For over two hundred years, Chinese immigrants have brought ancient customs and musical traditions to their new homes in America. As in many immigrant communities, a new heritage that embodies and exhibits both the quintessential features of American culture and genuine Chinese heritage have come together to form new expressive cultures that are uniquely "Chinese American." As the youngest of the major American Chinese immigrant centers, the city of Houston, Texas provides an exemplary example of a distinct cultural cohesion that, in part, resulted from significant cultural and political upheavals in the latter half of the twentieth century. During this era of political unrest, many Chinese people's attitudes towards their traditional culture changed drastically. The Houston Chinese Traditional Music Group (HCTMG) is a Chinese orchestra comprised of amateur and professional musicians ranging in age from 13 to over 60 years old. Performing regularly for the Chinese immigrant population in Houston, HCTMG's take on traditional Chinese music deviates greatly from that of older, more established immigrant communities on the East and West Coasts and in some parts of mainland China. Via participant observation, interviews, and analysis of source materials, this paper examines how changing political and economic climates in China during the 1960s to the 1990s—when the majority of HCTMG musicians lived in China –are reflected in the musical decisions of HCTMG and the greater Houston Chinese immigrant community at large.

This dissertation is a study on the integration of Chinese traditional musical elements in Western-style compositions for the violin by contemporary Chinese composers. As background, the development of musical synthesis in Chinese New Music since the 1930s is reviewed, and essential aspects of the musical language and aesthetics of Chinese Traditional Music are surveyed. Through detailed analyses of three representative compositions by contemporary composers Ma Sicong (1912-1987), Chen Yi (b. 1953), and Bright Sheng (b.1955), their different approaches to the synthesis of Chinese traditional and Western musical styles are examined. Historical context is provided in biographical information about the three composers, including their educational background, musical influences, and compositional styles.

Under åtta veckor har jag lärt mig åtta nya folkmusiklåtar genom notläsning. Vanligtvis arbetar folkmusiker utifrån en gehörstradition och nu ville jag utmana mig själv med ett annat tillvägagångssätt. Syftet var att avgöra hur min inlärningsprocess påverkas, hur memoreringen av låtarna påverkas och hur jag upplever min tolkning av “svänget” när jag jobbar utifrån notläsning.  Varje vecka har jag jobbat med en ny låt och genom utförliga anteckningar i min loggbok samt ljudinspelningar har jag kommit fram till flera resultat kring hur projektet upplev- des. Mina egna reflektioner kring processen sammanfattas i resultatet i form av ett feno- menologiskt perspektiv. / I have been learning eight traditional Swedish tunes in eight weeks by reading sheet mu- sic. This kind of music is usually taught through showing and listening to others, but I wanted to challenge myself with another way of working. The purpose is to see how my process of learning and adapt a tune is affected, how my memorizing is affected and how my assumption of a “groove” is affected.  Each week I have worked with a new tune and during the process I have written down notes in my notebook and recorded how I sound early on and afterwards. These tools have led me too a result of how I felt and what I have realized after the project.

While Erich von Hornbostel, pioneer of the early Berlin school of comparative musicology, saw no reason to expect a homogenisation of music around the globe, some later ethnomusicologists feared a cultural greying-out, a loss of diversity of the world’s musics under the impact of Westernisation. More in-depth knowledge of many musical cultures and of the processes at work in present-day societies in Asia and Africa, however, seem to paint a different picture. By discussing several case studies of musical idioms from Nigeria and Zimbabwe, this paper corroborates Peter Manuel’s opinion that it is especially in the domain of popular musics where a dynamic process constantly gives rise to ever new local musical styles. Their success as compared to some transnational genres may in part be attributed to the importance of helping to create local identities. Thus, the effects of the decreasing presence of some more traditional musical idioms and of the almost omnipresent Western pop music are counteracted by new, sometimes hybrid popular styles which often draw substantially from local traditional genres. But the impact of globalisation can also be traced in the domain of non-Western traditional musics and of Western contemporary composers. As a case in point, the attitudes of two Western composers, Kevin Volans and György Ligeti, towards traditional music of sub-Saharan Africa are explored by drawing on two well-known examples, namely Volans’ piece Mbira and Ligeti’s piano etude No. 6. In conclusion we may assume that, in spite of a profound Western influence on the musics of the world, at present there seems to be no reason to fear a musical greying-out.

No description available.

