Publications
From Ring Shout to Bomba: Ethnographic Perceptions and Approaches to Music and Religion in the Gullah/Geechee and Afro-Latin Diasporas (2022)
Exploring sounds of the musical rhythms of the Ring Shout and the evocative textures of the Caribbean bomba song and dance, this book presents a comparative musicological and ethnomusicological work that concentrates on the parallel diasporic aspects of history, religion, and music of the Gullah/Geechee and Afro-Latin people. From Ring Shout to Bomba documents how the Gullah/Geechee community has striven to preserve their culture and history throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It carefully investigates the transcultural links among this United States community along the "Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor" and the Afro-Latin communities from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Brazil. From Ring Shout to Bomba offers readers past and present archival and ethnographic field research related to these communities by examining their musical and religious customs. It enables audiences to explore the African connections of the Ring Shout with the Latin American and Caribbean "call and response" syncretic religious forms found in Lucumí, Candomblé, and Espiritismo. This book also discusses cultural preservation techniques and reexamines the ethical aspects of both understanding and (re)interpreting Gullah/Geechee and Afro-Latin identities. Such research presents audiences with a different perspective that adds more to the constantly evolving history.
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The Jíbaro and the Gaucho United in Music and Song (English Edition) (2019)
Originally published in the Spanish language in 2018, The Jíbaro and the Gaucho United in Music and Song presents a precise and profound work that contains a plethora of credible documented resources concerning Puerto Rican and Argentine folk culture and music. Through detailed comparisons, this book provides readers with the opportunity to understand true aspects of transculturation. Additionally, through the inclusion of poetry and peculiar phrases, readers will recognize and establish cultural connections from these regions of Latin America and the Caribbean. Information presented in The Jíbaro and the Gaucho helps to comprehend the structural panorama critical to in studies of this folk music. Through this English translation, the research presented in this book occupies a space largely forgotten, where scholars can expand their research with new theories and continue preserving the folkloric traditions of the Puerto Rican jíbaro and Argentine gaucho.
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El Jíbaro y El Gaucho Unidos En Música y Canción (Spanish Edition) (2018)
El jíbaro y el gaucho unidos en música y canción es un trabajo preciso y profundo que se sostiene por una gran variedad de fuentes documentadas. Con contrastes comparativos de las dos culturas, el libro brinda al lector la opportunidad de comprender ciertos aspectos de transculturación. Además, con la inclusión de poesia y frases peculiares, el lector reconoce y establece conexiones culturales de su propia región. La información presentada ayuda a comprender el panorama estructural musical crítico en el estudio de esta música folklórica. Con la publicación de este libro, se llena un espacio que se ha llevado al olvido, donde se logra ampliar nuevas teorías y poder seguir latente las tradiciones folklóricas del jíbaro puertoriqueño y el payador argentino.
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Musical Innovations from Three Different Eras: A Collection of Essays (2012)
“Innovations in Music” is a compilation of biographical and analytical essays in Musicology, written from 2010 to 2012. The essays in question examine the compositional aspects and influences of several markedly different composers: the Hungarian Franz Liszt (1811-1886), the 1920s French nationalist music group known as “Les Six,” and Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996). Though other musicologists have written about these historical figures in the past, “Innovations in Music” focuses solely on the piano literature of these composers. It also attempts to dispel previous notions and correct some discrepancies by utilizing more current, accurate information.
