Composition Commons^™

Psalms On The Shannon: A Collection Of Choral Pieces In The Irish Celtic Style, Greta E. Hanks

Senior Honors Theses

The Irish music tradition has a rich heritage ranging from ancient ballads to nineteenth-century dances. One area of Irish music, a subset of Celtic music in general, that has been somewhat underrepresented in modern times is Irish choral music. Scripturally-based choral singing has been part of the Irish tradition ever since medieval monks began Christianizing the Celts. Today, several choral groups in Ireland are working to revive the art of Celtic choral singing. This collection, presenting psalms set to choral music in the Irish style, is one modern composer’s endeavor to join the Irish choral genre, incorporating traditional harmonic elements …

Bridging The Gap: A Study Of Compositional Similarities Across Time, The 'Realization' Techniques Of Johann Sebastian Bach And Louis Armstrong, Erin Cheshire

Honors Theses

This study is an examination of certain compositional techniques during the Baroque and jazz eras and how there are unexpected similarities throughout. The premise of this argument draws attention to the notion that, although the world has changed, this particular compositional technique has remained relatively unaltered. Given the aesthetic differences between these two compositional styles, the unlikely conclusion is that some aspects of music truly never go away, they simply change procedures.

By examining the emergence of the figured-bass style in the Baroque period and certain notational features in jazz, the evidence will trace the origins of these compositional techniques …

Silence For Orchestra: Incorporating Silence In Musical Language Through Theories Of Expectation, Kari Darby

Masters Theses

The purpose of Silence: for Orchestra is to incorporate silence as a captivating source of musical language. Silence's goal is to encourage the audience to appreciate silence as musch as music. David Huron's research in musical expectations served as a guide to create a piece that develops, contradicts, and conforms to a listener's expectations. Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis's work describes five functions of silence found in music. These functions can be applied to the silences used in my piece in order to further conform to the listener's expectations.

Robert Schuman "Novellette In F Major", Opus. 21 No. 1 (Part 1), Dan Rager

Dan Rager

Robert Schumann "Novellette" Opus 21- No. 1 / Full Piano Score (Part 2), Dan Rager

Dan Rager

The Band Came Back (Sousa -1895/Clarke - 1926/Rager - 2016), Dan Rager

Dan Rager

Musical Syntax (Music Vs. Human Language), Dan Rager

Dan Rager

String Quartet, Brut, Bernie Walasavage

Masters Theses

l’Art Brut , also commonly referred to as “outsider art,” is comprised of a variety of visual media by untrained or mentally ill artists. The string quartet is subtitled this because it takes inspiration from the work of these artists; with its jagged edges, vibrant colors, and horrid scenes, there is an organic beauty inherent in such eclectic and divergent art. Another factor which drew me to the artwork of the mentally ill was the commonality of Kenophobia: an abnormal fear of empty spaces. Schizophrenic, Swiss artists, Adolf Wölfli (18641930) and Aloïse Corbaz (18861964) were noted for suffering this phobia …

First Critical Performing Edition Of The Zarzuela Maria La O, By Ernesto Lecuona, Orchestrated By Felix Guerrero, Ivan A. Del Prado

Dissertations

The First Critical Performing Edition of the Zarzuela Maria la O by Ernesto Lecuona (as orchestrated by Felix Guerrero), is the rescue of the complete score of one of the most important works by a Cuban composer. The complete but still unpublished original score to Maria la O will finally have a clear and accurate performing edition. This will serve, both expert performers in Cuban popular music and anyone else interested in the subject. In this new score, indigenous rhythms and other traditional performance practice issues have been fully written out.

This document will also include a brief history and …

The Production Of Sticky Notes And Bible Quotes: Godly Answers For Sticky Situations A Children’S Musical As Directed By Julie Brinkman, Julie Elizabeth Brinkman

Honors College

This thesis reflects upon a director’s experience while directing her first production: Sticky Notes and Bible Quotes: Godly Answers for Sticky Situations by Dennis and Nan Allen. This children’s musical was produced in cooperation with Wylie United Methodist Church of Abilene, TX. Over forty children, with the help of ten adult volunteers, shared the importance of memorizing scripture and looking to God’s Word in times of trouble through song, skits, and the recitation of scripture. While reflecting upon the production process after each rehearsal, the director makes connections between her experiences as director, the content of her music education undergraduate …

Music Theatre Directing For The Vocal Performance Student: A Practical Application Of Knowledge And Skills, Samuel Martin Snyder

Honors College

As an application of skills acquired in the course of a four-year Bachelor of Music program, this thesis constitutes the physical documentation of the creative process for Jeanine Tesori’s Violet, the musical production selected for this project. Encompassing in a linear format license contracts, casting, creative development, rehearsal planning and conducting, administrative duties, musical analysis, and artistic instruction, the contents of this document represent in part the steps and components required to realize a full musical production – each one accomplished by the student director. In addition to the physical elements, a full recording of the final performance is available, …

