Musicology Commons^™

Philsongs: A Study Of Campfire Music Performed At Scouting America’S Philmont Scout Ranch (2014 To 2021), Ellyn Rager

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This dissertation focuses on Philmont Scout Ranch, a national Scouting America high adventure base in New Mexico and the largest youth camp in the world, arguing that music at Philmont serves as a cultural force that fosters an intensive communal bond among staff and campers by blending participatory and presentational music-making practices, while producing and reinforcing memories of Philmont through interpretive performances that negotiate the place’s historical narratives. Using surveys, interviews, and Thomas Turino’s framework of participatory and presentational music-making to interpret the author’s 100 hours of field recordings, this study examines aspects of Philmont’s musical habits between 2014 and …

The Essence Of The Heart: Layered Human Experience In Eva Jessye’S My Spirituals, Jessica Brunet

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Much of the spiritual repertory has been transcribed as documentation of purely melodic and lyrical content, and many songs have been arranged by some of the greatest figures in twentieth- and twenty-first century music history, including Harry T. Burleigh, Hall Johnson, Margaret Bonds, and Jacqueline B. Hairston. On this roster of luminaries is Dr. Eva Jessye (1895-1992).

If Eva Jessye is remembered at all, it is typically in the context of her role as choral director for the original production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (1935). Among a litany of other accomplishments, however, Dr. Jessye also published a collection of …

Belting In Musical Theatre: Vocal Pathologies, Injuries, And Pedagogical Implications, Kaylee Piatt

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Belting has become one of the most defining and contested vocal styles in contemporary musical theatre. Valued for its dramatic immediacy, speech-like intensity, and ability to cut through amplified orchestration, belting is frequently associated with heightened injury risk and pedagogical controversy. This thesis examines the relationship between belting, vocal pathology, and pedagogy through an interdisciplinary lens that integrates voice science, clinical literature, and professional performance practice. Rather than framing belting as an inherently harmful or stylistically aberrant technique, this study conceptualizes belting as a functional vocal coordination shaped by physiological mechanisms, cumulative vocal load, and occupational demands.

Drawing on existing …

Cantate Fratres: Forming And Sustaining Traditional Catholic Music, Liturgy And Culture In The Institute Of Christ The King Sovereign Priest, Reyers P. Brusoe

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest is an understudied member of the Traditional Catholic and Latin Mass Communities whose unique approach to Catholic liturgy, culture, and formation offers a sustainable model for the Catholic Church's longevity and renewal. This study is the first of its kind, combining the theoretical positions of affect theory, ecomusicology/musical sustainability, and the musicology of religion to explore and explain the success of this growing classical community. This dissertation examines Church documents, theological literature, and multidisciplinary academic sources as a foundation for the study.             In studying the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, …

Minority In Baroque Trumpet Repertoire: Minor-Key Literature For Baroque Trumpet, Wing Heng Victor Yuen

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The repertoire for trumpet in the Baroque era is overwhelmingly in major keys for obvious reasons. As natural trumpet is limited by design to play the notes of the harmonic series, most players have little access to sonorities outside the major scale and arpeggios within the series without the help of technical innovations such as the slide, and much later, vent-holes. Baroque trumpet makers built valveless natural trumpets, which are limited by design to play the notes of the harmonic series. Since the fundamental physics limit the musical notes available to the natural trumpet, minor key is not an essentially …

Mediating Authenticity: An Ethnographic Portrait Of Experience At U.S. Popular Music Festivals, Elizabeth Navarra Varnado

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This ethnographic study of U.S. popular music festivals subverts the impression of festivals as strictly ‘presentational’ live music events by utilizing a nuanced approach that is grounded in ethnographic fieldwork, historical analysis, and participant interviews.

Interlocutors, drawn from the author’s personal network of festival attendees, musicians, and promoters, reflect on “particularly positive festival moments,” the social and emotional benefits of festivals, and the corporeality of festival aesthetics. Discourse and published media play a vital role in festival participants’ perception of the festival field and their place within it; therefore, this study draws inspiration from the tripartite focus of iconic festival …

Dimitris Kafyris: The Legacy And Pedagogy Of A Trailblazing Greek Trumpeter, Stephen M. Wadsack

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Dimitris Kafyris (Δημήτρης Κάφυρης, 1932–2020) is regarded as one of the most talented trumpeters of the twentieth century, within his native homeland of Greece. From the early 1950s into the mid-1980s, Kafyris performed with the Athens State Orchestra (Greece’s premier orchestral ensemble), the Greek Radio Symphony, and the National Opera. During this period, Kafyris also maintained a teaching position at the Hellenikon Conservatory (Ελληνικόν Ωδείον) in Athens. Following what many would already consider to be a robust career, Kafyris returned home to the Greek island of Corfu, where he assumed the roles of Bandmaster and Director of the Corfu Philharmonic …

