This study examines the phenomenon of contemporary a cappella music making found in high school settings as curricular and extra-curricular offerings. Past music and music education literature has focused exclusively on contemporary a cappella at the collegiate level. Through application of a descriptive phenomenological method and incorporation an educational-sociological lens, this study advances an understanding of the educational benefit and social value of membership in contemporary a cappella at the high school level. Six recent members from three regions of the United States provided data through individual open-form interviews in which questions were derived from the participants’ own speech. I incorporated phenomenological reductions and processes to negate researcher bias during data collection, analysis, and the formation of a general structure and constituent meanings of membership in high school contemporary a cappella. Participants utilized traditional music skills, individual talents, conceptions of popular culture and music, and in-group socialization to facilitate music making and reify membership. Expressing the value of group membership, individuals acted to benefit the group by cultivating social bonds, developing and fostering personal/shared connections to songs, identifying and purposing individual talents and skills, and gaining an understanding of each members’ unique contribution to membership. Discussion includes implications for music education and suggestions for future research.

This thesis investigates the multiple and contested spaces of belonging that may be evoked by ritualised musical performance. It makes an ethnographic case study of the Zorn Badge Auditions in Sweden, in which musicians play before a jury in the hope of being awarded a Zorn Badge and a prestigious but also contested title: Riksspelman. Building on theories of ritual and performance in combination with Sara Ahmed’s theorisation of orientation, the thesis attends to sensory ways of experiencing and knowing music while tracing the various ways in which Swedish traditional music is performed, felt, heard, sensed and understood in audition spaces. It draws on interviews with players and jury members, participant observations of music auditions and the jury’s deliberations, showing how musical value is negotiated through processes of inclusion and exclusion of repertoires, instruments and performance practices. The study also illuminates how anxiety and uncertainties are felt on both sides of the adjudication table. The auditions trigger feelings of belonging and harmony, but also rupture and distance. A brimming of felt qualities contributes to the sensing of history, tradition, memory, place and geography, as well as close emotional connections between music and individual performers. The thesis reveals how gradual adaptation, and the lived experiences of time within tradition, allow the Zorn institution to negotiate change and thereby maintain its position within Swedish society.

<p>Syftet med det här arbetet var att närmare undersöka hur några nutida folkmusiker övar och tänker kring sitt övande, samt om det hos dessa fanns speciella sätt att öva in och lära ut svensk folkmusik.För att undersöka detta intervjuades fem folkmusiker med olika bakgrund, ålder och kön med hjälp av öppna frågor. Slutsatserna är att utbildning ger spelmannen impulser till ett mer strukturerat sätt att öva. Förebilderna har en stor betydelse i musik som traditionellt lärs ut via gehör. Folkmusikern ”måste” inte vara tekniskt skickligt för att vara ”bra” utan mycket kan uppvägas av karaktär och uttryck.  Ett vanligt sätt att lära ut svensk folkmusik, är att först spela hela låten, spela en repris och sedan dela in den i fraser. I studien fanns ett samband mellan informantens utbildning och komplexiteten i egna övningar samt rekommenderade övningar till elever.</p> / <p>The aim of this study is to examine how certain traditional musicians of today practice, and their thoughts on studying the violin. Also, if there was a specific kind of practice and teaching in the genre of Swedish traditional music.Five musicians with different backgrounds, age and sex were interviewed with open questions.The conclusions are that education can provide the traditional musician with a structured practice method.  Models are of great importance in music played by ear. The musician that plays traditional music “must “ not always be technically skilled to be a musician of importance. Character and expression can counterbalance a bad technique. A common way to teach Swedish music is to first play the whole tune and then divide it into smaller units. There was a connection in the study between the education of the informant and the complexity of their own exercises and the exercises they recommended to pupils.</p>

