Composition Commons^™

New Compositions For Percussion Duo, Andrea Venet

Showcase of Faculty Scholarly & Creative Activity

The submitted videos are a representation of recent performances and world premieres of commissions by Dr. Andrea Venet’s percussion duo, Escape Ten. Escape Ten is an ensemble in residence at the UNF School of Music with Dr. Annie Stevens (Virginia Tech). The first video is of a new composition, 2300 Degrees, by Ivan Trevino. Trevino held a musical residence at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY and was greatly affected by observing glass blower Lino Tagliapietra work. Ivan states “In order to recreate the feelings I felt while watching Lino work, I decided to create a piece with …

Composing Musical Branes, Liam Flenady

Directions of New Music

This paper presents the compositional logic of my most recent piece, braneworlds, a 15-minute work for seven musicians, according to three basic concepts: musical space, polymorphic counterpoint, and ‘branes’, as inspired by the popular book Warped Passages by experimental physicist Lisa Randall. The idea of musical space is outlined, in which musical parameters—conceived broadly as variable characteristics of music—are taken as dimensions and each work may define its own set of basic dimensions. Musical identities or objects are formed, located at different points within this space. The idea of ‘polymorphic counterpoint’, in which larger-scale internally-elaborated musical structures, rather than lines …

Composition Majors, Cedarville University

Bach’s Lunch Programs

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Nikolai Medtner's Compositional Technique: Form And Narrative In Tales, Oliver H. Markson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation delves into the compositional approach of Russian-born composer Nikolai Medtner. A discussion of Medtner’s own words on composition from his book The Muse and Fashion: Being a Defence of the Foundations of the Art of Music is followed by original analyses of four Tales. Focus is placed on the composer’s philosophy regarding the relationship between form and narrative, in association with his expressed warnings of the dangers behind shifting compositional dominance from pure music to extra-musical narrative. The analyses are followed by a discussion of the vital importance of Medtner’s music and writings for future generations of composers. …

2016-2017 New Music Festival, Eric Ewazen, Lisa Leonard

New Music Festival

Eleventh Annual New Music Festival

• Eric Ewazen, Composer-in-Residence
• Lisa Leonard, Director

Friday, January 20, 2017 at 7:30 pm

• Spotlight I: Young Composers

Saturday, January 21, 2017 at 1:00 pm

• Master Class with Eric Ewazen

Sunday, January 22, 2017 at 7:30 pm

• Spotlight II: Music of Eric Ewazen

Structure & Simulation: Growth And Evolution In Generative Music, Dane Filipczak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes a series of original interactive computer music compositions that are structured around simulations of natural phenomena. The relationship between simulation and music composition is considered and found to be a likely site of high creative potential due to both domains’ concern with process and becoming as opposed to static artifacts. The medium of the web application is considered as an ideal site for contemporary musical experimentation and a portrait is given of the current affordances and constraints of browser-based applications. Five musical systems are described within the context of their simulation and design techniques and some reflections …

Relevant Versus Extraneous Music In Multimedia Instruction: A Study Of The Coherence Principle, Jonathan Gunnell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the inclusion of nonessential music in an instructional multimedia presentation affected learners’ ability to recall information in retention, cued-retention, and transfer cognitive measures. This study tested the coherence principle of multimedia learning which holds that the addition of nonessential content that is not relevant to the instruction is detrimental to learning. This study tested this principle by analyzing differences across three groups; a control group which included no additional music, a group including bland music selected at random, and a group including music that has been intentionally designed to align with …

Ascensions, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

For Flute, oboe, Clarinet in B♭, Horn in F, and Bassoon.

Ascensions, for woodwind quintet, was composed for Quintessential in conjunction with the Historical Society of Quincy (IL) and Adams County’s current WWI exhibit.

The work, in two parts, suggests two key moments in the life of Quincy balloonist Thomas Baldwin’s life. “1887” was the year of his first balloon ascent and parachute jump from Singleton Park in Quincy. “1917” represents the year of America’s entry into WW I and Baldwin’s contributions to the U.S. Signal Corp balloon division.

