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Title: "Kiss Me I'm Not Irish, but I Wish I Was": The Cultural Adoption of Irish Music in America.
Creator: Nyers, Kristen, Gunderson, Frank, Koen, Benjamin, Brewer, Charles E., College of Music, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Ethnomusicological works often examine music as an expression of identity. In these studies, music is seen as the product of culture and ethnicity. This thesis reverses this approach and instead explores how musical experiences, rather than only reflecting identity, can produce identity. Within the context of the United States of America, a multicultural society, the Irish music tradition is generally understood to belong to the community of the Irish diaspora. This music is closely...
Show moreEthnomusicological works often examine music as an expression of identity. In these studies, music is seen as the product of culture and ethnicity. This thesis reverses this approach and instead explores how musical experiences, rather than only reflecting identity, can produce identity. Within the context of the United States of America, a multicultural society, the Irish music tradition is generally understood to belong to the community of the Irish diaspora. This music is closely associated with a specific population that is delineated by both a common ethnicity and culture. However, this work considers the resulting impact upon identity construction when individuals from outside of this community participate in its music. This thesis examines how and why individuals in the United States, regardless of their ethnic background, incorporate an Irish-American cultural identity into their personal identity through participation in the Irish-American music-culture. This work demonstrates that membership in the Irish-American music community is determined more by musical participation, personal interactions between individual members, and a respect for the tradition than by an Irish ethnic connection. It also shows how Irish music in an American context is uniquely suited for the construction and reconstruction of identity by its participants.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-2473
Format: Thesis

Title: Encounters: Chamber Piece for Eight Players.
Creator: Hegedus, Michael, Kubik, Ladislav, Callender, Clifton, Koen, Benjamin, College of Music, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Encounters: Chamber Piece for Eight Players is a three-movement composition that was conceived as a dance piece. Though it features only eight instrumentalists, the wide range of timbres present in the ensemble creates a dramatic and theatrical effect suitable for a dance setting. The piece also functions effectively without dance. Each of the three movements' subtitles – Entrance, Apparition, and Junction – is an action that describes the musical material as it unfolds. Entrance is an...
Show moreEncounters: Chamber Piece for Eight Players is a three-movement composition that was conceived as a dance piece. Though it features only eight instrumentalists, the wide range of timbres present in the ensemble creates a dramatic and theatrical effect suitable for a dance setting. The piece also functions effectively without dance. Each of the three movements' subtitles – Entrance, Apparition, and Junction – is an action that describes the musical material as it unfolds. Entrance is an introductory movement that sets the tone for the piece, filled with a variety of musical styles and moods. Apparition is a slower, contrasting movement whereby a smaller core of musical material comes to the fore. Finally, Junction is a fast, coda-like movement that serves to synthesize elements of the first two movements with new material.
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Date Issued: 2005
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4154
Format: Set of related objects

Title: Cakalak Thunder: The Meaning of Anarchy, Value, and Community in the Music of Greensboro's Protest Drum Corps.
Creator: Bright, Crystal Dawn, Gunderson, Frank, Koen, Benjamin, Uzendoski, Michael, College of Music, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis presents the meaning of anarchism, punk, and DIY anarchism in relation to Cakalak Thunder, a radical protest drum group in Greensboro, North Carolina. The author presents the history of Cakalak Thunder and its influences, such as the Infernal Noise Brigade and various Brazilian samba groups. She presents the history of anarchist communities and certain anarchist individuals in America, as well as the history of one of the collective houses in which many of Cakalak's members reside...
Show moreThis thesis presents the meaning of anarchism, punk, and DIY anarchism in relation to Cakalak Thunder, a radical protest drum group in Greensboro, North Carolina. The author presents the history of Cakalak Thunder and its influences, such as the Infernal Noise Brigade and various Brazilian samba groups. She presents the history of anarchist communities and certain anarchist individuals in America, as well as the history of one of the collective houses in which many of Cakalak's members reside. Notions of value and exchange in anthropology have influenced this study, in that the members of Cakalak have created alternate notions of value and modes of exchange that rebel against capitalism. The role of community in the formation and music of Cakalak Thunder is of prime importance. The author presents the many levels of local and global musical activity that informs the music of Cakalak, which is influenced by Slobin's spheres of cultural exchange. Also, how the synechdocal relationship between music and culture has been approached in ethnomusicology is presented, as well as an analysis of how Cakalak's musical and social structures inform each other.
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Date Issued: 2006
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3040
Format: Thesis

