Composition Commons^™

Twenty-Two Miniatures Of The Tarot : A Cycle For Chamber Ensemble, Pierre Emmanuel Mariaca

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Twenty-two miniatures of the Tarot is a cycle for chamber ensemble related to the twenty-two major arcana of the Tarot. Indeed, the intention of this composition is to capture the esoteric essence for each Major Arcana of the Tarot, making them speak musically in a contemporary language of music. Ideally, this cycle should be performed in the same order as the Tarot cycle, which has a number for each Major Arcana: 1) The Magician, 2) The High Priestess, 3) The Empress, 4) The Emperor, 5) The Pope, 6) The Lover, 7) The Chariot, 8) Justice, 9) The Hermit, 10) The ...

A Generalised Song, Will Turner

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

We consider parallels between words and music. We call a triple of structures, one verbal, one musical, and one mathematical, in which the mathematical structure is related to the verbal and musical structures, a generalised song. With the intention of exhibiting the potential of this form, we describe a generalised song called ‘Cube’.

Audio Mastering As A Musical Competency, Matthew T. Shelvock

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this dissertation, I demonstrate that audio mastering is a musical competency by elucidating the most significant, and clearly audible, facets of this competence. In fact, the mastering process impacts traditionally valued musical aspects of records, such as timbre and dynamics. By applying the emerging creative scholarship method used within the field of music production studies, this dissertation will aid scholars seeking to hear and understand audio mastering by elucidating its core practices as musical endeavours. And, in so doing, I hope to enable increased clarity and accuracy in future scholarly discussions on the topic of audio mastering, as well ...

The Poetry Is The Pity: The War Requiem And Poetic Consolation, Gabrielle Ferrari

Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology

Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem sets nine of Wilfred Owen’s war poems alongside the words of the Missa pro defunctis, allowing these texts to interrogate and comment on each other. Owen’s poems describe the horrors of trench warfare, and often, harshly indict both church and state for their complicity in war-mongering. Scholars such as Philip Rupprecht, Heather Wiebe, David B. Greene, and George D. Herbert have explored how Owen’s texts work to subvert the text of the Mass, and deny religious and musical consolation. Such readings place the War Requiem in line with Owen’s preface to ...

Evolution Of The Cello In Music, Joshua Propst

Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

With this project, I have studied cello music written throughout many of the major musical eras in an attempt to discover the cello, specifically regarding playing style, technique, and tonal ability. The composers included in this project are Bach, Haydn, Dvořák, Pärt, and Amanti. Most of the major musical styles are represented, with a focus on baroque, classical, romantic, minimalism, and jazz. I performed this wide variety of pieces at my Senior Recital for the Western Kentucky University (WKU) Music Dept. The goal of the recital was to showcase the rich musical history of the cello and how cello composition ...

Looking Through The Glass: An Album Of Original Music And Accompanying Artist Book, Sam Genualdi

Lawrence University Honors Projects

“Looking Through the Glass” is a 12 track, 38-minute long album of original songs accompanied by a hand-bound artist book. The book houses the CD as a well as an accordion-structure text block of original prints. The content and form of the work draw upon the experiences of the author to create a unique and personal take on memory as a human experience. Sam Genualdi composed and produced all of the music as well as created all of the art.

Carpenter, Howard R., 1919-2016 (Mss 613), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 613. Manuscript orchestral music for several pieces composed by Howard R. Carpenter, a music professor at Western Kentucky University from 1953 to 1984.

Compositional Practice As Expression Of Cultural Hybridity In Lou Harrison’S Double Concerto For Violin, Cello, And Javanese Gamelan, Matthew N. Andrews

Student Research Symposium

Artists in the twenty-first century face a creative dilemma: styles and traditions from around the world are now available to all, and in the post-colonial era it can become difficult to discern the appropriateness of artistic borrowings. I propose that cultural hybridity, defined as genuine investment in another artistic culture's traditions and respect for its practitioners, can provide an “Ariadne's thread” to guide the interculturally sensitive artist. Lou Harrison's long relationship with the gamelan music (karawitan) of Indonesia provides an enlightening example. From his initial exposure to Asian music all through his decades of intensive study and ...

Spirits' Dance: Sunrise Overture, Jeonghun Kim

School of Arts & Sciences Theses

The subtitle of Spirits’ Dance is Sunrise Overture. This overture is composed with five different themes of spirits’ dances: Light, Air, Water, Earth and Fire. The piece starts with the wind breeze in the darkness, mimicked by woodwinds and brass blowing their instruments without producing a tone. When the Sun rises the piece quietly begins. The beginning and ending express the sunrise and the sunset with the Light spirits’ dance. Air spirits softly introduce Water spirits. Mischievous Earth spirits pop up and carry a practical joke after the beautiful water sprits’ dance. Marching of Fire spirits brings dryness to the ...

Requiem, Jacob K. Lee

Student Research, Creative Activity, and Performance - School of Music

Traditionally, the requiem form began as a Catholic mass to honor the dead. Today, the requiem is generally composed conveying messages of solace to troubled hearts. Many composers, such as Britten and Rutter, choose to abandon some of the orthodox text of the mass to provide an added measure of connection for the audience. The result of these later requiems is often a baring of the composer’s soul – something profoundly personal shared in the hope of inspiring others. This latter process is my aim in creating my Requiem. I approach this end in several ways, compositionally: There is a ...

