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This thesis consists of a large composition for chamber orchestra titled Brown Eyes, Black Magic and an accompanying analytical paper. The piece, approximately twelve minutes long, is a tribute to women of color in America. The title pays homage to the “Black Girl Magic” campaign that CaShawn Thompson founded in 2013 to empower women of color by highlighting their achievements in different fields (Wilson 2016). Although the piece is not programmatic, I tried to create a mysterious sound world, in which the listener focuses on the beauty of ever-shifting sonic colors. The composition explores musical texture and timbre, and is influenced by the works of Orlando Jacinto Garcia, Georg Friederich Haas, Krzysztof Penderecki, Arnold Schoenberg, and Anton Webern.

Este trabajo de investigación, mediante el uso de un profundo análisis histórico y musical, pretende determinar el papel del hip hop dentro de la música popular norteamericana. Para esto, se estudiará la historia del hip hop desde su surgimiento durante los años setenta, siguiendo su evolución y analizando a sus principales representantes, con el objetivo de descubrir cuál era la forma de trabajo de cada uno de ellos, pudiendo así, rescatar técnicas importantes que son fundamentales para el desarrollo del género, para finalmente, generar un concepto general de lo que significa el hip hop, musicalmente hablando. Posteriormente, se realizará un estudio similar con el mainstream pop norteamericano, centrándose especialmente en el aspecto musical, tomando como punto de partida sus influencias principales. A partir de los conceptos adquiridos durante este proceso, también se creará un concepto general, que envuelva, no solo los aspectos formales/musicales, sino también, los criterios estéticos que puedan ser útiles para finalmente comparar al mainstream pop con el hip hop. El resultado de esta investigación, revelará de la forma más profunda posible, la relación entre la música pop y el hip hop, una forma musical que durante mucho tiempo fue considerada de ghetto. Evidenciando, no solo la constante evolución de la música popular en el tiempo, sino la trascendencia de la música urbana afroamericana en la cultura popular de Estados Unidos y el mundo occidental. / This investigation, via the use of deep historical and musical analysis, has the objective of deciding the role of hip hop in today’s north american popular music. For this matter, we will study hip hop’s history, since it’s first appearance during the 70’s, following it’s evolution and getting to know it’s main representatives, attempting to discover their workflows, whilst rescuing fundamental techniques for the gender’s developement, finally coming to a general concept that wraps up everything hip hop means, musically speaking. Afterwards, an equally thourough studie will be made for mainstream pop, focusing specially on the musical side of it; taking its roots and influences as the main starting point. By these means, we will attempt to create a general concept that wraps up, not only the musical/formal aspects, but the aesthetic criteria that we may find useful to make a final comparison between hip hop and masintream pop. The result of this investigation will reveal in the thougroughest way posible, the relationship between north american popular music with a musical form that for a long time was considered “of the ghettos”. Proving, not only the constant evolution of the USA’s popular culture, but the transcendence of urban afro-american music in North America’s and all western world’s popular culture. / Trabajo de investigación

