Music Performance Commons^™

Remixing Dialogue: A Case Study On Perceptions Of Hip Hop Pedagogy In A Professional Learning Course, Kelly J. Thelen

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This qualitative case study examines how teachers’ decision-making and professional autonomy shift while participating in a Hip Hop Pedagogy Professional Learning course supported by structured FIXIT (Lo & Wachter, 2023a, 2023b, 2023c, 2023d; Wachter & Lo, 2024) game-facilitated dialogue in a rural, culturally and linguistically diverse Midwest community. Grounded in Freire’s (1970) Critical Pedagogy, Ladson-Billings’ (1995) Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (Paris and Alim, 2017), and Adult Learning Theory (Knowles et al., 2005), the study explores the reclamation of agency by teachers in a time of constrained creativity and educator autonomy shaped by strict policy environments, an emphasis on …

Singing As Liberation: Spiritual Imagination And An Embodied Practice Of Hope Through Spirituals And Songs Of The Uhadi, Matisse Geselle

University Honors Theses

An exploration of the spirituality and the sacredness of music—and especially singing—through recording my own interpretations of spirituals and songs of the uHadi. It is also a poetic inquiry into how imagery of the river is used in spirituals as a pathway to freedom and liberation, and how the singing of spirituals is hope embodied. And it is a reflection of how my experience of the uHadi and my friends of the Ibuyambo ensemble changed me. The process of working on this project also feels like I am connecting to myself—and others—more deeply through singing. And ultimately, I hope for …

The Piano Music Of Orlando Fagnani And Its Connections To The Choro Tradition, Norman J. Charette

Dissertations, 2020-current

This study explores the life, piano works, and compositional style of Orlando Fagnani (1922–1977) as it fits into the choro tradition. By situating his compositions within their historical context, providing biographical insights, investigating stylistic features, and analyzing one of his piano works, Mini Prelúdio No. 1, this document highlights Fagnani’s contribution to Brazilian music and places him not only among significant composers of choro, but also among the leading Brazilian composers of the twentieth century. The fortunate timing of his birth in the same year as the Week of Modern Art contributed to a deeper connection with Brazil’s …

Amor, Art, And Advocacy: Un Conversación With Chicanx Mother, Grammy Award Artivist, Macarthur Fellow, And Scripps Professor Martha Gonzalez, Belén S. Yudess

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This Spotlight features a conversation with Professor Martha Gonzalez, a Chicana artivista (artist/activist) musician, feminist music theorist, and Associate Professor and Chair of the Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o Latina/o Studies (CLS) at Scripps/Claremont College. The conversation draws from Prof. Gonzalez’s background as a Chicana, and the  Chicanxs, Mexicanxs, Latinxs, and Indigenous communities in Mexico and Los Angeles that have shaped her work. She shares her practice in teaching and engaging with collective songwriting, her critique of western paradigms, and explorations of boundary crossing that music facilitates as part of championing the hope and flourishing that comes from within communities and …

Powwow Sound: The Differences Between Northern And Southen Style Music, Alison P. Walker

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

The purpose of this study was to observe the music performed at Powwows and the differences of the sound according to region.

I examined the changes based on region that made the style of music performed different.

We're All Ramblers, Here: American National Identity As Articulated Through The Sounds And Stories Of Bluegrass Music, Greyson M. Sherman

Senior Theses

This creative thesis argues that bluegrass music, through its multicultural origins and its central "Rambler" archetype, articulates a distinctly American negotiation between freedom and rootedness — one that extends far beyond the genre's narrow popular image. Drawing on musicological scholarship and cultural history, the paper first recovers bluegrass's suppressed origins in the convergence of West African, Anglo- Celtic, and broader European traditions, complicating narratives that position the genre as exclusively white and Appalachian. It then introduces the Rambler — the restless, longing figure who haunts bluegrass lyrically and structurally — as both a product of that history and a metaphorical …

Contributors To Issue 7

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

More Than A Man: An Ethnomusicological Survey Of The Folklore Of John Henry And Resource Guide For “More Than A Man” By Shanyse Strickland, Clayton R. Heath

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

“John Henry” exists as an enduring folk legend in the United States of America, representing the confluence of the Reconstruction Era, the economic utility of Appalachia and the Westward expansion of industry which left it behind. Though based on historical events, Henry’s fictional representation has diverted and evolved in music and other media from its inception in the oral tradition to the modern age. Through this progression, shared symbols have circulated, gathering embedded meanings and associating the folklore with specific communities. Henry’s representational identity has been signaled with the creation and distribution of each version of his story, both complicating …

Cantate Fratres: Forming And Sustaining Traditional Catholic Music, Liturgy And Culture In The Institute Of Christ The King Sovereign Priest, Reyers P. Brusoe

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest is an understudied member of the Traditional Catholic and Latin Mass Communities whose unique approach to Catholic liturgy, culture, and formation offers a sustainable model for the Catholic Church's longevity and renewal. This study is the first of its kind, combining the theoretical positions of affect theory, ecomusicology/musical sustainability, and the musicology of religion to explore and explain the success of this growing classical community. This dissertation examines Church documents, theological literature, and multidisciplinary academic sources as a foundation for the study.             In studying the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, …

