Date Available
12-10-2017
Year of Publication
2017
Degree Name
Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA)
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
College
Fine Arts
Department/School/Program
Music
First Advisor
Dr. Jefferson Johnson
Abstract
Stephen Foster is acknowledged as America’s first composer of popular music. His legacy can be seen in the number of songs that are embedded in our cultural heritage – “Oh! Susanna,” “Beautiful Dreamer,” and “My Old Kentucky Home,” are but a very few of his most popular works. Stephen Foster’s songs have been incorporated into every facet of American culture including both popular and classical musical culture, television, and film. However, his legacy is complicated as it is tainted by connections to blackface minstrelsy in some works. This document seeks to trace the threads of racial sensitivity and cultural appropriation in works arranged for choral ensembles based on Foster’s songs. The arrangements chosen for this document provide a glimpse into three distinct periods of American history – pre-Civil Rights, the Civil Rights Era, and post-Civil Rights. Using a process of comparative analysis of the music and text of the originals to that of the arrangements, this document traces expected and unexpected changes in music and text associated with each period. Perhaps through the continued study of one of America’s first purveyors of popular culture, we can begin to understand our national legacy of racism more clearly and find a path towards reconciliation.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2017.513
Recommended Citation
Ward, Perry K., "A SELECT SURVEY OF CHORAL ARRANGEMENTS BASED ON THE SONGS OF STEPHEN FOSTER TRACING DEVELOPMENTS IN MUSIC AND TEXTUAL CHANGES THROUGH THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES" (2017). Theses and Dissertations--Music. 103.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/music_etds/103
