Music Performance Commons^™

The Changed Woman: Analyzing Narrative Parallels In The Stories Of Biblical Women And Musical Theatre Heroines, Finleigh Klein

Honors Projects

Musical theatre has become popular with audiences around the world. Many musicals contain stories of hope and overcoming obstacles, especially in narratives concerning young women. Since the Bible also contains a wealth of stories that focus on strong women, it is interesting to consider what connections may be found between the women represented in this ancient text and the female characters in various musical theatre productions.

With these potential connections in mind, I ask the question: how is the Biblical trope of the uplifting of women represented in songs sung by female characters in musical theatre? Furthermore, how can the …

Developing Christian Artists: The Live Music Sphere, Camille Crites

Student Scholar Symposium

Christian/Gospel music was the fourth-fastest growing music genre in 2024, and many artists are seeking to enter the Christian music industry. This research seeks to examine the exploration of live music opportunities for Christian music artists in the developing stages of their careers. Every musical artist’s career consists of about five sectors: Songwriting/Publishing, Recording/Releasing Music, Live Music, Merch, and Sync (Film/TV). While parts like Songwriting and Recording are very accessible for new Christian artists, it can be challenging to know how to best approach the Live Music sector, one of the major sources of income for any performing artist. There …

Between Sound And Theology: Timbral Performativity In Brazilian Religious Musicking, Marcell Silva Steuernagel

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

This article explores the performativity of timbre, summarizing key perspectives from the English-language scholarship on the topic and setting them in conversation with Latin American perspectives on timbre. In addition, it examines a performance of “500 Graus” (500 degrees), a song performed by Brazilian Pentecostal artists Cassiane and Shirley Carvalhaes, to demonstrate how the performativity of timbre unfolds within a particular expression of Latin American religious musicking. In doing so, it investigates the phenomenon of timbre between music and sound studies, and theology and church music studies, providing insights relevant to the study of timbre and the study of religious …

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 …

Salve Regina: Organ Devotionals To The Blessed Virgin Mary: A Graduate Organ Recital, Caleb R. Klinzing

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

This thesis is a Graduate Organ Recital with accompanying program notes on the pieces performed. The program notes include composer biographies, formal analyses of the works, and discussions of performance practice concerns. The recital explores the rich tradition of Marian devotional music and features works by Jehan Titelouze (1562–1633), J.S. Bach (1685–1750), Charles-Marie Widor (1844–1937), Charles Tournemire (1870–1939), and Marcel Dupré (1886–1971).

Creed And Variations: Tracing The Divergence Of Christian Traditions In Select Piano Works Of Arvo Pärt, Olivier Messiaen, And J. S. Bach, Rebekah E. Stiles

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

Within the classical music universe, the works of J. S. Bach, Olivier Messiaen, and Arvo Pärt stand apart as particularly evocative of the divine. Much has been written on these three men’s integration of faith with musical practice, exploring how their music is not only spiritual in nature but distinctly Christian. But in comparing the three, one encounters deeply rooted distinctions between their religious worldviews, a distinction not only found in their personal testimonies but actually heard in their music. Their compositional languages reflect three traditions: Protestantism (specifically Lutheranism), represented by Bach; Roman Catholicism, represented by Messiaen; and Eastern Orthodoxy, …

A Survey Of And Performance Guide To Representative Flute Music By Two Twentieth-Century Serbian Composers: Ljubica Marić And Enriko Josif, Sanda Mašić

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

Flute pieces by twentieth-century Serbian composers Ljubica Marić and Enriko Josif are little-known gems of modern repertoire that are almost completely unknown outside Serbia. Unique in their styles, these works illustrate the composers’ close relationship to the Serbian culture in which they lived and the religions they practiced. In addition, these works reflect the time they were created in, and are, therefore, modern with a distinctive sound. This document presents a study of seven selected flute works by these two important Serbian composers, places them in historical context, and reveals influences from both Serbian religious music (Orthodox and Jewish) and …

Ilc Psalm Projects, Carolyn M. Totaro

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Each group will present an exegesis of their chosen psalm, a historical background of the musical setting of the psalm, a biography of the composer, a discussion of the musical elements in the setting, and a performance of their own arrangement.

Music In The Catholic Church: An Analysis Of Hymns And Congregational Singing In Roman Catholic Churches In The United States, Andrew T. Medrick

Senior Theses

This thesis examines the musical dilemma in the American Catholic Church, highlighting issues such as inappropriate musical selections for the Mass and a profound lack of congregational singing. Through a literature review of Vatican documents, expert opinions, and hymns, I analyze the criteria for music used in the Mass, identify common failures of musical selections presented in many Catholic churches, and offer practical guidance to improve sacred music in parishes and dioceses. I conclude that music used in the Mass must be sourced primarily from Sacred Scripture, in full conformity to the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, and easy …

Who Is Allowed To Compose Catholic Church Music? Ferdinand Hiller's Insightful Report On The Sacred-Music Competition In Louvain (1866), Jürgen Thym, Ralph P. Locke

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

In 1866, a competition was held in Louvain (Belgium) for a new setting of the Latin Mass text; the aim was that the winning piece be accessible in style and require only choir and organ. The jury included, among others, the composers Berlioz, Saint-Saëns, and Ferdinand Hiller; the lexicographer Fétis; and Joseph d’Ortigue, music critic for the Journal des débats, editor of Le Ménestrel, and a prominent advocate for the regeneration of Catholic church music.

