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Dr. CHRISTOPHER SMITH, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Music History and Literature
Texas Tech University School of Music
(o) 806/742-2270 x249; (h) 806/749-9569
EDUCATION
2000 / Ph.D., Musicology (Indiana University, with high distinction)Dissertation: I Can Show It to You Better Than I Can Explain It to You: Cuing in African American Improvisational Music. Advisor: Dr J. Peter Burkholder
· Minor: Ethnomusicology
· Primary specializations: American music (all periods), jazz, African-American, Celtic, and other vernacular musics
· Secondary specializations: indigenous musics of the world; 20th Century European art music; medieval and Baroque performance practice
1992 / Master of Music, Jazz (Indiana University, Magna cum Laude)
· Specializations: musics of the African Diaspora, Africa, Near East, and North Europe
1987 / Bachelor of Arts, Music (University of Massachusetts at Boston, Summa cum Laude)
TEACHING
2000-present / Assistant/Associate Professor of Music History and Literature
Texas Tech University School of Music (Lubbock, TX)
New courses created include:
· Undergraduate history review (MUHL2301-2302)
· Undergraduate history review (MUHL2301-2302-2303)
· Undergraduate College Academic Research Skills course (MUSI1200)
· Interdisciplinary Fine Arts course (VPAH3301 Critical Issues in Culture and the Arts)
· Graduate seminars (MUHL5300-level) on Medieval Music, 20th Century Music, American Music, Duke Ellington, World Music, Ethnomusicology, African Diaspora, American Music and Radical Politics
· Honors course (HONS3304): “Music, Folklore and Traditional Culture in Irish History”
2006-present / Director, Caprock Celtic Fall Festival and Harvest Dance
· ?
2006 / Honors College guest faculty
· Music, Folklore, and Traditional Culture in Irish History (HONS3304); this course includes a 2-week field trip to the West of Ireland in May 06.
2004-present / Supervising faculty member
· MUBA Traditional Music students
2004-
present / Studio jazz guitar
· Serving as leave replacement for guitar studio
1998-present / Founding faculty member
Zoukfest (the only music workshop for Irish bouzouki; Taos, NM)
Courses designed include:
· Fundamentals of an Aural Tradition
· Celtic Backup for All Instrumentalists
· Surviving the Session
2001-present /
Founder and Director
Irish Session Workshops, arts-education and -advocacy consultancy2000-
2004 / Founding Faculty member
Altramar’s Medieval Week (Taos, NM)
· Crossing the Bridge: Where Medieval and Celtic Musics Meet
1995-2000 / Lecturer
Indiana University School of Music (Bloomington, IN)
Courses designed for general undergraduate population include:
· The Live Musical Performance
· Masterpieces of Western Music
· Popular Musics of the Non-Western World
1987-1990 / Tutor, University of Massachusetts at Boston Music Department (Boston, MA)
· Duties in coaching ensembles, tutoring theory and aural skills
1980-1984 / Instructor, Guitar Workshop of Boston (Boston, MA)
Courses included:
· Ear-training, jazz improvisation, traditional Irish music
RESEARCH/CREATIVE ACTIVITY: PUBLICATIONS
Books
2007 / As yet-untitled project on Celtic- African musical synthesis before the Civil War (invited proposal under development for University of North Texas Press)2007 / The Wheels of the World: The Untold Story of American Music and American Radical Politics (invited proposal submitted to Oxford University Press)
2007 / Séamus Ennis, Traditional Music, and Irish Cultural History (invited proposal for JMI Publications, Ireland)
2005 / Irish Session Tunes by Ear (Mel Bay Publications; forthcoming)
2000 / Celtic Backup for All Instrumentalists (Pacific, MO: Mel Bay Publications)
1999 / “‘I can show it to you better than I can explain it to you’: Analyzing procedural cues in African-American musical improvisations (James Brown, Miles Davis, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Big Bill Broonzy, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti)”. Ph.D. dissertation (Musicology), Indiana University Bloomington.
