Composition Commons^™

Wabi Sabi (Score), Gary Smart

Gary Smart

Wabi Sabi is a fantasy for eight instruments: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and bass. The title, a Japanese phrase, refers to a love and nostalgia for ancient times, for old 
things - antiques - things which evoke feelings of purity, nobility, hard won wisdom, an essential spirituality, true worth. A tea ceremony in a Kyoto garden is “wabi sabi”. The piece was formed intuitively as a kind of drama, perhaps a Japanese folk tale. The expansion of “time perception”, the savoring of sound colors and the evocation of mood is central to the aesthetic of this music.

Song Of The Holy Ground (Score), Gary Smart

Gary Smart

“Song of the Holy Ground” for piano and string quartet was written in reaction to an Apache chant recorded in 1953 by musicologist John Donald Robb. The original recording, sung by a young girl, is clear, delicate and charming at first hearing. The text itself is unknown to me, beyond the fact that this is a song of consecration, a blessing. But the music of the chant is enchanting, with its uniquely expressive melodic shapes and its asymmetrical rhythms.In approaching this material I first made a detailed transcription of the chant and became fascinated with the intricacy of the motivic …

Working In Harmony: The Process Of Writing Music And Lyrics For A Musical, Crystal Hanson

Honors Senior Theses/Projects

No abstract provided.

Trumpeter Swan (Score), Gary Smart

Gary Smart

This piece was originally recorded for Capstone Records in 1990. At the time, this beautiful bird was disappearing from the American West and was on the endangered species list.The piece is in two movements. The first is “nesting music”, the second takes flight, and moves through several adventurous episodes, but finally settles back into the opening serenity. The work ends with echoing calls fading into silence.

Beatbox (Score), Gary Smart

Gary Smart

This group of short pieces for two pianists playing one piano was composed for a tour of central Japan in the summer of 2006. At a concert in Kyoto I premiered this collection, as secundo pianist, with six of my former Japanese piano students, each playing one movement with me. Each movement is dedicated to that individual and I like to think that these movements reflect, to some extent, each pianists’ personality.The title “Beatbox” refers to the repetitive rhythmic motives which serve as the basis for each movement. This music features energetic ostinati, and thick, bopish textures. Movement five is …

Wabi Sabi (Score), Gary Smart

Gary Smart

Wabi Sabi is a fantasy for eight instruments: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and bass. The title, a Japanese phrase, refers to a love and nostalgia for ancient times, for old 
things - antiques - things which evoke feelings of purity, nobility, hard won wisdom, an essential spirituality, true worth. A tea ceremony in a Kyoto garden is “wabi sabi”. The piece was formed intuitively as a kind of drama, perhaps a Japanese folk tale. The expansion of “time perception”, the savoring of sound colors and the evocation of mood is central to the aesthetic of this music.

Bye-Bye (Score), Gary Smart

Gary Smart

“Bye-bye” for mixed sextet of instruments was written specifically for the 2010 Finale Composers’ Competition. It was finished in August 2010. It is a kind of abstract toccata which relies on rhythmic gestures as a primary unifying device. “Bye-bye” is Ivesian in it’s overall American character and in it’s use of materials from diverse musical genres (vaudeville, ragtime, waltz, early jazz, swing, etc.).Only five minutes in length, this piece is written to serve as a brilliant, eccentric showpiece encore. Fans of the “Great American songbook” will recognize this music to be a free fantasy on the old sing-a-long favorite – …

Benediction (Score), Gary Smart

Gary Smart

“Benediction” for solo violin (2009) was written for violinist Piotr Szlewczyk and his recording project “Violin Futura”. This short set of variations is based on the old southern hymn, “Part in Peace”.

Multiple Media Outlets For Composition, Bethany A. Ciullo

Honors Scholar Theses

Through integrating different forms of media, the creator is able to give their audience a unique, multi-sensory experience. In my honors thesis, I concentrated on combining sight and sound as a communication tool and to further engage the observer.

The first type of media I chose to include was original solo instrument, voice, and piano songbooks focusing on lyrical playing for student and amateur musicians. I have also created audio realizations of the songs through Finale, which I then organized into CDs with the intention that the musician could understand how the music sounds before practicing. I combined the visual …

The Tardy Recognition Of J.S. Bach's Sonatas And Partitas For Violin Solo, Di Su

Publications and Research

J. S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo (BWV 1001-1006) are among the most important masterpieces in the literature of violin music. They are included in standard repertoire for serious violin students; they are frequently performed in solo recitals; they are recorded by numerous virtuosi; and they are required in major violin competitions. The vast amount of editions also indicates the importance of the works. In Edlund’s catalogue, one finds as many as seventy-seven editions ranging from Simrock (1802) to Henle (1987)

However, the Solos did not enjoy such a prominent status in Bach’s own time and even in …

Helen: An Opera In One Act, Garrett Hope

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

Helen is a one-act opera that tells the story of a woman whose husband would later betray her trust and love. It begins with her debut as an eligible young woman and ends with the husband’s demise. Through the course of the story it becomes apparent that her husband is both verbally and physically abusive as well as unfaithful to her. In the end her situation is redeemed through his death because his bacchanalian behavior resulted in his fatal sickness.

