Musicology Colloquium Series
Sponsored by The University of New Mexico Department of Music, The Department of Spanish and Portuguese & The Latin American and Iberian Institute
Ortega Hall Reading Room 335
Thursday September 19, 2019
2:00-3:30pm
“Reclaiming ‘the Border’ in Texas-Mexican Conjunto Heritage and Cultural Memory”
Name of presenter: Cathy Ragland
Talk Description:
The Texas border town of San Benito is the subject of this talk which examines how memory and legacy operate within a community of “self-appointed” cultural brokers and a local municipality inspired by capitalist notions of urban development, economic growth and cultural tourism. The legacy of two of the town’s “native sons” – Narciso Martínez, the “father of Tex-Mex conjunto music” and Baldemar Huerta (aka Freddy Fender), a Grammy-winning country rock artist – have been memorialized in two opposing positions to reclaim border music history in a context of globalization and hypermediacy that seeks to counter representations of a US-Mexico border perpetually “in crisis.”
Biography:
Cathy Ragland is associate professor of ethnomusicology in the College of Music at the University of North Texas. She is editor of the series Sonic Crossings for UNT Press, and author of the book Musica Norteña: Mexican Migrants Creating a Nation between Nations along with several journal articles, book chapters, and public press articles. Her research and scholarship have focused on music and border politics, identity, immigration/migration, rurality, and gender relations. She is an experienced journalist, folklorist, and applied ethnomusicologist who has collaborated with Mexican immigrant partners in co-founding sustainable music and arts programs and organizations in New York City. She has directed public arts festivals, exhibits, and arts education programs in New York, Washington, Texas, and Mexico. These experiences have informed her scholarship and teaching.
Spain the ‘Eternal Maja’: Goya, Majismo, and the Reinvention of Spanish National Identity in Granados’s Goyescas.
This talk will explore the influence of artist Francisco Goya (1746-1828) on one of the greatest masterpieces of Spanish music, the Goyescas suite for solo piano by Enrique Granados (1867-1916).
‘Sol y Sombra’: Music in Images in the Arts of New Spain presented by Ray Hernández-Durán
Scenes depicting musicians performing are found in a range of colonial art forms. Here, I briefly explore religious music from the 16th century through an examination of mission design and manuscript illuminations, and secular or profane music from the 18th century represented in genre paintings, domestic spaces, and biombos.
Percussion Guest Artist Series presents Dr. Kenneth Broadway and Christopher Wilson
Dr. Kenneth Broadway has a passion for training the next generation of teachers, performers, and leaders in the field of music. .Christopher Wilson is a Doctoral candidate in Percussion Performance at the University of Northern Colorado.