Title: Lifted Up by the Power of the Saints: Prihvanati, Music, and Embodied Experience in the Firewalking Rituals of Two Bulgarian Nestinari.
Creator: Kourtova, Plamena, Bakan, Michael, Koen, Benjamin, Uzendoski, Michael, College of Music, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis explores the experience of Bulgarian ritual firewalking, prihvanati, from the perspective of two individual nestinari(firewalkers), Ivailo Ayanski and Vesselina Ilieva. Building upon their personal accounts, it focuses on the history and context of the firewalking rite and the transcendent qualities that are at the heart of its performance. With specific attention to music, ritual symbolism, ancient historical roots, and individual accounts of the two firewalkers, I examine the...
Show moreThis thesis explores the experience of Bulgarian ritual firewalking, prihvanati, from the perspective of two individual nestinari(firewalkers), Ivailo Ayanski and Vesselina Ilieva. Building upon their personal accounts, it focuses on the history and context of the firewalking rite and the transcendent qualities that are at the heart of its performance. With specific attention to music, ritual symbolism, ancient historical roots, and individual accounts of the two firewalkers, I examine the experiential nature of this state of "being lifted up" as an interaction between bodily, musical, and metaphysical experiences. As I argue, in establishing a connection between interdependent and interrelated domains of human experience such as body, music, and divinity, the Bulgarian nestinari formulate a state of wholeness that fosters a renewed cosmological balance and, in turn, individual and communal well-being.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-2851
Format: Thesis

Title: Memetics, Media, and Groove: Musical Experience in Two Florida Steelbands.
Creator: Kerg, Kayleen, Gunderson, Frank, Koen, Benjamin, Van Glahn, Denise, College of Music, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: In this thesis, I adopt the musical concept of "groove" to characterize the experience of steelband in local contexts and the related ideas circulating within broader cultural contexts. Each chapter is an ethnographic portrait and exploration of a specific context in which people interact by participating in steelband. I examine the role of individual directors in shaping their steelband's groove. Employing elements of memetic theory, I identify specific memes and complexes used by directors...
Show moreIn this thesis, I adopt the musical concept of "groove" to characterize the experience of steelband in local contexts and the related ideas circulating within broader cultural contexts. Each chapter is an ethnographic portrait and exploration of a specific context in which people interact by participating in steelband. I examine the role of individual directors in shaping their steelband's groove. Employing elements of memetic theory, I identify specific memes and complexes used by directors as they facilitate their own group's experience to include: "master narrative," "professional performance," and "pan appreciation." I also use the meme hypothesis to evaluate how directors act as agents in the transmission of musical and cultural knowledge. I will focus on the function of the steelband-related media and materials used in rehearsal by the directors of Lion Steel and Space Coast Steel to communicate musical and cultural information to members. I am interested in understanding the ways individuals encounter and use this information in the course of their participation in steelband and how this process contributes to the groove in their local contexts. In this thesis, I will also explore the ways that individual pannists at the Mannette Steel Drums "Festival of Steel" workshop in West Virginia interact with other players and exchange information beyond distinct local contexts. I examine the ways that the exchange of music-cultural information among different sources shapes the manner in which people "groove" in steelbands and how it connects the experiences of pannists in broader musical and cultural contexts.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3166
Format: Thesis

Title: "Chant and Be Happy": Music, Beauty, and Celebration in a Utah Hare Krishna Community.
Creator: Black, Sara, Koen, Benjamin, Gunderson, Frank, Uzendoski, Michael, College of Music, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: One of the primary aspects of Hare Krishna worship is the practice of kirtan, or the musical chanting of sacred texts with particular emphasis on the Maha Mantra, a mantra composed of names for Krishna. Devotees teach that chanting Krishna's name constitutes a literal communion with him. Adding music to the chanting of these sacred words adds a dimension of beauty and celebration reflective of the personality of Krishna, who is known as "the All-Attractive." This thesis explores three aspects...
Show moreOne of the primary aspects of Hare Krishna worship is the practice of kirtan, or the musical chanting of sacred texts with particular emphasis on the Maha Mantra, a mantra composed of names for Krishna. Devotees teach that chanting Krishna's name constitutes a literal communion with him. Adding music to the chanting of these sacred words adds a dimension of beauty and celebration reflective of the personality of Krishna, who is known as "the All-Attractive." This thesis explores three aspects of Hare Krishna kirtan. First is the theological aspect of kirtan, the system of beliefs which give purpose to the practice of chant. Next is the personal, experiential aspect of kirtan, including the emotional intensity of the music, its ability to develop a sense of relationship between devotee and deity, and its potential as a transformative experience, lifting the devotee from the mundane physical world to the realm of spiritual experience. Last is the social aspect of kirtan, as chanting is used to spread the message of Krishna Consciousness and to provide opportunities for members of different social and religious groups to celebrate together. I will focus on the musical activities at the Sri Sri Radha Krishna temple in Spanish Fork, Utah, in order to demonstrate the power of music as a catalyst for religious experience and an agent of transformation for individuals and communities.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3710
Format: Thesis