Modern conflict transformation emerged after World War II as a discipline and a field of academic research. Since the early 1990s it has increasingly concerned itself with psycho-social issues (e.g. trauma treatment or reconciliation) in the aftermath of violent protracted social conflicts. Within this psycho-social space there has been a growing interest in the use of music in conflict transformation to improve relationships between in and out-groups. However, the field of music and conflict transformation is still nascent, with little in-depth research available. The majority of studies have been undertaken by interested parties or relies on anecdotal evidence from organisers and musicians with little concern for the context of the music use. Participants, whose attitudes and relationships to out-groups are the focus of conflict transformation interventions, are largely overlooked and their views are rarely discussed. Furthermore, there are few detailed studies on exactly how music affects conflict transformation outcomes. Instead allusions are often made to terms such as “the power of music” which act as a black box intended to explain how music “works”, but patently fail to do so. This thesis attempts to fill these two gaps in the literature by focusing on the participants’ experiences in two different conflict transformation contexts, a multi- cultural music project for school children in Noway and the casual music use in a settlement of internally displaced persons in Sudan. Through qualitative research methods, rich descriptive data from different parties is gathered. The data is analysed using grounded theory. As a result a very different and more complex picture emerges that enriches the current understanding of how music is used and perceived in conflict transformation contexts. In particular, how participants view these activities and how power relationships, though rarely mentioned, affect the music use is explored in detail. Some tentative suggestions indicate that music works best when used in longitudinal bottom-up activities and that music can augment conflict transformation activities rather than replace them. Additionally, it is proposed that music may work as a form of benign interruption in conflict transformation activities and that musical events provide a liminal space where the real work lies in the process of bringing any changes in attitudes from the liminal space into everyday life.

This dissertation deals with ritual and its connection to music. The objective of the research and the studies of selected rituals is to describe the relations between ritual and the music- dance elements within it. The dissertation focuses on musical expression. In the dissertation we describe a few traditional rituals from the European cultural heritage, and also some selected examples of secular ceremonies in relation to them. Sources of information include field research, studies of authentic ritual (filmed by Lubomír Tyllner), as well as specialist literature. The concept of "ritual" means, for us, a performance, a symbolic activity, the aim of which is to create and to consolidate social bonds, and to regulate, conserve and transmit social habits and manners. It prescribes behavior which should help an individual to win favour with supernatural powers, or which could have a positive effect on achieving an intended goal. The important part of the ritual is the concept of "liminality", and in addition "The communitas" status of the community. Victor Turner, who studied these aspects of ritual in detail, distinguished the term "ritual" from "secular ceremony" by the existence of liminality. In ritual and secular ceremony music performs many functions, and seems to be a very essential part of...

Syftet med denna studie är att observera mitt lärande i studerande av irländsk musik. Studiens metod är att genom en mästare, lära repertoar som förmedlar stiltypiska drag. Som teoretisk utgångspunkt för studien har det sociokulturella perspektivet med fokus på mästarläran valts. Frågeställningarna som ligger till grund för studien undersöker vilka redskap som används för att appropriera den irländska musiken och vilka insikter och framsteg som gjorts i den irländska spelstilen under studiens gång. Efter analys av det under processen inhämtade material framkommer i resultatet användning av både materiella och teoretiska redskap som ofta samverkar. Vidare visar resultatet tecken på lärande inom områdena tempo, stråk och förståelse kring musiken. I diskussionen tas några av de slutsatser som framkommit i resultatet upp och kopplas till den litteratur och forskning som presenteras i arbetets bakgrundskapitel. Några av de punkter som tas upp i diskussionen är hur min musikaliska identitet utvecklas, lärande i sessions, vilken stil jag utvecklar under detta arbete och vad redskapen har för betydelse. / This study’s purpose is to observe the learning process of studying Irish traditional music. The method used in the study, is to learn repertoire mediating the Irish style from a master in the tradition. As a theoretical basis for the study a socio-cultural perspective with a focus on master-learning is used.  The study is based on research questions investigating how tools are used to learn the Irish style and how learning becomes visible and changes during the process. After analysing the material, collected during the process, the results show the use of both material and theoretical tools which often cooperate. Furthermore, the results show, how learning is achieved in the categories: tempo, bowing and understanding of the music. In the discussion some of the conclusions, appearing in the result, are brought up and connected to literature and research presented in the studies background chapter. Some of the topics discussed are how my musical identity develops, how learning takes place in sessions, how my style is affected during the study and what impact the tools have on learning.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka min lärandeprocess när jag på det melodiska slagverksinstrumentet vibrafon studerar in tre folkmusiklåtar på gehör utifrån ljudinspelningar. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten för studien är det sociokulturella perspektivet och den decentrerade mästarläran. Studiens frågeställningar berör tillvägagångssätt, vilka kulturella redskap som används samt hur lärandet visar sig. I resultatet framkommer att många olika materiella och intellektuella redskap används i inlärningsprocessen och att lärandet visar sig genom exempelvis ökat tempo och tillägnande av fler och fler detaljer i musiken. I diskussionen ställs dessa resultat i relation till presenterad litteratur och forskning och aspekter som diskuteras är bland annat hur olika kulturella redskap samspelar och tillsammans främjar lärandet, hur den musikkulturella inramningen sätts utifrån den utövandes tidigare erfarenheter och kunskaper samt hur samspel och kommunikation kan visa sig i enskild övning utan tydlig praxisgemenskap. / The purpose of this studie is to analyse my learningprocess when learning three swedish folkmusic tunes by ear on the vibraphone, with the help of audio recordings. The theoretical basis of the studie is the sociocultural theory and a decentered view of master-learning. The issues of the studie has been to examine the ways in which I structure my practice to reach my goals, the use of different cultural tools and how the development can be seen. The result reveals that a lot of different tools, both material and intellectual, are being used in the learningprocess and that the development can be seen in increasing of tempo and appropriation of more and more details in the musical perfomance. In the discussion the results are put in relation to the litterature and theory which has been presented. Some aspects that is discussed is how the use of different cultural tools together can have a positive effect, how a musicians previous experience and knowledge affects the learningprocess and how interaction and communication can be seen in individual practice without a clear social context.

