Phonological Features Employed in the Text Set by Arrangers of African American Spirituals and an IPA Guide to Proper Pronunciation of Dialect

• Other Authors: Barber, Felicia Raphael Marie (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Music
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-7698

The pronunciation and interpretation of text is key to understanding its meaning, as well as cultural interpretation. A persistent problem related to performance practice of African American Spirituals is dialect. Interpretation of a musical piece is dependent on multitude of factors, including, melody line, harmony, rhythm, and use or non-use of accompaniment. However, in choral music it is the text that makes it distinct. Early settings of spirituals and folk melodies would often employ text that contained African American Vernacular English (AAVE) dialect. The earliest collection of folk melodies depict the dialect transcribed from the speech of slaves, and is believed to reflect original pronunciation. Not since James Weldon Johnson has the issue of dialect pronunciation found in African American spirituals and slave songs been addressed. My research is focused on dialect employed in choral settings of spirituals. This study serves to identify dialect utilized as a text source in the choral settings of spirituals by African American arrangers or early transcriptionists; and identify the phonological features found in AAVE dialect. This study also provides an IPA transcription of texts set by early collections and arrangers such as Harry Thacker Burleigh, Robert Nathaniel Dett, and William Levi Dawson. This study serves to identify performance practice concerning dialect by analizing early sound recordings and written scores. Finally, this study identifies findings, defines salient pronunciation rules common in AAVE dialect, and instructs teachers how to employ these rules using the International Phonetic Alphabet for pronunciation of dialect. === A Dissertation submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. === Summer Semester, 2013. === June 10, 2013. === AAVE Dialect, African American Spirituals, Choral Texts, Felicia Barber, IPA, Phonological features === Includes bibliographical references. === André J. Thomas, Professor Directing Dissertation; Gretchen Sunderman, University Representative; Judy Bowers, Committee Member; Kevin Fenton, Committee Member.