Thesis (M.M.)--Bowling Green State University, 2005. / Document formatted into pages; contains v, 57 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, March, 2003. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-169)

林萬儀. / 論文(哲學碩士) -- 香港中文大學硏究院音樂學部, 1996. / 參考文献 : leaves 116-127. / Lin Wanyi. / 目錄 --- p.i / 撮要 --- p.iii / Chapter 第1章 --- 導論 --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- 「粤曲女伶」的槪念 / Chapter 1.2 --- 粤曲女伶的硏究槪況 / Chapter 1.3 --- 硏究範圍 / Chapter 1.4 --- 考查工作及資料 / Chapter 1.5 --- 硏究目的 / Chapter 第2章 --- 粤曲女伶的出現及發展 --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1 --- 第一階段：出現及初期發展(1862-1923) / Chapter 2.2 --- 第二階段：二、三十年代的發展(1923-1937) / Chapter 2.3 --- 第三階段：戰時的發展(1937-1945) / Chapter 2.4 --- 第四階段：戰後十五年內的發展(1945-1959) / Chapter 2.5 --- 第五階段：六十年代的發展(1960-1969) / Chapter 2.6 --- 第六階段：七十及八十年代前半期的發展(1970-1985) / Chapter 2.7 --- 第七階段：近十年的發展(1986-1996) / Chapter 第3章 --- 香港當代粤曲女伶槪述 --- p.34 / Chapter 3.1 --- 人數與活躍程度 / Chapter 3.2 --- 年齡與年資 / Chapter 3.3 --- 演唱粤曲以外的有關事業 / Chapter 3.4 --- 組織及聯繫 / Chapter 第4章 --- 女伶的演出場合 --- p.52 / Chapter 4.1 --- 歌壇 / Chapter 4.2 --- 地檔 / Chapter 4.3 --- 會堂 / Chapter 4.4 --- 宴會 / Chapter 4.5 --- 歌台 / Chapter 第5章 --- 女伶的演出 --- p.66 / Chapter 5.1 --- 演出的準備及過程 / Chapter 5.2 --- 演出所用的曲本 / Chapter 5.3 --- 觀眾的參與及影響 / Chapter 5.4 --- 演唱與侍奉：女伶的雙重角色 / Chapter 第6章 --- 女伶的唱腔風格及流派 --- p.90 / Chapter 6.1 --- 唱腔及唱腔流派的含意 / Chapter 6.2 --- 粤劇、粤曲的唱腔流派 / Chapter 6.3 --- 當代女伶所屬唱腔流派 / Chapter 6.4 --- 「女伶腔」的繼承及槪念的演變 / Chapter 第7章 --- 結論 --- p.105 / Chapter 7.1 --- 總結 / Chapter 7.2 --- 粤曲女伶與中國優伶文化 / Chapter 7.3 --- 粤曲女伶與中國樂妓文化 / Chapter 7.4 --- 女伶現象與香港文化 / Chapter 7.5 --- 未來硏究的方向：音樂與性別 / 參考著作目錄 --- p.116

This ethnographic analysis examines the life stories and lyrics of four African blues singers. Specifically, it compares the cultural themes that emerge their life stories to the cultural themes at emerge from their commercially released music. The findings suggest that the singers recognize, to varying degrees, the impact of racism, sexism, and classism on their personal and careers. These same themes, however, are not present in the lyrics of the music that they choose to sing. Both the stories and the lyrics reveal internal inconsistencies that mirror one another. The conclusion suggests that the inconsistencies within their stories and music are consistent with their liminal position with regard to dominant and subordinate cultures.

