Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Music History

The development of Renaissance Portugal was greatly impacted by the transatlantic slave trade during the colonial period, as the country emerged as a major European power not only financially but also culturally. It is well known that Portuguese musical practices during this period, especially with regard to sacred polyphony, resembled those of other European cultures, however, there is more to this narrative. Knowing that the transatlantic slave trade was one of the major consequences of colonialism, and that by the 16th-century Black Africans represented more than 10% of the population in Lisbon and other cities in Portugal makes it crucial to consider Black Africans as major agents of cultural transfer. As the groundbreaking work of historians Kate Lowe, A. C. de C. M. Saunders and Jose Tinhorao demonstrates, the presence of Africans had a significant impact on Portuguese social and cultural life. Contemporary written and visual sources (such as paintings) demonstrate that, for instance, music from sub-Saharan Africa was performed in a variety of situations and on different levels of society: in the squares and taverns of early modern Lisbon, in religious processions around the country, and at the Portuguese court. The primary aim of this thesis is to explore the musical activities of Africans in early modern Portugal, emphasizing their influence towards the practice of the villancico. To contextualize the question of how Black Africans have influenced the practice of music in Portugal, I discuss the social, cultural and legal role of Black Africans within the society. Through a thorough stylistic and formal comparison of the Villancicos de Negro to other villancicos of the same collection that represent other ethnic groups or an unspecified type, I will seek to demonstrate that the Villancicos de Negro share a common stylistic and formal profile. Moreover, I will examine the specific issue of representation of race, focusing on what the works can potential (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Arne Spohr (Advisor); Sidra Lawrence (Committee Member); Mary Natvig (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

MA, Kent State University, 0, College of the Arts / School of Art

This thesis explores various methods of visual representation used to portray non-white Others by white European artists throughout the Age of Discovery and the dawn of colonialism. There are three major phases of visual representation of Others in European Renaissance and Baroque art. These will be examined and compared to suggest a visual manifestation of the shifting ideas of race throughout these centuries. The representation of black Africans in Europe and the New World, the court commissioned paintings of Albert Eckhout in Dutch Brazil, and lastly, the development of the casta genre in New Spain will be investigated in connection with a changing perception of race. When explored as a group, these representations of Others offer insight into the contemporary racial mindset and expand upon the understanding of the development of established races based on physical appearance in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By following the introduction of the black African into the works of Renaissance painters, over the bridge of Albert Eckhout's titillating Baroque works recording supposed ethnographic realities in Dutch Brazil, and ending in colonial Mexico with casta paintings, one can see European racial concepts forming, morphing, and leading to an almost explicitly visual understanding of race.

Committee: Gustav Medicus Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; African History; African Studies; American Studies; Art History; Caribbean Studies; Comparative; Cultural Anthropology; Ethnic Studies; European History; Hispanic American Studies; Hispanic Americans; History; Latin American History; Latin American Studies; Modern History; Native American Studies; Native Americans; Native Studies; World History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Dance Studies

The Real Theatro de Sao Carlos de Lisboa employed Italian choreographers from its inauguration in 1793 to the middle of the nineteenth century. Many libretti for the ballets produced for the S. Carlos Theater have survived and are now housed in the National Library of Portugal. This dissertation focuses on the narratives of the libretti in this collection, and their importance as documentation of ballets of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, from the inauguration of the S. Carlos Theater in 1793 to 1850. This period of dance history, which has not received much attention by dance scholars, links the earlier baroque dance era of the eighteenth century with the style of ballet of the 1830s to the 1850s. Portugal had been associated with Italian art and artists since the beginning of the eighteenth century. This artistic relationship continued through the final decades of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century. The majority of the choreographers working in Lisbon were Italian, and the works they created for the S. Carlos Theater followed the Italian style of ballet d'action. Libretti are documented accounts of choreography of this period and contain important information regarding the style of the ballets produced in Lisbon. The narratives of the ballets in these libretti reveal the style of works produced in Lisbon from the late eighteenth to the middle of the nineteenth centuries: the ballet d action that relied on the use of pantomime and gestures to tell stories. The importance of pantomime in ballets of the period covered in this investigation becomes evident in the analysis of several scenarios of ballets produced in Lisbon. This salient characteristic of ballets of the period emerges through the plot developments of the ballets d action produced in Portugal.

Committee: Karen Eliot (Advisor) Subjects: Dance

DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2005, College-Conservatory of Music : Conducting, Orchestral Emphasis

The purpose of this study and critical edition of the opera La Borghesina (1909) by Augusto Machado is to make available for performance a fair and clear edition of the score. Machado was first and foremost a man of the theater, and La Borghesina is his last opera. It is a mature work in which the composer demonstrates his mastery not only of melodic language and orchestration, but also of theatrical action and scenic diversion. Chapter One includes a biography of the composer, places Machado in a cultural milieu that included the most prominent artists and intellectuals of Lisbon of his time, and includes an overview of all his output, in an effort to contribute to the rediscovery of this important patrimony of Portuguese music. Chapter Two sets up the context of opera in Portugal before Machado and help us better understand his importance for having introduced French models into a musical culture almost exclusively dominated from the eighteenth-century on by Italian opera. In Chapter Three I analyze some aspects of the text and the music, make a full description of all sources for La Borghesina, discuss the problems found in the transcription of the work, and define the editorial principles for this critical edition. The appendix includes the transcription of the full score of La Borghesina and the scores for the off-stage ensembles.

Committee: Mark Gibson (Advisor) Subjects: Music

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2003, Political Science

A growing body of literature has suggested that courts are becoming increasingly powerful political actors in many contemporary democracies. This trend is supposed to be stronger where constitutional courts perform a so-called "abstract review" of legislation. Such courts are the potential recipients of litigation by opposition parties against legislation passed by parliamentary majorities, and enjoy the power to veto it if they find unconstitutional provisions. Since oppositions have unrestrained incentives to contribute to the expansion of these courts's jurisdiction and the latter are unconstrained by majority will, the inevitable result should be an important and systematic reduction of the discretion enjoyed by legislative majorities. Focusing on the cases of Spain and Portugal, where constitutional courts have been in place for about two decades, this study challenges such understanding of the consequences of abstract review of legislation. Its first part deals with the institutional design of constitutional courts in both countries, including the rules of appointment and retention of judges frequently neglected by the extant literature. It shows that, unless conditions are such that presently dominant political actors can shape judicial institutions as insurance mechanisms against their future displacement from power, the resulting rules are likely to prevent the conversion of courts into full-fledged countermajoritarian actors, and may even allow for their congruence with and responsiveness to the preferences of both present and future majorities. The second part of this study discusses how, in the last two decades, those institutional rules have actually shaped the incentives and constraints faced by majorities, oppositions, and judges. On the one hand, the possibility that strategic oppositions experience policy and electoral costs from litigation has contributed, most of the time, to keep the jurisdiction of constitutional courts over legislative processe (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Richard Gunther (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science, General