Learning How To Practice Takes Practice, Micah Killion, Robert Duke

John J. Cali School of Music Scholarship and Creative Works

Effective music learning depends on effective music practice. Although time spent with teachers is an important component of young musicians’ development, time spent alone practicing is perhaps even more consequential. Researchers and teachers have offered many prescriptions about effective music practice, yet observations of young musicians’ actual practice reveal that their behavior in the practice room is often quite unlike what teachers envision. The most important aspects of effective practice are the thinking, perceiving, and decision-making that serve to organize how musicians spend their time. We discuss how to help students focus their attention in ways that lead to the …

Good Vibrations: Folk Circles As Communication Environments, Missy Alexander

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

For over 25 years, I have participated in the creation of music and community through what are commonly called folk circles. Typically run as monthly gatherings, participants who range from complete beginners to seasoned pros, join together and share their favorite songs. These environments have clearly defined rules for participation (although rarely stated overtly), a strong ethos of mutual support, and frequently function as a path to friendships for people new to a community. This essay examines the folk circle as a communication environment and posits an explanation of why it is impervious to digital invasions.

Integrating World Percussion Into Graduate Jazz Training: A Practitioner Reflection, Eugene Seow

Publications and Research

This reflection explores the pedagogical and artistic impact of a non-traditional instructional choice made during the author’s final semester of graduate study at Queens College (CUNY). Initially enrolled in the Jazz Studies: Performance Track (Drum Set), the author elected to substitute formal principal study lessons with a personalised programme of world percussion study under Professor Michael Lipsey. This decision, initially motivated by artistic restlessness, led to foundational experiences in frame drumming, South Indian rhythmic structures, gamelan ensemble, and classical snare etude work. The outcomes of this shift have since permeated the author’s teaching, performance, and curriculum development practice, including the …

Music, Poetry And Identity In Badakshan, Tajikistan: Singing And Sounding Community, Chorshanbe Goibnazarov

Music & Performance in Muslim Contexts

An illuminating account of Ismaili music, spiritual poetry and social change in Badakhshan.

In the riverine valleys of the Pamir Mountains of Tajik Badakhshan, a thriving millennium-old community of Nizari Ismaili Muslims created a unique spiritual culture in which the performance of music and poetry plays a central role. This book focuses on the central musical and poetic tradition of the Pamiri Ismailis, qasīda-khonī (also known as maddo), tracing its origins, evolution, delocalisation and relocation.

This book introduces readers to leading performers of qasīda-khonī and to the Ismaili gnosis that inspires its music and poetry.

• Based on six …

Elements Of Greek Identity In The Eight Dances From The Greek Islands By Yiannis Constantinidis, Afroditi Mitsopoulou

Dissertations, 2020-current

The purpose of this research is to present elements of Greek style and identity in the composition for solo piano, Eight Dances from the Greek Islands (Οκτώ Νησιώτικοι Ελληνικοί Χοροί, για πιάνο) (1954) by Yiannis Constantinidis. What is regarded as Greek national identity? How was it formed and developed throughout the centuries, and what compositional techniques did Greek composers before Constantinidis use in their works to define Greek identity? A topic examined in this document was the construction and deconstruction of Greek identity, and the question addressed was whether Greek identity can ultimately be defined. Constantinidis (1903-1984) was …

Harmonic Innovators And Cultural Catalysts In American Jazz: The Social Impact And Musical Innovations Of Louis Armstrong In The Real Ambassadors, Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts And John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, Marcia C. Vandervinne

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Abstract This capstone project explores how three landmark jazz works—Louis Armstrong’s The Real Ambassadors (1961), John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme (1965), and Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts (1965–1973)—responded to the social challenges of the Civil Rights era while advancing the artistic stature of jazz. Each composition challenged systemic racism through its unique blend of innovation and cultural expression: Armstrong’s performance in The Real Ambassadors used satire to critique American racial hypocrisy; Coltrane’s A Love Supreme presented a spiritual and musical journey grounded in modal development and personal transformation; and Ellington’s Sacred Concerts fused jazz with sacred and classical traditions to elevate …

Lontas: The Aesthetic Concept Of Mortar Music Of Farmer Community In Turi Village, Indonesia, Dea Lunny Primamona, Bambang Sunarto

Bahasa dan Seni: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni, dan Pengajarannya

This research is focused on the phenomena of an aesthetic impression in kothékan lesung performed by a farmer community in Turi Village, Magetan District, Indonesia. This research aims to understand the kothékan lesung as an art system and understand the idiom lontas expressed verbally in their mortar music performance. This research uses an ethnomusicology approach which includes fieldwork and deskwork. The research is sequentially conducted with observation, interviews, recordings, measurements, and studying literature and documents. This article uses Sedyawati’s concept about the art system and Sethares’s concept about the science of sound to analysis data. The result shows that: (1) …