Title: "Sound of Praise": Reflexive Ethnopedagogy and Two Gospel Choirs in Tallahassee, Florida.
Creator: Arthur, Sarah Kathleen, Gunderson, Frank, Olsen, Dale A., Koen, Benjamin, College of Music, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis is an ethnomusicological study of gospel music as performed and experienced by the Florida State University Gospel Choir and the Youth, Collegiate, and Young Adult Choir at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Tallahassee, Florida. Gospel music has become an increasingly important form of artistic expression for understanding the roots of American music. Unfortunately, it has been marginalized as an area of study in universities and colleges for decades. This thesis...
Show moreThis thesis is an ethnomusicological study of gospel music as performed and experienced by the Florida State University Gospel Choir and the Youth, Collegiate, and Young Adult Choir at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Tallahassee, Florida. Gospel music has become an increasingly important form of artistic expression for understanding the roots of American music. Unfortunately, it has been marginalized as an area of study in universities and colleges for decades. This thesis emphasizes gospel music as a musical genre worthy of study in educational institutions. Its rich history, cultural significance, and pedagogical value make it an important part of American music. This thesis also explores how the ethnomusicological study of pedagogy in culture, or what I call ethnopedagogy, provides a deeper understanding of the gospel music tradition and culture. This thesis provides educators, choral directors, and ethnomusicologists with a resource for teaching African American gospel music traditions, and it will serve as a model for ethnopedagogy and its applicability to the social sciences.
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Date Issued: 2004
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0034
Format: Thesis

Title: From Grief and Joy We Sing: Social and Cosmic Regenerative Processes in the Songs of Q'Eros, Peru.
Creator: Wissler, Holly, Olsen, Dale A., Uzendoski, Michael, Gunderson, Frank, Koen, Benjamin D., College of Music, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The Quechua community of Q'eros in the Andes of southeastern Peru is renowned in the Cusco region and within various circles (layman, scholarly, esoteric, tourist). The Q'eros are also known nationally and internationally for their continued practice of indigenous customs such as musical rituals that other Andean communities no longer maintain. This dissertation shows how the Q'eros' two principal indigenous song genres, Pukllay taki (Carnaval songs) and animal fertility songs, serve as...
Show moreThe Quechua community of Q'eros in the Andes of southeastern Peru is renowned in the Cusco region and within various circles (layman, scholarly, esoteric, tourist). The Q'eros are also known nationally and internationally for their continued practice of indigenous customs such as musical rituals that other Andean communities no longer maintain. This dissertation shows how the Q'eros' two principal indigenous song genres, Pukllay taki (Carnaval songs) and animal fertility songs, serve as active forms of social and cosmic renewal, regeneration, and reproduction. Regenerative processes through musical performance occur on many levels: the revitalization of relationship with the cosmological spirit powers, the Apu (mountain spirits) and Pacha Mama (Mother Earth); the renewal and reinforcement of social ties and women's and men's roles; and the re-creation and reproduction of cosmological worldview. This dissertation shows how the Q'eros actively regenerate, re-create, and reproduce social and cosmic relationships and cosmological perceptions through their music-making. Three Andean concepts that the Q'eros specifically name and describe show how music serves in the regenerative processes of social and cosmic relationships, and in cosmological worldview: animu, yanantin, and ayni. Animu is the animated essence that is in every person, object, and invisible spirit, which propels the life-governing concepts of yanantin (complementary duality) and ayni (reciprocity). Yanantin is the union of two contrasting and interdependent parts that are in movement with one another, in continual search of equilibrium, and with a meeting and overlap in a center. The Q'eros articulate the reproduction of the cosmological worldview of yanantin in performance roles and instrument pairs. I argue that yanantin is also expressed on the micro level of relationship between vocal and pinkuyllu (flute) melodies in song structure and between songs, as well as on the macro level of communally sung expressions of joy and grief. Ayni is the most fundamental and life-sustaining form of reciprocal exchange in Q'eros, and many other, Andean communities. The Q'eros give offerings in many forms (food, drink, special ingredient bundles, and songs) to the Apu and Pacha Mama in exchange for the well-being of the people and their animals. Q'eros' singing and flute playing are active forms of ayni, in that they are musical offerings that are sent out through samay (breath, life essence and force) in propitiation. To ensure receipt of the songs by the spirit powers, the Q'eros employ a vocal technique they call aysariykuy ("to pull"): ends of phrases are sung in prolonged, held tones with a final, forced expulsion of air. This is the Q'eros' active way to send the song out so that it will reach the spirit powers. Once the spirit powers successfully receive a song, the powers will be able to reciprocate beneficially. The tension caused by the desired necessary, successful reciprocation from the spirit powers to the people, and remembrance of times when that has not been the case, often result in the sung expression of grief and anxiety. The singing of grief and anxiety rebuilds sociability that loss and death have disrupted. By contrast, the joyful communal singing in the annual Carnaval celebration serves to re-establish social ties and renew social relationships in the community, a practice that balances the communal singing of grief during animal fertility. This dissertation shows that the regular and expected release of joy and grief through music contributes to individual and communal balance and healing. The dissertation details the social and cosmic regenerative processes throughout in the form of detailed ethnographic description; insight from the author's participation; interviews; analyses of musical detail and aesthetics of specific audio examples; musical transcriptions (both in five-line staff and alternative transcription design to show cosmological view imbedded in song structure); and transcriptions, translations, and analyses of song texts.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0921
Format: Thesis

