Cumbia is arguably Colombia’s best-known musical export. This popular dance music from the country’s north coast is today ubiquitous throughout Latin America, yet surprisingly little has been written about it. This report examines cumbia in its most traditional setting, the conjunto de gaitas, an ensemble featuring flutes of indigenous origin and Afro-Colombian drums. Musicians and scholars alike have interpreted the ensemble and its repertoire as a site for preserving tradition and an audible symbol of how three distinct racial groups—black, white, and indigenous—combined to form the Colombian nation. This report examines the investment in a discourse of tradition and explores how this discourse has served to sound a marginalized Colombian identity while simultaneously limiting its place within the national imaginary. After an introduction that lays out theoretical literature on tradition, race, and place, I consider three instances where the discourse of tradition has prominently shaped gaita music. First, I turn to Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, the most successful and archetypal conjunto de gaitas. The group’s history, from its beginning as a part of a staged folklore troupe for national and international tours to its recent Grammy award win, is a prime example of how the very appeal to traditionalism that garnered the group’s success has also been its greatest limitation. Second, I turn to scholarly literature on gaitas, comparing work from the mid-20th century and the early 21st. Despite notable differences between these two historiographical moments, especially in representations of the coast, appeals to tradition remain the central narrative, delimiting alternative interpretations of race and region. A final chapter offers three case studies on how different musicians have taken gaita tradition as a point of departure. From the development of gaitas in Western tuning by Juancho Nieves and Elber Álvarez, to Carlos Vives’s use of gaitas in his pop-vallenato musical blend, and lastly to the “progressive folklore” of experimental group Curupira, I explore how these different trajectories complicate notions of tradition. / text

Orpheus' Argonautica is a little-known re-telling of Jason's iconic quest to the ends of the Earth in search of the mythical Golden Fleece. Despite the fact that the narrator adopts the voice of Orpheus, the quintessential poet and mystic of ancient Greece, our author's identity and chronology are unknown. This document will demonstrate that certain features of the poem's language are not "irregular," as has been asserted in recent centuries. It will also place our poem within the literary tradition of Orpheus, exploring this mythical figure from the sixth century BCE through the fourteenth century CE. We will show the author's fluency in the intertextual game of allusion, revealing a likely familiarity with Latin literature, as well. Finally there is included an annotated English translation of the poem which should be accessible to experts and laypersons alike. / text

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Thesis (M.A.)--Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1989. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-79).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on April 1, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.

Zugl.: London, Internat. Faith Theological Seminary, Diss., 2005

Zugl.: Münster (Westfalen), Univ., Diss., 2006

Zugl.: London, Internat. Faith Theological Seminary Univ. College, Diss., 2007

Zugl.: London, Internat. Faith Theological Seminary Univ. College, Diss., 2006