Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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Item Folkloristic And Ethnic Influences In Selected Violin Repertoire: A Study Of Music Inspired By Scottish, Jewish, And Latin American Cultures(2019) Borowsky, Emmanuel; Stern, James; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines and discusses folk and ethnic elements in selected violin compositions of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, including works by living composers. In examining compositions from several centuries, the aim is to establish a lineage between the past and the present in regards to the usage of traditional folk and ethnic musical elements. Additionally, the analyses will help to identify any differences in the implementation of folk music idioms in works by composers native to the given culture, as compared with works by composers of another origin who sought to emulate these musical characteristics. The focus is on compositions inspired by Scottish fiddling; Jewish spiritual, folk and klezmer music; and Latin-American dances. To show the link between the original sources of inspiration and the presented works, I have considered such musical elements as melody, harmony, rhythm, texture, timbre, and scales, as well as extra-musical subject matter when applicable. By expanding my knowledge of the authentic music that inspired these composers, I deepened my understanding of these works and created a more compelling interpretation. It is my desire to bring to light lesser-known composers who deserve their compositions to be heard. These works were featured in three recitals at the University of Maryland College Park. The first and third recitals were performed in Smith Lecture Hall and the second in Ulrich Recital Hall. A re-recording of Paul Ben-Haim’s Sonata in G, Maurice Ravel’s Kaddish, and Faustas Latenas’ Jerusalem of Lithuania from the second recital took place on May 25, 2017. Recordings of all three recital programs can be found in the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM).Item REPRESENTATIONS OF THE MILITARY IN 20TH CENTURY ETHNIC AMERICAN LITERATURE(2017) Fontenot, Kara Parks; Nunes, Zita C; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In 20th century ethnic American literature, writers deploy representations of the US military to expose the operations of American hegemony, articulate relations of power, reveal how they are maintained, identify contradictions in the rhetoric of American nationalism and imagine not yet manifest possibilities for social justice coalitions that cross racial, ethnic, and national lines. As a national institution controlled by the US government and consuming labor in the form of military service from citizens of all classes, races and ethnicities in ways that reflect existing relations of power in American society at large, the US military presents a unique and powerful site for articulation of relationships between nation, race, and class. As evidence, this dissertation explores six American novels, all published in the 20th century and taking as their subject matter US military involvement in declared and undeclared military conflicts of that era. Close readings of these novels bring our attention to three specific examples of political projects for which representations of the US military in literature have been deployed: to question constructions of American nationalism by highlighting contradictions and inconsistencies, to consider the military’s institutionalized labor practices in order to explore relationships between race and class as well as imagine means of struggling for social justice, and to critique US foreign policy and military operations overseas. These writers individually and collectively refuse to examine race and/or ethnicity in isolation but instead consider these aspects of subjectivity in the context of national identity, class relations, immigration, globalization, and other social forces. While the relationship between ethnicity and military service has been addressed in other disciplines, such as history, political science, and social science, I argue that literature is a medium especially well-suited for this exploration as it not only allows for the articulation of existing social relations but also for the imagination of not yet manifest possibilities for social justice coalitions that cross racial, ethnic, and national lines.