Music Performance Commons^™

From Maroons To Mardi Gras: The Role Of African Cultural Retention In The Development Of The Black Indian Culture Of New Orleans, Robin Ligon Williams

Masters Theses

After a three hundred year journey from the continent, African cultural retention remains at the core of the Black Indian masking tradition of New Orleans. Prior research from progenitors in anthropology and ethnomusicology, focusing on African cultural retention, include the ground-breaking ethnographies of Robert Farris Thompson, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Michael P. Smith, Margaret Thompson Drewel, Stephen Wehmeyer, Jason Berry and others, have established a solid foundation for research on African influences and retentions in expressive folk cultures, laying a firm foundation for this project. The author’s insider experiences within the Black Indian tradition are underscored by several …

Guitar Arrangements Of Selected Danzas Of Juan F. Acosta, With New Considerations Of His Music And Musical Life, Hermelindo Ruiz Mestre

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Juan Francisco Acosta (1890-1968) was a prolific composer, band conductor, and educator from Puerto Rico who created 1,256 original compositions. Even though his activities and influence were integral to the musical life of Puerto Rico in the twentieth century, many details of his life and works remain unknown.

This project centers on Acosta’s contribution to the Puerto Rican tradition of the danza—a dance-based genre originating in the nineteenth century—through the study and arrangement of five of Acosta's danzas. Although Acosta composed most danzas for piano, he adapted them for performances by the municipal bands that he led …

A Critical And Performance Edition Of Agustin Barrios’S Cueca: Comparative Analysis Of Form, Notation, And Performance Practice Of Barrios’S Work To Traditional Chilean Cuecas From The Beginning Of The Twentieth-Century, Enrique Sandoval-Cisternas

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Agustin Barrios's guitar music has become increasingly popular over the last forty years. After his death, a revival of interest in his compositions began in the 1970s, motivated by a series of publications and recordings of his music by important guitar performers at that time. The most important of these recordings came from the Australian guitar performer John Williams, who was interviewed in 1976 by ABC Television Australia for a film about the Paraguayan composer. The next year, Williams recorded a collection of fifteen works in his album John Williams-Barrios: John Williams Plays the Music of Agustín Barrios Mangoré. …

A Glance At Astor Piazzolla's Histoire Du Tango: Lecture Recital, Elizabeth Ritter

Honors Projects

This project is a lecture recital including the performance of four musical works from different countries as well as a lecture Astor Piazzolla's Histoire Du Tango. The four pieces performed in this recital were Eldin Burton's Sonatina for flute and piano, the first movement of Astor Piazzolla's Histoire Du Tango, Hirota's Shikararete, and Bela Bartok's Romanian Folk Dances for piccolo and piano. Before performing the Piazzolla, there was a lecture which included the teaching of the musical aspects of the tango within this piece, a short biography of Piazzolla, and a historical look at the four movements of this piece. …

A Model For Patron-Driven Acquisition Of Print Music Scores: From Conception To Reality, Alan Asher, Trey Shelton, Jason Heckathorn, Aimee Barrett

Charleston Library Conference

This paper and presentation will explore the process of developing a unique patron-driven acquisition program for print music scores and monographs from concept to reality at an American Association of Research Libraries institution. Areas to be discussed include collection development considerations, information technology infrastructure needs, acquisitions workflows, and plan evaluation. The paper and the presentation will examine how partnering with a vendor to implement an innovative collection development plan can support the needs of the library users and the goals of library collection development officers and increase access to music scores and monographs in a fiscally responsible way. Readers can …

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 …

Inculturation Of Liturgical Music In The Roman Catholic Church Of Igbo Land: A Compositional Study, Benedict Nwabugwu Agbo

Journal of Global Catholicism

A study of inculturation, composition and music among Catholics in Igboland, Nigeria. The article insects with contemporary discussions of inculturation/enculturation after Vatican II and the recommendation of St. John Paul II in his Ecclesia in Africa.