Title: Music and Healing with the Skiffle Bunch Steel Orchestra in San Fernando, Trinidad.
Creator: Jones, Jeffrey A., Koen, Benjamin D., Clendinning, Jane Piper, Bakan, Michael B., College of Music, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This dissertation is an examination of music and healing in the Skiffle Bunch Steel Orchestra in San Fernando, Trinidad. The potential roles of music in health and healing are explored through three perspectives. The first perspective explores the musical experiences of the group as optimal experiences that are intrinsically rewarding and facilitate healing. The second details how the meaningful embodiment of four important cultural values engenders a way of life, an outlook through which...
Show moreThis dissertation is an examination of music and healing in the Skiffle Bunch Steel Orchestra in San Fernando, Trinidad. The potential roles of music in health and healing are explored through three perspectives. The first perspective explores the musical experiences of the group as optimal experiences that are intrinsically rewarding and facilitate healing. The second details how the meaningful embodiment of four important cultural values engenders a way of life, an outlook through which members of Skiffle Bunch ascribe meaning to their experiences that potentially encourages health promoting attitudes, behaviors, and states of well-being. The third perspective demonstrates how intense focus and strong emotion educed by the interrelation of optimal experience and the meaningful embodiment of cultural values induces a kind of trancing to which members of Skiffle Bunch attribute extraordinary healing experiences. A broader goal of presenting these perspectives in the dissertation is to lay the groundwork for a concluding perspective that positions future research findings of this ongoing project to contribute to the development of practical applications. The dissertation is based primarily on fieldwork conducted with Skiffle Bunch from early May through mid-August 2007, though it also draws upon insights developed from earlier fieldwork visits to Trinidad during the 2001 Carnival season and summer research trips in 2001 and 2003. Moreover, a steady phone and email dialogue was established with the Skiffle Bunch in 2005 and is still ongoing as of the writing of the dissertation. Methodologically, I utilize a broad array of musicological tools including: participation, observation, organology, iconography, cultural history, musical transcription and analysis, audio and video recording, formal and informal interviews, field notes, and two written surveys. I theoretically orient research findings relative to the discipline of medical ethnomusicology and ground them in ethnography informed by symbolic anthropology and musical analysis. Ultimately, the relationships between music and healing explored in the dissertation indicate that musical experiences catalyze, and often are, processes of healing for members of Skiffle Bunch. The research findings suggest that, while the relationships between music and healing examined herein occur within a specific cultural context, the principles that underlie such experiences are representative of a broader human potential for healing through musical means.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3455
Format: Thesis

