Semester
Fall
Date of Graduation
2013
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
DMA
College
College of Creative Arts
Department
School of Music
Committee Chair
Christopher Wilkinson
Committee Co-Chair
John Beall
Committee Member
Gerald Habarth
Committee Member
Andrew Kohn
Committee Member
David Taddie.
Abstract
Though primarily associated with white Southerners, bluegrass music is actually the product of over three hundred years of black and white musical interaction that occurred in the American Southeast. This document begins by reviewing the first complete definition of bluegrass music written by Mayne Smith. It then proceeds to explore the history of cross cultural exchanges in the South, particularly in the Appalachian Mountains, that began when the first slaves were brought to the New World. In the South, these interactions created the folk music that would eventually develop into country music and later bluegrass in the twentieth century. Black musical styles also directly influenced the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe, especially through his contact with the blues musician Arnold Shultz. The banjo playing of Earl Scruggs, an essential element of bluegrass, also owes a significant debt to African-American banjo styles found in Scruggs's native region of North Carolina.
Recommended Citation
Perryman, Charles W., "Africa, Appalachia, and acculturation: The history of bluegrass music" (2013). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 298.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/298