Musicology Commons^™

“When White Men And Indians United Shall Praise:” Indigenous Inclusion In The Hartford Music Company, Savannah N. Skaggs

ATU Research Symposium

The Hartford Music Company and Institute of Hartford, Arkansas has attracted increasing academic interest, particularly within the last twenty years. This southern gospel music publishing company and singing school based in southern Sebastian County published a collection of shape note hymnals which boasted some of the genre’s most prolific literature. Though a growing number of Arkansans are learning that these gospel staples came from their own hill country, many do not realize that several of these songs were premiered by or recorded by Indigenous people. While this may not initially seem particularly impactful, this genre developed its own distinct identity …

Native American Choral Music: Strategies For Celebrating And Incorporating Music Of Indigenous People, Mary Ruth Young

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

*Language usage is fluid and evolving, representing past and present people groups. During my discussions with my Indigenous composer colleagues, I've found that they hold varying preferences regarding how they wish to be addressed and the terminology they prefer. Because of this, I use the terms Native, Native American, First Nations, Indigenous, American Indian, and First Peoples interchangeably.*

This document will discuss the historical exclusion of Native American music in the Western art forms, specifically the choral tradition, and provide solutions to incorporate it in modern choral performances. Considering first the wars, disease, displacement, colonization, and missionization, it is no …

Blending European And Latin Sounds: A Study Of French Horn Repertoire In Mexico, Aj Bernal

Theses and Dissertations--Music

As a first generation Mexican-American, it is crucial that I advocate and promote music of the culture I grew up in. This project aims to unearth Mexican compositional techniques that derive from the fusion of European and Indigenous roots in an effort to promote diversity within the realm of Western Classical music. Music in Mexico is characterized by a unique blend of indigenous rhythms, European classical structures, and regional folk influences. This project will discuss how the bold timbre of the French horn intertwines with traditional Mexican and indigenous melodies, rhythms, and forms that create a unique style. The horn’s …

(Special Section, Hymns Beyond The Congregation Ii): Spiritual Concert-Fundraisers, Singing Conventions, And Cherokee Language Learning Academies: Vernacular Southern Hymnbooks In Noncongregational Settings, Jesse P. Karlsberg, Kaylina M. Crawley, Sara S. Hopkins

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Noncongregational settings were integral to hymnody in the postbellum settler colonial context of the southern United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The incorporation of hymn singing into a wide range of noncongregational settings served Black, white, and Native populations in navigating unsettled racial dynamics during this period across the US South and its diasporas. This essay features three case studies examining hymn collections intended or repurposed for a range of noncongregational uses: spiritual collections connected with the performing ensembles of black institutions, a shape-note songbook that attempted to bridge singing convention and congregational contexts, and a …

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

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

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 …

(Special Section) Translating Race: Mission Hymns And The Challenge Of Christian Identity, Philip Burnett

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

“Ye seed of Israel’s chosen race,” “The race that long in darkness pined,” “To heal and save a race undone,” and “Sanctify a ransomed race” are a few examples of many references to “race” that exist in English-language hymnody. Throughout the nineteenth-century, hymns containing lines such as these, were exported from Britain into mission fields where translators had to find new ways to conceptualize notions of race and, in effect, created new group identities. This requires asking critical questions about the implications of what happened when ideas of race, in the Christian sense, interacted with non-religious notions of race in …

Give The Drummer Some: A Dive Into Drum Breaks And Drum Break Production, Kyle Kaldhusdal

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper traces the history of hip-hop culture through the evolution of the drum break, the original context of drum breaks in funk and soul music, their influence on DJ culture, and the subsequent impact of drum breaks on music and music production. It follows the development of breakbeat compilations in the 1970s and 1980s, parallel to the development of turntablism and sampling techniques. It also examines in detail how copyright litigation in the 1990s shaped the development of sample-based music genres and created a niche market for originally-recorded drum breaks over the subsequent decades.