Syftet med det här arbetet var att närmare undersöka hur några nutida folkmusiker övar och tänker kring sitt övande, samt om det hos dessa fanns speciella sätt att öva in och lära ut svensk folkmusik.För att undersöka detta intervjuades fem folkmusiker med olika bakgrund, ålder och kön med hjälp av öppna frågor. Slutsatserna är att utbildning ger spelmannen impulser till ett mer strukturerat sätt att öva. Förebilderna har en stor betydelse i musik som traditionellt lärs ut via gehör. Folkmusikern ”måste” inte vara tekniskt skickligt för att vara ”bra” utan mycket kan uppvägas av karaktär och uttryck.  Ett vanligt sätt att lära ut svensk folkmusik, är att först spela hela låten, spela en repris och sedan dela in den i fraser. I studien fanns ett samband mellan informantens utbildning och komplexiteten i egna övningar samt rekommenderade övningar till elever. / The aim of this study is to examine how certain traditional musicians of today practice, and their thoughts on studying the violin. Also, if there was a specific kind of practice and teaching in the genre of Swedish traditional music.Five musicians with different backgrounds, age and sex were interviewed with open questions.The conclusions are that education can provide the traditional musician with a structured practice method.  Models are of great importance in music played by ear. The musician that plays traditional music “must “ not always be technically skilled to be a musician of importance. Character and expression can counterbalance a bad technique. A common way to teach Swedish music is to first play the whole tune and then divide it into smaller units. There was a connection in the study between the education of the informant and the complexity of their own exercises and the exercises they recommended to pupils.

On a small island in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence a distinct Francophone community has persisted for nearly three hundred years despite historical traumas and the pressures exerted by a majority Anglophone environment. The factors that have contributed to the persistence of this community are a matter of some debate, yet the cultural identity of the Acadians of Prince Edward Island in the twenty-first century appears to have remained intact. Contrary to a popular discourse of identity "revival," this distinct culture is neither a recent phenomenon nor is it something that is homogeneously pan-Acadian. While much popular and scholarly discourse on the Acadians centres on their tragic past and nationalist perspectives of Acadian identity construction, this dissertation focuses on how identity is created, perceived and expressed in a local context. Music plays a key role in articulating this local identity; it helps to create and maintain social relationships both within the community and with other cultural groups. The emergence of a distinct musical tradition has contributed substantially to the production and maintenance of cultural identity amongst these Island Acadians. Through case studies of specific performance contexts, individual musicians and professional groups, I examine current and ongoing processes of Acadian cultural definition and how musicians negotiate the dichotomy of traditional and modern performance contexts and forms of expression. I consider the musical alliances and exchanges that inform the experiences of these Islanders and how these intercultural encounters have influenced local musical practices and discourses about Acadian identity. My research demonstrates that contemporary cultural markers, and particularly music, are primary tools through which members of this invisible minority cultural group define and present their ethno-cultural identity both locally and to cultural outsiders.

On a small island in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence a distinct Francophone community has persisted for nearly three hundred years despite historical traumas and the pressures exerted by a majority Anglophone environment. The factors that have contributed to the persistence of this community are a matter of some debate, yet the cultural identity of the Acadians of Prince Edward Island in the twenty-first century appears to have remained intact. Contrary to a popular discourse of identity "revival," this distinct culture is neither a recent phenomenon nor is it something that is homogeneously pan-Acadian. While much popular and scholarly discourse on the Acadians centres on their tragic past and nationalist perspectives of Acadian identity construction, this dissertation focuses on how identity is created, perceived and expressed in a local context. Music plays a key role in articulating this local identity; it helps to create and maintain social relationships both within the community and with other cultural groups. The emergence of a distinct musical tradition has contributed substantially to the production and maintenance of cultural identity amongst these Island Acadians. Through case studies of specific performance contexts, individual musicians and professional groups, I examine current and ongoing processes of Acadian cultural definition and how musicians negotiate the dichotomy of traditional and modern performance contexts and forms of expression. I consider the musical alliances and exchanges that inform the experiences of these Islanders and how these intercultural encounters have influenced local musical practices and discourses about Acadian identity. My research demonstrates that contemporary cultural markers, and particularly music, are primary tools through which members of this invisible minority cultural group define and present their ethno-cultural identity both locally and to cultural outsiders.