As parallel musical analogies, 1887, suggestive of the slow ascent of …

Horn Concerto, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

in memory of William Dieterich

Transposed Score

duration: c. 13:30

For: Flute-Picc. 1, Flute 2, Oboe 1, Oboe 2, Clarinet in Bb 1, Clarinet in Bb 2, Bassoon 1, Bassoon 2, Horn in F 1, Horn in F 2, Trumpet in C 1, Trumpet in C 2, Trombone 1, Trombone 2, Tuba, Timpani, Percussion 2, Percussion 3, Solo Horn in F 3, Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Cello, & Double Bass

47 pages

Chthonic Dances, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

Transposed Score

Duration: c. 8:15

Piccolo 1, Flute 2, Flute 3, Oboe 1, Oboe 2, English Horn, Clarinet in Eb 1, Clarinet in Bb 2, Bass Clarinet, Bassoon 1, Bassoon 2, Contrabassoon. 3, Horn in F 1, Horn in F 2, Horn in F 3, Horn in F 4, Trumpet in C 1, Trumpet in C 2, Trumpet in C 3, Trombone 1, Trombone 2, Trombone 3, Tuba, Timpani, Perc., Marimba, Percussion 2 1, Percussion 3 2, Harp, Piano, Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Cello, Double Bass

[38 pages]

A Portfolio Of Compositions, Anne-Marie O'Farrell

Research Theses

The works in the attached portfolio address a number of compositional focal points: to bring together diverse strands of musical influence into sustained musical argument, across various large-scale media; to enlarge and explore the musical language of the harp, including the lever harp; and to integrate received materials into new music so as to create a different context while acknowledging musical inheritance. These combine with the exploration of inherent instrumental colour within my approaches to rhythm, harmony, melodic transformation, structure and the use of text to demonstrate the development of my compositional style during my PhD study. The commentary opens …

Accretion And Acrylics: Composition Portfolio With Commentary, Patrick Egan

Doctoral

This portfolio consists of nine compositions and an accompanying commentary on each of the pieces. The earlier compositions represent the exploration of preoccupations with canon, counterpoint, and rhythmically-charged, pulsating mobiles. This led to the further research elements incorporating the development of rhythmic motifs and their proliferation, culminating in static sonic canvases, slowing the rate of harmonic change. Investigative research into the various gradations applied to amplitude levels, first explored in my electronic music and then applied in the form of dynamics in my acoustic writing, represents another highly-featured process in this thesis. The opening chapters chart the processes of the …

A Case Study Of The Cellists And Treatise Authors: Johann Georg Christoph Schetky (1737-1824), Joseph Reinagle (1752-1825) And John Gunn (C.1765-1823): The Development Of The Cello In Provincial Britain, Margaret Doris

Doctoral

This dissertation provides an investigation of British provincial cello playing in the lateeighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries through a comprehensive examination of the biographical histories and the pedagogical outputs of the cellists and cello treatise authors, Johann Georg Christoph Schetky (1737–1824), Joseph Reinagle (1752–1825) and John Gunn (c.1765–1823). Through re-evaluation and analysis of the biographical profiles of Schetky, Reinagle and Gunn, in combination with a contextual review of their cello treatises, a provincial trend in British cello treatise authorship has been revealed. Schetky was principal cellist with the Edinburgh Musical Society [EMS], whilst Reinagle was principal cellist of the Oxford Musical …

Morgen : Melody For Soprano And Piano, Emmanuel M. Dubois

Emmanuel Dubois Compositions

Op. 48 : 1 score (ii + 3 pages) ; includes the poem "Morgen" by John Henry MacKay, in German.

Transcending The Keyboard: The Development Of Non-Traditional Piano Techniques, Brian Hinkley

Music: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Thin Blue Seam, Sebastian Anton-Ojeda

Senior Projects Spring 2017

This performance began as an exploration of liminal spaces in the context of a post-modern world. The lines between a suburban, consumptive society, fraught with binaries and thresholds while on the fringes of nature, were what interested me the most. However, this line of thought quickly took me to far more ancient places, to a view of nature driven by animism and pervaded by spiritual introspection. In Celtic Ireland, to give an example, every stone and river is witness to a myth. The Celts of the old world as described by anthropologist Marie-Louise Sjoestedt are constantly straddling the line between …

Pop, Lock, And Bach It/ The Places I'Ve Been, Hannah Madelene Richter Livant

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Theft! A History Of Music, Keith Aoki, James Boyle, Jennifer Jenkins

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The First Three Guitar Sonatas Of David Del Puerto, Jeremy Andrew Bass

Theses and Dissertations--Music

David del Puerto’s first three sonatas for solo guitar are large-scale, multi-movement works in a style that is at once strongly guitaristic, and highly refined with regard to harmony, melody, rhythm, and form. Del Puerto completed all three sonatas in 2015, a considerable milestone for a composer who had never before published works in this form for solo guitar. The sonatas represent a consolidation of the composer's recent style: the synthesis of modal, pandiatonic, and twelve-tone harmony; references to folkloric, popular, and classical musics; and a lucid, immediate approach to both surface rhythm and larger formal structures.

Since the development …

Surfaces, Rob Funkhouser

Graduate Thesis Collection

Surfaces is a work for two percussionists in four movements. It uses a variety of small percussion instruments, keyboard percussion, and two specially built kalimbas. This document contains both the score and an analysis of the piece that covers instrument choice, performance practice, form and compositional techniques employed