Ethics In Kakadu (1988): Finding Djilile’S “True Tracks”, Natasia T. Boyko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tasmanian-born Peter Sculthorpe (1929 – 2014) was one of Australia’s most iconic modernist classical composers of the twentieth century. Kakadu (1988) seems to have sparked the most controversy of Sculthorpe’s works and has become one of his most well-known pieces. In the program notes provided in the score’s foreword, Sculthorpe asserts that “the melodic material in Kakadu, as in much of my recent music, was suggested by the contours and rhythms of Aboriginal chant.” Sculthorpe attributed this melodic material to the Arnem Land chant, Djilile. Consequently, Sculthorpe has been criticized for extracting Djilile from its authentic context as …

Dance Experience Affects Tempo Perception, Jasmine Xu, Jordan E. Hayes, Cole Smithers, Jared Leslie

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

In music, the word “tempo” refers to the speed or pace of the music (the number of beats per minute, for example). Tempo is surprisingly subjective, given that beat perception depends on age and cultural experience. Other factors besides beat (like the density of events per unit time) might influence how fast or slow people dance to music. Certain styles of music afford different speeds of dance, even when their tempos are the same.

Colorism And Its Affects In R&B Music: Annotated Bibliography, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

This is an annotated bibliography of some of the sources that I will be using for my research paper due next quarter.

Listen To The River: Dolores, Ophelia, And Female Resistance In Opera, Daniel Aaron Barnidge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The music of female characters in the great masterpieces of opera often demonstrates resistance to and undermines the abuse they have historically received in opera plots. The Mexican folktale that my opera, The Tragedy of La Llorona, draws inspiration from plays on many of the same tropes historically found in female characters in opera including madness, sexuality, and lack of agency. This led to research into the portrayal of women in opera as part of my pre-compositional process and my desire to access this tale free from the traditional 'marianismo' and 'machismo' narratives it is associated with and which …

2nd Funk Symposium: Selected Proceedings, 2021, Sharon Davis Gratto

Content Presented at the First and Second Dayton Funk Symposia

This is a printed proceedings of symposium presentations by authors who elected to submit them. They are available free for download, but printed volumes are available for $6 plus tax and shipping.

King Behind Colonial Curtains: Kasilag And The Making Of Filipino National Culture, Paul Gabriel L. Cosme

International Studies Honors Projects

Filipino National Artist Lucrecia “King” Kasilag sought to preserve folk cultures and melded these with her Western training to produce works—scholarly, pedagogical, and compositional—that shaped national music and culture. This thesis is a critical biography that combines perspectives from postcolonial studies, political economy, and musicology to highlight forces that shaped Kasilag’s life while illustrating her successes and shortcomings on national culture. Through this biography, I argue, Filipino national culture must originate from intersectional struggles and negotiation among elites and masses; that this culture is about both resistance and acceptance—a national culture that is syncretic and quintessentially dynamic.

Intro To Jazz, Jon De Lucia

Open Educational Resources

OER Based Syllabus for MUS 145 Intro to Jazz course at City College. Covers the history and development of jazz along with basic music fundamental vocabulary.

There’S A Whole Lotta Rhythm Goin’ Round: How Funk Shaped U.S. Copyright, Katherine Leo

Content Presented at the First and Second Dayton Funk Symposia

Rooted in stylized grooves and lineages of musical borrowing, funk can often seem to exist at the periphery of copyright protection. Its influence on Hip-Hop and R&B, particularly through collage techniques involving digital samples, contributed to a rise in the early twenty-first century of infringement disputes. How have these cases shaped copyright protection of music? After a gloss of federal copyright law, this presentation surveys landmark lawsuits involving funk songs and their impact on later cases. Through its interdisciplinary investigation, this presentation reveals how funk cases proved that musical style offers critical context to legal evaluations of musical similarity and …

Pour Some Water On Me: Prince And The Ohio Players, De Angela Duff

Content Presented at the First and Second Dayton Funk Symposia

In Prince’s incomplete and posthumous memoir, The Beautiful Ones, The Ohio Players is referenced four times. However, Prince’s love of The Ohio Players was evident, decades before the release of this book. Prince has covered Ohio Players’ classics, such as “Skin Tight,” “I Want To Be Free,” “Love Rollercoaster,” and “Heaven Must Be Like This,” in numerous rehearsals, shows, and after shows over the years. However, The Ohio Players are rarely discussed by music critics as one of Prince’s influences. This presentation will attempt to deconstruct why, while also exploring Prince’s funk roots and influences.

