Music Performance Commons^™

A North Korean Diasporic Community Of Performers, Sunhong Kim

International Programs

The purpose of this study is exploring music’s role to a North Korean diasporic community.

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

Backstage Pass

No abstract provided.

Passing The Baton From Detroit To Berlin: Techno’S Introduction To The Global Scene, Rebekah M. Thomas

Backstage Pass

Podcast describing the history and cultural impact of the techno music trend in the 1980s and 1990s.

“The Personal Is Political”: The Power Of Female Voices In 1970s Pop Music And Beyond, Jennifer Morrow

Backstage Pass

This essay examines how, in the male-dominated structures of the popular music industry, narratives about women have been marginalized, ignored, and undervalued. The female singer-songwriter, my research suggests, is, by definition, a contradiction and subversion of traditional gender roles, and this position has been claimed by female musicians as a form of rebellion and resistance. In the scope of my research, I focus on how female pop artists have embraced songwriting as a medium for authentic self-expression, and how these narratives have been embraced as autoethnographies that represent the collective experiences and frustrations of women in a patriarchal social landscape. …

Krithi: Cows At The Beach: Improvising Carnatic-Jazz, Toby Wren, Suresh Vaidyanathan

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

Intercultural creative practice is a topic that has attracted a lot of recent scholarly attention. As improvising musicians from very different cultures and traditions, we decided to analyse a recent collaborative performance that we were involved in to unpack the ways that we were interacting through music. As performers, we were interested primarily in the ways that such an analysis would help us to work more effectively in intercultural situations, but we also wanted to understand the synergies and dissonances that exist between improvising cultures more broadly. For the essay we adopt the musical form of a krithi, a …

Afrosonic Noise: A Transnational Black Feminist Musicological Study Of Global Black Joy In Black North American Rock Music And Afro Argentinian Music Performance., Jerika M Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I have decided that my academic mission, at this juncture at least, is to find common links between 2 groups of people that have come to know themselves through paralleling but colonially different environments. Perhaps it is wise for me to explore the similarities between Afro Argentine Black Music and African North American Music in closer ethnomusicological detail using feminist praxis—after all both communities are part of the African Diaspora and producing Black music. I do this by reconstructing a very limited genealogy of Black Femme’s and their contribution to their respective musical communities. I draw parallels between the global …

A Heavy Rain Has Fallen Upon My People: Sindhi Sufi Poetry Performance, Emotion, And Islamic Knowledge In Kachchh, Gujarat, Brian E. Bond

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a study of the use and contestation of Sindhi-language Sufi poetry performance as a means of Islamic knowledge transmission and ethical self-formation in rural Muslim communities in Kachchh, a border district in the western Indian state of Gujarat adjacent to Sindh, Pakistan. Drawing on eighteen months of ethnographic research with Muslim performers and enthusiasts of Sindhi poetry between 2014-2018, I first examine an ecology of performative and interpretive practices revolving around the musico-poetic repertoire of the poet-saint Shāh ʿAbdul Lat̤īf Bhiṭā’ī (1689-1752 CE). I argue that the pedagogical efficacy of Sufi poetry performance is undergirded by its …

Mimicry As Movement Analysis, Rosa Abrahams

Faculty Publications

The analysis of movement to music often stems from examinations of video-recorded events. This allows the analyst an opportunity to re-watch, pause, and slow down the movements of their participants, and to produce descriptive notation that appears alongside a score (e.g., Roeder and Tenzer 2012). Unlike prescriptive forms of dance notation (e.g., Laban 1928), such transcriptions of movement often illuminate metrical connections between music and movement. However, when video-recording is not permissible, other methods of movement analysis must be developed. This paper pilots a new technique for rigorous analysis of the interaction between movement and music, which may be used …