The Story And The Song: Examining Worship In The Tabernacle In Relation To The Gospel And Postmodern Evangelism, Debra Wilcox

Masters Theses

By examining tabernacle worship and its connection to the Gospel, worship leaders may find effective lyrical contexts for reaching the post-modern unbeliever. The priestly responsibility of the worship leader is to carry out the job description of helping people to worship God. As worship leaders select music for worship, they should take the opportunity to teach context and select songs that have parallels to tabernacle worship. In example, the significance of “entering into” worship is a reference to the high priest entering into the Most Holy Place. Worship pastors can approach the task of connecting postmodernists to God by examining …

“Ain’T It A Pretty Night?”: An Analysis Of Carlisle Floyd’S Susannah As An Allegory For The Socio-Political Culture Of The United States In The 1950s, Melissa L. Allen

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This capstone thesis discusses the applicability of Carlisle Floyd’s 1955 opera, Susannah, as an allegory for the socio-political climate of the United States in the 1950s. In order to do so, a musical analysis of the opera’s score was then performed for its use of folk song conventions and verismo operatic conventions. The libretto was analyzed for the use of social conventions of Southern Appalachia. Characters actions and musical content were then judged on whether (1) their actions were in line with the social conventions of traditional Appalachian culture and (2) if their musical content used/reflected conventions of traditional Appalachian …

Worship Renewal Through Discipleship: How Discipleship And Mission Affects Our Worship, Kevin Haglund

Masters Theses

Numerous articles, blogs, and books have been written in recent years about the lessening of congregational participation in singing and many have called for a renewal of worship and changes in worship practice within the church. Yet, most of the solutions offered are aimed at bettering what happens inside the worship event—singing songs with more theologically rich lyrics, incorporating more scripture and prayer, striving for more creative ways to engage the congregation, more resources and training for worship leaders, and many other valuable ideas. As excellent as those solutions may be, they are incomplete unless we also focus on that …

Love Sick The Musical - A Reflection Of My Undergraduate Studies, William Kelly

Senior Theses

No abstract available

The Idiosyncratic Language Of Brazilian Music: Strategies For Performing Villa-Lobos Choros No. 10, Dennis Paz Leoni

Dissertations

Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Choros No. 10 is a composition with many cultural and symbolic inclusions. This work seeks to support a conductor’s informed performance of the piece by providing historical and technical context from the conductor’s life and influences. The first section examines the ethnographic and sociopolitical factors in Brazil during the conductor’s life, and then the personal influences on Villa-Lobos’ career, in order to establish the foundation for a section-by-section analysis of the work which illuminates the idiosyncratic nature of the composer’s masterpiece.

A Study For Training And Building Up Worship Leaders For Spiritual Maturity And Revival In South Korea, Kyuhyuk Lee

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Worship leaders have become important ministers in worship since the 1990s in South Korea. However, South Korean churches rarely train and build up worship leaders because of the lack of recognition of the importance and expertise about worship leading. They have a false belief that the only role of worship leaders is to lead worship with musical skills. The purpose of this thesis project is to help worship leaders and their congregations to worship God correctly by presenting the concept and necessity for God-centered worship and principles for spiritually mature worship leaders. This study will examine the Bible and literature …

The Romanian Church Musician: Biblical Foundations For Training Musicians To Serve The Romanian Evangelical Church, Gary Mathena

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Emanuel University of Oradea, Romania, was founded in 1986 as an underground training school for pastors and missionaries during the brutal regime of communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. In December of 1989, Ceaușescu’s government was overthrown. The new democratic government not only officially recognized the school (then the Baptist Biblical Institute) as a theological seminary, but also commissioned the institution to train teachers for the newly emerging, publicly funded religious schools being established across the country. The school accepted that mandate and in 1998 changed its name to Emanuel University of Oradea. The music program began in those early days for …

Relational Power, Music, And Identity: The Emotional Efficacy Of Congregational Song, Nathan Myrick

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Relational Power, Music, and Identity: The Emotional Efficacy of Congregational Song

The power of congregational song to unify (or divide) people along various lines is well documented. Yet, how this process of uniting or dividing is accomplished has proven necessarily difficult to document. This paper examines the complex and polyvalent factors that contribute to the meaningfulness of congregational music making, seeking to offer a synthetic, conceptual framework with which to engage this often murky milieu.