In 1880, Hiller—longtime director of the Cologne Conservatory—published an essay describing the competition in detail. His essay, never before translated or discussed, forms …

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 …

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 …

Hymns Of Babel: A Song Cycle Fmus Composition Project, Reed Spencer, Steven Day

Lux et Fides: A Journal for Undergraduate Christian Scholars

Hymns of Babel Research Brief

Over the course of the eight-week faculty mentorship undergraduate scholarship period, Dr. Reed Spencer and senior Steven Day composed a twelve-song cycle on the theme of Generation Z’s interaction with social media. This piece sought to articulate the thoughts, emotions, responses, and impulses that accompany the virtual world. Many of the songs explored where we find God in our social media age, as well as how we create gods, try to act as a god, and pretend there is no God. The collaborative process began by creating a rough lyrical structure and purpose, followed by …

The Blessed Assembly: Irreplaceable Physical Co-Presence In Worship And Healthy Hybridity Reimagined After The Pandemic In The Digital Age, Yvette, Ying Wai Lau

Doctor of Pastoral Music Projects and Theses

Because of the unprecedented and unexpected force of the pandemic since 2020, most churches around the world have experienced some online worship during the lockdown of their cities or the mandated closure of the church buildings. For many people, online worship seems to be an equivalent, if not better, alternative for gathering together—a physical co-presence in worship—even after the pandemic has ended. As necessary and vital as online worship experiences have been for Christians during the pandemic, the witness of the church from Pentecost throughout Christian history indicates that gathered worship in physical spaces is irreplaceable for faith formation and …

With Love, ; An Interdisciplinary And Intersectional Look At Why Creativity Is Essential, Theo Starr Gardner

Whittier Scholars Program

My Whittier Scholars Program self-designed major, Teaching Creativity, is a mixture of Art, Literature, and Education classes. My research and praxis classes have been focused on the ‘how?’s and 'why?’s of creativity, so it felt only right that my project should be a constructivist, generative project. The project I have been working on throughout my time at Whittier, and that has just fully come to fruition on April 11th, 2024, was a solo art gallery/open mic event entitled ‘With Love,’. With Love, was conceptually inspired by the research I’ve conducted on creativity and creative arts education over the past few …

Bedeviled Beauty: My Journey Through White American Theater Institutions, J'Aila C. Price

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Game console: Oculus Quest

World: American Theater Institutions

Player: Minority

Place: United States

Level: “Ain’t no way.”

This thesis explores the contrast between the Westernized philosophies ingrained in my education and my identity as a Black female artist. It sheds light on the difficulties of pursuing higher education in the arts and the gaps that arise from limited exposure to culturally diverse Black resources, revealing the systemic issues in Western performance education. The paper also discusses the insights gained from my journey as a Black female artist, focusing on my thesis performance of Blood at the Root, which is …

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 …

Christ Our Passover (Pascha Nostrum), Anthony Elia

Bridwell Library Research

Work was originally written for the Congregation of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer (Irving, TX) in 2021, but not completed till 2023. Given in honor of Canon Victoria Heard's Distinguished Service and Retirement in Spring 2023. (9 pages). [Based off of texts from 1 Corinthians and Romans].

Tracking The Harmonium From Christian Missionary Hymns To Sikh Kirtan, Gurminder Kaur Bhogal

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The harmonium is prominent in Sikh practices of devotional music known as kirtan and yet its significance has barely been addressed in Euro-American scholarship. Following on the heels of a recent ban against using the instrument at the holiest temple of the Sikhs, Harmandir Sahib (popularly known as the Golden Temple), this article explores how the ban seeks to discard this colonial instrument and return to playing traditional string instruments (tanti saz) associated with the courts (darbar) of the Sikh Gurus. This study is the first to examine primary missionary sources from the nineteenth and early …

Ritual, Spectacle, And Theatre In Late Medieval Seville (Chapter 1), Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

From the fall of Islamic Išbīliya in 1248 to the conquest of the New World, Seville was a nexus of economic and religious power where interconfessional living among Christians, Jews, and Muslims was negotiated on public stages. From out of seemingly irreconcilable ideologies of faith, hybrid performance culture emerged in spectacles of miraculous transformation, disciplinary processionals, and representations of religious identity. Ritual, Spectacle, and Theatre in Late Medieval Seville reinvigorates the study of medieval Iberian theater by revealing the ways in which public expressions of devotion, penance, and power fostered cultural reciprocity, rehearsed religious difference, and ultimately helped establish Seville …