Singing Out: Gala Choruses And Social Change, Heather Maclachlan

Books and Book Chapters by University of Dayton Faculty

Can you change the world through song? This appealing idea has long been the professed aim of singers who are part of choruses affiliated with the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA). Theses choruses first emerged in the 1970s, and grew out of a very American tradition of (often gender-segregated) choral singing that explicitly presents itself as a community-based activity. By taking a close look at these choruses and their mission, Heather MacLachlan unpacks the fascinating historical and cultural dynamics behind groups that seek to change society for the better by encouraging acceptance of LGBT-identified people and promoting diversity …

“You Crossed My Mind … Before?”: An Intertextual Analysis Of Songs From 'To Pimp A Butterfly', Colin Outhwaite

Theses : Honours

Popular music often refers to, evokes and includes elements of other music from the past. This kind of intertextuality in popular music provides artists and audiences with short-cuts to making and interpreting meaning. It draws on nostalgia, past listening experiences and idealised perceptions of the past. Artists engaging in this practice risk criticism for being too derivative. Conversely, artists who are too innovative and forward-looking run the risk of not connecting to listeners. Kendrick Lamar’s hip-hop album of 2015 To Pimp A Butterfly is lauded as being simultaneously innovative and steeped in the recent history of African American music. Lamar …

Authenticity And Practicality: Evaluating And Performing Multicultural Choral Music, Jesse Noote

Dissertations

Many choral music educators believe that multicultural music is a vital part of any choral curriculum. However, the research shows that these same choral directors are reluctant to select multicultural octavos because they lack training in non-Western music, which prevents them from effectively teaching and performing this music authentically. The purpose of this dissertation is to equip choral directors with the necessary tools for bridging the gap between desiring to perform and actually performing multicultural octavos.

Six authors have provided authenticity checklists that are designed to help music educators evaluate and perform multicultural music. This research synthesizes those lists to …

An Analysis Of Western Art Music Arrangements For Steel Pan Chamber Ensemble, Ian Meiman

Dissertations

This dissertation is an analysis of western art music arrangements for steel pan chamber ensembles. Specifically, this dissertation will analyze how certain arrangers have adapted western art music for steel pan chamber ensemble while discussing the possible methods the arranger used to create this adaptation. The analysis will observe the melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and other significant alterations made in the steel pan chamber arrangement, and discuss any changes made, whether due to the adaptation of the instruments or otherwise, from the original works. The dissertation will also include a brief historical discussion on western art music’s influence of early steel …

Reimagining The Flute Masterclass: Case Studies Exploring Artistry, Authority, And Embodiment, Sarah Carrier

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This work explores the flute masterclass as an aesthetic, ritualized, and historically reimagined cultural practice. Based on fieldwork that took place between 2017 and 2019 in the United States, in Italy, and on the social media platforms Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, I argue that the masterclass—an extension of the master/apprentice system that dominates learning in the classical music tradition—is characterized by embodied qualities of artistry and authority. These qualities are not inherent, but are perceived through subjective, social, familied, and affective bodies.

Chapter One outlines the main themes and the research design. Chapter Two is a case study that analyzes …

Verifying Modeling And Audiovisual Stimuli As Strategies For Mastering Guedes Peixoto's Maracatú, Rodrigo Clementino Diniz

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Literature has been saying that auditory Modeling can be a useful tool in order to develop or broaden musical interpretive ideas. In the same way, literature ventilates that audiovisual stimuli can be applied to musicians in order to raise emotions that some scholars consider as indispensable when it comes to deliver expressive musical communications. More specifically, research in the Music Performance field points out that Modeling and Audiovisual stimuli are useful strategies in the learning process of building up a musical interpretation, both, fostering expressive tools for aiming musical performance.

This research is intended to empirically verify the applicability …

A Failure Of The Music Industry: The Frustration Of Women Of Color, Christina Estes-Wynne

Backstage Pass

Throughout the history of the music industry, women of color have not received the same recognition as their male counterparts because males have dominated the industry resulting in lack of female representation. Women have been oversexualized reducing their clout in their fields and the lack of acknowledgement of success, which discourages future generations of colored women from attempting to reach their highest potential.