The Effects Of Operatic Voice Type On Singer Identity, Adelaide J. Mcdonald

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Within Western art music, voices are typically classified using the Fach system, which is based upon vocal characteristics and separates singers into the categories of soprano, mezzo soprano, contralto, counter tenor, tenor, bass, and baritone. Over time, these categories have become embedded with social and cultural meaning within the operatic world, leading to the development of stereotypes and expectations surrounding singers, as well as social categories and identities, referred to in this study as “sociocultural vocal categories” and “sociocultural vocal identity,” respectively. Currently, there are limited explorations of the sociocultural vocal categories and their associated stereotypes, with research on singer …

Rhythm Against Poethics, Jayvyn Dacas

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis stages an auto-poetic ethnography that listens to, and moves with, the anterior spaces of Black life. Those murmurs, hums, musical hesitations, and infrastructural vibrations that refuse capture by dominant epistemic regimes. Drawing from Ramon Amaro’s reading of Sylvia Wynter, Katherine McKittrick and Alexander Weheliye’s reflections on sound, Fred Moten’s insights on displacement, and Tendayi Sithole’s attention to the phonographic, the project situates music production as method and unworlding. Through engagements with the 808, sampling, sound systems, and embodied listening across Florida. Spaces like the warehouse, the party, record stores, and community become the work of Black voices, and …

Commissioning And Recording Project Of New Works For Saxophone Focused On Promoting Mexican Composers And Educating Future Commissioning Saxophonists, Andres Efrain Santana

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This document chronicles my process of commissioning and recording five new works by Mexican composers. To contextualize this experience, I provide a brief introduction of Mexican contemporary music history, an overview of second-hand accounts of the commissioning process, my personal experience of this process, and my assessment of the impact these works could have on the classical saxophone repertoire. As I have reflected on my own experience with historical and contemporary accounts of the commissioning process, it has become clear that personal connections between composers and performers and the patronage or funding linked to those relationships are just as important …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

An Unnecessary Barrier: A Critical History Of Efforts To Define A Core Repertoire For The Wind Band, Trevor Frost

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

The wind band saw significant development in its literature, instrumentation, and programming practices throughout the twentieth century. Midway through the twentieth century the identification of a “core” repertoire began to make its way into the forefront of the wind band profession’s priorities, resulting in three significant studies by Acton Eric Ostling Jr. (1978), Jay Warren Gilbert (1993), and Clifford N. Towner (2011). Along with these studies many smaller studies and surveys were being published with this same goal of identifying either a “performance core” or an “intellectual core.” However, with new works of serious artistic merit constantly being written and …

María Grever: Influence Through Mexican Folk And Classical Romantic Techniques And Ideals In ‘A Una Ola.’, Alexandria C. Ellis

ATU Scholars Symposium

In the last 25 years, there has been a resurgence in Latin American ethnomusicology. This means that, while interest continues to grow, there are several gaps, especially when it comes to the contributions of women. Interestingly, some of these gaps surround the popular Mexican composer María Grever. This includes the lack of information on the variety of sources she gathered inspiration from for composition. Through analyzing Grever's compositional style, especially in the bolero ‘A Una Ola,’or ‘To a Wave,’ I will examine the relationship that Grever employs between the classical Romantic approach and Latin American techniques, especially Mexican folk. While …

Ecuadorian Vocal Anthology In Four Rhythms, Wagner Mauricio Pástor Pazmiño Dr.

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Ecuador is a pluricultural and multilingual territory with four natural regions, several musical genres, and interpretations. Amazon, Galápagos, Mountain Range, and Coastal region. In the following dissertation, the author develops concepts of four traditional rhythms, their composers, and harmonic and phonetic characteristics from the mountain range region of his homeland, Ecuador.

The present document is a descriptive study of vocal Andean music and the application of the operatic style in classical vocal technique for performance practice.

The dissertation will support a lecture recital to fulfill the doctoral program's requirement in voice performance from the University of Kentucky.

La Fiesta Del Espiritu Santo: An Original Work For Choir, Soloists, And Small Ensemble Influenced By The Santeria Music Of The African-Dominican Community In The Dominican Republic, Rafael Scarfullery

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This study examines the role of Santería music as practiced by African Dominicans in Villa Mella, a neighborhood of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. This musical tradition comes from the culture and religion of the Yoruba people who were brought as slaves from Africa, and features complex drum rhythms and call-and-response chants. This paper deals with the historical and social context of Santería music within the Dominican Republic, but its principal objective is to adopt the musical language of this tradition and use it to create a new contemporary work for mixed choir and small ensemble.

One of the most …

Music Of The Divine: Interweaving Threads Connecting Contemporary Chant-Based Piano Repertoire, Jeremy D. Duck

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

The purpose of this document is to prove chant remains an important source of inspiration among living composers, and, despite the number of piano works already incorporating chant, composers today are still finding unique ways to include chant in their music. To achieve this objective, representative works have been selected for research and analysis for four of the major chant traditions. Connor Chee’s The Navajo Piano, Victoria Bond’s Illuminations on Byzantine Chant, and Hayes Biggs’ E.M. am Flügel: Poem-Étude for Piano Solo, though the chants from which they are inspired are diverse in concept and style, they …