There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

Thesis (M.A.) in Liberal Studies--University of Maine, 2008. / Includes vita.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Maryland, College Park, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 355-371) Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.M.)--Boston University / The purpose of this study was: (1) to examine the educational justification for the school music festival; (2) to examine the organizational structure of school music festivals in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; and (3) to ascertain the extent to which the school music festivals of Massachusetts were realizing intended values and purposes. For the purpose of this study, data ware collected through the technique of the questionnaire. A list of factors relating to the philosophy and organization of music contests and festivals was compiled from many published and unpublished materials, and was incorporated into the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of four parts. Part I was concerned with acquiring general information relative to the respondant music educators experience of participation at the school music festivals of Massachusetts. Part II was concerned with the factors related to the District Massachusetts Music Festival. Part III was concerned with the factors related to the Massachusetts All-State and District Concert Festivals . In Part IV the factors related to the areas of concern in the Massachusetts music festivals were presented. The questionnaire was distributed to one hundred and thirty music educators. Fifty-seven of the questionnaires returned were included in this study. [TRUNCATED]

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). "ID: 22502346." Principal supervisor: Elaine Dobson, assistant supervisor: Dr Jonathan Le Cocq. "February 2009." At head of title: MUSI 690 Master of Arts in Music. The DVD has a selection of recorded performances intended to be broadly representative of the events, performers, styles and mediums of performance. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 296-304). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2007. / A thesis submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the College of Arts, School of Social Sciences, University of Western Sydney. Includes bibliographical references.

The focus of this sociological research is on the five most popular and commercially successful Australian indie music festivals: Livid, Big Day Out, the Falls festival, Homebake, and Splendour in the Grass. The three key features of Australian indie music festivals are, firstly, that they are multi-staged ticketed outdoor events, with clearly defined yet temporal boundaries. Secondly, the festivals have a youth-orientated focus yet are open to all ages. Finally, the festivals are primarily dominated by indie-guitar culture and music. My aim is to investigate how these music festivals are able to strike an apparently paradoxical balance between the creation of a temporal community, or network of festivalgoers, and the commodity of the festivals themselves. My research methodology utilises a postmodern approach to ethnography, which has allowed me to investigate the festivalgoers as an ‘insider researcher.’ Data was collected through a series of participant observations at Australian indie music festivals which included the use of photographs and field notes. In addition I conducted nineteen semi-structured interviews and two focus groups with festivalgoers and festival organisers. The thesis adopts a post-subcultural approach to investigating the festivalgoers as an ideal type of a neo-tribal grouping. Post-subculture theory deals with the dynamic, heterogeneous and fickle nature of contemporary alliances and individuals’ feelings of group ‘in-betweeness’ in late capitalist/ global consumer society. I argue that Maffesoli’s theory of neo-tribalism can shine new light on the relationships between youth, music and style. Music festivals are anchoring places for neo-tribal groupings like the festivalgoers as well as a commercialised event. An analysis of the festivalgoers’ ritual clothing (t-shirts as commodities), leads to the conclusion that the festivalgoers use t-shirts to engage in a process of identification. T-shirts, I argue, are an example of a linking image which creates both a sense of individualism as well as a connection to a collective identity or sociality. Through a case study of moshing and audience behaviour it is discovered that the festivalgoers develop neo-tribal sociality and identification with each other through their participation in indie music festivals. Although pleasure seems to be the foremost significant dimension of participating in these festivals, the festivalgoers nevertheless appear to have developed an innate sense of togetherness and neo-tribal sociality. The intensity and demanding experience of attending a festival fosters the opportunity for a sense of connectedness and belonging to develop among festivalgoers. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Oratorio festivals were an important cultural feature of nineteenth-century English society. These massive musical events lasted for three or four days and some involved up to 4,000 musicians and 83,000 in the audience. This dissertation advances the hypothesis that the oratorio festivals, and the grand new buildings in which they were staged, coalesced to create a musical monumentalism in a society steeped in the (mainly Protestant) Christian sentiments of the day. In particular, the dissertation contends that a central premise of nineteenth-century musical thought was that the musical value of a performance was directly in proportion to the size of the performing forces and the audience. A framework devised mainly from Stephen Little's definition of monumental art (2004) is used as a critical tool to examine from a new perspective aspects of nineteenth-century oratorios such as 'physical scale', 'breadth of subject matter', and 'ambition to be of lasting significance'. Furthermore, this dissertation argues that a complex ideology of an English musical monumentalism underpinned the concatenation of circumstances that allowed oratorio festivals to flourish at this time. The spectacle of the Crystal Palace in London and the Great Handel Triennial Festivals it housed are contrasted with the provincial festivals, such as those of Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Leeds. The analyses of the latter rely on substantial original material uncovered from rich primary source documents about the provincial oratorio festivals and the buildings in which they were held. Musical scores themselves, including some of Sir Michael Costa's orchestral manuscripts, are also examined as monuments. A comprehensive study of these festivals is well overdue and this study will aim to understand why these events grew to such a mammoth size at this time.

The conviction that the music competition festivals should be better organized and better administered has led to the study of this topic by many serious-minded music leaders.The present study will deal with this all important phase of the contest or festival--the organization and administration of a vocal competition festival. The writer has no intention of setting down a set of rules and regulations to be followed by all directors of contests in all situations. He rather would suggest the use of a set of findings which should help contest directors to organize and administer an event which should be of great educational value both to the directors and the students.

Since the end of the American Folk Revival, in the late 1960s, folk festivals have undergone a dramatic change. Concurrently, folk music was transformed through capital from its origins as national folkloric music to a successful popular music genre. As professional folk music emerged during the late 1950s and 1960s many young people began to get involved. This involvement, often in the promotion of community oriented folk music events, set the stage for the development of independent community folk music clubs and festivals. These two trends (folk music as cultural commodity and folk music as community expression) flowed through one another sweeping away nationalist folk music and leaving an open space. During the 1970s, political and social changes were occurring across North America. The emergence of what Michael Foucault called biopolitics began to change how young people related to the idea of folk music and to the general field of political action. At the same time, organized leftwing political groups, many of which developed out of early 20th century political movements, broke down or splintered into many smaller groups. Some disenchanted political activists turned towards cultural programming as an outlet for their political desire. Along side this, American draft dodgers and Canadian back-to-the-landers moved, from the south and the east, into the Canadian west. Out of this diverse social energy developed urban and rural folk music festivals. Until now folk music festivals in western Canada have not been systematically surveyed nor has their operation been theorized as a mode of creative production. This work develops a historically grounded approach to folk music as a means of social production and challenges the idea that folk music is only a music genre. I conclude, using a theoretical approach developed by Deleuze and Guattari, that contemporary folk music festivals make use of social capital to establish a folk music assemblage. This assemblage provides an alternative, non-centralized, and increasingly global alternative for the flow of music capital. Folk music is no longer a style of music but a mode of doing business in music that is socially oriented and politically and economically potent. / Music