Employing interdisciplinary research techniques drawn from sociology, ritual studies, and ethnomusicology, I construct a conceptual framework with which to understand the profoundly formative power of …

Redefining The Performance Degree Curriculum For The Crossover Saxophonist, Ian M. Cruz

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Many collegiate saxophone performance degree programs are overwhelmingly classical, adopting from other performance programs in the Western music tradition. However, there is a growing number of saxophone compositions that are “crossover” in nature. Crossover is a term used to describe the fusion of popular music styles in a classical setting. There is also evidence that collegiate music education as a whole is moving towards a more diverse curriculum, which emphasizes ethnomusicology. Due to this trend in composition and education, it is becoming increasingly important that saxophonists have the training of both classical and jazz disciplines.

The problem is that while …

The Rhythm And Blues (R&B) Protest Songs Of The Civil Rights Movement: Outlining The Natural Alignment Between The Foundational R&B Recordings Artists And The African-American Church During The Movement, Michelee Jones

Masters Theses

This study examines the R&B protest songs performed during the Civil Rights Movement and outlines their stories and musical characteristics for the purposes of highlighting a natural alignment that existed between several of the R&B recording artists that laid the foundations of R&B music and the agendas of the African-American church during the Civil Rights Movement. This study includes lyric and music analyses of some of the more popular R&B songs released during the Civil Rights Movement between 1960-1968 in which these analyses are compared with one another to form some general themes as to how these songs outlined the …

Choros N. 10 By Heitor Villa-Lobos: Analyzing The Themes And Compositional Techniques Of Brazilian Modernism, Andre Oliveira Campos-Neto

Master's Theses

Heitor Villa-Lobos (b. March 5, 1887 - d. November 17, 1959) can be considered the most important composer in Brazilian music history. Although the composer is listed as one of the most influential composers in the history of the guitar, he reached his peak in his works for piano and symphonic groups. Works such as A Prole do Bebê (1 and 2), and the series of Chôros, came out during an extremely convoluted time, where Brazilian artists engaged in seeking an artistic representation of a unique Brazilian identity. Those works not only satisfied the hunger, but pushed the movement …

A Comparative History And The Importance Of Chamber Music, Aaron M. Sacks

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone presentation focuses on the role of chamber music in both social and academic contexts. Using examples from the past five centuries and including local examples, parallels and divergences are drawn to points of most import. The spotlight is upon three areas: a) what the role of chamber music was in the past, compared to today; b) why it is an important genre, to both musicians, as well as non-musicians, and c) in what ways more exposure to the form can be built. Much of the focus is on composers and their influence, but the impact of and upon …

Choral Theatre, Albert Joseph Wolfe Jr.

Dissertations

Jamaica gained its independence from Great Britain in 1962, after some 300 years of colonization. Prior to Independence, the standard arts education curriculum was decidedly British and Western European. That which was labeled Caribbean or Jamaican “folk” by the British was deemed inferior and was not taught, demonstrated, or performed in formal settings. Thus, generations of Jamaicans never observed or imagined a Caribbean aesthetic in the visual and performing arts. Instead, pre-Independence Jamaicans were taught British and Western European music and performed it the “British” way.

Today, Jamaicans boast a number of artistic developments that are instantly recognized across the …

Program Notes And Translations, Kelly Frailly

Honors Projects

This project consists of program notes about sixteen pieces of music that I publically performed on April 10th, 2016. These notes are comprised of research done about each piece on the program, its composer, the history of the era in which the song or aria was composed, and an analysis of the text. The pieces ranged from Baroque operatic arias all the way to twenty-first century musical theater works. I have also included translations of all of the foreign language pieces.

