Musicology Commons^™

Fiddle Songs And Banjo Songs: A Description Index, Gilbert Wayne Howard

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

English-language texts associated with fiddle and banjo in the southern United States are described and then indexed for comparative reference. The fiddle songs are typically humorous, very brief, highly variable and disunified. The same is true of many banjo songs associated with the banjo. Ballads in the fiddle and the banjo repertory are not indexed if previously catalogued by Child or Laws.

Fiddle and banjo songs are defined as texts associated with fiddle or banjo playing, either through instrumental accompaniment or because informants mentally associate them with the fiddle or banjo. Various ways of performing the songs are enumerated, with …

Home, Loved Ones & Heaven: Folk Expressin In The Songs Of Katherine O'Neill Peters Sturgill, George Reynolds

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Formation, expression, and function of world view were examined in the life and compositions of folk musician, Katherine O'Neill Peters Sturgill. It was seen that the institutions of home, loved ones, and heaven were dominant themes in the formation of her world view. When twenty-two of Kate's gospel and sentimental song compositions were examined for thematic content, they were found to reflect the predominant formative influences in Kate's life. An interpretive model was developed showing home, loved ones, and heaven to be unified themes in a concept of sacred order--a concept which stood to oppose and defend against the banal …

They Like To Sing The Old Songs: The A.L. Phipps Family & Its Music, David Taylor

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

An ethnographic study of the musical traditions of the A. L. Phipps Family, of Barbourville, Kentucky, reveals various social forces which have affected the family's repertoire and performance career. A life history of the family, compiled from extensive fieldwork, is presented along with analyses of the Phippses' secular music, sacred songs, and their performance career. The family is clearly representative of the musical traditions of the upland South, drawing its music from sources common to most white Appalachian singers. A discography of the Phipps Family's recordings is included along with a selection of photographs highlighting their life and performance career.

If I'D Been Polish, I Guess I'D Be Playing Polkas: An Examination Of The Social Contexts Of Traditional Irish Music In Rochester, New York, George Stoner

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Anthropologists, folklorists and popular writers have, in general, neglected to describe. the social contexts in which traditional Irish music is played. Although the dance was probably the most important context for traditional Irish music in Rochester, as elsewhere in the United States and Ireland, interest among Irish-born Americans and Irish- Americans in traditional dancing has waned. At present, the most important social contexts for Irish music in Rochester are the session, the Feis, and various representational contexts. The session is by far the most important, and has developed as interest in the dance has declined. Unlike the dance, it is …

Courtly Love Elements In The Child Ballads: A Study In Origins, Fannie Lewis

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The traditional ballad, the genre of the above poetry, has been a subject of much controversy and speculation, especially regarding its origin. The problem of origin is not likely to be solved unless much more evidence is found. Among the many theories are communal authorship, and individual poet; humble and oral origin, and sophisticated and literary origin. Studies of linguistics, of ballad refrain, and of carole continue the attempt to discover ballad genesis. However, a very different approach perhaps can be used to determine the origin of some ballads, particularly the romantic ballads; that approach is to use the courtly …