Genres, Lina S. Tabak

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores how stylistic expertise can affect metric perception, through the analysis of three Colombian folk genres—cantos de boga and currulaos from the Pacific region and joropos from the Eastern plains bordering Venezuela. Specifically, it considers the tension between metric perceptions which arise from bottom-up mechanisms for entrainment (such as projections), and those which are based on top-down mechanisms (such as schemata). This tension is at play when more and less musically enculturated listeners perceive entirely different metric structures when listening to identical music.

Taking bottom-up and top-down metric perception as a thread, this dissertation isolates three additional metric …

A Música Na Tradição Indígena Wai Wai, Roque Yaxikma Wai Wai, Ruben Caixeta De Queiroz

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Este trabalho trata da história da música na tradição do povo indígena wai wai, um grupo de língua caribe da região guianense. A pesquisa se passa entre os Wai Wai do rio Mapuera (norte do Pará), tendo como foco os conhecimentos de anciãos e as músicas antigas que eles conhecem. Aqui tratamos da definição do que é música e instrumento musical para os Wai Wai, quem pode e quem não pode tocar e/ou ouvir música. Descrevemos as histórias dos lugares antigos de habitação dos Wai Wai, onde moravam outrora, no rio Baracuxi (Kikwo), os nomes das aldeias e os nomes …

The Influence Of Western Music And The Wind Band In The Republic Of Korea, Mark Reimer

Journal of Global Awareness

Beginning with the arrival of American missionaries in 1885, the music of South Korea continues to reflect Western tonality, aesthetics, education, and popular taste. Through this musical and historical evolution, however, the country has not forsaken its traditions, musical imprint, and cultural identity, as will be discussed in the examination of select composers and music compositions.

Rap In The United States And Cuba: A Genre Uniquely Emblematic Of The Paradox Of (De)Colonization, Maya Rose Bliffeld

Senior Theses

Music, as a profound and resonant cultural expression, captures the nuance of societal dynamics, political climates, and the collective emotions of communities throughout time. Colonialism, more specifically the Atlantic slave trade and the experience of suffering, has been reflected in the music as much as it has pioneered styles of new global music in the present. Music, specifically rap, contextualized in the hip-hop movements of the United States and Cuba, reveals primary sources of the effects of systemic racism and the marks of slavery in the contemporary context. The United States and Cuba each have a close relation to the …

Arranging, Teaching And Performing The Cypriot Folk Song, Αχερόμπασμαν (Aherombasman), Georgia Orfanides

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

This paper documents my process of arranging, teaching, and conducting the Cypriot folk song, Αχερόμπασμαν (Aherombasman) to JMU’s Treble Chamber Choir. I am Cypriot-American and I wanted to create an accessible arrangement of a Cypriot folk tune in order to introduce the musical culture and language of Cyprus to a Western audience. The first section of this paper provides a brief history of the cultural and political influences on Cyprus, and an introduction to common practices in the Cypriot folk tradition. The second section details the process of transcribing the original tune from Alkinoos Ioannides’ arrangement, creating the final arrangement …

Plenty Good Room: Using Negro Spirituals To Bridge The Racial Divide, Darnell Allen St. Romain

Doctor of Pastoral Music Projects and Theses

In 2020, the United States experienced a global pandemic and the murder of Mr. George Floyd. With the murder of Floyd, many churches were confronted with the racial divide in the United States. This thesis is a response of one community, the Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Plano, Texas. Using the folk song of Black Americans, namely the Negro Spirituals, as the foundation of an ethical-theological framework, this thesis poses one way for addressing the anti-Black structure prevalent in the Catholic Church in the United States of America. This work progresses from despair to hope, addressing the link between …

Impressionism In The Hands Of Griffes, Bauer, And Howe, And The Musical Climate In Early 20th-Century America, Elaine Sara Lim

Dissertations, 2020-current

American composers Charles Griffes (1884-1920), Marion Bauer (1882-1955), and Mary Howe (1882-1964) are considered “Impressionist” composers by some scholars. This document will explore selected piano works of each composer to determine the extent to which impressionistic traits are present. Topics such as tonality, harmony, texture, and individual style will be examined, as well as the significant relationship between music and poetry. American Impressionism was short-lived but served as a link to Modernism, as all three composers eventually experimented with other styles. Early 20th-century American audiences, accustomed to the influx of European artists and music, were slow to embrace the new …

Canciones De Cuna En La Frontera: Las Canciones De Cuna En El Valle De Juárez / Lullabies In The Border: Lullaby Singing In El Valle Of Juarez, Emma Alvarez De La Rosa

The Agora

Resumen en español:

Las canciones de cuna desempeñan un papel importante en el desarrollo de los niños, el bienestar de la madre y las relaciones sanas entre padres e hijos. Estas canciones también representan acervos musicales de valores y tradiciones culturales. Este trabajo resume la investigación y los resultados obtenidos para mi proyecto final Honors Capstone para la New Mexico State University, que examina la preservación de las canciones de cuna en la región del Valle de Juárez y Ciudad Juárez. Basadas en análisis etnográficos y etnomusicológicos para entender su importancia en la historia y cultura de la región fronteriza, …

Rebetiko In Nyc: New Ideas Of Greek Diaspora, Mihalis Alisandratos

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores ideas of Greekness within the modern rebetiko space of New York City through the use of both ethnographic and reflexive techniques. Combining thick description, interview analysis, and extensive self reflection, this thesis endeavors to better understand how Greek American rebetiko musicians in NY today conceive of their experience in diaspora.

“Here’S My Brown Soul!”: Identity And Transformation In Tejano Music, Joseph Guzman

Theses and Dissertations

The music genre of música tejana, known later as Tejano music, is the musical celebration of Texas-Mexican, or tejano, identity and transformation. This paper explores and reflects on the topics of transformation, identity, and current state of Tejano music, including first-hand experiences and recent conversations with Tejano musicians.