Music

This thesis is a comparative analysis of representations of the African American fife and drum musical tradition in North Mississippi, tracing the ways these representations are shaped by the ideologies, aims, methods, and social positions of the person(s) in primary control of representation. It includes the exploration and interpretation
of audio recordings (including music, graphic presentation, and album copy), video, and film representations. African American fife and drum music is rooted in cross-cultural exchanges of folklore, melody, lyrical text, and instrumentation between African and Anglo Americans
dating back to the American Revolutionary War in the United States. It remained a strong musical practice in the southern states throughout the twentieth century but is now solely borne by the Turner family of Senatobia, Mississippi. Through the years, varied representations of this musical tradition reflect the idiosyncratic style of the producer illuminating otherwise hidden structures of cultural power.

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