This thesis examines the symbolism of thirty-five slave songs that existed in the pre-Civil War South in the United States in order to gain a more profound insight into the values of the slaves. The songs chosen were representative of the 300 songs reviewed. The methodology used in the analysis was adapted from Ralph K. White's "Value Analysis: The Nature and Use of the Method." The slave songs provided the slaves with an opportunity to express their feelings on matters they deemed important, often by using Biblical symbols to "mask" the true meanings of their songs from whites. The major values of the slaves as found in their songs were independence, justice, determination, religion, hope, family love, and group unity.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur gymnasieelevers individuella sånglektioner skiljer sig åt beroende på i hur stor utsträckning sångpedagogernas eget genreintresse styr. Studien är baserad på fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer där två sångpedagoger har sin hemvist inom den klassiska sångtraditionen och två sångpedagoger har sin hemvist inom den afroamerikanska sångtraditionen. Studien är av jämförande karaktär där fokus ligger på eventuella likheter och skillnader mellan sångpedagogers synsätt inom de två olika genrerna. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten för studien utgår från ett sociokulturellt perspektiv och hur kulturella redskap och omgivningar påverkar undervisningen och lärandet. Studiens resultat visar att sångpedagogerna har fler åsikter som förbinder dem samman än vad de har som skiljer sig åt gällande medvetna genreval, hur deras eget genreintresse påverkar sångundervisningen och synen på läroplanen i förhållande till lektionen och dess innehåll. Intervjupersonerna skiljer sig åt gällande lektionsupplägget för nybörjarelever samt sitt personliga musiklyssnande. I diskussionen lyfts sedan de teman som uppkommit i resultatet utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv. Dessa teman är: medvetna och omedvetna val gällande genre, läroplanen som redskap i sångundervisningen samt det egna genreintresset som redskap i sångundervisningen. Det som framkommer är att sångpedagogernas olika redskap påverkar hur de arbetar i och kring sin sångundervisning på gymnasiet. / The purpose of this study is to examine how individual singing lessons for high school students differ depending on to which extent the vocal coach is driven by their own interests concerning genre. The study is based on four semi-structured interviews where two vocal coaches have their home turf in classical music, and two vocal coaches have their home turf within the african american genres. The study is of comparative nature where the focus is on eventual similarities and differences between vocal coaches’ viewpoints within the two genres. The theoretical perspective of the study takes its stand in the socio cultural perspective and how cultural tools and surroundings affect teaching and learning.The result of the study shows that the vocal coaches have more conformed opinions than they have conflicting ones when it concerns informed choices in genre, how their own interests affect their teaching and the views on the curriculum in relation to the lesson and its content. The interviewees differ when it comes to how they plan lessons for beginners and how they themselves listen to music. In the discussion the themes that surface in the result are discussed from a socio cultural perspective. These themes are: informed and uninformed choices concerning genre, the curriculum as a tool in teaching and the teachers’ own personal interests concerning genre. The conclusion is that the different tools the vocal coaches use affect how they work in and surrounding their teaching of high school students.

This narrative inquiry study explored the lived experiences of five Black male music educators in the New York Metropolitan area. The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of how Black male music educators theorized Blackness, disrupted anti-Blackness, and cultivated Black Joy within predominantly White K-12 learning spaces.This study sought to provide Black male music educators space to narratively display their genius, restore their humanity, and celebrate their Blackness and Black Joy. The researcher conducted two semi-structured interviews with each participant, focused on their identity, skills, intellect, criticality, and joy. This study used Abolitionist Pedagogy, Gholdy Muhammad’s Culturally and Historically Responsive Education Model, and Black Critical Theory frameworks as lenses to interpret the lived experiences. This study took place in two phases over four months, beginning October 2023 through January 2024. The participants’ responses to the interview questions helped generate the findings, narratives, and themes of their lived experiences within predominantly White K-12 learning spaces. The Black Male music educators in this study offered several ways on how they celebrate their Blackness and Black Joy, in the face of anti-Black sentiment. Their daily presence in their learning spaces, despite being the only Black male in some instances, was a conscious act of defying the inherent structures created to keep them out. Their overflowing expressions of Black Joy through family, faith, culture, and strength created learning spaces that support intersectional justice and uplifts the humanity of others.

This study investigates the role music played in the Civil Rights Movement as a form of political protest. The first part of the studies analyzed how political protest music was used in the early part of the twentieth-century leading up to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. An analysis of the role of music in African-American culture also provides a historical background to the music-making of the Civil Rights Movement. Specific musical forms such as topical ballads, freedom songs, and spirituals are examined. In addition, musical influences of African culture as well as religious influences on music-making during the Civil Rights Movement are also examined. The second section of the paper investigates the life and murder of NAACP organizer Harry T. Moore of Mims, Florida. Moore’s life and death became the subject of a topical ballad, “The Ballad of Harry T. Moore”, composed in 2001 by musical group Sweet Honey In The Rock. An analysis of the song’s, literary, political, and musical connections to the ideology and music of the Civil Rights Movement, as well as subject matter, gives evidence that places the song within the tradition of the musical protest activities of the Civil Rights Movement

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