Joan, Sarah Bauerle

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Joan is an original, programmatic piece for orchestra, with an approximate running time of eight minutes. It is inspired by the life of Joan of Arc, the French heroine at the end of the Hundred Years' War. Themes evoking major characters are presented as the piece unfolds. Along with original material, melodies from several folksongs are used in the themes representing Joan and the English. The English "Agincourt Carol" dates to the Hundred Years' War. Joan's themes, "Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella" and "He is Born," are both familiar French carols. In addition to these two themes, the piece begins …

Stf, Gilbert Kong

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

STF is a large ensemble work in three movements: "Fatwa," "Hitchens," and "Albino Sex." It is scored for piano, double bass, cello, viola, violin, French horn, clarinet in Bb, bass clarinet in Bb, flute, baritone, tenor, alto, soprano, narrator, and electronics. Its underlying concept is how religious worldviews can collide with freedom of speech, atheism, and fundamental human rights. In extreme cases, zealots will interpret disease as evidence of divine intervention or even demand the death of blasphemers. The text in the first movement, “Fatwa,” expresses freedom of speech and incorporates passages from Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses.” The second …

Folk/Traditional Music From West Virginia Arranged For Classical Guitar Ensemble, Júlio Ribeiro Alves

Júlio Ribeiro Alves

My motivation for writing this book grew from my desire to better understand the people and the music heritage of West Virginia and to share the findings of my experience, with the guitar community, in the form of guitar ensemble arrangements.

Singing The Sermon: Where Musicology Meets Homiletics, Emmett G. Price Iii

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

From the beginning of the Christian Church, singing and preaching have served as major tools of communication. In fact, they remain the most utilized methods of articulating and explicating personal and communal theologies across the diverse and expansive expressions of Christianity.

From the life, ministry, and legacy of Jesus Christ through the teachings of the Apostle Paul, the roles and functions of singing and preaching are well known but not well studied as a unit. From the foundational writings of the early Church Fathers through the various theses of the reformers, the acts of singing and preaching have been studied …

Preaching And The Power Of Music: A Dialogue Between The Pulpit And Choir Loft In 1689, Markus Rathey

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

During the ecclesiastical year 1689-90 the Lutheran superintendent in Leipzig, Johann Benedict Carpzov, and his cantor, the composer Johann Schelle, embarked on a collaboration of unusual scale. In the previous year, Carpzov had preached a cycle of sermons based on well-known hymns from the Lutheran tradition. In 1689-90 Carpzov gave a short summary of the earlier hymn sermons, while Schelle composed for each Sunday a cantata based on the very same hymn. The result is a unique collaboration between preacher and musician, pulpit and choir loft. Only a few of Schelle’s compositions have survived; however, the extant cantatas together with …

Through A Wheat Field; To A Pond, Ian Mikyska

The Goose

Poetry by Ian Mikyska

Heteroglossia: Novella For Orchestra, Andrzej J. Tereszkowski

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Heteroglossia (Novella for Orchestra) explores a non-programmatic musical narrative which seeks to juxtapose Spectral, late-Romantic, and 12-tone aesthetics. The work is structured into seven distinct chapters which utilize Fibonacci numbers and tilings of the golden proportion to create the proportions of the work. The underlying conceptual foundations (and title) of the work are intrinsically related to the concepts of dialogism, polyphony (in the novel), and heteroglossia found within the literary theories of Mikhail Bakhtin. The work is also heavily influenced by theories of narratology and semiotics found in the writings of Jean-Jacques Nattiez and Jean Molino. The discussion document outlines …

A Jamaican Voice: The Choral Music Of Noel Dexter, Desmond A. Moulton

Dissertations

As we approach the twenty-first century, the world generally is moving away from the dominance of the European aesthetic towards a world music that owes much to the musical resources of the African-American tradition. Jamaica’s social and philosophical music belong mainly to that tradition, which includes the use of rhythms, and timbral and melodic resources that exist independently of harmony. Already in this century, Jamaicans have created two totally new music - Nyabinghi, which performs a philosophical function and Reggae, which performs a social function. The choral music of Noel Dexter is important because it is uniquely Jamaican/Caribbean in its …

Requiem For The Transient, Brian Palmer Gee

Masters Theses

Requiem for the Transient is a six-movement piece of music for full orchestra and choir. The six movements are the “Prelude,” “Introit,” “Sequentia,” “Agnus Dei,” “Lux Aeterna,” and “In Paradisum,” As with most Requiems, the music is a setting of prayers from the Roman Missal. Historically composers have used various prayer choices, sometimes even including texts outside of the Missal. Requiem for the Transient contains only one source of text outside of the Missal; the first movement, “Prelude”, uses text from the New King James version of Ecclesiastes 12:1-7.

This document will compare and contrast Requiem for the Transient with …