Music
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2265
Browse
11 results
Search Results
Item A Confluence of Streams: Music and Identity in Aotearoa/New Zealand(2008-06-01) Anderson, Harold Atwood; Dueck, Jonathan; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explores identity and musical performance in New Zealand. I investigate how music and performance play a part in the formation of persistent identities -- how momentary activities metamorphose into more fixed "traditional" practices, and how music impacts collective definition of group identity. I define "persistent identities" as those that continue despite changes in place, time and life stage. In musical performances, repertoires and canons, we witness the formation of "new" identities: mutations, exten¬sions, or adaptations of traditional identities in response to changing circumstances. I theorize connections between traditional and contemporary practices as expressions of functional or processual persistence. New Zealand's bicultural framework (formed between indigenous Māori and descendants of their European counterparts) forms an appropriate site for formation of new identities. The country comprises a manageable geographic area for application of a hybrid ethno¬graphic/social-historical method, and its political structure affords a high level of visi¬bility, empowerment, and "ownership," particularly for Pacific immigrants by allow¬ing them to retain a sense of "indigeneity." The situation is not as sanguine for other groups, including refugees and Asian migrants who also aspire to a common nationhood while retaining traditional identities. The extent to which groups succeed or fail is visible in their use of music to achieve a place in public discourse. Māori contemporary music and performance practices including Powhiri (ritual encoun¬ter), Haka (a dance form widely practiced by both Māori and non-Māori), and Taonga Pūoro (traditional instruments and practice, thought extinct but now the subject of a cultur¬ally contested recovery) stand out as sites where diverse groups participate and negotiate identities. I parse performances ethnographically by analyzing choice and usage of materials (idioms, genres, repertoires, etc.), and audience makeup, reception and interaction.Item The Aesthetics of Motion in Musics for the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Rumi(2007-06-04) Vicente, Victor Amaro; Provine, Robert C.; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation investigates the concept of motion as a fundamental aesthetic element in the devotional music, dance, and rituals performed in honor of the celebrated thirteenth-century Persian mystic poet and saint, the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Muhammad Rumi. The main focus of the study is threefold. First, it investigates the prevalence of the notion of movement in Islamic music and culture, specifically within the Sufi communities of Turkey, in order to arrive at a broader understanding of the relationship between music, aesthetics, and worldview. Secondly, it explores how musical performance functions as a form of devotion or religious worship by focusing on the musical repertories performed in honor of a single holy figure, the Mevlana Rumi. Finally, it provides an ethnographic account of contemporary developments in Sufi musical culture in Turkey and across the world by describing the recent activities of the Mevlana's devotees, which includes members of the Mevlevi Order of Islamic mystics as well as adherents of other Sufi brotherhoods and followers of so-called New Religions or New Age. The primary research for this study involved two short one-month field trips to Turkey and India in 2002 and 2003, respectively, and a longer one year expedition to Turkey in 2004 and 2005, which also included shorter stays in Cyprus, Syria, and Egypt. Additionally, the dissertation draws directly from critical theories advanced in the fields of ethnomusicology, cultural anthropology, and ethnochoreology and focuses on the kinesthetic parameters of music, dance, trance, and ritual as well as on broader forms of socio-cultural movement including pilgrimage, cultural tourism, and globalization. These forms of movement are analyzed in four broad categories of music used in worship, including classical Mevlevi music, music of the zikr ceremony, popular musics, and non-Turkish musics.Item "Alan Lomax's iPod?": Smithsonian Global Sound and Applied Ethnomusicology on the Internet(2007-05-08) Font, David Octaviano; Dueck, Jonathan; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The phenomenon of digital music on the Internet marks a turning point in the way human beings make, listen to, and share music. Smithsonian Global Sound is, variously: 1) a digital music download service; 2) the central hub of a network of digital music archives; and 3) the Internet branch of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Like all things vital, Smithsonian Global Sound is also developing rapidly. This thesis synthesizes a brief history of the Smithsonian Global Sound project, explores some of the vital issues related to the project, and offers a series of observations and recommendations for the project's development. Tracing the roots of Smithsonian Global Sound back to early archival