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- Genre: Academic theses
- Genre: Masters Thesis
- Language: English
- Creators: Norton, Kay
Description
Traditional jazz refers specifically to iterations of New Orleans style jazz since its beginnings in the early 20th century. It has been labelled "Dixieland," "Classic Jazz," "New Orleans jazz," "Trad," or "Our Kind of Music (OKOM)" among other names. As a scholar-performer, I learned this style of music in my undergraduate studies in Provo, Utah and later taught it as a graduate student in Phoenix, Arizona. This research grows out of the challenges I encountered mediating between the academic institution, the non-academic tradition, and student needs. Combining musicological methods such as historiography and artifact analysis with reflexive ethnography and performance pedagogy more typical of other disciplines, I consider how educators might represent traditional jazz in a more culturally responsible way. To begin, I reference historical newspapers and oral histories to show how the labels of “Dixieland” and “traditional jazz” have evolved over time and taken on a variety of associations. Specifically, I note how the word “Dixieland” is problematic for the ways it reinforces nostalgic fantasies of the “old south” and prevents African Americans from participating without the oppressive and offensive stereotypes created by white minstrel entertainers. I then consider how prominent figures have established their authority to speak for traditional jazz by looking at several pedagogical artifacts for the style of traditional jazz drumming. I highlight how each of these artifacts’ authors present the subject and color their audience’s view of traditional jazz. Having analyzed these methods of genre definition, I discuss the tenuous place of traditional jazz within university jazz programs and its potential futures through interviews I conducted with jazz educators. These interviews focus on teaching traditional jazz within the academy and the potential for the jazz ensemble as a site of scholar-performer interdisciplinary collaboration. Finally, following models of reflexive ethnography established by ethnomusicologists leading world music ensembles, I analyze my own experience teaching traditional jazz ensembles. My synthesis of methods from musicology, ethnomusicology, music education, and jazz performance departments serves as an important bridge between these disciplines, and in turn, improves jazz instruction, offers insight into genre definition, and illuminates how institutional structures shape the subject.
ContributorsWiggins, Zachary Thomas (Author) / Wells, Christi Jay (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Solís, Ted (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Mental health of children has been a topic of concern in recent years, and was brought to the forefront again in 2020 due to exacerbated stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the amount of time children spend in school, the effects of their emotional stress and mental health challenges are seen by their teachers. Studies have shown that teachers often have high levels of concern about student mental health, but also do not feel as though they have enough resources and guidance from their schools to be able to support the mental health of the students in their classrooms on a daily basis. Research also shows that music is an effective tool for addressing children’s mental health and bolstering their mindfulness. The goal of this study was to better understand whether or not a subset of elementary school music teachers use music to help students who are feeling anxiety, stress, or other emotional or mental disturbances. To that end, I surveyed a convenience sample of elementary music educators, mainly from Arizona’s Maricopa County, about the following research questions: (1) are educators utilizing music in their classrooms expressly for mental health and mindfulness purposes? (2) how do music educators perceive the mental health of their students? (3) how do they manage related behaviors or challenges in their classrooms? (4) do they feel they have adequate resources to address student mental health? A secondary purpose of the study was to utilize the responses to inform my creation of a website intended to provide resources that would be useful for music educators who are willing to address student mental wellbeing.
In addition to receiving many individual pieces of helpful information, I analyzed survey responses for general trends. My sample indicates that music teachers do have more than moderate levels of concern over their students’ mental health. It also revealed a lack of consistency in teacher pre-service preparation and also in the kinds of programs and associated training that are in place which address student mental health.
