Most research into blues music over the past thirty years has examined either how the blues contribute to or reflect African-American identity, or how blues lyrics may be used as windows into African-American culture, values, and attitudes. Scholars have generally relied on more conventional songs about male-female relationships in this research, largely ignoring the subset of topical blues songs that related information about current events. Given the widespread illiteracy among African Americans during the height of the blues' popularity, these topical songs are particularly compelling. To date, however, no one has coupled topical blues together with their consumers' educational attainment to consider if and how songs about current events served as a mode of education in the African-American community. By employing Houston Baker's theory of the blues matrix to examine topical blues songs, it becomes clear that functionally illiterate African Americans relied on topical blues as a spoken newspaper during the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.

The thesis builds on the extensive work of bachelor of 2012. It examines the manuscript collection of songs Podstrážišťské Josef Václav Kratochvil. The first part describes the folk songs of Pelhřimov, folk songs in general and describes the development of folk songs in Bohemia and Moravia. This chapter also deals with the division of folk songs by region, collections of these regions and their collectors. These sub-themes also include sources and their gaining. Finally, the thesis refers to the collector Josef Václav Kratochvíl and his manuscript collection Podstrážišťské songs. In the next section the thesis classifies the literary aspect of songs, their themes and types also by the music side. In the following section the thesis discusses in general stylization of accompanied of folk songs. It also includes the possibility of using part of the folk songs and presents some selected examples of folk ensembles, folk institutions and the media which folklore spreads. The final section discusses the specific arrangements of folk songs from our collection and stylized accompaniment which has been discussed in previous chapters. The last chapter of the thesis includes 97 songs transcribed from the manuscript collection of Josef Václav Kratochvíl into a notation software. KEYWORDS: Folk Song,...

The thesis builds on the extensive work of bachelor of 2012. It examines the manuscript collection of songs Podstrážišťské Josef Václav Kratochvil. The first part describes the folk songs of Pelhřimov, folk songs in general and describes the development of folk songs in Bohemia and Moravia. This chapter also deals with the division of folk songs by region, collections of these regions and their collectors. These sub-themes also include sources and their gaining. Finally, the thesis refers to the collector Josef Václav Kratochvíl and his manuscript collection Podstrážišťské songs. In the next section the thesis classifies the literary aspect of songs, their themes and types also by the music side. In the following section the thesis discusses in general stylization of accompanied of folk songs. It also includes the possibility of using part of the folk songs and presents some selected examples of folk ensembles, folk institutions and the media which folklore spreads. Lay stress on the role of a family. Next the folk song is presented as a material that can be used in a pedagogical field. The essential part of the thesis is a supplement that contains 97 songs from the manuscript collection of songs compiled in a notation software.

Syftet med studien är att identifiera och beskriva nutida folksångares gestaltning vid nyinspelning av ljudande arkivmaterial från Svenskt Visarkiv. Genom transkriptioner, ljudhändelsebeskrivningar och analyser av tre arkivinspelningar från Svenskt Visarkiv och fyra nutida inspelningar med samma musikaliska material har studier av olika förändrings-faktorer gjorts. Studien utgår från teorier om tyst kunskap, kulturarv och tradition. Resultatet visar att faktorer som förhållandet till puls, utsmyckningar och melodivariationer; röstanvändning och instrumentanvändning är förändrade i de nutida inspelningarna. Faktorerna text och form är oförändrade. En övergripande trend i resultatet är att de nutida sångarna har ett något mer nyanserat och genomarbetat sätt att framföra sångerna på än vad som återfinns hos föregångarna, vilket märks särskilt tydligt i instrumentanvändning och i förhållandet till pulsen. / The study aims to identify and describe contemporary folk singers’ interpretation in the case of recording old songs from Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research. To learn more about the process of interpretation, I have compared songs from three archive recordings and four modern recordings of the same songs. By transcriptions and “soundstories” I have analyzed the factors of change which has appeared in the process. The study is based on theories about “silent knowledge”, culture heritage and tradition. The result shows that factors like the attitude towards pulse, embellishments and melody variations and the use of the voice and instruments are changed in the modern recordings. Elements like text and structure are unchanged. An overall tendency in the result is that the contemporary singers have a more nuanced manner of performing the songs than what is exposed of the traditional singers, most evident in the use of instruments and in the attitude towards pulse.

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), was one of the great composers of the late-Romantic era. He composed forty-five Lieder. These Lieder, as influences by Mahler¡¦s symphonic work, show a broader scope, in terms of the sound, the length and the tension, as compared to Lieder by previous composers. Impacted by Romanism and Nationalism, Mahler composed twenty-three Wunderhorn-Lieder, which based on Des Knaben Wunderhorn by German poets Achim von Arnim (1781¡V1831) and Clemens Brentano (1976¡V1842). The Wunderhorn anthology has more than seven hundreds poems, which is a significant piece of German literature work for folk songs. Four Wunderhorn-Lieder are discussed in this paper: ¡§Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald,¡§Scheiden und Meiden¡¨, ¡§Wer hat die Liedlein erdacht¡H¡¨, and¡§ Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen¡¨. The main theme of these four Lieder is love, and each of them represents a different type of love experience. The study mainly contains four parts: the biographical information about Gustav Mahler, the Lieder of Gustav Mahler, a brief introduction of poets Arnim and Brentano, and a performance analysis of the four Wunderhorn-Lieder. Through analyzing these four Lieder, we can gain insight into how poetry was played up and extended by Mahler using music, and help the vocalists better express the spirit and the music syntax of Mahler when interpreting his Lieder.

Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2001. / Bibliography: leaves 262-278.

In this diploma thesis, we create a collection of folk songs with piano accompaniments for primary school. The complexity of said accompaniments is offered in two versions: basic one for beginners and more advanced one for skilled piano players. This collection contains songs in major and minor key, duple and triple time.

The diploma thesis deals with folk songs and their involvement in teaching beyond music education. It is divided into a theoretical part and a practical part. The theoretical part deals with folk songs and their use in schools. It contains an analysis of folk songs in textbooks for the 1st grade of primary schools published by SPN publishing house. For the completeness of the theoretical basis, the diploma thesis presents a general explanation of the concept of integration. It focuses on thematic teaching, which is a key method of connecting the subjects of this work. It presents educational areas based on the Framework Educational Programme for Basic Education and work with folk songs. The practical part consists of the design of five two-hour teaching blocks, one for each year of the first grade, which, through the use of folk song, connect two subjects. These not only form a connecting means, but are also perceived as the starting points of all activities and information sources. Each teaching block contains detailed preparation with didactic notes and hypotheses. The appendices contain the finished preparations inserted into clear tables with all materials and tasks.

Botswana, formerly known as the Bechuanaland Protectorate, is a country with diverse tribal and religious cultures. Bakalanga are one of the tribes found in Botswana and also in Westrn Zimbabwe. The Western part of the Zimbabwean Bukalanga region was included in the then Bechuanaland Protectorate when its border with Zimbabwe was fixed. To date, Botswana's traditional music has been passed from generation to generation, entirely orally. The main contribution of this study is collecting, documenting and preserving Bakalanga traditional music-making. After abolishing official usage of the Ikalanga language, at independence in 1966, in the early 1990's the Botswana government re-discovered that a nation without culture is a lost nation. Funds were then set aside to be used annually for the development of culture. In using these funds to revive their culture and traditional music, Bakalanga of North Eastern Botswana declared 21 May to be their annual cultural day. Photographs and video footage of these annual cultural festivals were taken by the researcher to help illustrate certain aspects of Ikalanga music and dance in this thesis. Several factors influencing Ikalanga traditional music were taken into consideration: the historical background of Bakalanga, their relationship with other tribes such as the Amandebele, their education, their language in relation to other languages and the missionary influence. Ikalanga traditional music instruments are described. The Mwali religion, which forms the basis of wosana music, linking Bakalanga of Botswana and those of Zimbabwe through the Njelele sacred place joint annual ceremonies, is discussed at length. Different Ikalanga traditional music types are addressed as follows: • Rain Making/Praying music; Wosana and Mayile • Traditional Music for Happy Occasions and Entertainment; Ndazula, Mukomoto, Woso, Iperu, Tshikitsha, Bhoro and Ncuzu./ Maskhukhu • Traditional Music for Healing Purposes; Mazenge (Shumba), Sangoma and Mantshomane. All the above music types are practised within Bukalanga communities publicly, with the exception of mazenge, which is regarded as sacred and private. Bhoro is also extinct in Zimbabwe. The notation of Ikalanga traditional basic musical themes is provided, except for mazenge and ncuzu. which were not found anywhere during this research. / Thesis (DMus)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Music / unrestricted

Syftet med studien är att undersöka på vilket sätt sångpedagoger i kommunala kultur- och musikskolor upplever att de arbetar med folklig sång, samt hur de ser på ämnet vad gäller sångsätt och material. Till studien har data samlats in genom telefonintervjuer med tretton sångpedagoger, verksamma vid åtta kultur- och musikskolor i geografiskt spridda kommuner i Sverige. Intervjuformen var strukturerad kvalitativ intervju med öppna följdfrågor. Materialet har sedan analyserats utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv.   Resultatet visar att endast ett fåtal av informanterna anser att folklig sång förekommer i deras undervisning. De som inte undervisar i folklig sång anger svagt elevintresse och brist på egna kunskaper i folklig sång som skäl. Resultatet visar även att informanterna i varierande grad är intresserade av ämnet och av att kunna erbjuda sina elever genrebred undervisning. Samtliga informanter beskriver vad folklig sång innebär för dem, men ingen säger sig kunna göra en tydlig definition av ämnet. En önskan om fortbildning för att öka genrebredden uttalas av några av informanterna. I studien undersöks även det faktum att kultur- och musikskolan inte enligt några styrdokument är ålagd att undervisa genrebrett samt vad detta kan innebära för pedagogernas utformande av undervisningen. / The purpose of this study is to examine in what way vocal teachers in municipal schools for music and arts estimate their use of folk singing and how they view the topic in terms of vocal technique and material. In the research made for the study, data has been collected through telephone interviews with thirteen vocal teachers, working at eight schools for music and arts in geographically dispersed communities in Sweden.  The interview form was a structured qualitative interview with open follow-up questions. The data has then been analysed from a socio-cultural point of view.   The results indicate that only a few of the informants believe that folk singing occurs in their teaching. They who do not teach folk singing as a part of their teaching indicate a lack of interest among the students and low knowledge among the informants as reasons. The results also demonstrate that the informants to a certain extent are interested in the subject and to be able to provide a range of genres to the students they teach. All of the informants describe what folk singing means to them, but none claim to be able to define it. Some of the informants express a need for further education to widen the range of genres available to the students. Furthermore, this study investigates the fact that the schools for music and arts in Sweden are not required or obligated by any official documents to teach in all genres, and in what way this may affect how the vocal teachers plan their teaching.