Articles and Book Chapters
2006 / “Reclaiming the Commons One Tune at a Time: Teaching Irish Traditional Music as Culture and Community.” Scheduled for publication in New Hibernia Review (Fall 2006).2006 / “Ethnomusicology in Oils: Irish-Americans, African-Americans, and the Ethnographic Paintings of William Sidney Mount.” Submitted by invitation to Music in Art (Fall 2007 publication anticipated).
2006 / “‘Between Green Hedges and Ditches:’ Narrative, Allusion, and Musicality in a Folk-Recitation by Séamus Ennis.” Submitted by invitation to the Journal of Indiana Folklore (Fall 2007).
2005 / “Trusting the Tradition: The Meaning of the Irish Session Workshop”. In Proceedings of the VIIth International Symposium on Cultural Diversity in Music Education: The Local and the Global (Brisbane, Australia).
2005 / “Gaelic and Continental Musical Interaction in Early Modern Ireland.” Accepted for publication in The Renaissance in Ireland (Four Courts, forthcoming).
2005 / “Cinematic Constructions of Irish Musical Identity.” Accepted for publication in Popular Culture and Postmodern Ireland (Blackrock, forthcoming).
2005 / “Jazz Processes: Nicholas Gebhardt’s Going for Jazz and David Ake’s Jazz Cultures” (review). Journal of the American Musicological Society (Summer 2005).
2005 / “Music in Atlantic Canada” and “Music in the French Caribbean.” Encyclopedia of Franco-American Relations (ABC-Clio).
2005 / “Creative Capital.” For Lubbock SOFA (Supporters of Fine Arts) presentations.
2004 / “Music in Egypt.” The World and Its Peoples (encyclopedia). (London: Brown Reference Group, 2004; forthcoming).
2003 / “Séamus Ennis and Ireland in the 20th Century.” Piping Today (July/August 2003).
2003 / “Music in Algeria“, “Music in Libya“, “Music in Morocco“, “Music in Tunisia.” The World and Its Peoples (encyclopedia) (London: Brown Reference Group, 2003).
2003 / “The Celtic Guitar.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Guitar, ed. Victor Anand Coelho (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
2002 / “Local Music Brings People Together.” Lubbock Magazine (March 2002): 32.
2002 / “Séamus Ennis, Traditional Music, and Irish Cultural History.” The Journal of Music in Ireland (Sept/Oct 2002): 2-20.
2000 / “Reconstructing the Music of Medieval Ireland: Altramar’s Crossroads of the Celts.” Early Music 28/2 (May 2000): 270-281.
2000 / Teaching Sound(ly): Approaches to World Music in an Undergraduate Classroom.” Journal of Popular Music Studies 9/10 (2000): 25-36.
2000 / “Into the Ivory Tower: Vernacular Musics and the American Academy.” With Dr. Austin B. Caswell. Contemporary Music Review. 19/1 (2000): 89-111.
1999 / “ZoukFest Report.” Irish Music Magazine (September 1999).
1998 / “A Sense of the Possible: Miles Davis and the Semiotics of Improvised Performance.” In In the Course of Performance: Studies in the World of Musical Improvisation, ed. Bruno Nettl and Melinda Russell (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998): 261-90.
1996 / “Francis and the Minstrels of God.” Early Music America 2/1 (March 1996): 30-36.
1995 / “Broadway the Hard Way: Techniques of Allusion in the Music of Frank Zappa.” College Music Symposium 35 (1995): 35-60.
1995 / “A Sense of the Possible: Miles Davis and the Semiotics of Improvised Performance.” T.D.R. The Drama Review 39/3 (Fall 1995): 41-55.
Software
2006 / “The Dear Green Place.” 100-slide PPT program for VMC fundraising.2005 / “The Buddy Holly Center.” 100-slide PPT program for Lubbock SOFA presentations.
2004-2005 / Created PowerPoint teaching resources under contract for Bonds A History of Western Music.