The Forgotten Trio: Tenor, Bass, And Basso Continuo An Exploration Of Music For The Tenor/Bass Ensemble From The 17th And 18th Centuries, Joshua Golden

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Music written for and performed by tenors and basses has permeated vocal expressions since medieval chant. The history of male choral singing is as lengthy and storied as the history of all choral singing. However, the current canon of programming for this type of ensemble reveals a significant gap in historical tradition and presentation.

This research delves into the historical, cultural, and artistic milieu that influenced the development of tenor/bass choral music throughout this time period. Utilizing primary sources, as well as a rich body of secondary literature, the study employs a comparative analytical approach to dissect the musical styles, …

Understanding The Effects Of Hormone Treatments On The Transgender Singer: A Pedagogical Study And Voice Studio Guide, Erin M. Hannon

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Transitioning from one gender to another can be an arduous and emotionally charged experience, accompanied by many physical and mental transformations. The journey of self-discovery and vocal explorations is both unique and deeply personal. Modifications that emerge in an individual's vocal characteristics have a profound influence on their capacity to communicate and express themselves.

Transgender vocal students and professional singers must navigate the delicate balance between their vocal and gender identities while considering the possible risks of Gender Affirming Hormone Therapy. Though these therapies may significantly alter one's appearance and overall well-being, they are also capable of causing notable declines …

Honk!: Meaning And Activism In 21st Century American Street Bands, Isaac Maupin

Theses and Dissertations--Music

In this dissertation, I explore activism, music, and meaning through the lens of HONK! Bands in the United States. HONK! A Festival of Activist Street Bands began in Sommerville, Massachusetts, in 2006. Since its inception, the festivals have grown on a national and global scale. The festivals, however, operate as a convenient organizing structure for the bands themselves and are not a primary focus of this work. Instead, I examine activism, learning, and value as systems within the HONK! culture (each topic with a devoted chapter) to, through a phenomenological lens, better understand how HONK! bands fit within American culture. …

How Spirituals Influenced Both Resistance To Nazis And Civil Rights Protests, Chandi Plummer

Theses and Dissertations--Music

How have American Negro Spirituals inspired later generations of oppressed and marginalized people? Which songs of suffering and hope were particularly poignant in providing courage and inspiration? Questions such as these sparked my research journey, reaching a crescendo during a lecture recital on November 10, 2023, and now culminating in a dissertation.

Spirituals inspired Albert Franklin Fisher and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in New York City in 1930 during the Harlem Renaissance and traveled (via phonograph and music books) with Bonhoeffer to Nazi Germany during World War II. In America, spirituals influenced Myles and Zilphia Horton, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, …

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 …

Sculpting Time: A Performance Guide To Four Fragments Of Time By Marcus Siqueira, Luis Felipe Vargas Magdaleno De Moraes

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This dissertation investigates the musical and phenomenological aspects of Four Fragments of Time by Marcus Siqueira (b. 1974) and provides a performance guide for this work. Furthermore, this dissertation analyzes previous guitar works by the composer, seeking to understand Siqueira’s compositional idiosyncrasies and to provide context for the interpretation of Four Fragments of Time. This dissertation includes a biography of the composer, an analysis of the compositional process of Four Fragments of Time, an analysis of the recurrent idiomatic procedures in Siqueira’s guitar works, and an overview of the collaborative process between the composer and the author. Additionally, an analysis …

A History Of Educational Concerts Of The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Sean Radermacher

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This project illuminates the history of educational concerts of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) and reveals a legacy of performances for young audiences, today’s educational innovations, and the orchestra’s evolving mission to serve young people. Concerts for young people are an important facet of the history of American orchestras. Today, these concerts and other educational programs are essential to increase the accessibility of orchestral music.

The PSO’s history highlights the close relationship of American orchestras with an educational mission from their early years to the present. After an overview of the origins of permanent orchestras and the national context of …

Hildegard Fantasy, Julianna Charnigo

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), a German abbess, composer, mystic, and theologian, was revered as a prophet during her lifetime. Since then, her numerous accomplishments and visionary writings have made her popular both in her native Germany and across the world. Hildegard produced numerous Latin writings, more than any other woman of the Middle Ages, and her more than seventy musical compositions fascinate musicians and listeners to this day. My doctoral thesis is a composition for SATB chorus, orchestra, and soprano solo entitled Hildegard Fantasy, based on the life and music of Hildegard of Bingen.

