This thesis examines how Irish republicans have used music as a means to resist the hegemonic power of the British state, stretching from the 1798 Irish Rebellion to the contemporary rebel music scene in Belfast. Through archival work, long-term participant observation, and interviews with artists and audiences involved in the production and consumption of republican music, the thesis demonstrates how such music provides a form of collective, emancipatory, participatory entertainment, as well as an articulation of what Irish republicans hope to achieve, politically. The thesis employs textual analysis of song texts; explores subaltern modes of production and dissemination; and examines the performance of republican songs as sonic weapon, acoustic shield, and social activity, echoing the claim that oppositional music practices not only act as a form of resistance against domination, but generate social relationships and experiences that can form the basis of a new cultural sensibility. This study departs from key anthropological texts on resistance, both in its focus and in how ‘resistance’ is conceptualised. Unlike Sluka (1989) and Aretxaga (1997), who describe republican resistance in its covert forms and as taking place when soldiers are present, the resistance I examine in my ethnography of the republican music scene in Belfast is much more overt and highly performative, albeit it in the absence of state agents. Here, resistance is an emic term, emerging from explicit comparisons between performing music and firing guns, as well as more indirect references to republican music’s being used as a means to endure suffering during the recent Northern Ireland conflict (1968-1998).

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This thesis involves a 'thick description' of music and musical representation in a single year: 1829. The context for the study is London, although the city has been approached less as a metropolitan than as a cosmopolitan centre, a global capital with global significance. This is a cultural history of music presented as a montage of case studies formed around musical events. Cases have been selected both with the general contrast of the group and the variety of musical types available to the description in mind (concert music, or major and minor theatrical forms). The potential of each event to have meaning beyond itself (to be representative) has been a third consideration, since cases are discussed in terms of broader historical, political and cultural flows. Newspapers, playbills, manuscript scores, almanacs, handbills, memoirs, journals, diaries and other ephemera have been used both to locate and frame evidence. The montage of cut-outs, in other words, forms an ensemble of partial histories, a picture of the intricately textured life of musical London. Cases are as follows: the final performances of a castrato analysed in terms of the emergence of the biological sciences and shifts in the history of the voice; a danced Beethoven symphony discussed in terms of ballet and concert trends; a colonial melodrama dealt with from the perspective of the postcolonial critic; an exploration of how new ways of imagining the city relate to new ways of imagining symphonic discourse; female duet-singing approached in light of psychoanalysis and gender studies; and the exchange of a musical annual looked at in view of the anthropology and philosophy of the gift. The use of the appellation 'A Musical Souvenir' in the title gestures towards the emergence of the 'music-annual form' in 1829, and - related to this - an emerging awareness of what I call 'year-historical situatedness'.

As first noticed by Helmholtz, strings vibrate in a “V-shape” when they are bowed correctly and a full tone is produced, where the vertex of the “V” shuttles back and forth along the visible envelope of the string’s motion. If the instrument is bowed incorrectly, i.e. the instrument does not “speak”, then this “Helmholtz motion” is not produced, and the shape of the string as it vibrates will be quite different. The goal of this research is to gather experimental data from a stringed instrument and use it in the on-going development of a theoretical model of the mechanics of the bowed string, which can be used to investigate which aspects of the violin, strings or bow influence the ease with which this “Helmholtz motion” can be produced. The design, testing and application of a robotic bowing machine are described, which has allowed the speed and force of a bow as it plays a cello to be controlled. Extensive measurements of various aspects of the motion of a cello string being bowed by the bowing machine are presented, and compared with predictions from nominally similar theoretical models. Although certain models do reflect the qualitative behaviour seen in experiment under some conditions, all show vast room for improvement. Aspects of theoretical predictions that are at odds with experimental results, and would therefore impede efforts to use theoretical modelling in the design of a more “playable” violin, are subsequently described. Shortcomings of each model are attributed to physical defects of the theories underpinning them, and various modifications are discussed and tested.

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This thesis attempts to demonstrate Smareglia’s place in Italian opera at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries by means of a study of Smareglia’s last three operas. An investigation of the unusual subjects and singular atmosphere of <i>Falena, Oceana </i>and <i>Abisso</i> shows their outstanding originality, and suggests that they belong to a “poetic theatre” created by the composer in collaboration with Silvio Benco. The study explores the cultural background in which Smareglia worked. Since both Smareglia and Benco have to a large extent fallen into obscurity, and are hardly remembered in the history of opera, the first three chapters serve to introduce the two artists and define the scope of the material included in this study. The principal focus of the thesis is provided by the three operas. An examination of their peculiar and novel plots shows that Smareglia’s musicality was stimulated by the literary taste of his librettist. Furthermore, it will be seen how in his reaction to Benco’s <i>undramatic</i> stories and atmospheric settings, Smareglia moved away from the tastes and fashions of Italian opera of the period as exemplified in the work of his better known contemporary, Giacomo Puccini. The style of Benco’s libretti and Smareglia’s musical language show how the two artists gave musical aspects priority over dramatic ones in their determination to create a new style of opera. Absorbed in the climate of Symbolism and Decadence, they were at their best when creating what had come to be called a “<i>teatro di poesia”.</i> The research seeks to demonstrate how valuable Smareglia’s contribution to the operatic repertory was: <i>Falena, Oceana </i>and <i>Abisso</i> are more original and imaginative than most of the operas written by his Italian contemporaries.

Kenya has been in the throes of cultural transformation for several decades, and new concepts and values continue to permeate the lives of those within its many language groups. Yet so far there has been little critical study of the effects such a transformation is having on the older forms of music within the country. On the basis that a genre of music can share structural and semantic features with the language to which it is closest in origin, this thesis looks at the Sabaot people, many of whom prefer to use their mother tongue but are divided as to the future of their traditional music. The nature, motivations and consequences of their present day music use are drawn from ethnographic source material collected during personal field research amongst the Sabaot. After a broad overview of the physical, historical and social contexts, the traditional musical instruments of these people are documented in depth, along with a typology of older song forms and some of the ceremonies with which they are associated. Recent music styles and instruments are also covered, particularly those found in local churches of the Sabaot area. Both traditional and contemporary song texts are examined for features of stanza construction and vocal-linguistic tonal relationships, and examples of songs referred to in the text are included in transcription and audio format. Throughout this thesis, dynamics of change are examined wherever possible from the perspective of the Sabaot. The theoretical framework is drawn from existing ethnomusicological writing on change mechanisms, and includes correlations with relevant language-shift theories. In order to establish which emic genre features are unique to Sabaot traditional songs, chapter eight contains an analysis of various structural aspects such as mode, intervallic syntax and melodic phrasing. A series of ‘awareness workshops’ amongst local musicians has then enabled the consideration and testing of these features for relevance in other social and musical contexts, particularly that of the African Christian church. The results demonstrate that alternative styles of musical expression do not have to progress at the expense of older musical traditions, and are important findings for those ethnic communities that believe their earlier music or instruments are unsuitable for development in settings such as the church. In addition to ethnographic research on the Sabaot, this work also contributes a better understanding within the field of ethnomusicology of links between language and music shift.

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