2004 / Created Companion Teaching Website for Yudkin Understanding Music: http://www.prenhall.com/yudkin/
2003-
2005 / Monthly column on “The Irish Tenor Banjo” at www.banjossessions.com/
2003 / Created Companion Teaching Website for Bonds A History of Western Music: http://www.prenhall.com/bonds/
1997 / “How To Run an Irish Music Session.” www.irishmusic.com
Compositions
2005 / Imagining the Irish Baroque: Six Basso Continuo settings of Turlough Carolan, premiered Seattle, April 2005.2002 / One World, premiered by Baroque Northwest, December 2002.
Poetry
2003 / “Miles Davis,” “Rilke’s Bouzouki,” and “The Session,” in The Art of Music Annual (Piano Press, 2003).Liner Notes
2006 / Last Night’s Fun ensemble release Johnny Faa (Self-released, LNF 001)2005 / Chris Smith solo release Coyotebanjo (Self-released, CBCD 001)
For Altramar medieval music ensemble
2003 / From Galway to Galicia: The Celtic Shores (Dorian, DOR-93248)
2000 / Celtic Wanderers: The Pilgrim’s Road (Dorian DOR-93213)
1999 / Crossroads of the Celts (Dorian DOR-93177)
1997 / Iberian Garden: Jewish , Christian, and Muslim Spain, Volume I (Dorian DIS-80151)
1997 / Iberian Garden: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Spain, Volume II (Dorian DIS-80158)
1996 / Nova Stella: A Medieval Italian Christmas (Dorian DIS-80142)
1996 / Saint Francis and the Minstrels of God (Dorian DIS-80143)
2001 / Roger Landes: Dragon Reels (Dorian DOR-93238)
Program Notes
2000-2004 / For Lubbock Symphony Orchestra (20 1200-word essays: five per season): four seasons
Public Radio Programs
For BBC World ServiceSummer 2005 / Consultant and interview guest, The Story of the Guitar (4-part series)
For KOHM—Lubbock
2005-present / Producer and host, Celtic Shores weekly radio program and podcast
2003-present / Producer and host, annual Caprock Celtic Christmas broadcast
2000-present / On-air fundraiser in Spring and Fall pledge drives
For WFIU—Bloomington
1993-2000 / Producer and host, One World: A Program of Music of the World’s Peoples (250 60-minute programs)
RESEARCH/CREATIVE ACTIVITY: PRESENTATIONS
2006 / Presenter and discussant, “Tips on Teaching: What Great Teachers Do,” TTU Teaching Academy, August 2006.2006 / “Inaugurating the Irish Century: New and Old Technologies in Irish Music at the World Columbian Exposition.” Society for American Music, Chicago, April 2006.
2006 / “Identities, Contexts, and Gender in the Irish Musical Landscape.” American Conference for Irish Studies, Southern Regional Chapter, Columbia SC, February 2006.
2006 / Chair and organizer, “Folk Music” and “Protest Music” panels. Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association, Albuquerque, February 2006.
2006 / “Reclaiming the Commons One Tune at a Time: Vernacular Music as Cultural Construct and Social Tool.” 4th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, January 2006 (delivered in absentia).
2005 / “Ethnomusicology in Oils: William Sidney Mount.” TTU Spring Music Bibliography Colloquium, 28 November 2005.
2005 / “The Irish Session Workshop: Learning Traditional Music in the Traditional Way.” International Council for Diversity in Music Education. Queensland, AUS, 13 November 2005.
2005 / “F.J. Haydn’s Missa in angustiis: The Nelson Mass,” jointly authored with Dr Wayne Hobbs. Summer Choral Institute, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, 19 July 2005.
2005 / “Reclaiming the Commons One Tune at a Time: Irish Traditional Music as Cultural Construct and Social Tool.” National Meetings of the American Council for Irish Studies, Notre Dame, 17 April 2005.
2005 / Chair and organizer, First Annual Texas Tech Fine Arts Colloquium, Lubbock, 1 April 2005.
2005 / “Punk Shows and Pub Sessions: Towards a New Definition of Musical Tradition.” National Meetings of the Popular Culture Association, San Diego, 25 March 2005 (paper delivered in absentia).
2005 / Site visit including master class, public lecture, and solo concerts. The John Francis Reilly Irish Studies Performance and Lecture Series, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, March 2005.