The Gĩkũyũ Mũtũrĩrũ: Preserving A Piece Of Kenya's Agrarian Past Through Flute Music, Jennifer Larue

Masters Theses

The Agĩkũyũ people of Kenya are one of the largest people groups in Kenya. However, systematic repression of Gĩkũyũ culture led to many traditional elements being forgotten, put aside, if not lost completely. The mũtũrĩrũ, a bark flute used when herding and in certain ritual dances, was one such element. The mũtũrĩrũ was initially a temporary instrument, which evolved into more permanent bamboo versions. These may have between two and six finger holes. Another version, called a "spider web mũtũrĩrũ" has no finger holes but has a paper membrane over one end to create a buzzing timbre effect. Research was …

Missa Yielu: Music In The Dagara Mass, Karin Rau

Masters Theses

This paper explores the music of Dagara Masses in Ghana. The Dagara people are defined and described according to the geography of their land and linguistic dialects spoken in the region. A discussion of cultural indicators highlights traditional occupations, family structure, and social practices. Dagara musical practices are outlined by function and include descriptions of instruments and how they are played. Examination of indigenous religious beliefs describe the behaviors, values, and symbols that permeate Dagara life. A summary of the Dagara's encounter with Christianity sets the scene for present-day celebrations of the Mass. Through observation and interview, research was conducted …

2017 Call For Submissions, Regennia N. Williams

The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs

No abstract provided.

Bill Monroe And Czech Bluegrassers: Imagination And The Production Of Place In Music, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

Journal Summary: Bluegrass and Old Time Country Music: Buried Roots is a collection of articles by noted country music scholars Wayne Daniel, James Akenson, Gregory Hansen and Lee Bidgood. This is a special publication of the International Country Music Journal, an extension of the International Country Music Conference held annually at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Their Meister's Voice: Nazi Reception Of Richard Wagner And His Works In The Völkischer Beobachter, David B. Dennis

History: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A detailed examination of Richard Wagner's reception in Nazi Germany.

Diva Diversity: National Vocal Schools And Qualities, Emma Plotnik

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Hearing the term “opera singer” for many triggers an image of a German dramatic soprano bearing viking horns and powerfully bursting into a high C. Yet, what is it that perpetuates this stereotype that German singers possess weighty instruments with dark timbres? Why are classically trained North American vocal students told by their teachers to sing lightly and delicately when performing French mélodie, and not any other genre?

Research in vocal pedagogy has demonstrated that singers from particular regions have been typified by their vocal qualities in terms of size and color. These qualities by nation mainly stem from contrasting …

Czech Bluegrass In Play, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

Drawing from scholarship on play, ritual, and performance, I propose that Czech bluegrass thrives – as does my fieldwork – in a state of in-betweenness, in a territory that is between work, play, here and there, self and other. Being comfortable with this kind of in-between state is important for fieldwork, and for music-making – play, I find, is both a central activity and metaphor in both. The bluegrass play I discuss in this essay can become a response to the encroachment of Americanization in economic and cultural globalization, but also a way of being “Americanist” – and entirely Czech.

Review Of The Original Carolina Chocolate Drops: Giddons, Rhiannon. 2015. Tomorrow Is My Turn; Flemons, Dom. 2015. Prospect Hill; And Robinson, Justin. 2012. Bones For Tinder, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, and Justin Robinson met at the Black Banjo Gathering at Appalachian State University in 2005. Inspired by this meeting in Appalachia, the trio worked to connect the legacy of Cumberland Plateau fiddler Howard Armstrong (of the 1920s band the Tennessee Chocolate Drops) with musical material they learned from their mentor, North Carolina Piedmont fiddler Joe Thompson. As the Carolina Chocolate Drops (CCD), these musicians explored a variety of black string band traditions.

A Jamaican Voice: The Choral Music Of Noel Dexter, Desmond A. Moulton

Dissertations

As we approach the twenty-first century, the world generally is moving away from the dominance of the European aesthetic towards a world music that owes much to the musical resources of the African-American tradition. Jamaica’s social and philosophical music belong mainly to that tradition, which includes the use of rhythms, and timbral and melodic resources that exist independently of harmony. Already in this century, Jamaicans have created two totally new music - Nyabinghi, which performs a philosophical function and Reggae, which performs a social function. The choral music of Noel Dexter is important because it is uniquely Jamaican/Caribbean in its …