efforts by music scholars, Moses Asch's Folkways Records, the acquisition of the Folkways catalog by the Smithsonian, and the development and launch of Smithsonian Global Sound, the project is examined as a example of applied ethnomusicology on the Internet.Item El Rocío: A Case Study of Music and Ritual in Andalucía(2007-04-26) Poole, W. Gerard; Robertson, Carolina; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Music is central to the processional pilgrimage of El Rocío, which attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Andalusia, Spain, late each spring. The pilgrimage affords a unique view, in microcosm, of the relationships between music and ritual from both ritual-studies and ethnomusicological perspectives. Based on extensive fieldwork and other research, this dissertation explores the nexus of the Catholic ritual system in Andalusia, flamenco, and the specific music of El Rocío: the Sevillanas Rocieras. That nexus becomes clear through exploration of three particular features of the pilgrimage: (1) the devotional processions that generate a single, focused, collective emotion; (2) the Andalusian musical form called the palo; and (3) the informal musical gatherings called juergas, which take place nightly along the route. Analysis of structural and morphological relationships between ritual, music, and emotion yields surprising realizations about how these three elements come together as embodied aesthetics within a communitas to generate popular culture. Another important finding of this work is the necessity of placing, at the center of the inquiry, the religious experience—including the curious Andalusian phenomenon of the “chaotic” emotional procession and its role within the overall pilgrimage and ritual system. The dissertation concludes with two theoretical positions. The first addresses the process of “emotional structuring” and its role within the musical rituals of El Rocío and, by extension, Andalusia. The second advances a theory of ritual relations with potential application to ritual systems beyond Andalusia. The author presents both positions within an evolutionary framework based on the tenets of biomusicology, neurophenomenology, and Peircean semiotics.Item 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.Item Transmitting the Balafon in Mande Culture: Performing Africa at Home and Abroad(2006-04-28) Williams, Joe Luther; Robertson, Carolina; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines the role of balafon performances in the transmission of Mande traditional knowledge about music and culture and how this process affects the formation of identity. My study focuses specifically on the Susu and Malinké peoples of Guinea, two ethnic subgroups of the Mande of West Africa. The Mande balafon is a heptatonic traditional xylophone. Its origins are traceable to the Sosso Bala, an instrument believed to date back to the founding of the thirteenth-century Mande Empire of Mali. The Sosso Bala is still preserved in Guinea as a national treasure and symbol of the unity of the Mande peoples. Mande balafons are played by members of the jeli caste of hereditary musicians and oral historians, who have traditionally passed down knowledge of musical and cultural heritage among the Mande. Today, balafon performance is an important aspect of identity formation among the Mande, both in Africa and in the diaspora. Drawing upon African philosophy and performance studies, I examine how Mande jeli performance serves as a context for the creation of a contemporary African identity that balances the twin obligations of preservation of cultural heritage and maintenance of individual subjectivity. I also address issues of interconnectedness in African artistic performance and how they are reflected in the rhythmic structure of Mande music. Transcriptions of selected pieces from the jeli repertoire contribute to my analysis of how key elements of Mande society are revealed through their music. Fieldwork I conducted in Guinea informs my research into the historical origins of the Mande balafon and the shift in emphasis on development of the instrument from the rural Mande heartland to Guinea's urban capital, Conakry. My field work in the United States focuses on the work of my teacher Abou Sylla and his preservation and dissemination of Mande musical culture through inherently African, interactive teaching methods. I also examine how Abou, by taking his students with him to Guinea, facilitates a cultural tourism experience that serves as a context for the transmission of identity from himself to his students, reinforcing a type of community he is building through his workshops.Item Out of the Shadow of Korean Colonial Experience: An Interpretation of Chongmyo-cheryeak, the Royal Ancestral Shrine Ritual Music(2006-04-20) Lee, Hye Young; Provine, Robert C.; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study concerns the significance of performing Chongmyo-cheryeak, the Korean Royal Ancestral Shrine Ritual Music, in Korea, past and present. Based on assumptions and methodology ranging from ethnomusicology and musicology to anthropology and cultural studies, it examines how the meaning and form of indigenous ritual music have changed over the course of Korean history. It especially considers how the significance of the