Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Music

Advisor

Kofi Agawu

Committee Members

William Rothstein

Benjamin Lapidus

L. Poundie Burstein

Subject Categories

Ethnomusicology | Latin American Languages and Societies | Music Theory

Keywords

meter, currulao, joropo, cantos de boga, non-isochronous meter, Colombia

Abstract

This dissertation explores how stylistic expertise can affect metric perception, through the analysis of three Colombian folk genres—cantos de boga and currulaos from the Pacific region and joropos from the Eastern plains bordering Venezuela. Specifically, it considers the tension between metric perceptions which arise from bottom-up mechanisms for entrainment (such as projections), and those which are based on top-down mechanisms (such as schemata). This tension is at play when more and less musically enculturated listeners perceive entirely different metric structures when listening to identical music.

Taking bottom-up and top-down metric perception as a thread, this dissertation isolates three additional metric phenomena: Chapter 2 discusses non-isochronous meters in which the metric level immediately slower than the beat is irregular, as these are frequently found in cantos de boga. Chapter 3 explores the phenomenon of polymeter from structural and perceptual perspectives, partially through the study of a rhythmic pattern common in currulao called dosillo. Chapter 4 takes joropo as an analytical case study to explore how musicians and dancers emphasize different hemiolically related metric states, creating virtuosic rhythmic effects. Overall, this dissertation contributes to a growing body of scholarship on metric theory grounded on a wider variety of repertoires.

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