"What Is An Mc If He Can't Rap?", Dominique Jimmerson

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The goal of this paper is to tell about the history of hip-hop and the many lyricists who have come throughout the years and help the genre advance. The paper starts with the foundation of hip-hop and how the genre set itself apart from disco to become its own genre. It ranges from the late 70’s and ends in the mid 2000’s and describes how the landscape of rap is constantly changing and so are the lyricists who come out. Throughout the paper there will be examples of the lyrics and used and what made them revolutionary at the time. …

A Study Of Stambeli In Digital Media, Nneka Mogbo

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research paper explores stambeli, a traditional spiritual music in Tunisia, by understanding its musical and spiritual components then identifying ways it is presented in digital media. Stambeli is shaped by pre-Islamic West African animist beliefs, spiritual healing and trances. The genre arrived in Tunisia when sub-Saharan Africans arrived in the north through slavery, migration or trade from present-day countries like Mauritania, Mali and Chad. Today, it is a geographic and cultural intersection of sub-Saharan, North and West African influences.

Stewart, Karen (Fa 1273), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1273. Student paper titled “Negro Gospel Music at Barnes Chapel Methodist Church” in which Karen Stewart describes a singular all-day “singing” held at the church in Beaver Dam, Kentucky, in February 1971. Stewart offers a brief description of her fieldwork methods including research and recording and provides an abbreviated background on each of her musical informants. Stewart also recounts the songs that were sung and notes recurrent themes throughout the music. The paper also includes the words to each hymn, a black and white photograph of the performers, and two reel-to-reel audiotapes.

Community Music Therapy And Participatory Performance: Case Study Of A Coffee House, Elizabeth Mitchell

Music Faculty Publications

This case study research explores the impact of a musical performance event—the Coffee House—held bi-annually at an adolescent mental health treatment facility in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Any client or staff member is welcomed to perform at this event, which is organized by the facility’s music therapist and framed here as an example of community music therapy. Drawing upon Turino’s (2008) ethnomusicological perspective on performance, I will argue that the Coffee House’s success within this context is due to its participatory ethos, wherein success is primarily defined by the act of participation. Here, performance takes place within an inclusive and supportive …

Thompson, Elois (Fa 1258), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 1258. Student paper titled “Uncle Henry and the Kentucky Mountaineers” in which Elois Thompson details the life and career of “farmer, soldier, boxer, dairy-farm employee, comedian, aircraft factory employee, and hillbilly musician” Henry Green Warren. Thompson describes Warren’s childhood in Green County, his beginnings as a host on a popular radio program, and his time as a musician in several country music bands. Collection contains a draft of the original paper with the editor’s notes and the final copy of Thompson’s paper.

Meaning Beyond Words: A Musical Analysis Of Afro-Cuban Batá Drumming, Javier Diaz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of a musical analysis of Afro-Cuban batá drumming. Current scholarship focuses on ethnographic research, descriptive analysis, transcriptions, and studies on the language encoding capabilities of batá. However, this artistically sophisticated tradition demands a more in-depth study of its musical manufacture. Drawing from experience as a ritual batá player and as an oricha priest, I have completed the current study by following three primary analytical modalities: (1) sonic landscape, which encompasses: sound vocabulary, form, individual drum parts, and balance of musical elements; (2) timbral design, how the different batá sounds articulate meaningful and functionally distinguishable structures; (3) the …

Italian Americans In Bronx Doo Wop-The Glory And The Paradox, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.

Bastin, Glen (Fa 1241), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1241. Collection of 38 cassette tapes featuring Glen Bastin's regional public affairs syndicated radio program, "Pondering Kentucky: The Magazine." A contents list was prepared and appears at the end of this finding aid.