music has been formulated, presented, and argued in a context of nationalism and postcolonialism. Focusing particularly on the current performance of Chongmyo-cheryeak, this study finds that 1) the ritual music survives for the cultural benefit of contemporary Koreans who participate in or come to witness the performance, 2) the Korean government presents the performance of Chongmyo-cherye, including its music and dance to proclaim a Korean identity constructed as the collectivity of historicity and unique characteristics that serve to differentiate what is Korean from all else, and 3) the performance of the music is situated in postcolonial irony. The study concludes that the restoration of Chongmyo-cheryeak exemplifies that Koreans are in the process of coming out of the shadow of their colonial experience.Item Giving Voice to the Forgotten: An Examination of the Music and Culture of Veljo Tormis's "Forgotten Peoples" Collection(2006-04-11) Jones, Erik Reid; Maclary, Ed; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Veljo Tormis's development as a composer was influenced by the political climate in which he was raised. He was born into a flowering and independent Estonia, with a parliamentary system of government and a people developing their own sense of individual culture after winning independence from Russia in 1920. Unfortunately, when Tormis was ten years old, this national independence and stability fell apart. Estonia would not regain its independence until 1991, when Tormis was 61. This combination of foreign occupying powers would have a significant impact on Tormis's musical life and direction. That a people can be subsumed into a larger population might have been one of the driving factors that led Tormis to go beyond Estonia and study the music of the ancient cultures that surround his homeland. These Baltic Finns include (by his definition) the peoples surrounding the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga, and the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. This includes Latvia, Estonia, some of far western Russia and portions of southern and eastern Finland. Out of these explorations came six cycles of a cappella choral music set to the music and languages of mostly dying cultures, in a collection called "Forgotten Peoples". This purpose of this project is to make the "Forgotten Peoples" collection more accessible to performers and listeners. First we will examine the history, culture, and language of the six different peoples, especially among those areas where they share commonalities. Next, we will do a lyrical analysis of the pieces, pointing out stylistic traits that are common in Balto-Finnic poetry. Finally, we will take an analytical look at the construction of many of the movements in the "Forgotten Peoples" collection.Item 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.Item Music, Ritual, and Diasporic Identity: A Case Study of the Armenian Apostolic Church(2004-04-26) McCollum, Jonathan Ray; Pacholczyk, Jozef; MusicThis study examines the relationships between music, music-making, and ritual performance in the Armenian Apostolic Church. By looking at music-making as a ritual liturgical symbol of faith, I explain the meaning of liturgical music practice and its function in teaching the fundamentals of faith. Drawing upon the fields of ethnomusicology, theology, and ritual studies, I explore the theoretical orientations and methodological strategies that assist in the interpretation of music in ritual contexts. By examining various theories of symbol and ritual combined with fieldwork, I interpret Armenian Apostolic liturgical music using a theoretical methodology that investigates the operation of liturgical music within ritual contexts. Because "faith" is not empirically observable, I focus on "the conception of faith" as it is performed by participants in the Divine Liturgy. In addition to looking at these aspects, I also extend my search past that of the "official" Christian Armenian community by asking what purpose the Armenian Apostolic Church serves in the community as a whole, even amongst non-Christians or non-practicing Armenian Christians. There is a discourse that runs through Armenian literature and politics that to be "Armenian" is to be "Christian." Is this the reality of the situation? Is Armenian Christianity perceived as faith, heritage, or both, and to what extent does the Divine Liturgy play a role in realizing Armenian identity? The purposes of this study are to interpret ritual in light of our physical, social, political, moral, aesthetic, and religious existence, to analyze and interpret liturgical music, to contribute to the development of a critical theory of music as a ritual symbol, and to address issues of identity. I conclude that if the symbolic activity of ritual performance evokes participation that is empirically observable, as an outward performance and transformation or "rite of intensification" of a deeper display of the conception of faith, liturgical music-making becomes integral to the liturgical rite itself. Also, in terms of Armenian identity, the Armenian Apostolic Church is essential to the negotiation of cultural identity outside of their historic homeland of Armenia, even amongst Armenians who do not actively perform the Divine Liturgy.