Title: In from the Rain.
Creator: Zarou, Richard, Wingate, Mark, Koen, Benjamin, Kubik, Ladislav, Callender, Clifton, College of Music, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: In from the Rain is a collection of songs and interludes for mezzo-soprano, two clarinets, piano, five part female choir, three cellos, contrabass and computer. There are multiple ways the piece may be performed; with live musicians and live computer manipulation in quadraphonic sound (4.0) or the playback of the studio recording as performed by Sarah Horick, Sarah Gaskins, Courtney Mourie, and Katy Vickers. The studio recording exists stereo (2.0) and surround sound (5.1) formats. At this...
Show moreIn from the Rain is a collection of songs and interludes for mezzo-soprano, two clarinets, piano, five part female choir, three cellos, contrabass and computer. There are multiple ways the piece may be performed; with live musicians and live computer manipulation in quadraphonic sound (4.0) or the playback of the studio recording as performed by Sarah Horick, Sarah Gaskins, Courtney Mourie, and Katy Vickers. The studio recording exists stereo (2.0) and surround sound (5.1) formats. At this time in 2008, a computer is required to perform In from the Rain with live musicians. An Apple Powermac G5 with a 2.0 GHz processor and two gigabytes of RAM is recommended. Along with a computer, a bundle of Waves plug-ins is necessary for live processing of the performing musicians. The recommended bundle is the Waves Renaissance Bundle. The score contains a musical transcription of the prerecorded percussion and live processing. The Appendix contains a detailed account of each plug-in and their intricate settings. This will allow for each effect to be recreated in the future as technology evolves. The use of a conductor is recommended when performing with live musicians. All text was taken from the poetry of Sara Pennington.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0591
Format: Thesis

Title: Music as Refuge: Cultural Integration and Healing in the Lives of Refugees Living in Prospect Park.
Creator: Wood, Katelyn E., Koen, Benjamin D., Gunderson, Frank, Mazza, Nicholas, College of Music, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis provides an ethnomusicological study of the role of music within the lives of resettled refugees located within a community in the south hills of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Broadly, this work explores the concept of 'music as refuge''that is, music's ability to provide a haven of safety or solace. More specifically, this work examines the capacity of 'music as refuge' to mitigate challenges of transitioning from one place to another. To approach music in this way, the thesis...
Show moreThis thesis provides an ethnomusicological study of the role of music within the lives of resettled refugees located within a community in the south hills of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Broadly, this work explores the concept of 'music as refuge''that is, music's ability to provide a haven of safety or solace. More specifically, this work examines the capacity of 'music as refuge' to mitigate challenges of transitioning from one place to another. To approach music in this way, the thesis focuses on music's capacity to sooth loss, instill hope and strengthen a healthier sense of self. Additionally, the study considers what it means to be a refugee, explores the challenges encountered before, during, and after the process of resettlement, and how the integration of music and culture can further aid adjustment to a new country and assist in creating a renewed sense of identity and home.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7077
Format: Thesis

Title: Jazz Photography: Art Form and Historic Document.
Creator: Spring, Staci A., Van Glahn, Denise, Blakely, George, Koen, Benjamin D., College of Music, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Through publicity material, personal portraiture, and the work of individual photographers, jazz music has been documented and artfully represented in photographs throughout its development. This thesis examines the circumstances leading to such a wealth of photographs, the elements of the jazz photography tradition, and some of the important photographers and their jazz musician subjects. These photographs are a valuable source for historical study and make a compelling case for the...
Show moreThrough publicity material, personal portraiture, and the work of individual photographers, jazz music has been documented and artfully represented in photographs throughout its development. This thesis examines the circumstances leading to such a wealth of photographs, the elements of the jazz photography tradition, and some of the important photographers and their jazz musician subjects. These photographs are a valuable source for historical study and make a compelling case for the contributions of photography to musical historiography.
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Date Issued: 2006
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1602
Format: Thesis