Funk Pedagogy: An Ethnographic, Historical, And Practical Study Of Funk Music In Dayton, Ohio, Caleb Vanden Eynden

Content Presented at the First and Second Dayton Funk Symposia

This presentation will discuss an honors thesis research project completed as an undergraduate music student at the University of Dayton. Titled “Traditional Funk: An Ethnographic, Historical, and Practical Study of Funk Music in Dayton, Ohio,” the thesis explores traditional funk style, Dayton’s musical history, and how funk music can be incorporated into music programs and curricula across Dayton area schools. During his student teaching semester, Vanden Eynden had an opportunity to teach a unit on Dayton funk to students at Springboro High School. This presentation will explore some of the findings from this project and share ideas for its future …

Land Of Funk Art, Morris Howard

Content Presented at the First and Second Dayton Funk Symposia

The Funk Mural on Land of Funk Way in Dayton was completed in 2018. There are, however, a few other artistic tributes to some of our Dayton Funk heroes, including the metal statue tribute to Roger Troutman and a mural to the Dayton Funk bands located on Germantown Street. Although these are just a few examples here in Dayton, there are also many images of "funk art" all over the world.

"My Name Is Prince, And I Am Funky!" Prince’S Funk And How He Helped Bring It To A New (Power) Generation, Andrea Foy

Content Presented at the First and Second Dayton Funk Symposia

Throughout his career, Prince Rogers Nelson crossed many genres, pop, rock, punk, R&B, jazz, soul, and funk. He created funky jams from Erotic City to Housequake to Musicology. This presentation addresses an understudied and essential fact that Prince Rogers Nelson is funky. This presentation will outline his contribution to the funk genre through a study of his collaboration with funk legends, including The Time, George Clinton, Sly & The Family Stone, Larry Graham and Maceo Parker, Chaka Khan, Mavis Staples, and Rick James.

Funk And The Defunct Music Curriculum, Ed Sarath

Content Presented at the First and Second Dayton Funk Symposia

What, if any, is the place of funk in a 21st century music curriculum in America? This talk responds to this question by situating funk with the context of what Jeff Pressing, in a seminal essay, calls “Black Atlantic Rhythm” (BAR). Pressing’s heading refers to the multitudinous and massively prominent body of rhythmic languages and practices that originated in Africa and took hold, and further evolved, through its various musical diasporas. I view Funk and Black Atlantic Rhythm as part of what I call “21st century” common practice rhythmic literacy, which I argue to exceed in importance Eurocanonic common practice …

Keynote Address — Funk And Afro Futurism: The Past, Present, And Future Of The Funk, Frederick Vincent

Content Presented at the First and Second Dayton Funk Symposia

Dr. Frederick “Rickey” Vincent is author of the award-winning Funk: The Music, the People and the Rhythm of The One (1996), the first definitive treatment of funk music and culture. His address addresses:

• Liberation in the Moment: Other Worlds and Black Liberation (from Soul Train to “Wakanda Forever”)
• The Rhythm Revolution: Liberation, Motion, and Black Identity (JB and The One)
• Transcendence: The Higher Plane of the Funk Groove (Sly and the body/mind/spirit unification)
• The Collective: Tribalism in a Post-Industrial World (Funk blends genres, blends cultures as long as it’s “On the One”)
• The Epic: P-Funk Earth Tour and Beyond (The …

Program: 2021 Dayton Funk Symposium And Line Dance Party, University Of Dayton

Content Presented at the First and Second Dayton Funk Symposia

Program includes a welcome from Sharon Davis Gratto, Graul Chair in Arts and Languages; a schedule of presentations; and biographies of presenters, performers, and panelists.

“It’S War That's Cruel”: The Evolution Of Wartime Representation And ‘The Other’ In The American Musical, Leana Sottile

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

Musical theater has historically been a venue for Americans to come to terms with our past and present on both a national and an individual level as it stages and restages war mythology on the Broadway Stage. As the nation has won, lost, and abandoned foreign conflicts, the connotation, remembrance, and commemoration of war in American memory has shifted from romanticizing former conflicts to renegotiating their memory. Thus, this project examines how twentieth-century war memory is represented in the American musical, starting in the 1940s and continuing up to the present day. To do so, the phenomenon will be examined …

