Date of Award
8-16-2024
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Department
School of Music
First Advisor
Scott Weiss
Abstract
Native American nationalism in classical music has yet to be seriously researched and is not taught in music academia. One of the more well-known contemporary Native American composers is Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (b. 1968). Throughout his career, Tate has explored and expressed his identity as a Native American and Chickasaw citizen through his music. As a result, his compositional output is a rich resource for examining what Native American nationalism in classical music looks like and how it is utilized in his works.
In this document, I analyze three of Tate’s pieces written for orchestra: Tracing Mississippi, Ghost of the White Deer, and Lowak Shoppala’. These three works are some of his most explicitly Chickasaw compositions and display many of the primary ways in which he expresses his Native identity. In them, Tate borrows, paraphrases, and reworks musical material from traditional Chickasaw song, dance, and hymns, similar to the treatment of traditional Hungarian melodies in works by Béla Bartók. Additionally, Tate’s familiarity with the stories and history of the Chickasaw Nation grants him a wealth of narrative material that he draws from to construct his compositions. By utilizing traditional Chickasaw music and narratives, Tate has been able to create a unique compositional style that is unequivocally nationalistic and is representative of his platform of advancing contemporary Chickasaw music.
Rights
© 2024, Austin Davis
Recommended Citation
Davis, A.(2024). Native American Nationalism: Chickasaw Identity and the Music of Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/7697