Doctoral thesis defense in Music Theory - Gender and women’s studies

Elizabeth Cotten, Joni Mitchell, and the Guitar/Body Interface

Dissertation summary

In my dissertation, I integrate fretboard analysis with disability theory to examine the embodied and musical effects of the acoustic guitar’s physical interface. I excavate the ways that the guitar’s shift in the United States from being predominantly a classical instrument to a folk instrument inaugurated a new paradigm of flexible use as regional styles proliferated and new techniques were born. At the same time, I argue that physical changes to the instrument itself, as well as specific marketing strategies by record companies and guitar manufacturers, constructed the ideal guitar-playing subject as masculine and able-bodied, making it both socially and physically difficult for certain bodies to interact with the instrument. I examine how two innovative 20th century woman guitarists, Elizabeth Cotten and Joni Mitchell, drew on this history of flexible guitar use while also reconfiguring the instrument’s embodied structure to meet their physical needs. I assess how their novel guitar techniques led to unique musical structures and modes of performance.

Bio

Rachel Hottle is a PhD candidate in music theory with a graduate concentration in gender and women’s studies at McGill University. She holds a B.A. in Music from Swarthmore College, as well as an M.A. in Music Theory from McGill. Her research has received support from the Fonds de recherche du Québec. Her article “The Embodied Guitar of Elizabeth Cotten” will appear in Music Theory Online in September 2025. She currently teaches Music Theory and Aural Skills at Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, MA.