The opera is a retelling of a portion of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë, which was adapted …

New Horizons: A Folk Song Cycle, Chris Cresswell

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The purpose of the project was to create a piece of music that transcended musical genres and told the story of my coming of age in the first decade of the 21st century. The work featured both original text and original music and culminates in a live performance of the work.

I wanted to tell a story. More specifically, I wanted to tell my story. The story of coming of age in the 21st century. I was 11 in the year 2000, I was 21 in 2010. My formative years correlate directly with the formative years of the 21st century. …

Possibilities For Tuba Quartet/Ensemble And Percussion, Anthony J. Burnham

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

Possibilities for Tuba Quartet/Ensemble and Percussion is an exploration of the possibilities and potential that such an ensemble contains. The piece is set in sevencontrasting movements, each of which highlight, showcase, and challenge different members of the ensemble. Knowing that music for such a group is limited in quantity and scope, this piece has been written to fill a void in the repertoire for both the low brass and percussion families while allowing them an opportunity to collaborate on a level rarely seen. This piece presents a very unique and fun experience for performers and listeners alike.

David Maslanka's Desert Roads, Four Songs For Clarinet And Wind Ensemble: An Analysis And Performer's Guide, Joshua R. Mietz

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

Known primarily as a composer for the wind band, few American composers have received the notoriety and widespread acclaim that David Maslanka has since 1970. His works for wind ensemble are now considered standard repertoire and are played frequently by high school, college-level, and professional ensembles alike. Additionally, his works for chamber groups and soloists have continued to gain in popularity. As of the writing of this document, Maslanka has composed concertos for saxophone, euphonium, flute, marimba, trombone, and piano. Early in 2005, he completed his first large-scale work for solo clarinet with wind ensemble accompaniment: Desert Roads. Desert …

Kiku Preludes (Score), Gary Smart

Gary Smart

A collection of Japanese inspired piano preludes.

Mitificar Con Los Escombros De Las Desmitificacions, Marianella P. Machado

Languages, Cultures, and Humanities Faculty and Staff Research

En el onton de 1996, asisti a un seminario sobre Antonio Buero Vallejo, dictado por Patricia O'Connor en la Universidad de Cincinnati. Al final de una de las sesions del seminario, O'connor me dio un ejemplar de Mito: libro para una opera, obra escrita por Buero en 1967.

Incomplete (Six), Joshua Burel

Masters Theses

Incomplete (six) is comprised of six short movements written for full orchestra. Each movement depicts a different idea as it relates to the number six. In biblical numerology the number six represents incompletion and shortcoming while seven signifies completeness and fulfillment. Six therefore cannot be complete without the addition of one to make seven. The number six is commonly used to represent man since he was created on the sixth day of creation while the number one represents God as the one true God. The numbers six and one work together to identify the reality that man is only made …

An Analysis Of Six Original Latin Jazz Compositions And Arrangements, Ruben Caban

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the cross-cultural fusion of jazz harmony and Afro Caribbean rhythms. These six compositions were chosen for the composers Master's recital to demonstrate how his writing technique was influenced by his cultural and musical experience during his years of study and performance in the United States and abroad. The instrumentation was chosen to exemplify the fusion of the traditional percussive sounds of Latin music with jazz harmony, melody and improvisation. It is important to note that even though one of the compositions, E.T., is not written in a Latin style, it was nonetheless …

Ruth Crawford's "Spiritual Concept": The Sound-Ideals Of An Early American Modernist, 1924-1930, Judith Tick

Judith Tick

This article investigates the musical thought and stylistic evolution of the American modernist composer Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953) in her formative years. It shows the relationship of style and idea to what she termed "spiritual concept": the core of her transcendental modernism. The sources of Crawford's spiritual aesthetics are Theosophy, Eastern religious philosophy, nineteenth-century American Transcendentalism, and the imaginative tradition of Walt Whitman. Thus Crawford drew on an eclectic legacy of ideas that had been linked in American intellectual life since the turn of the century. Documentation of her thought is based on unpublished diaries, poems, and correspondence. The mediation …

Constellation: For Orchestra And Live Electronics, Ronald Smith

Ronald Bruce Smith

No abstract provided.