The Cowbell in Music and Culture

Abstract

Cowbells are used as percussion instruments in a variety of musical settings today. Such uses represent a number of distinct musical practices. In this dissertation I attempt to chronicle cowbells in music from the first such use (the mid-19th century) to the present day, with a focus on historically linking and differentiating cowbell practices in orchestral music, in early musical theater and popular music, and in Cuban and Cuban-derived music. I argue furthermore that perceptions of the cowbell and its connotations, in the cultures that produce these musical practices, affect the way that the instrument is used and perceived. The word “cowbell” makes no differentiation between cowbells used historically for farming and the modern instruments descended from them. This, coupled with historical associations between cowbells and the carnivalesque exemplified by charivari practices, has led to perceptions of the cowbell, throughout its musical history, as an object of othering, humor, and/or derision.