In this study I combine music analysis with critical theory to investigate how different conceptions of feminine identity--intersecting with race and class--are materialized through recorded sound. I present interpretive analyses of four popular songs recorded and released between 1967 and 1974: "Baby, I Love You" by Aretha Franklin, "Fist City" by Loretta Lynn, "If I Were Your Woman" by Gladys Knight and the Pips, and "Jolene" by Dolly Parton. My analyses focus on vocal performance, and vocal quality (or timbre) in particular, as I investigate the means by which the sounds of these recordings participate in cultural discourse on gender, sexuality, race, and class. These songs narrate moments in sexual love relationships (the hope of new love or the threat of infidelity), while the performances of each vocalist, the studio musicians, and the work of engineers and producers combine to create representations of black and working-class femininity that express varying degrees of assertiveness and vulnerability in the face of unequal gender power relations. I compare and contextualize these sonic expressions of identity with the personas these vocalists presented in their professional and public lives, illustrating how these recordings participate in the construction of a multi-faceted and always-emergent history of American womanhood. In order to accurately describe the relationship between musical sound and intersectional gender identity, I develop a phenomenological analytic methodology sensitive to how embodied responses (the types of physical engagements invited by sound), associative (or connotative, semiotic) responses, and social and historical context of both the recording and listener all contribute to the process of interpretation. I take my own situated listening experience as the object of study, recognizing how my listening practices and reactions, and overlapping identities--as a white, upper-middle-class woman and music scholar--impact my interpretations of these songs. My focus on the physical engagement inherent in music listening underpins the approach to vocal quality analysis I present at the outset of my study, in which I link descriptive language about voice to the physical components of vocal sound production. In my analyses of lyrics, instrumental quality, dynamics, rhythm, form, pitch, and the sonic "space" afforded by each recording, I continue to attend to the types of embodied and associative responses afforded by each element, demonstrating how an engagement with these sounds informs conceptions of gender identity.

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.

Master of Music / Throughout the 20th Century, female operatic singers in most of the major European opera houses were given “grace days” (where they were not required to sing) in recognition of the effect of hormonal changes on the singing voice. Financial constraints in professional companies have resulted in a reduction of such considerations, but to date, there has been no systematic study of the effects of hormonal fluctuations on the quality of the female singing voice, or of its potential adverse effects on the vocal apparatus for singers who are affected by pre-menstrual syndrome. This study investigated the effects of hormonal fluctuations on young professional female classical singers. Female and male professional singers in training (students) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, were asked to participate as volunteers in the study by keeping daily diaries. The female singers kept a diary for two separate months beginning on the first day of menstruation, in which they recorded their daily basal temperature, mood, voice state and physical well being. The male control subjects kept daily diaries for one month. Acoustic analysis of two vocal samples taken during the second month, on days 1 and 14 of the cycle, were completed on the six most severely affected female subjects, who were identified through their diary ratings of changes in vocal quality during menstruation. The selected students assessed their own vocal samples, presented in random order, to determine whether they could reliably identify which of their samples were affected by menstruation. Vocal staff at the Conservatorium (pedagogues), who were blind to the purpose of the study, also assessed recordings presented randomly. Results indicated that self-perceived vocal quality varied over the course of the menstrual cycle, particularly during the first seven days of the cycle, that negative changes in mood affected the voice, and that fatigue, effort, hoarseness, weakness & peak performance were the most frequently affected vocal states. A surprising finding was that male self-perceived voice quality also varied over the course of one month of diary keeping. There was no consistent change in direction of scores during menstrual and non-menstrual phases. Five of the six most affected singers correctly identified their performance during menstruation but pedagogues were not consistently able to do so.. These results indicate that perceived quality of the voice through changes in the menstrual cycle may not be as obvious to a highly trained observer even though they were reliably perceived by the singer. This study demonstrates that menstruation has a discernible impact on the self-perception of female singers’ vocal quality and implies that the premenstrual or menstrual female may not feel able to present her peak performance at these times of hormonal fluctuation. Further detailed research in this area may be warranted on a larger scale to elaborate a more precise clinical management of the problem.