From A Humble Cry To A Holy Chaconne: The Background, Analysis, And Performance Guide To Chaconne For Tokkae, Op. 96 By M. W. Johann Kim, Jurang Kim

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The cries of animals have been used as motivic material in classical music literature throughout history. This project considers the Cambodian tocay gecko’s cry as the motif which embodies the harmonic structure in Chaconne for Tokkae for Violin and Piano, Op. 96 by Dr. Myung Whan Johann Kim. It reveals how Dr. Kim adapts unique compositional style and technique such as the bell harmony of Dr. Kurt Anton Hueber, to develop the theme into 39 colorful variations. The essential elements of the chaconne and the composer’s intentions are examined through personal interviews and correspondence with the composer. These elements are …

Sound Chapel, Anthony Elia

Bridwell Library Research

The idea of "Sound Chapel" liturgies, in the manner of matins or vespers, is that a chapel space is darkened with only the light of a single or several candles available. The organ shall play sustaining notes in various, slow, elongated and sustained ways, at the discretion of the organist. The piece shall create a meditative space with the music being of "piano" (p/pp/ppp) or quieter levels. Various "liturgies" are suggested by the composer below, but may be altered and done ad lib by the performer(s) as the tone or mood of the early morning or early evening "sound chapel" …

We Will Hold Onto You: The Liberating Power Of Music And Liturgy To Break Open The Stories Of Mental Illness In Communities Of Faith, Hillary Doerries

Doctor of Pastoral Music Projects and Theses

One in five people lives with a diagnosable mental health problem in any given year. Thus, the presence of mental illness already permeates faith communities. The church’s history with mental illness remains complicated, especially as some communities of faith continue to espouse negative lay theologies that are harmful and dismissive to people living with mental health problems. Guided by the tenants of liberation theology, this thesis argues that mental health justice is a part of God’s overarching justice intended for all creation. When we, as God’s people, encounter or observe injustice, it is our theological task to gather the weary, …

Chanting The Medicine Buddha Sutra: A Musical Transcription And English Translation Of The Medicine Buddha Service Of The Liberation Rite Of Water And Land At Fo Guang Shan Monastery, Jeffrey W. Cupchik

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

A book review is presented for Reed Criddle, ed., Chanting the Medicine Buddha Sutra: A Musical Transcription and English Translation of the Medicine Buddha Service of the Liberation Rite of Water and Land at Fo Guang Shan Monastery. Recent Researches in the Oral Traditions of Music 13. Philip V. Bohlman, general editor. Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2020. 77 pages.

Music Review: Deep Peace Songs / God Be In My Head, Angela Gorman

Pastoral Liturgy

No abstract provided.

Early Modern Scottish Metrical Psalmody: Origins And Practice, Timothy Duguid

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Non-literate societies are often dependent on music for transmitting news and ideas because of music’s ability to enhance memory. Sixteenth-century reformers were aware of this, but they had to compete with secular and Roman Catholic music that often contradicted Reformed doctrine. Highly influenced by the Strasbourg-based Martin Bucer and the writings of Saint Augustine, John Calvin insisted that Biblical Psalms, set in vernacular poetry, were most appropriate for both corporate worship and private devotion. The result was a series of metrical psalters that were intended to be performable by everyone. Some editions had explicitly liturgical designs, but most were intended …

Embracing Worship And Performance, Robson N. Galvao

Selected Honors Theses

Music is a very powerful tool. It is a very important part of the world around us. Some would even say that without it, life would not be the same. When it comes to church, it is not any different. Music plays a very large part of most church services today, whether that be having someone play a church organ in a more traditional church or by having a full worship band with lights and production in a more contemporary church. With that comes the issue of performance within the church music context. One of the biggest issues within the …

"I Can't Breathe": Toward A Pneumatology Of Singing And Missional Musicking For Racial Justice In Jacksonville, Florida, Thomas Shapard

Doctor of Pastoral Music Projects and Theses

This thesis develops a philosophy of musicking that intersects with missional ecclesiology and expands the role of music-making beyond the church walls. The central hypothesis assumes that predominantly white congregations in the Free Church tradition located in the southern United States incorporate ways of singing that reinforce, albeit inadvertently, attitudes toward others that buttress white ethnocentricity. Musical practices arising from a Western European heritage can promote cultural exclusivity as well as a perceived—yet false— sense of superiority. Is there an implicit theology of singing in white churches that engenders a culture of complicity and apathy in matters of racial injustice, …

01 Traditional Songs Introduction, William Donner

Sikaiana Traditional Songs

This is an introduction to Sikaiana songs. It includes a discussion of the social cultural context of song composition and singing. There is a discussion of the different features of song production and a list of different song genres. Most of the discussion is concerned with traditional song expression that are part of derived form changes associated with colonialism and modernization.