Matching Items (11)
Description
This research paper examines the close relationships between the visual arts and music and the implications of curatorial practice upon the work of conductors. While some conductors consider suitability the prime (or only) factor in determining which music to perform, curators use many more criteria. Five elements of exhibition design are particularly germane to musicians including setting, subject matter, visual weight, compositional direction, and narrative. Each of these five elements is discussed in terms of its impact on concert design with a goal of providing additional criteria to the conductor when planning concerts. Three concert experiences, designed with these principles in mind, are presented as examples. Upon consideration of the elements of exhibition design separately and corporately, one arrives at a new appreciation of the concert as a unified experience--capable of being much more than the sum of its parts. The aim of effective concert design is to eliminate unintentional communication--to present music in the most complimentary manner possible. To this end, this study has implications for conductors at all levels.
ContributorsHoughtalen, Brandon (Author) / Hill, Gary W. (Thesis advisor) / Bailey, Wayne A (Committee member) / Ericson, John Q (Committee member) / Feisst, Sabine M (Committee member) / Russell, Timothy W (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Clarinet articulation is a process that uses the tongue to create an interruption in sound production either by contacting the reed or disrupting the air stream. This process occurs inside the mouth and is hidden from direct view. As a result, various solutions were developed in clarinet pedagogy to address the issue of teaching with no visual feedback. Clarinet pedagogy literature consists of language that makes it possible for other clarinetists to discuss, teach, and research various aspects of clarinet playing. The interdisciplinary application of theoretical concepts in linguistics and how they map onto the language of clarinet pedagogy offers a new perspective for understanding the teaching methods used for articulation. To provide insight into the relationship of language and clarinet pedagogy, an overview of several linguistic theories and concepts, such as Peircean semiotics, metalanguages, discursive strategies, and articulatory phonetics, is presented. Additionally, a brief explanation of articulation techniques (single, multiple, flutter, and slap articulation) and commonly used teaching strategies is outlined. The language used in clarinet pedagogy literature from resources by prominent clarinet pedagogues, such as the works of John Anderson, Joshua Gardner, Michèle Gingras, Eric C. Hansen, Howard Klug, Phillip Rehfeldt, Thomas Ridenour, Heather Roche, Robert Spring, and Rachel Yoder, is surveyed. Pedagogical insights from a linguistic analysis are used to create resources for teaching and/or correcting articulation. Since the interdisciplinary application of linguistics and clarinet pedagogy is an underexplored topic, this research also aims to serve as a basis for further interdisciplinary studies.
Contributorsde Alba, Francisco Javier (Author) / Spring, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Gardner, Joshua (Thesis advisor) / Fossum, Dave (Committee member) / Caslor, Jason (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Sound and space are intimately and intricately interconnected, but it remains unclear in what ways sound and music call forth in listeners—cognitively and emotionally— sensations of space. This thesis approaches sonic evocations of space from two perspectives that, despite their commonalities, are often considered separately. The first is lived space, the types of expanses we experience it in daily life, the second is outer or extraplanetary space. Existing scholarship on the relationships between sound and space, including that of Edward S. Casey and Steven Feld (1982), Steve Larson (2012), Georgina Born (2013), and Gascia Ouzonian (2020), reach beyond the physical conceptions of sound and into the metaphorical and the cultural, creating a rich discourse about place, orientation, and perception. Informed by the seminal theories of Victor Zuckerkandl (1973), George Lakoff (1980), and Mark Johnson (1980, 2007), among others, this thesis explores embodied musical metaphor using an empirical cognition study in which twenty-six voluntary participants were asked to respond to successions of pitches drawn from popular science fiction film scores and to note any kind of motion and spatiality they felt. The results of this experiment demonstrate that melodic figures are tied to ideas of physical motion and that sizes of intervallic relationships matter. In all, this thesis shows that listeners’ sense of space is greatly informed by specific cues from their sonic environment, and that sound can be used to challenge or manipulate spatial perception, especially in multimedia applications.
ContributorsJordan, Nicholas Gabriel (Author) / Schmelz, Peter J (Thesis advisor) / Knowles, Kristina L (Thesis advisor) / Fossum, Dave (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
This paper is based on research conducted during my ongoing collaboration as a participant-observer with the Cuyamungue Institute (CI) of New Mexico, a self-identified nonreligious organization that uses postures to help participants achieve ecstatic trance experiences via a ritual process that prominently features sonic support of trance by the sound of a rattle or drum. While the purpose of the practice—which the Institute has referred to in such terms as “Ecstatic Trance Postures (ETP)” and “Ritual Body Postures”—is ostensibly spiritual in nature, apparent benefits for physical and emotional health have been reported by participants and observed in empirical studies carried out in collaboration with the CI. With appropriate nuance, the Institute traditionally emphasizes the ways these benefits demonstrate the process’s spiritual efficacy more than how they are outcomes desirable on their own merit. As I have continued to work with the CI, the discourse has gradually shifted. At present, the leadership of the Institute give more consideration than before to emotional health benefits as specific goals of the practice, yet spiritual conceptions maintain a dominant presence in conversations and achieving a deep connection with the “alternate reality / spirit realm / unbounded universe” remains the primary objective.