Catherine ('Kitty') Clive (1711-1785) was the most famous singer-actress of mideighteenth century London, and one of the first women whom Drury Lane managers sought to popularize specifically as a singer. Drawing on theories of star construction in cinema, this thesis explores how the public persona of Mrs Clive 'composed' the music she sang. A key ingredient in star production is the wide-ranging dissemination of the star's image. The first chapter explains how the mid-eighteenth star was produced, outlining the period equivalents to what film scholars consider the sources of modern stardom: promotion, publicity, criticism and the work. This last means of star production is considered according to period traditions of comic writing, acting and spectatorship. These activities were part of the practice, begun in the Restoration, of creating a 'line' or metacharacter to fit the skills, reputation and unique acting mannerisms of principal players. The second chapter examines the vehicle of Mrs Clive's initial success, ballad opera. Ballad opera brought to the London stage the musical and discursive traditions of the street ballad singer, who typically communicated with audiences directly through indigenous, popular tunes. Direct address and native pedigree were to remain key elements in Mrs Clive's music, regardless of the genre she was singing. Chapters 3 to 5 trace three distinct phases in Mrs Clive's star production. Chapter 3 studies her promotion by Henry Carey, who taught her distinctive vocal techniques ('natural' singing; mimicry of opera singers) and supplied a sophisticated ballad-style repertory of which she was the chief exponent, 1728-32. Through Mrs Clive, Carey promoted his music and convictions - song in 'sublimated ballad style', the attractiveness of native traditions, female rights - and these became hallmarks of the Clive persona. Chapter 4 considers Henry Fielding's Clive publicity in his musical comedies and writings for her, 1732-6. Initially, he vivified the impudent nymph of her first 1729 mezzotint through stage characters, songs and epilogues. The criticism she drew for her refusal to join 1733-4 Drury Lane actors' rebellion forced him to re-invent Mrs Clive as a 'pious daughter'. In order to galvanize support for her, he broadened his publicity and made her an icon of conservative patriotic values and an enemy of Italian opera. Chapter 5 investigates Mrs Clive's management of her own image in her 1736 battle to retain the lead role in The Beggar's Opera. After her triumph, the duties of her new writer James Miller were simply to reflect audience perception of her. Chapters 6 and 7 analyse how the Clive persona, now rooted in public fantasy, shaped her two most important 'high style' musical roles, first in Thomas Arne's Comus, and then in Handel's Samson. Chapter 6 shows how the themes and musical procedures typical of the Clive persona were wedded to Milton's Comus, which then became the imaginative touchstone for a 'Comus' environment at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. Chapter 7 examines her history as mediator of, and collaborator with, Handel, and shows how Handel's conceptualization of Dalilah in Samson mirrored that of Arne's Euphrosyne in Comus. Chapter 8 describes her ascendancy into 'polite society' through her friendship with Horace Walpole, and summarizes the means by which Mrs Clive's talents and audience perception of her shaped the works she performed.

Master of Music / Throughout the 20th Century, female operatic singers in most of the major European opera houses were given “grace days” (where they were not required to sing) in recognition of the effect of hormonal changes on the singing voice. Financial constraints in professional companies have resulted in a reduction of such considerations, but to date, there has been no systematic study of the effects of hormonal fluctuations on the quality of the female singing voice, or of its potential adverse effects on the vocal apparatus for singers who are affected by pre-menstrual syndrome. This study investigated the effects of hormonal fluctuations on young professional female classical singers. Female and male professional singers in training (students) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, were asked to participate as volunteers in the study by keeping daily diaries. The female singers kept a diary for two separate months beginning on the first day of menstruation, in which they recorded their daily basal temperature, mood, voice state and physical well being. The male control subjects kept daily diaries for one month. Acoustic analysis of two vocal samples taken during the second month, on days 1 and 14 of the cycle, were completed on the six most severely affected female subjects, who were identified through their diary ratings of changes in vocal quality during menstruation. The selected students assessed their own vocal samples, presented in random order, to determine whether they could reliably identify which of their samples were affected by menstruation. Vocal staff at the Conservatorium (pedagogues), who were blind to the purpose of the study, also assessed recordings presented randomly. Results indicated that self-perceived vocal quality varied over the course of the menstrual cycle, particularly during the first seven days of the cycle, that negative changes in mood affected the voice, and that fatigue, effort, hoarseness, weakness & peak performance were the most frequently affected vocal states. A surprising finding was that male self-perceived voice quality also varied over the course of one month of diary keeping. There was no consistent change in direction of scores during menstrual and non-menstrual phases. Five of the six most affected singers correctly identified their performance during menstruation but pedagogues were not consistently able to do so.. These results indicate that perceived quality of the voice through changes in the menstrual cycle may not be as obvious to a highly trained observer even though they were reliably perceived by the singer. This study demonstrates that menstruation has a discernible impact on the self-perception of female singers’ vocal quality and implies that the premenstrual or menstrual female may not feel able to present her peak performance at these times of hormonal fluctuation. Further detailed research in this area may be warranted on a larger scale to elaborate a more precise clinical management of the problem.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Florida, 2005. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 240 pages. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.