Music Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2796

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    THE WOMEN AND TAIKO MOVEMENT: QUESTIONING GENDERED LEADERSHIP THROUGH EMBODIED PRACTICE
    (2021) Coe, Allison Paige; Witzleben, J. Lawrence; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The tradition of North American taiko drumming has been rife with discussion on gender passed down from its Japanese origin. It is known that women, and even more so Asian American women, feel empowered performing taiko. Despite this feeling of empowerment, there has been minimal leadership roles held by female taiko players, roles such as: solo artists, workshop leaders, and composers. Women are also left out of the mainstream narrative of taiko drumming, which centers on masculine performance and performance styles. A coalition formed and launched the Women and Taiko movement—dedicated to solving these issues through webinars and by enhancing the visibility of female leadership. This movement expanded, including the first all-female, professional level taiko performance and women-created compositions. This thesis discusses this movement as a social movement that seeks to disrupt gendered systems of power and embodied knowledge through pragmatic solutions formed through discussions and by performance.
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    VOICING THE UNHEARD: GENDERED PRACTICES, DISCOURSES, AND STRUGGLES OF GUGAK MUSICIANS IN SOUTH KOREA
    (2018) Yeo, Hyunjin; Witzleben, John L.; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This dissertation investigates how individual musicians’ experiences and gender identity are shaped by interacting with cultural ideals of gender roles in different levels of South Korean society and the ways in which they interact with gendered performances of music. In the last few years, gender has been a popular topic not only in academia but also in everyday conversations in South Korea. Traditional gender norms have been challenged, and various types of masculinities and femininities have emerged. As different ideas of gender roles coexist in society, gugak (literally “national music”) musicians, too, face challenges in the middle of social transition. This study aims to deliver the often unheard voices of two groups of musicians: male gayageum (Korean zither) players playing a “women’s instrument” and female fusion gugak musicians playing “cheap” music. Based on in-depth interviews and my eighteen years’ involvement in the gugak field, I examine how both groups of musicians negotiate conflicts as they face contrasting gender norms and values between the gugak community and South Korean society at large. In this process, their performance becomes the prime site where their ideas of masculinity and femininity are put on display. By playing particular instruments and styles of music, defying negative discourses on them, and demonstrating their competence, I argue that performances and narratives of the musicians ultimately complicate the hegemonic views of masculinity and femininity. By revealing untold stories of the often unheard groups of musicians, this dissertation sheds light on studies concerning what has been excluded from scholarly discussions, which will provide a more comprehensive picture of individual actors and communities in society. This work also contributes to studies on the complex interplay between individual actors, diverse ideas of gender, and performance.
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    Authorship and Methodology Patterns in Music Education Research, 1984-2007
    (2008-05-05) Farmer, Dawn Marie; Hewitt, Michael P.; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The purpose of this study was to evaluate gender-related authorship and research methodology patterns in music education research. Articles were examined in order to determine if the frequency of women authors in the sample matched the frequency of women receiving doctoral degrees in music education. Furthermore, methodologies of the articles were tallied to determine what types of research were being published and in what frequencies. Analysis of seven top-tier music education journals published from 1984 to 2007 suggested that women published below the expected frequency and that quantitative research comprised 78.93% of published articles. Data indicated that women were less frequent authors than men, but published a greater percentage of qualitative research. The number of women authors increased from the Early Period (1984-1991) to Late Period (1992-2007), as did the number of authors writing qualitative research.
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    Shred Chicks: Gender and Identity in Female Guitar Players
    (2006-05-08) Turrill, Amber; Dueck, Jonathan; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Female guitarists in the American rock industry are faced with challenges presented by gender scripts in culture that affect their public reception. In order to negotiate such challenges, women use public performance venues as spaces within which to negotiate power in gender scripts, and to create counter-hegemonic discourse. Public space may take the form of the stage, the internet, or televised media, and women utilize these spaces to render discourse performative in a variety of ways. Thus, counter-hegemonic discourses may be created that celebrate the accomplishments of guitar women.
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    CHASING THE RAINBOW: GENDER-RELIGIOSITY AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENITY IN THE MUSIC AND RITUAL OF THE METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCH OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA
    (2005-04-01) Lotrecchiano, Gaetano Romano; Robertson, Carolina; Jensen, Luke; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The intersection of belief, identity, and performance enacted in the Metropolitan Community Church of Northern Virginia (MCC NOVA) - a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer community of faith, provides an arena for ethnomusicological inquiry into ritual performance and its relationship with identity construction. As a safe-haven for persons marginalized by mainstream religious traditions, MCC NOVA serves as an alternative to historically oppressive and suppressive worshipping environments where LGBTQ lifestyle is often considered antithetical to the goals of religiosity. It grounds ritual and musical practices in its core values: elastic theology, inclusiveness, diversity, community, member-ministers, and love and acceptance. These core values are the basis of a variety of performative events which allow for the self-fashioning of identity and spiritual exploration on both an individual and corporate level. Affected by a variety of "cradle traditions", this LBGTQ group draws on a complex assortment of sacred musics and ritual practices which form a unique gender-religiosity as MCCers journey to describe and re-invent their collective self. MCC NOVA intensifies the experience of faith through its multi-gendered condition, alternative spiritualities, and idiosyncratic performance events by fashioning a Judeo-Christian-based LBGTQ spirituality in light of freedoms which allow for exploration beyond the boundaries of the Christian ordo. This project deals with a series of unexplored important ethnomusicological questions concerning the significance, process, problems, negotiations, and repercussions involved in performing a variety of ritual musics and acts in light of MCC NOVA's central core values. Foremost is the question of the relationship between individual existenz and corporate identity and the role this relationship plays in ritual. The aesthetics which promote this process are a culmination of blended beliefs rooted in LBGTQ lifestyle, concerns about gender, religious priorities, and the historical faith traditions of the congregants. Performances vary in their ability to describe the intersection of these major contributions to identity construction. Therefore, the investigation of a truly gender-religious stance requires a consideration of the behavioral, ritual-musical, and ontological realities of MCC NOVA membership as they interact to construct an identity where liturgy is both source and outcome of this unique religiosity.