Writing

The culmination of my two years studying ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University was my Master’s Thesis, finished in April of 2005, entitled Tourist Songs: Cultural Tourism, The Buena Vista Social Club, and Cuban Son. I address the recent shifts in the Cuban policy on tourism, and observe the (many) ways in which these changes directly affect musicians, especially those performing a style of music with tourist appeal, such as “traditional” son. I include detailed transcriptions and analyses of pieces performed by the musicians I encountered while doing my field work in the summer of 2004, as well as recorded examples. And it’s all here for download!

• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Cuban Son and Cultural Tourism
• Chapter 2: The Buena Vista Social Club Phenomenon
• Chapter 3: Genre Issues in Cuban Son
• Chapter 4: Stylistic Analysis
• Appendix A: Musical Examples
• Appendix B: Photos
• Bibliography
• Complete Thesis as one PDF File

You can listen to all of the musical examples here (refer to the bibliography for more detailed information about the recordings) :

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