ContributorsCole, Casey (Author) / Norton, Kay (Thesis advisor) / Schmidt, Margaret (Committee member) / Solís, Ted (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
This thesis examines the role of advocacy and social justice in the music of three living American women composers, and the ways their efforts as mentors, patrons, academics, and educators interact with their work as composers. Case studies include Gabriela Lena Frank (b. 1972), Missy Mazzoli (b. 1980), and Jennifer Jolley (b. 1981). My musicological narrative is informed by Kimberly Francis’s concept of women as “cultural mosaics” and Patricia Hill Collins’s theorization of intersectionality, which addresses the junction of variable characteristics (such as race, gender, or class) as they relate to an individual’s identity. I have centered my narrative on social issues these composers address through their activism and their music. Gabriela Lena Frank’s orchestral work, Peregrinos (2009), emphasizes Frank’s value of community outreach and her interdependence on others. Frank uses folklórica traditions and Latin mythology to musically recognize the diverse experiences of Latin American immigrants living in Indianapolis. Missy Mazzoli blends operatic traditions with electronics to convey messages of female empowerment in Song from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt (2012). Mazzoli’s characterization of the fascinating life of this nineteenth-century woman resonates with modern understandings of intersectionality and agency, and aligns with her work with the Luna Composition Lab. Jennifer Jolley’s approach to musical activism in Prisoner of Conscience (2017) mirrors her philosophical and political messages explored on her blog and e-magazine articles. Juxtaposing punk rock with church motets and madrigals, Jolley comments on the nature of protest and the punishment of Russian feminist punk group, Pussy Riot.
I position these composers as cultural agents with diverse concerns and diverse means by which to voice them. Frank, Mazzoli, and Jolley each participate in valuable extra-musical roles outside of their compositions: from Gabriela Lena Frank’s Creative Academy of Music, to Mazzoli’s Luna Composition Lab, to Jolley’s NewMusicBox articles. Each of these composers negotiate agency within traditions that have not always been open to women, and they seek to further remedy race and gender inequities through their prominent positions as educators and composers.
ContributorsMartinac, Caitlin (Author) / Norton, Kay (Thesis advisor) / Saucier, Catherine (Committee member) / Hicks, Glen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
The inspiration to undertake this pilot study came after observation and reflection by the clinician-researcher, a board-certified music therapist who has used the harp as the primary instrument when facilitating sessions, on hundreds of music therapy sessions that took place at a facility for behavioral health and chemical dependency. It was observed that the use of improvised harp music as a therapeutic intervention within the context of a music therapy session seemed to relax patients who reported that they were nervous or anxious, and it was also noted that following a listening exercise that consisted of improvised harp music, patients appeared calmer and reported that they felt more comfortable. This research aims to determine if improvised harp music at the opening of a music therapy session creates a calmer environment in which to share information, compared with a guided verbal relaxation and ambient ocean drum sounds for the opening of the music therapy session. Social-behavioral research was conducted in the form of a fifty minute individual music therapy session with six subjects. Each therapy session used improvised music and verbal processing with the therapist, with three subjects in the experimental group and three in the control group. Each individual rated two different types of affective responses on scales of one to ten and completed a five-question survey at the end of the session. All the research subjects showed an increase in positive affect at the end of the music therapy session.
ContributorsRaunikar, Mary Frances (Author) / Rio, Robin (Thesis advisor) / Aspnes, Lynne (Committee member) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Lu Pei (b. 1956) is a celebrated Chinese American composer who currently serves as a composition professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. His work is known for its varied use of Chinese folk tunes. He lived in the United States a long time, which cultivated within him abundant Western musical influences. The sound of multi-ethnic elements is greatly reflected in his own music. Writing an opera has always been his ultimate dream as a composer, and after many years of work, the opera The Third of March was completed and premiered in 2018 in Guangxi. It has received wide acclaim and has been a favorite of younger listeners. Lu Pei aims to bring young people to modern music and the Chinese opera, not only using traditional Chinese musical elements, but also adopts “reinvented” modern Western musical styles, giving a new identity to the Chinese opera is the main foci of The Third of March.