2005 / “Standing at the Crossroads: Style and a Sense of Place in the Music of Buddy Holly.” Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association, Albuquerque, 11 February 2005.
2005 / Chair and organizer, “Folk Music” and “Protest Music” panels. Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association, Albuquerque, 10-11 February 2005.
2005 / “Sessions as Virtual Village: Irish Traditional Music as Cultural Construct and Social Tool.” Southern American Council for Irish Studies, 25 February 2005
2005 / “Understanding the Two Carminas Burana.” Associated Vocal Scholars chapter meeting, Lubbock, 31 March 2005.
2005 / “The Last Lecture.” Invited by student poll to present at Wall-Gates Fine Arts dormitory, May 2005.
2005 / Keynote speaker for Mu Phi Epsilon/Phi Mu Alpha formal banquet, Lubbock, May 2005.
2005 / “Music to Build Community.” Public forum lecture at Lubbock Unitarian-Universalist Church, Lubbock, 3 April 2005.
2004 / “Music as Weapon: Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the jeliya, and the Sack of Kalakuta.” National Meetings, International Association for the Study of Popular Music, Charlottesville, 14 October 2004.
2004 / “Ethnomusicology in Oils: Irish-Americans, African-Americans, and the Ethnographic Paintings of William Sidney Mount.” National Meetings, American Musicological Society, Seattle, 11 November 2004.
2004 / “Cinematic Constructions of Irish Musical Ethnicity.” International Meetings American, European, and British Councils of Irish Studies, Liverpool, 12 July 2004.
2004 / “‘Between Green Hedges and Ditches:’ Narrative, Allusion, and Musicality in a
Folk-Recitation by Séamus Ennis.” Eighth Annual UCCB Storytelling Symposium, Sydney, Nova Scotia, 23 May 2004 (presented in absentia).
2004 / “Cinematic Constructions of Irish Musical Identity.” American Council of Irish Studies—Southern Chapter, Atlanta, 10 April 2004.
2004 / “Folk and Protest Music” panel (chair). National Meetings, Popular Culture Association, San Antonio, 6 March 2004.
2004 / "Music, the Visual Arts, and Rock & Roll Community.” Graphic Content Symposium (Landmark Arts Gallery, TTU Campus), 17 September 2004.
2004 / “Making It Work as a Music Professional.” Presentation to students in Wall-Gates Fine Arts Community, April 2004.
2004 / “Charles Ives and the Concord Sonata” soloist with Christina Valdes, TTU, 19 November 2004.
2004 / “Making It Work as a Music Professional.” Presentation to students in Wall-Gates Fine Arts Community, April 2004.
2004 / “Research Across the Disciplines.” Summer Research Scholars Program, McNair Scholars Program, September 2004.
2003 / “‘Between Green Hedges and Ditches:’ Narrative, Allusion, and Musicality in a
Folk-Recitation by Séamus Ennis.” Representing Ireland, Newcastle, 10 October 2003.
2003 / “Why Séamus? Séamus Ennis, Traditional Music, and Irish Cultural History.” Annual Meetings of Na Pióbairi Uillean and Scoil Samraidh Willie Clancy, Ireland, 15 July 2003.
2003 / “We have Fed You All a Thousand Years: The Untold History of American Music and Radical Politics.” Popular Culture Association Meetings, 15 February 2003.
2003 / “Reviving the Music of Medieval Ireland.” With Altramar medieval music ensemble. International meetings of the Society for Study of Music in the Medieval Celtic Regions, Schottenstift, Vienna, 25 May 2003.
2003 / “Weber, Wagner, and the German Folkloric Sources of Singspiel”. Guest lecture, TTU German Department (Lubbock).
2003 / “Music to Build Community.” The Tallgrass Journal 1 (Fall 2002).
2002 / “Write Me a Few of Your Lines: Popular Music as Cultural History." Respondent: Robert Santelli, Director and CEO, Experience Music Project. Not Fade Away: Second Annual Buddy Holly Symposium (Lubbock, TX; Texas Tech University School of Music), 29 August 2002.