I have written both the …

“Songs Of The Underground” – Crafting A Unique Gaming Experience Through Music, Megan Franklin

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The academic study of video game music, known as Ludomusicology, is a younger research area in the world of musicology, with the earliest works having been published in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Despite its young age, Ludomusicology is becoming a staple in the academic world, with scholars such as Melanie Fritsch, Andra Ivănescu, Michiel Kamp, Tim Summers, and Mark Sweeney dedicating their time to the subject. This thesis uses musical analysis as the basis of exploring the relationship between music and aspects of video game creation and player interaction. The case study for this project is the 2015 …

Choosing Alternative Repertoire: Pedagogical Considerations For Robert Fuchs's Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 83, Jerram Isaac John

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This document serves to promote Robert Fuchs's Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 83, as a study piece for the cello, piano, and collaborative duo, showing the pedagogical benefits of this Romantic sonata. This project will begin with a biography of Fuchs and background of the work, followed by an analysis that establishes the piece in the Romantic tonal tradition. The next section will discuss the pedagogical benefits of the cello part, the technical accessibility in the piano part, and the collaborative opportunities encountered in the piece, comparing it with other Romantic sonatas in the standard repertoire. Additionally, I will be …

X Marks Nothing: Chiasmus And Kenosis In Kaija Saariaho's La Passion De Simone, Desiree Scarambone

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Composer Kaija Saariaho’s 2006 work La Passion de Simone often leaves audiences and critics at a loss to understand what they have witnessed. The title, subject, and sparse libretto only complicate this confusion. The genre of the work is ambiguous to many; some critics call it an opera, some an oratorio. Because the subject of the work, French philosopher Simone Weil, is widely unknown to the public, her placement within the framework of a Passion is often met with confusion if not criticism.

By fusing Weil’s life and philosophical ideas in this work, Saariaho explores how the awareness of the …

Karol Lipiński As A Musical Interpreter In The Pre-Joachim Era, Andrzej Kunecki

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The work concerns a study of Karol Lipiński – the early nineteenth century Polish violinist – focusing on his activity as a musical interpreter. The work is supported by a comparison with another violinist acknowledged in this field – Joseph Joachim. The work is divided between four chapters: The first chapter begins with a discussion on the development of the concept of musical interpretation in the context of the broader social and aesthetical changes of the early nineteenth century, and ends with a summary of Joachim’s interpretative activity in the latter half of the same. The second chapter includes Lipiński’s …

Medieval Minstrels In Media: A Comparative Study Of Minstrelsy In The Robin Hood Tale, Medieval Society, And Media, Heather Sounik

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The minstrel character Alan-a-Dale, as well as other variations of the minstrel, have been effectively ingrained into the history of the Robin Hood tale through screen media interpretations. This study seeks to investigate the origins of the minstrel character in the medieval through present day texts and analyze the interpretations of these characters in a collection of the present day screen media sources that involve this character. Topics to be addressed within this survey include medieval minstrel performance practices and their overall reception in medieval society, as well as the variety of roles the on-screen minstrel characters take, both as …

John Wesley Work Iii: Arranger, Preserver, And Historian Of African American Traditional Music, Kaylina Madison Crawley

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This study focuses on John Wesley Work III’s life and career in response to the scarcity of existing research and publication devoted to him. To expand the scholarship focused on Work and to deepen the history of African American artistry, this dissertation analyzes his additions to concert repertoire through his arrangements of spirituals, investigates his scholarship, and performance— including his activities as Director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers — and provides a foundation for further analytical study of African- American sacred music. Methodology utilized in this thesis includes construction of a biographical narrative based on primary sources and analysis of …

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 …

May Ayim's Blue Notes In Blues In Schwarz Weiss, Gabrielle Taylor

Theses and Dissertations--Modern and Classical Languages, Literature and Cultures

May Ayim has become a staple when it comes to Black German poetry within German Studies and continues to influence and challenge ideas of what it means to be black in Germany at the end of the 20th century. What is perhaps not challenged enough is the ways in which we, the readers and students of German literature and poetry, approach and study Ayim’s poetry as we move deeper into the 21st century. Her collection of poetry, Blues in Schwarz Weiss, can be seen through a significant word found in her collection’s title—blues. It is through blues, …

The Vespers Psalms Of Baldassare Galuppi, Scot Buzza

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Although Baldassare Galuppi was arguably the best known and most successful Italian composer of the eighteenth century, his name, his history, and his works have been relinquished to the periphery of the historiographical narrative. While Galuppi's masses, operas, and solo motets have been examined, his vespers psalms have been neglected by previous musicologists; most of the existing studies have been superficial, with little consideration of important questions such as formal approach, stylistic development, compositional idiosyncrasies, questions of authenticity, or what those factors might collectively tell the twenty-first-century musicologist about music in settecento Venice.