ContributorsMalnory, Lawson (Author) / Fossum, Dave (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Solís, Ted (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Following mixed method ethnographic research conducted between January 2020 and January 2022, this thesis discusses how United States all-female mariachi musicians, or mariacheras, express femininity in the mariachi femenil. Mariachis femeniles are all-female mariachis. Building upon Mary Lee Mulholland’s (2013) discussion of how mariacheras in Jalisco are often valued more for their physical appearance than for their musical skills, this thesis investigates how similar phenomena manifest in the United States’ professional mariachi femenil circuit. Applying a Chicana Feminisms lens to a collection of 28 mariachera plática-interviews, generational and transborder mariachi knowledge production, visual expressions of mariachi femininity, and aural feminine expressions in the mariachi setting are complicated. Each participant details what it means to be a mariachera, breaking down concepts of purity in the face of dichotomous cultural gender expectation and the genre’s visual expectations of how female musicians should present themselves in society. These sociocultural phenomena led these women in many ways to disidentify and resignify various pieces of the mariachi tradition to “carve out” their own space in the practice, expressing the concern they want to be respected as a musician, not as just a visual object. Ultimately, the “carved out” space allows mariacheras to perform a “different” sound of mariachi—a negotiation of strength, femininity, and balancing sociocultural expectations of the mariachera in and out of performance.
ContributorsFlores, Cameo Rachelle (Author) / Fossum, Dave (Thesis advisor) / Estrada, Emir (Committee member) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Wells, Christi Jay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
The genre of world music and its market’s reliance on musical exoticism, othering, and the audience’s insatiable quest for musical authenticity have influenced and shaped the way artists construct and negotiate their musical representation. With the popularization of democratized music platforms such as Bandcamp, artists have greater autonomy in terms of artistic representation and musical distribution in the online world. Although the internet has in some ways disrupted the old power structures of the music industry, the old forms of world music marketing have been reinscribed into a new context. Old stereotypes and narratives of authenticity in world music have permeated the digital representation of artists and their music. Music recommendation algorithms also shape the way artists are represented in digital environments. Semantic descriptors such as social tags play a vital role in musical identification and recommendation systems implemented by streaming platforms. The use of social tags such as #worldmusic homogenizes diverse cultural sounds into a single umbrella genre. #World music also creates avenues for old stereotypes and narratives of authenticity to re-emerge. This re-emergence of the old tropes of world music creates less equitable recommendation and representational outcomes for musicians operating within the genre. In the age of streaming, where does world music belong? How do artists negotiate representation online? This thesis explores the dynamics of representation and the projections of “authenticity” between world music artists and record labels inside of Bandcamp’s digital ecosystem. By juxtaposing the traditional framework of “world music” marketing with new and evolving methods of distribution and artistic representation, it is possible to see how digital media are reshaping but also reproducing some of the old paradigms of world music. I also propose that a new framework needs to be established to study the impact digital streaming has on the genre of world music. This new framework, which I call “World Music 3.0,” will encompass how algorithms, tech companies, and the democratization of musical practices interact within a globalized community.
ContributorsCureno, Eric Leonel (Author) / Fossum, Dave (Thesis advisor) / Hayes, Lauren (Committee member) / Paine, Garth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
In 2015, the Wu-Tang Clan released a single CD copy of their seventh studio album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. Musically, the album was intended to provide “sonic closure,” channeling the style of the group’s early albums. Wu-Tang “Abbot” RZA and affiliate producer Cilvaringz were the only members involved throughout the entire recording and production process. The decision to release only a single copy protested the impoverished musical experience brought on by music’s mass reproducibility and ubiquity–an outcome of data capitalism. While many fans of the group took issue with the method of protest, different media have long affected interactions in the world, and RZA’s and Cilvaringz's claims are not completely unfounded. Research from various fields, including musicology, computer science, and sociology, shows how digitization specifically has changed music consumption through streaming services. By tracing the album from its conceptual origin to its purchase by pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli and current ownership by NFT (nonfungible token) collective PleasrDAO, the album's value is presented through the data capitalist, corporate, and cultural lenses. Drawing on work from KRS-One, Lydia Goehr, and Frantz Fanon shows a dialectical relationship between cultural and corporate values. As a result, artists and listeners are faced with navigating both, even as they are subject to exploitation in the production and consumption of music by neoliberalism and data capitalism. In the end, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin succeeds in starting a debate, but its protest against data capitalism is complicated by its recent NFT status.
