Thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, 1952. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 216-230).

Street musicians in New Orleans are one of type of contemporary performers or buskers who represent an occupational community located in the French Quarter. Though often marginalized or seen as deviant, these urban troubadours regard themselves as professional entertainers who adhere to ethical standards and business practices. This study is an analysis of these performers that includes a description of their cluster of performing activities, the concomitant artifacts used in the performances, and the cohesiveness of this group during times of difficulty. Because of a dearth of published research on this specific topic, this study will contribute a new dimension of cultural knowledge.

This dissertation examines sound, and its embodied articulation through music and movement, as I consider pivotal ways in which race has been constructed through the history of blackface minstrelsy in the United States. I contend that the racialized sounds developed out of early blackface performance have both persisted and shifted throughout the history of American popular music, even after the disappearance of the blackface mask. I have neologized the concept of Blacksound to denote the racially coded sonic scripts that have developed out of the history of blackface performance. Blacksound refers to the histories and movements of the African American bodies, both real and imagined, on which its performance is based. The concept also suggests the scripting, manipulation, and absorption of these sonic performances by both black and non-black bodies as vehicles for imagining and self-expression, understood in relation to how ideals of citizenship vis-a-vis whiteness developed along the emerging color line throughout the long nineteenth century. Because Blacksound emerges out of the contexts of chattel slavery and minstrelsy, its commodified nature is always central to understanding how it sonically functions within the construction of identity in U.S. history. I examine how the masked receding of the sonic and corporeal tropes of blackface into Blacksound became the basis of contemporary popular sound and central to constructions of civic and racial identity in the United States. This approach is primarily developed through a comparative analysis of sheet music, imagery, and primary and secondary accounts of blackface performance rituals throughout the long nineteenth century.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Florida, 2005. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Cleveland State University, 2008. / Abstract. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Nov. 7, 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 50-52). Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center. Also available in print.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. W.T. Lhamon, Jr., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 16, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 436-470).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. List of figures shows incorrect page numbers. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 670-720).

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. William T. Lhamon, Jr., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of American and Florida Studies. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 8, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 35 pages. Includes bibliographical references.