Using Big Data To Facilitate A Lyrical Analysis Of Poetry And Rap, Remington Yve Giller

English Undergraduate Distinction Projects

Poetry and rap are dissected using text mining techniques in order to determine overall trends in the words used by both. With this data, the way in which ideas and concepts are expressed can be compared and contrasted as a way of showing the legitimacy of rap as a form of literary expression. Other topics within the paper are: a background of the history of rap and the digital humanities, and an example of a close reading featuring a medieval poem and a rap by Eminem. This demonstrates how even in a traditional way of handling texts, both poetry and …

O Tonalismo Como Força Colonizadora Na África, Kofi Agawu, José H. Padovani

Publications and Research

Resumo do tradutor: No ensaio, Kofi Agawu aborda a relação entre o tonalismo – entendido como “sistema hierarquicamente organizado de relações entre alturas” – e a música africana. A partir de diferentes exemplos e em diálogo com contribuições dos estudos decoloniais e da etnomusicologia, Agawu desenvolve uma interpretação crítica que busca compreender como aspectos da imaginação musical africana responderam à violência colonial imposta a partir de uma linguagem harmônica estrangeira. Após três momentos, em que busca respectivamente expor (1) aspectos do tonalismo na música africana da atualidade, (2) aspectos do pensamento tonal africano pré-colonial e (3) elaborações composicionais de criadores …

Ethnic Irony In Melvin B. Tolson's "Dark Symphony", Elizabeth Newton

Publications and Research

This article historicizes musical symbolism in Melvin B. Tolson’s poem “Dark Symphony” (1941). In a time when Black writers and musicians alike were encouraged to aspire to European standards of greatness, Tolson’s Afro-modernist poem establishes an ambivalent critical stance toward the genre in its title. In pursuit of a richer understanding of the poet’s attitude, this article situates the poem within histories of Black music, racial uplift, and white supremacy, exploring the poem’s relation to other media from the Harlem Renaissance. It analyzes the changing language across the poem’s sections and, informed by Houston A. Baker Jr.’s study of “mastery …

Ja Rusyn Byl (I Am Rusyn): Household Folk Music As Resistance To Oppression, Spencer Mcneill

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

The Rusyns are a people indigenous to the Carpathian Mountains and its surrounding areas. Despite attempts by the Ukrainian government and surrounding nations to silently erase Rusyn culture from history, the Rusyn people have a distinct identity independent from that of any bordering nation. This unique identity is best outlined through Rusyn folk songs which depict pastoral images of the Carpathian homeland and patriotic tales of Rusyn ancestry. Much work to date has already been done documenting post Velvet Revolution revival of Rusyn culture. Because of this, I will instead focus on the lesser-known time prior and leading up to …

Songs Of The Sea And The Sailor: Demystifying The Mythology Of British Sailing Culture, Henry Strobel

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

Sea shanties have generally been accepted as the main relic of the culture of British sailors: a mythology that permeates the 19th and 20th century describing the harsh, unforgiving and yet in many ways romanticized life at sea. The repertoire of this time was eventually written down and catalogued by folk music collectors such as Cecil J. Sharp, who were hoping to record and preserve the British identity for generations to come. However, in researching the etymology of these songs as well as the first-hand accounts of sailors, there is a significantly greater layer of complexity to this history than …

Songs For High Voice: An Annotated Guide To African Romances, Op. 17 By Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Makeda Danielle Hampton

Theses and Dissertations--Music

African Romances, Op. 17, composed in 1897 by African-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), is a collection of seven songs for high voice that is uniquely both African and American. The lyrics of this song cycle were first published in the book Majors and Minors, a collection of poems published in 1895 by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906).

An analysis of resources supports that academic discourse in Black vocal music has been underrepresented due to the absence of centralized information, such as published scores, recorded materials, catalogs, and guides for study and performance. While in depth research focusing on the art …

Lives In Musicology: My Life In Writings, Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

Responding to an invitation from the editors of Acta Musicologica to tell the story of his life in musicology, Kofi Agawu describes his upbringing and early education in Ghana and his university studies in the UK and the US. In a career focused on teaching, research, and writing, he outlines a number of intellectual projects involving the analysis of African and European music. He ends by acknowledging renewed discussions of race and identity in the musical academy today, and hints at his own growing interest in African art music.