Historical Perspectives

Curated by Gabriel Lavin

Gaucho Poetry and Payador Balladry: Calculations to Define a Nation.

Abstract: this essay discusses late nineteenth and early twentieth century Argentine nacionalismo musical. It examines the role that this genre had in the process of forming a national Argentine identity and the ways that it occupies a dual role in the musical and literary worlds. A consideration of the strategy to couple payador ballads with gaucho poetry by elite writers and composers will demonstrate how the gaucho came to be utilized as a calculated token of Argentineness.

The Place of Race in Jazz Discourse: Storyville, Boston

Issues of space and place pervade jazz historical narratives, especially when considering conventional “up the river” histories.

Towards a Global History of Music? Postcolonial Studies and Historical Musicology

Recent discussions in historical musicology suggest that there is a growing interest in the relationship between Western music and the position of Europe in world history. This incipient “global turn,” if it can be characterised as such, reflects an increased awareness of globalisation within other academic disciplines and in contemporary world society and politics.

The Word Jazz in the Jazz World

In December 1917, U.S. Merchant Marine Truman Blair Cook wrote a diary entry describing his crew’s arrival in Arica, Chile—a small mining town near the country’s northern border. The following is excerpted from Oregon Historical Quarterly, where Cook's diaries were published in 1976:

Colonial Celts and Christmas Carols: Cornish Music and Identity in South Australia

Cornwall, at the far south west of the United Kingdom, is simultaneously a county of England, a royal Duchy, and Celtic nation, and as such its culture and heritage bears witness to a long history of conflicting social, economic and cultural pressures.

Review | Hidden in the Mix: The African American Presence in Country Music, by Diane Pecknold

Hidden in the Mix: The African American Presence in Country Music. Edited by Diane Pecknold. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013. [392 p. ISBN 9780822351634. $27.95.] Illustrations, index, bibliography.

Reviewed by Scott V. Linford

Review | Flower World: Music Archaeology of the Americas, Volume 2

Flower World: Music Archaeology of the Americas, Volume 2. Edited by Matthias Stöckli and Arnd Adje Both. Berlin: Ekho Verlag. 2013. [198 p., Individual €59; Institutional €92.] illustrations, photographs, references, index.

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