The bulk of this work consists of …

Inside Outside: The Cultural Paradox Of Salvation Army Brass Bands In America During The Age Of Nationalism, Nathan Miller

Theses and Dissertations--Music

By the turn of the twentieth century, the sight and sound of a little brass band of uniformed evangelists on street corners declaring war on sin became ubiquitous in American cities. Although Salvationists came to hold a cherished place in society, Americans greeted their initial invasion with contempt. They came with a message of transformative redemption for the poor and disenfranchised, loudly declaring that anyone and anything could be made holy and fit for God’s Salvation Army. This included minstrel tunes and other rough musics appropriated from the working-class Americans. However, eventually their music had less in common with poor …

Passacaglia And Its Related Forms: Before, During, And After 18th Century Baroque And Program Notes, Austin Han

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The purpose of this project is to inform readers of the importance musicology has in informing one’s own learning experience as a performer and listener. As an expression of this exercise, I’ve focused on the history of the passacaglia in Europe from its origins in Spain to its culmination in the music of Paul Hindemith (1895-1963). Through the process of learning about different renditions of passacaglia through musical analysis and comparisons with contemporary art movements and their legacies, I hope the results of what are shown displays an urgent appreciation for applying a more nuanced and openminded approach to the …

Engaging The Eclectic Bulgarian Soul In Viola Concerto No. 1 By Marin Goleminov (1908-2000): A Faceted Analysis With New Pedagogical Studies, Lubitza Braikova

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The main purpose of this monograph is to provide a faceted study of Marin Goleminov’s Concerto for Viola No.1, a work of art complexly revealing its creator’s constructive study of style – including national style. It is hoped that this will, among other things, assist in deepening relevant performances and researches.

This document examines the M. Goleminov Concerto for Viola and Orchestra no.1, 1950 (Концерт за Bиола и Oркестър Hомер 1 Марин Големинов, р.1908–п.2000). It would bring essential features of it to the attention of a broader audience, perhaps beginning with inquisitive violists. If, with the necessary selectivity, …

Zappa’S Remembrance Of A Forgotten Style: The Relationship Between Frank Zappa And Doo-Wop As Illustrated In Cruising With Ruben & The Jets, Benjamin Adamo

Theses and Dissertations--Music

One of Zappa’s many cherished styles of music was the doo-wop of the mid-1950s through the early 1960s. His love for the style culminated in 1968 with a poor-selling and often forgotten doo-wop record, Cruising with Ruben & The Jets. While the record earned little praise from critics and fans, Zappa considered it as a landmark of his early career, as evidenced in his autobiography. This thesis investigates Zappa’s relationship to doo-wop and “perversion” of the style as it culminated in Cruising.

As revealed through autobiographical entries and interviews with Zappa, Ray Collins, and other collaborators, Zappa devised …

A Musical-Historical Study Of Italian Influences In Three Regina Caeli Of The French Baroque Period, Marie-France Duclos

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The French baroque petit motet was the most prolific genre of seventeenth-century France. In this study, three petits motets, specifically Regina caeli settings of French composers Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Nicolas Bernier and François Couperin are examined with an emphasis on the motets’ historical context in relation to the French monarchy and the Italian concepts that the composers incorporated into each work. All three Regina caeli settings display some Italian compositional techniques of the stile moderno in various degrees and were written in different contextual ecclesiastic milieux.

The intersections of, as well as distinctions between, musical ideas of traditional French style …

Teresa Carreño’S Early Years In Caracas: Cultural Intersections Of Piano Virtuosity, Gender, And Nation-Building In The Nineteenth Century, Laura Pita

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This dissertation studies the musical activities of the Venezuelan pianist and composer Teresa Carreño (1853-1917) during her formative years in Caracas. It examines the sources that pertain to her musical environment, early piano training, and first compositions in the context of the growth in Caracas of the practices of recreational sociability, the increasing influence of virtuosic music, and the tradition of private concert-making sponsored by devoted music amateurs. This study argues that Teresa Carreño’s musical upbringing occurred in a social and cultural context in which Enlightenment-framed ideologies of civilization and social progress, shaped in fundamental ways the perceptions of the …