Title: Head-to-Head Musical Conflict: The Competitive Aspects of Hip Hop Culture in Rap, Dance, and DJ Battles.
Creator: Storhoff, Timothy P., Gunderson, Frank, Koen, Benjamin, Brewer, Charles E., College of Music, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Competition has always been central to hip hop culture's four primary elements of rapping, dancing, DJing, and graffiti writing. This thesis focuses on the competitive practices associated with hip hop's musical elements: rap, dance, and DJ battles. In a battle, two opponents face-off directly and take turns attacking one another while presenting their own skills. I break down how these battles are conducted in each different type of performance, what is valued in those battles, and what is...
Show moreCompetition has always been central to hip hop culture's four primary elements of rapping, dancing, DJing, and graffiti writing. This thesis focuses on the competitive practices associated with hip hop's musical elements: rap, dance, and DJ battles. In a battle, two opponents face-off directly and take turns attacking one another while presenting their own skills. I break down how these battles are conducted in each different type of performance, what is valued in those battles, and what is discouraged. In order to understand these battles, I look at how they were conducted in three distinct organized competitions which include the World Series of Hip Hop rap battles, the All Targets Leveled b-boy/b-girl competition, and the Battle for World Supremacy event in the Disco Mix Club's World DJ Championships. Looking at these three events also allows me to explain the role of organized competitions in hip hop culture. Besides promoting and preserving these sometimes marginalized modes of performance, musical competitions also encourage performers to develop their skills while giving them opportunities to build their reputations and achieve financial success.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1555
Format: Thesis

Title: A Home Before Heaven: Belief, Worship, and Community in a Southern Gospel Sing Service.
Creator: McCoy, Jason T., Koen, Benjamin, Bakan, Michael, Porterfield, Amanda, College of Music, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis presents an ethnomusicological study of Brotherly Love Ministries' Gospel Sing service, focusing on the interrelated dynamics of salvationist belief, familial community, and worship rooted in individual musical performance. Demonstrating that the Gospel Sing holds special attraction for individuals whose life histories are marked by an experience of social marginalization, I emphasize the potentiality of the Gospel Sing to promote a sense of inherent value in participants who have...
Show moreThis thesis presents an ethnomusicological study of Brotherly Love Ministries' Gospel Sing service, focusing on the interrelated dynamics of salvationist belief, familial community, and worship rooted in individual musical performance. Demonstrating that the Gospel Sing holds special attraction for individuals whose life histories are marked by an experience of social marginalization, I emphasize the potentiality of the Gospel Sing to promote a sense of inherent value in participants who have, in large measure, lost their sense of value. Further to this line of thinking is the idea that the primary function of the Gospel Sing is to validate participants' belief in salvation by creating an experience of celebration, which I define simply as the embodiment of joy. Such celebratory experience is created through devaluating standards of performance and promoting individual musical creativity, in whatever stages it may be, as a highly valued activity. In this manner of creating celebratory experience, the Gospel Sing cultivates an overall sense of self-worth and well being that serves to strengthen self-efficacy beliefs in the face of life's difficulties. It provides participants an opportunity to create for themselves their own joy, thus allowing them to recuperate a sense of control over the quality of their lives.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-2598
Format: Thesis

Title: Taratīl: Songs of Praise and the Musical Discourse of Nostalgia Among Coptic Immigrants in Toronto, Canada.
Creator: Ramzy, Carolyn Magdy William, Koen, Benjamin D., Schlenoff, Zeina, Van Glahn, Denise, Brewer, Charles, College of Music, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis explores the integral role of taratîl, the most prevalent genre of non-liturgical devotional music among Coptic Christians. Specifically, this study concerns the role of taratîl in evoking nostalgia, and through the narrative of personal memory and collective remembrance, reconciling many immigrants with their homesickness for Egypt or the Sudan. Taratîl are religious, non-liturgical folk songs that allow Copts to worship and praise God outside of liturgical contexts, while also...
Show moreThis thesis explores the integral role of taratîl, the most prevalent genre of non-liturgical devotional music among Coptic Christians. Specifically, this study concerns the role of taratîl in evoking nostalgia, and through the narrative of personal memory and collective remembrance, reconciling many immigrants with their homesickness for Egypt or the Sudan. Taratîl are religious, non-liturgical folk songs that allow Copts to worship and praise God outside of liturgical contexts, while also serving multiple functions in the lives of Copts in Egypt as well as the diaspora. Unlike formal church services, which are generally sung in the Coptic language, taratîl are sung in Arabic, the first language of most Coptic Christians. As a vernacular genre, they are intimately tied to personal worship. They are also imbued with highly expressive texts and draw upon a wide repository of recurring symbols and culturally embedded metaphors, which, through their expression, evoke nostalgia and remind participants of their homesickness for Egypt or the Sudan. Taratîl not only enliven personal memories, but also allows participants to contextulalize them and to narrate them to each other. Through the collective remembrance of home, taratîl become an effective medium in reconciling homesickness, avoiding a feeling of homelessness, and finally, helping participants create an idealized home away from home. In this case, homelessness denotes an immigrant's feeling of emotional severance and separation from their native cultural and social networks (see Edgar et al. 2004; Kim 2005; Papastergiadis 2000). This phenomenon is particularly evident among Copts who have just recently immigrated, or older members of the community who have spent most of their lives in their homeland. Through musical and textual analyses of metaphors and symbols included in the songs, this study explores how performance of and listening to taratîl stimulates individual reminiscence and collective remembrance of nostalgia and memory, evokes the "homeland," and mediates Coptic-Canadian identity. This study is based on ethnomusicological research at St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church of Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-2125
Format: Thesis

