Mollie Farr

Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Clark, Maribeth

Keywords

Accordion, Travel, Cajun

Area of Concentration

Humanities

Abstract

This thesis is an exploration of the accordion's existence in the cultural music of both Cajun Louisiana and Paris. Throughout this project I have attempted to reconstruct the narratives that contribute to each of these French-speaking cultures senses of identity in relation to the instrument, which has become a symbol in each milieu. As the protagonist of multiple narratives in different sociohistorical contexts, the accordion is involved in a complex series of networks and relationships in history and folklore that create around it a distinctive "social life" that can be discussed as such. By exploring the nature of the instrument's arrival and inclusion into the musical cultures Cajun Louisiana and Parisian bal-musette where these social lives developed, I theorize the accordion's existence as both a traveler and a tourist. Stemming from my own narrative of travel and experience with the instrument as a symbol of a culture I choose to identify with, I attempt to position the story of the accordion's search for identity in relation to my own. The purpose of this thesis is not to create a solid history of the accordion or to determine its ultimate worth as an object, but rather to merely explore the movement and mythology surrounding its existence in both French musical contexts.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida Libraries, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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