Schulman, Steven A. (Fa 1227), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1227. Student paper titled “The Preacher’s Just Like a Grasshopper: A Study of a Kentucky Song Maker” in which Steven Schulman details the life of Howess Dewey Winfrey, a song-maker from Cumberland County. Schulman collected folk songs and performances from Winfrey over the course of two months. His fieldwork revealed that Winfrey was a creator of satirical tunes, which were influenced by his childhood, his experiences with the Church of the Nazarene, his time spent as a logger, his relationships with family and friends, politics, and land ownership. The paper includes excerpts from …

Complex Personalities: An Original Composition For Virtual Wind Ensemble And An Accompanying Exploration Of The Effects Of The Internet On Music Collaboration And Composition, Chris Kamerling

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the impact that the internet has had on the esprit de corps of the musical community. As a mechanism for that exploration, it also includes an original composition comprised of three character pieces. The exegesis of the piece will describe the basis of these musical representations and explore the application of the piece as a vehicle for a shared musical experience across the internet. A virtual ensemble was created by crowd-sourcing from social media. Participants played different parts that were combined by computer manipulation into a final product.

Music Is The "Noise Of Remembering" Tracing The Origins, Influences, And Connectivities Of West African Music, Adam Friedman

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The popularity and universal reach of music genres such as Jazz and Hip Hop attest to the idea that these forms have been long established as a vital part of global musical culture. For people who are familiar with Afrocentric music, it is clear that styles such as Jazz and Hip Hop are rooted in, and inextricably linked with, African culture and history. What is more difficult to make sense of, however, is how and why transplanted African culture came to have such wide reaching impact in the new contexts in which it was taken up – because the stories …

Selected Folksong Arrangements Of Zoltán Kodály: An Analysis And Performer’S Guide, Sebastian A. Haboczki

Dissertations, 2014-2019

The history of Hungarian music and the Hungarian nation is a long and complicated one. Conquered by many different empires throughout history, Hungary faced challenges in maintaining its unique music and cultural heritage. Despite Hungary’s tumultuous changes of governance, its folksongs have evolved and flourished. Through the efforts of people such as Zoltán Kodály, Béla Bartók, and Lászlo Dobszay, these folksongs have been collected, studied, and categorized. Kodály, an accomplished musician whose research and music education philosophy can sometimes overshadow his compositional prowess, also composed folksong arrangements which embody the true nature of Hungarian music. These arrangements can be used …

Cowboy Art Song: A Contextual And Musical Analysis Of Libby Larsen's "Cowboy Songs", Ann Gabrielle Richardson

Dissertations

This dissertation sprang from a combination of two personal interests: cowboy culture and classical art song. The union of my cowgirl heritage with my career as a classical vocalist has long fueled an interest in a particular niche of repertoire: soprano art song with thematic connections to the North American cowboy. A conducted state of research reveals no scholarly literature exploring this specific topic. Libby Larsen’s collection, Cowboy Songs, fulfills the aforementioned niche, successfully capturing the spirit, musical idioms, and cultural themes of the North American cowboy.

Chapter I lays a contextual foundation for cowboy song, providing a catalogue …

“The Real Spice Girl, Hot Girl Power”: M.I.A. Singing The Subaltern Voice In The Euro-American Soundscape, Emma Niehaus

Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies (2015-2021)

Gayatry Chakravorty Spivak’s seminal work of Subaltern Studies, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” analyzed the predisposition of the “Western” academy to ultimately silence the voices, experiences, and cultures of colonized, “third world” and non- European “others”. Following Spivak’s work, other scholars examined subaltern speech as it manifested in various other cultural products for instance, music. Notably, subaltern scholars such as Rebecca Romanow and Amanda Weidman in “Can the Subaltern Sing” argued that aural space for the subaltern musician was shrinking in the face of a rapidly globalizing Euro-American music industry. My presentation argues that it is not a question of if …

Sounding The Congregational Voice, Marissa Glynias Moore

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Congregational singing is a participatory vocal practice undertaken by Christians across a wide range of denominations, yet the specific qualities and active capacities of the congregational voice have yet to be investigated. Drawing on recent musicological and philosophical perspectives on voice, I theorize the congregational voice as an active practice, illuminating its abilities to do something in worship through sound.

Taking Brian Kane’s model of the voice as a circulation of content (logos), sound (echos), and source (topos), I explore how these categories are redefined through an active-based theorization of congregational singing. I argue that …