Title: Improvising Transcendence for Health and Healing: A Literature Review and Pilot Study.
Creator: Odria, Carlos, Koen, Benjamin D., Bakan, Michael B., Galeano, Juan Carlos, College of Music, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis explores the healing capabilities of musical improvisation using a two-fold approach. First, it proposes a theoretical framework to understand improvisation as a preventive or curative event. Second, it employs the proposed framework to discuss data collected through fieldwork and a pilot study. Broadly, the thesis links improvisational behavior to the experience of transcendence and personal transformation. More specifically, the study focuses on a group of improvisers living in...
Show moreThis thesis explores the healing capabilities of musical improvisation using a two-fold approach. First, it proposes a theoretical framework to understand improvisation as a preventive or curative event. Second, it employs the proposed framework to discuss data collected through fieldwork and a pilot study. Broadly, the thesis links improvisational behavior to the experience of transcendence and personal transformation. More specifically, the study focuses on a group of improvisers living in North Florida and the intricacies of three improvisatory sessions held at Florida State University. The research follows a medical ethnomusicological approach to understand the way these musicians articulate and describe the embodiment of "non-ordinary states" while performing. Throughout the discussion, the notion of non-ordinary states is frequently recapitulated and reframed. Roughly, it refers to the thoughts and emotions that distance the musician from common, everyday activity. In a sense, transcendence is viewed as a spectrum in which those unusual inner-phenomena unfold. The main argument of the thesis is that improvisation leads to the experience of transcendence, and that the experience of transcendence is in itself a vehicle to promote health and healing.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-2313
Format: Thesis

Title: Liminality, Embodiment and the Six Healing Sounds of Qigong.
Creator: Carson, Patrick Emilio, Koen, Benjamin D., Erndl, Kathleen M., Johnson, David F. (David Frame), Slaveva-Griffin, Svetla, Kavka, Martin, Florida State University, College of Arts...
Show moreCarson, Patrick Emilio, Koen, Benjamin D., Erndl, Kathleen M., Johnson, David F. (David Frame), Slaveva-Griffin, Svetla, Kavka, Martin, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities
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Abstract/Description: This dissertation stems from an ethnographic experience, i.e., a course on the Six Healing Sounds of Qigong taught by Dr Yu Zhang, which I and other students attended in 1991 in Los Angeles, California. The course led to the following questions: What is qigong? What are the Six Healing sounds? Are the claims of this healing tradition to ancient origins accurate? These questions led to the following conclusions: Qigong is indeed a practice of ancient origins, albeit one that comes from...
Show moreThis dissertation stems from an ethnographic experience, i.e., a course on the Six Healing Sounds of Qigong taught by Dr Yu Zhang, which I and other students attended in 1991 in Los Angeles, California. The course led to the following questions: What is qigong? What are the Six Healing sounds? Are the claims of this healing tradition to ancient origins accurate? These questions led to the following conclusions: Qigong is indeed a practice of ancient origins, albeit one that comes from different streams of Daoist and medical practices. Its name is a recent design by the Chinese government in the early 1950's, with the ulterior goal of creating an effective, low cost health care system rooted in Chinese culture. Apart from the answers provided above, I argue that qigong is a body technology that uses slow, gentle exercises, visualizations and standing and sitting meditations to elicit a state of reverie, a liminal or altered state of consciousness that is conducive to bodily, mental and spiritual experiences and transformation.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9566
Format: Thesis

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