ContributorsCullen, Audrey Ann (Author) / Wells, Christi Jay (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Fossum, Dave (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024
Description
This MFA project in dance involved a dance concert that fused together different socio-cultural dance forms. Goals of the project included engaging the audience members in ways that are meaningful and express cultural identity, looking at similar and contrasting values or norms between different dance styles, and seeing how that might be expressed in a Western concert theatrical space or be adapted to that space. The research explored the themes of fusion, emotional states, and engagement through collaborative processes of choreography. A series of dance sections were developed based on different cultural movement styles that were ultimately woven together into a live performance.
ContributorsDimitrov, Tanya (Author) / Dyer, Becky (Thesis advisor) / Koch, Carolyn (Thesis advisor) / Landborn, Adair (Committee member) / Fossum, Dave (Committee member) / Rohd, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
In recent years, several Indigenous female artists have emerged in country music. Given that country music is closely associated with whiteness, it may seem an unexpected form of expression for Indigenous women. So, why and how do Indigenous women make country music? I argue that country music appeals to these women due to its adaptability as a genre and its propensity for telling stories. Additionally, I identify several distinct strategies that these women use to interact with the genre and approach their own music making. I support my argument through a series of analyses of three country songs by Indigenous female country singers: “All I See is Red (Ten Little Indians)” by Kelly Derrickson; “Pray Sister Pray” by Crystal Shawanda; and “Run Carly Run” by Jade Turner. Some of the strategies these artists employ disrupt norms of the genre, foregrounding these women’s Indigenous identity and activism, while other strategies more subtly exploit resonances between Indigenous concerns or cultural practices and aspects of country music to assert their position within the genre. My discussion of these strategies draws on theorizations of intertextuality, interdiscursivity, and positionality from linguistic anthropology. Examining the strategies Indigenous artists use and highlighting the agency they have in the creation of their music reveals not only how they take up the genre but also how they are reshaping it.
ContributorsBaril, Alexis (Author) / Fossum, Dave (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Reed, Trevor (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
In 1975 the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) invited John Cage to write a composition for the bicentennial birthday of the United States. The result was Lecture on the Weather, a multi-media work for twelve expatriate vocalists and/or players with independent sound systems, magnetic tape, and film. Cage used texts by Henry David Thoreau, recordings of environmental sounds made by American composer Maryanne Amacher and a nature-inspired film by Chilean visual artist Luis Frangella. The composition opens with a spoken Preface and is arguably one of Cage’s most overtly political pieces. A year later the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) and six major United States orchestras commissioned Cage to compose another work commemorating the United States bicentennial of the American Revolution. In response, he created Renga with Apartment House 1776, which follows his concept of a “music circus,” or simply, a musical composition with a multiplicity of events occurring simultaneously. Scored for voices, instrumental soloists and quartets, Renga with Apartment House is a multi-faceted work marked by layers of American hymns and folk tunes.
Cage’s United States Bicentennial compositions – and his other pieces created in the 1970s and 1980s – have received little attention from music scholars. Unique and provocative works within his oeuvre, these compositions raise many questions. Why was Cage commissioned to write these works? How did Cage pay tribute to this celebratory event in American history? What socio–political meanings are implied in these pieces? In this thesis I will provide political, cultural, and biographical contexts of these works. I will further examine their genesis, analyze their scores and selected performances, reflect on their meaning and critical implications and consider the reception of these works. My research draws on unpublished documents housed in the CBC’s archives at McGill University, the archives of C. F. Peters, the New York Public Library and it builds on research of such scholars as David W. Bernstein, William Brooks, Benjamin Piekut, and Christopher Shultis. This thesis offers new information and perspectives on Cage’s creative work in the 1970s and aims at filling a significant gap in Cage scholarship.
Cage’s United States Bicentennial compositions – and his other pieces created in the 1970s and 1980s – have received little attention from music scholars. Unique and provocative works within his oeuvre, these compositions raise many questions. Why was Cage commissioned to write these works? How did Cage pay tribute to this celebratory event in American history? What socio–political meanings are implied in these pieces? In this thesis I will provide political, cultural, and biographical contexts of these works. I will further examine their genesis, analyze their scores and selected performances, reflect on their meaning and critical implications and consider the reception of these works. My research draws on unpublished documents housed in the CBC’s archives at McGill University, the archives of C. F. Peters, the New York Public Library and it builds on research of such scholars as David W. Bernstein, William Brooks, Benjamin Piekut, and Christopher Shultis. This thesis offers new information and perspectives on Cage’s creative work in the 1970s and aims at filling a significant gap in Cage scholarship.
ContributorsFinkel, Joseph Christopher (Author) / Feisst, Sabine M (Thesis advisor) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Solís, Ted (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015