To prepare for my performer’s guide to The Third of March, I will discuss Lu Pei’s inspirations from the Guangxi Song Fairs, and the music and culture of the Zhuang people surrounding the date in the Chinese lunar calendar, March Third. For Westerners unfamiliar with Lu Pei’s music, I will briefly introduce the compositional blending of Western and Chinese musical styles with a section about Chinese composers active in the United States, Chen Yi (b. 1953), and Tan Dun (b. 1957). I will also include a brief outline of the history of Chinese opera development, and Lu Pei’s compositional concepts and the background of the opera The Third of March will be discussed.
My performer’s guide, the primary focus of this project, will begin by stressing Lu Pei’s adoption of different Chinese folk songs and Western compositional elements. These techniques clearly gave the piece a unique stylistic identity. I will give a brief overview of the Chinese language diction in International Phonetic Alphabet. Finally, the qualities of the main arias in the opera, and some of the Chinese operatic techniques for singers, and their special effects, will be explored.
To prepare for my performer’s guide to The Third of March, I will discuss Lu Pei’s inspirations from the Guangxi Song Fairs, and the music and culture of the Zhuang people surrounding the date in the Chinese lunar calendar, March Third. For Westerners unfamiliar with Lu Pei’s music, I will briefly introduce the compositional blending of Western and Chinese musical styles with a section about Chinese composers active in the United States, Chen Yi (b. 1953), and Tan Dun (b. 1957). I will also include a brief outline of the history of Chinese opera development, and Lu Pei’s compositional concepts and the background of the opera The Third of March will be discussed.
My performer’s guide, the primary focus of this project, will begin by stressing Lu Pei’s adoption of different Chinese folk songs and Western compositional elements. These techniques clearly gave the piece a unique stylistic identity. I will give a brief overview of the Chinese language diction in International Phonetic Alphabet. Finally, the qualities of the main arias in the opera, and some of the Chinese operatic techniques for singers, and their special effects, will be explored.
ContributorsBan, Banlingyu (Author) / FitzPatrick, Carole (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
In the early 2000s, a new genre of music broke into the mainstream and begandominating popular music charts. The fans called it emo, and it became known as the latest iteration of the emo genre from the ’80s and ’90s. In this thesis, I explore the relationship between fans and emo music, clarifying the genre’s variety of definitions and interpretations while also identifying the types of discourse and the “productive” fandom practices in which fans participate in online emo community. I consider how early online fandom communities were formed and examine various online emo communities as digital archives containing emo discourse, emo fan fiction, and fan-written music reviews. Analyzing such archived materials from internet sites such as Pinterest, Tumblr, and LiveJournal is an important next step in emo fandom studies because these digital archives reveal significant areas of discourse within emo communities ranging from terminology and genre classification to modes of participatory fandom like fan fiction to conversations about mental health. I consider these topics from all sides, balancing fan testimonies with media narratives and scholarly commentary. By focusing on the mental health crisis in online emo fandom, the fan content that emo fandom inspires, and different approaches to defining the genre of emo, this thesis contributes to the study of a unique musical subculture that shaped the lives of a generation of teenagers. It will also illuminate the essential role that the internet plays in the formation of subcultures and teen identities by exploring the past and present existence of this online fandom.
ContributorsWilliams, Anna Katherine (Author) / Wells, Christi J (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Schmeltz, Peter J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
ABSTRACT
Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) was a prolific composer whose musical works, which encompassed eight symphonies, four overtures, an opera, dozens of sonatas, eight string quartets, solo piano works, and nearly 130 songs for solo voice or vocal quartet, were performed in the foremost concert halls in Berlin and across Germany. She studied with lauded teachers: Carl Loewe (1796-1869), Adolph Bernhard Marx (1795-1866), and Wilhelm Wieprecht (1802-1872). Her talent was applauded by audiences and critics wrote favorably, despite their reservations about women composers. However, even with this unusual pedigree, Mayer’s works nearly disappeared from concert stages after her death. How did this happen? This study aims to answer this question and will delve into Emilie Mayer’s life and works in context with the prejudices against female composers at the time, in order to determine how those biases have shaped the classical canon. Included is an in-depth stylistic analysis of Mayer’s surviving seven Lieder, along-side comparisons to similar works of other composers. In addition, appendices present Mayer’s remaining Lieder in a new, modernized edition, with selected songs transposed for better accessibility for lower voices. Relative lack of female representation in modern-day concert halls and music history books correlates to previous misconceptions of female composers. Studying the works of Emilie Mayer will support her addition to the classical repertoire, help correct the male-gendered canon that persists, and help modern female composers realize their history is not confined to a footnote.
Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) was a prolific composer whose musical works, which encompassed eight symphonies, four overtures, an opera, dozens of sonatas, eight string quartets, solo piano works, and nearly 130 songs for solo voice or vocal quartet, were performed in the foremost concert halls in Berlin and across Germany. She studied with lauded teachers: Carl Loewe (1796-1869), Adolph Bernhard Marx (1795-1866), and Wilhelm Wieprecht (1802-1872). Her talent was applauded by audiences and critics wrote favorably, despite their reservations about women composers. However, even with this unusual pedigree, Mayer’s works nearly disappeared from concert stages after her death. How did this happen? This study aims to answer this question and will delve into Emilie Mayer’s life and works in context with the prejudices against female composers at the time, in order to determine how those biases have shaped the classical canon. Included is an in-depth stylistic analysis of Mayer’s surviving seven Lieder, along-side comparisons to similar works of other composers. In addition, appendices present Mayer’s remaining Lieder in a new, modernized edition, with selected songs transposed for better accessibility for lower voices. Relative lack of female representation in modern-day concert halls and music history books correlates to previous misconceptions of female composers. Studying the works of Emilie Mayer will support her addition to the classical repertoire, help correct the male-gendered canon that persists, and help modern female composers realize their history is not confined to a footnote.
ContributorsSadownik, Stephanie Beth (Author) / Weiss, Stephanie (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Thesis advisor) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
The call to crusade in 1145 prompted a movement fueled not only by religious writings and sermons, but by calls to arms in secular song. During the mid-twelfth to thirteenth centuries, French Trouvères and Occitan Troubadours wrote over one hundred crusade songs, the majority of which are rife with propaganda and support for the crusades and the attacks against the Saracens and the East. The crusade song corpus not only deals with sacred motivations to go overseas, such as the crusade indulgence present in papal bulls, but also summons biblical figures and epic persons as motivation to crusade.
Previous scholars have not adequately defined the genre of a crusade song, and have overlooked connections to the crusading rhetoric of the genre of crusade literature. I offer a precise definition of crusade song and examine commonalities between crusade literature and song. During the crusades, troubadours and trouvères wrote crusade songs to draw support for the campaigns. The propaganda in these songs demonstrates that the authors had an understanding of current events and may have had some knowledge of other crusading literature, such as papal calls to crusade, crusade sermons, the Old French Crusade Cycle, and various crusade chronicles. These documents show how the themes and allusions present in crusade song have broader connotations and connections to crusade culture in Medieval Europe.
Previous scholars have not adequately defined the genre of a crusade song, and have overlooked connections to the crusading rhetoric of the genre of crusade literature. I offer a precise definition of crusade song and examine commonalities between crusade literature and song. During the crusades, troubadours and trouvères wrote crusade songs to draw support for the campaigns. The propaganda in these songs demonstrates that the authors had an understanding of current events and may have had some knowledge of other crusading literature, such as papal calls to crusade, crusade sermons, the Old French Crusade Cycle, and various crusade chronicles. These documents show how the themes and allusions present in crusade song have broader connotations and connections to crusade culture in Medieval Europe.
ContributorsChoin, Victoria (Author) / Saucier, Catherine (Thesis advisor) / Cruse, Markus (Committee member) / Holbrook, Amy (Committee member) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019