O tropeirismo é uma temática frequentemente exaltada por diferentes compositores e intérpretes da música regionalista gauchesca, dada sua importância no desenvolvimento econômico e cultural do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Esse fenômeno, que se estendeu do final do século XVII até meados do século XX, no sul do Brasil, além de ter sido responsável pelo surgimento de inúmeras vilas e cidades ao longo das rotas, proporcionou um imenso intercâmbio cultural. Essa mescla das diferentes culturas envolvidas no fazer tropeiro criou uma espécie de identidade comum. Vestígios culturais decorrentes do contato entre birivas – como eram conhecidos os tropeiros paulistas e os habitantes de Cima da Serra, no RS – e gaúchos manifestam-se na culinária, na dança, na descrição das lidas de campo e na linguagem, especialmente na seleção lexical. Neste trabalho, propomos uma análise léxico-semântica da letra de quatorze canções gauchescas de cunho regionalista, a fim de investigar de que maneira a música regionalista reconstitui a história do tropeirismo. Almejou-se verificar se ocorre a mitificação da figura do tropeiro à semelhança do que acontece com o gaúcho e, após as análises, observou-se que isso de fato ocorre. A partir do levantamento das lexias relacionadas à atividade tropeira presentes nas canções, apresentamos uma proposta de modelo de organização da memória sobre o tropeirismo em campos lexicais. De acordo com Abbade (2012), a organização de um determinado conjunto de lexias em campos lexicais vai além da mera contribuição para estudos linguísticos: também evidencia a história e os costumes do grupo linguístico que as utiliza. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2016-05-11T19:34:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Silmara Argenton.pdf: 1208883 bytes, checksum: 99b6426a9caaaebf71e832098cb660c9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-11T19:34:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Silmara Argenton.pdf: 1208883 bytes, checksum: 99b6426a9caaaebf71e832098cb660c9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-05-11 / The tropeirismo, the occupation of the muleteers, is a theme which is frequently exalted by different composers and interpreters of gauchesca regional music, having in mind its importance in the economic and cultural development of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. This phenomenon, which extended from the end of the XVII century until the middle of the XX century, in the southern states of Brazil, besides being responsible for the emergence of countless villages and cities throughout the routes, provided a huge cultural exchange. The mingling of the different cultures involved in the regular activities of the muleteers, the tropeiro, created a kind of common identity. Cultural tracescaused by the contact between birivas – as were known the muleteers from São Paulo and the inhabitants of northern area of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, called Cima da Serra region – and gaúchos (the inhabitants of Rio Grande do Sul) are expressed in the culinary, dance, description of the work in the fields and in language, especially revealed in the choice of lexical items. In this research, we propose a lexical-semantic analysis of the lyrics of fourteen gauchesca regional songs, in order to investigate how the regional music reconstitutes the history of tropeirismo. The aim is to verify whether the mystification of the muleteer occurs, similarly to what happens to the gaúcho, which our analysis proved to be right. Based on the survey of the lexis related to the activities of the tropeiros present in the songs, we propose a model of organization of the memory of tropeirismo in lexical fields. According to Abbade (2012), the organization of the lexicon goes beyond the mere contribution to linguistic studies: it also evidences the history and the customs of the linguistic group that uses it.