Thesis (M.Mus.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, Wits School of Arts, 2013.

This study explored the personal narratives of six AFAB (“assigned female at birth”) singers – three cis and three trans/non-binary performers of varying ages, ethnicities and locales – to understand how their experiences informed their musical, vocal and gender identities and shaped their musical and vocal lives. Using semi-structured interview process, the singers recounted their memories and understanding of significant events in their development, and together, each singer and I explored those recollections through a process of collaborative self-exploration. Emerging themes from those narratives underscored the need for further investigation into the intersection of AFAB voice, singing and gender, as both existing literature and the results of this study suggest a deeper understanding of the issues around gender socialization, normative expectations and voice is necessary to appropriately and effectively prepare singers at all levels of their musical and vocal education. Study results found that there are many sources of socially-mediated influences which shape AFAB singers’ development of self, their individual and social identities, and their perceptions of their voice – particularly in the context of normative expectations that define gender and gender identities. While all study participants clearly experienced pleasure in musical performance, the narratives revealed a complex web of expectations and influences that contributed significant amounts of anxiety, with both physiological and psychological repercussions, to the performers’ lives. The ways in which the singers both fell victim to and addressed these sources of stress suggest many topics for further exploration and discussion within the professional voice and music education community, including the role of expert influence, the development of personal agency and perceived self-efficacy, as well as the need for individualized, holistic approaches to vocal pedagogy.

This short dissertation presents a case study of eleven students from a typical former 'Model C' single sex high school in Durban South Africa. At the time of the study, 2006, these were the only students who were actively availing themselves of the school's limited opportunities for studying and making music. The school, which shall remain anonymous, is shown to typify a psychosocial environment that is at best indifferent to active musical participation and, at worse, hostile to it. The study investigates how the attitudes towards, and the perceptions of, music involvement at the school emerge as stereotypical ways of thinking that are counter to the interests of its learners. This case study, supported by two questionnaires completed by peers and parents, and informed by the researcher's experience teaching Music at the school, generated conclusions from which explanations for the general reluctance of adolescent males to engage in specific kinds of school-based musical activities have been attempted. Informing the analysis and interpretation of the data is Erik Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development as it pertains to the psychosocial characteristics of adolescent males and provides an explanation as to the extent to which social environments can influence the individual. A close reading of the subjects' responses helps in the articulation of the generally unspoken assumptions of 'muscular Christianity', the Victorian ethos that continues to dominate in schools such as the one that formed the focus of this study, and which is still pervasive in many if not most South African schools. / Thesis (M.Mus.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007. / Title from 1st page of PDF file (viewed Mar. 5, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references: P. 164-176.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2008. / "August, 2008." Includes bibliographical references. Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1996.

Thesis (D. M. A.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2006. / Title from PDF title page screen. Advisor: Carla LeFevre ; submitted to the School of Music. Includes bibliographical references (p. 96-101).

Judith Butler’s writings on gender ostensibly changed the way gender is considered with regard to an individual’s subjectivity. Her writings expressed a discursive parameter that changed the theoretical standpoint of gender from that of performance, to that of performativity. In short, the notion of gender became understood as a power mechanism operating within society that compels individuals along the heteronormal binary tracts of male or female, man or woman. Within the strata of popular culture, this binarism is seemingly ritualized and repeated, incessantly. This treatise examines how rock music, as a popular and widespread mode of popular music, exemplifies gender binarism through a notable ndrocentrism. The research will examine how gender performativity operates within the taxonomy of rock music, and how the message communicated by rock music becomes translated into a listener’s subjectivity.

Thesis (M.A. (African Languages)) --University of Limpopo, 2005 / Refer to the document

Recently, musicologists Linda Austern and Suzanne Cusick have examined the socio-cultural implications of gender issues in Renaissance music. Drawing on Cusick's research on gender-based binary oppositions in Italy and Austern's studies of women and music in England, I propose a related set of gender binary oppositions in English society. I apply these oppositions in detail to two specific works from the Elizabethan madrigal and lute song repertoire, then examine the remaining pieces from these collections as a whole and find that an overlap of four particular oppositions better captures the contradictory nature of the music. Examining pieces that fall into each category, I observe how the composer manipulates each to complicate the piece's gender character. I conclude that while binary oppositions grasp the artistic and political trends of an era, a closer look at the tensions at work between them provides a more nuanced view of the music's gender character.