2002 / Organized “Songwriters” Panel (Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Terry Allen, Marshall Crenshaw, Jo Carol Pierce, Delbert McClinton, Peter Guralnick) for Second Annual Buddy Holly Symposium.
2002 / “‘Between Green Hedges and Ditches:’ Narrative, Allusion, and Musicality in a
Folk-Recitation by Séamus Ennis.” Annual Meetings of the Narrative Society (East Lansing, MI; University of Michigan), 14 April 2002.
2002 / “Séamus Ennis: An Exercise in Ethnographic Biography.” Symposium of World Musics (Lubbock, TX; Texas Tech University School of Music), 6 March 2002.
2002 / “Understanding Procedural Cues in African-American Music.” University College Cork Ethnomusicology Colloquia (Cork, Ireland; UC Cork), 12 March 2002.
2002 / Moderator, “West Texas Songwriters” and “Reminiscing” panels. Not Fade Away: Second Annual Buddy Holly Symposium (Lubbock, TX; Texas Tech University School of Music), 30 & 31 August 2002.
2002 / Moderator, “West Texas Songwriters” and “Reminiscing” panels. Not Fade Away: Second Annual Buddy Holly Symposium (Lubbock, TX; Texas Tech University School of Music), 30 & 31 August 2002.
2001 / “Standing at the Crossroads: Style and a Sense of Place in the Music of Buddy Holly.” First Annual Buddy Holly Symposium (Lubbock, TX; Texas Tech University School of Music), 30 August 2001.
2001 / “The Contemporary World of Irish Traditional Music.” Symposium of World Musics (Lubbock, TX; Texas Tech University School of Music), March 5, 2001.
2001 / “Entering the Irish Flute and Tin Whistle Tradition.” TTU Flute Symposium (Lubbock), 2001.
2001 / “Crossing the Bridge: Where Celtic and Medieval Musics Meet.” ZoukFest 2001 (Taos, NM; Southern Methodist University).
2000 / Appearances of Fox34 News on 20th anniversary of John Lennon’s death, December 2000.
1999 / “Reviving the Music of Medieval Ireland.” With Dr Anne Buckley. University of Galway Graduate Colloquium Series, April 1999.
1999 / “Reviving the Music of Medieval Ireland.” With Dr Anne Buckley. University of Galway Graduate Colloquium Series (Galway, IRE; NUI Galway), April 1999.
1999 / “Reviving the Music of Medieval Ireland.” With Dr Anne Buckley. University of Galway Graduate Colloquium Series (Galway, IRE; NUI Galway), April 1999.
1998 / “Whose Blues in the Mississippi Night? Frame Management and the Context of the Blues.” National Meetings of the American Musicological Society (Boston, MA; Boston University), 1998.
1998 / “Teaching Sound[ly]: Approaches to World Music Pedagogy.” Society for Ethnomusicology, Midwest Chapter Meetings (Dayton, OH; University of Ohio), 5 March 1998.
1998 / “The Role of the Romany: Understanding Gypsy Musical Traditions” Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences Lecture Series (Bloomington, IN), 1998.
1998 / “The Role of the Romany: Understanding Gypsy Musical Traditions” Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences Lecture Series (Bloomington, IN), 1998.
1997 / “Iberian Garden: Imagining the Music of Multicultural Medieval Spain.” Conference on
Holidays, Ritual, Festival, Celebration, and Public Display (Bowling Green, OH; Bowling Green State University), 30 May 1997.
1997 / “The Wheels of the World: American Music and American Radical Politics.” Indiana University Arts Connection Series (Bloomington, IN; Indiana University Art Museum), April 1997.
1996 / “Teaching Sound[ly]: Approaches to World Music Pedagogy.“ Crossroads of Tradition Conference (Bloomington, IN; Indiana University Latin American Music Center), 13 July 1996.
1995 / “Messing with Our Heads: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, ‘Night Music,’ and ‘Old Man River’.” National Meetings of the Sonneck Society for American Music (Madison, WI; University of Wisconsin), April 1995.
SELECTED PERFORMANCES