Restoration: An Oratorio Based On Ezra And Nehemiah, Joshua Bland

Theses and Dissertations

In beginning a project of this scope, I first spent months considering the genre in which I wanted to work. Once I committed to an Oratorio, more months were spent reading and finding the story I needed to tell and the orchestral medium through which to tell it. Thus began Restoration, an oratorio based on the story of Ezra and Nehemiah. I came to this story for several reasons: first, though comprising a unique moment in Old Testament history, it has not been told through music. More importantly, I believed that the themes of this story were ones that needed ...

The Transmutation Of The Immutable Abyss, Amanda Mccullough

Student Research, Creative Activity, and Performance - School of Music

The Transmutation of the Immutable Abyss is a song cycle for a female voice and chamber orchestra, originally inspired by the instrumentation of a community theater pit orchestra. This piece sets eight poems by A. R. Ammons over eight movements. One primary goal of this piece was to combine elements of jazz and contemporary classical music.

The Transmutation of the Immutable Abyss also explores duality along with the combination of disparate elements to create a more complete whole. In a literal sense, jazz and classical elements coexist in varying amounts of prominence. Also in a literal sense, elements of tonality ...

Mystery Of The Wax Museum: An Original Film Score For Orchestra And An Analysis Outlining The Evolution Of Film Music Through American Horror Films Of The Early 1930s, Ian Deterling

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis illustrates the transitional period between silent films and fully-scored sound films. Connecting the history between producers, directors, and composers reveals how and why film scoring became an accepted practice by the mid-1930s while shedding light on the commonly-overlooked composers whose innovations in these early films paved the way for future film composers. The principle objective of this project is to score selected sequences of Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) by synthesizing contemporary film scoring practices with techniques commonly used in horror films of the 1930s. An accompanying analysis of the score will explain the purpose of each ...

Genesis : For Orchestra., Zachary Dwight Lowery

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Genesis is a two-movement work for full orchestra that depicts the Creation and Flood story. These two stories are an inverse of each other, one of beginnings, and the other of endings. The idea of creation is portrayed musically through the stacking and building of various motives presented throughout the piece to create a musical "world". Those motives and ideas are then scattered, distorted, and further fragmented to show the utter destruction of creation. Ultimately this piece is about the power and grace of God, and His plan through it all.

"Given Time..." For Soprano And Orchestra., Alex Isackson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The title of this work, Given time… is meant to be less like a traditional title and more like the beginning of a deep thought. Time is one of those things that I think humans just don’t understand and don’t give very much thought to, especially considering how much time has already passed and how much time left there is in the universe. Where does space and time end? And where do we (or I) fit in all of it? Does everything I do have any lasting impact on the eternal scheme of things? The list of questions ...

Airiños: For Orchestra And Two-Part Women's Choir, And A Biography Of The Poet Rosalía De Castro, Scott T. Stobbe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Spanish poet Rosalía de Castro was a central figure in the Galician

cultural and literary revival of the mid nineteenth-century. One of her most

significant books is Cantares Gallegos, a book of poems written in Galician that

serves as an homage to the language, culture, customs and countryside of

Galicia. The text for the musical portion of this document, a work for orchestra

with extended percussion and two-part women’s choir entitled Airiños, comes

from Castro’s poem Airiños, airiños, aires which was featured in Cantares

Gallegos. To gain a deeper understanding of the author’s importance and

influence ...

Barfield, Kazik, Nazaykinskaya, And Beyond: A Discussion Of The Commission Process Regarding Trombone Literature, S. Kyle Moore

Honors Theses

There has historically been limited repertoire for trombonists to perform outside of orchestral writing—so limited that the first trombone solo recital was performed by Davis Shuman in 1947. The trombone has been present in the musical community since the mid-fifteenth century, yet it has only recently emerged as a unique, virtuosic instrument. Due to its delayed emergence and limited repertoire, the need to advance the instrument and its musical literature has led to the commission process between artists and composers: Interested parties approach composers with the prospect of writing music for compensation. In this manner, the composer is compensated ...

Expressions Of Madness In Coloratura Mad Scenes Of Bel Canto Operas, Rachel G. Christenson

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis will explore the musical innovations in the mad scenes of the bel canto composers in the 1800s. It will analyze Gaetano Donizetti’s mad scenes in Anna Bolena (1830) and Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), and Vincezzo Bellini’s mad scenes in I Puritani (1835) to discover how each composer expresses madness through the high and virtuosic voice of the coloratura soprano. The subject of madness is not a new idea in opera. However, the mad scenes of Donizetti and Bellini are the most successful and are often performed in opera houses around the world. Specific attention is given ...

Três Fontes, Bruno Ruviaro

Bruno Ruviaro

What do you get when you mix saxophone fragments of Webern, Debussy, and Pousseur in one same algorithmic cauldron, in a bucolic park in Turin, Italy? This piece provides one possible answer to that question. “Três Fontes,” in Portuguese, can be translated as “Three Sources,” but also “Three Fountains.” You are free to use, study, remix, and share this piece.

Mesmo Que Depois, Bruno Ruviaro

Bruno Ruviaro

When a sample that is tired of suffering meets another sample that is also tired of suffering, it’s time to consider that intermodulation may suddenly happen. When there is a sample that sorely misses another sample, and this other sample does not understand it, just let that new intermodulation happen, even if clipping becomes unavoidable. How silly I was, trying in vain to rationally understand things about sampling that no one can actually explain. Come, let us try now, only a new use can twist the old one.