Composition Commons^™

Romantic Exoticism: The Music Of Elsewhere In The Nineteenth Century, Josiah Raiche

Senior Honors Theses

Western art music has drawn on many sources. One of these is non-western music, which can be integrated into European classical music tradition in the form of exoticism. This paper will highlight musical elements used by composers seeking to create exoticism, examine selected works, and note common elements of western music that have exotic roots. In the nineteenth century, there were three general trends in exoticism. The first, non-musical exoticism, utilizes conventional western music alongside extra-musical exotic elements. Romantic exoticism portrays distant lands using musical elements, drawing these from the audience’s perceptions of the music represented. Realistic exoticism attempts to …

A Survey Of Christian Cross-Over Songwriting: Core Principles And Potential For Impact, Paul Malhotra

Senior Honors Theses

A cross-over song has been defined as a song written by a Christian artist aimed at a mainstream audience. An understanding of the core principles of cross-over songs and their relevance in contemporary culture is essential for Christian songwriters. Six albums marked by spiritual overtones or undertones, representing a broad spectrum of contemporary cross-over music, were examined. Selected songs were critiqued by analyzing the album of origin, lyrical content, author’s expressed worldview, and level of commercial success. Renaissance art also provided a historical parallel to modern day songwriting. Recommendations were developed for Christian songwriters to craft songs with greater effectiveness …

Joe Henderson's Harmonic Approach To Improvisation Within The Duo Setting In His 1992 Quintet Album, Lush Life: The Music Of Billy Strayhorn, Patrick Van Der Moezel

Theses : Honours

Jazz improvisation can be greatly influenced by the combination of instrumentation, influencing the role of the instruments and the way they relate to each other. Notably, the stripped-back nature of the duo emphasises these differences. Musicians such as Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz and Joe Henderson are three of many saxophonists who have employed this particular combination to explore different ways of improvisation.

This paper will draw on Joe Henderson’s 1992 album Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn, which uses the duo setting on three tracks. Each of these three tracks has a slightly different combination (saxophone with bass, with …

Atmospheric Patterns And Asian Typhoon Landfalls, Ivetta Abramyan

Theses and Dissertations

The Western North Pacific Ocean (WNP) produces more frequent and intense tropical cyclones (TC) than anywhere else in the world, and these storms greatly impact society. This study examines synoptic scale atmospheric patterns and their effects on landfalling typhoons in Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam using composite analysis at upper and mid-levels of the atmosphere, as well as analyzing teleconnection impacts on tropical cyclone frequency, duration and intensity.

Examined Best Track data (1946-2010) shows an increased likelihood of Taiwan landfalls earlier in the season, Japan landfalls mid-season, and Vietnam landfalls towards the end of the typhoon season. The formation locations also …

Ronald Stevenson, Composer-Pianist : An Exegetical Critique From A Pianistic Perspective, Mark Gasser

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This exegetical critique makes a conceptual summation of Ronald Stevenson’s life’s work for the piano and his contributions as a composer‐pianist. Chapters one and two provide a profile of Stevenson as a pianist, examining the aesthetic and musical concerns that defined his long career, as well as precedents and antecedents of his pianism. Of particular interest are the ways that Stevenson coalesces aspects of the ‘grand manner’ and his obsession with a pianistic bel canto style. Chapter three examines Stevenson’s remarkable output in terms of piano transcriptions. His conceptualization of this as ‘capturing the essence’ of the original composer is …

One Bright, Moonlit Night For Mezzo‐Soprano, Clarinet, Sax, Vibes, Piano [13'], Randy Bauer

Randy R. Bauer

Premiere: RenegadeEnsemble, Studio Z, St. Paul, MN, November 2013

Nola 2, Chris Rutkowski

Chris Rutkowski

NOLA 2 is a jazz composition based on authentic New Orleans rhythms blended with a contemporary and intricate melodic and harmonic palette.

Strange, Beautiful Noises For The Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Santa Cruz, Ca, David Biedenbender

David Biedenbender

Strange, Beautiful Noises was written in the months preceding the birth of my son, Izaak. Along with the usual pre-parental anxiety, I found myself frequently imagining what it would be like to hear so many sounds for the very first time as he does, both through the watery walls of the womb and then suddenly without that warm, safe frequency filter. This piece was a gift to him and also a way for me to work through the anxiety of becoming a father for the first time. Nervous ticking, funk bass lines played by bass clarinet, rewind and reverse playback …

Patterns Of Behavior For Piano Trio [20'], Randy Bauer

Randy R. Bauer

Premiere: Francesca Anderegg, Eric Kutz, Esther Wang, Macalester College, March, 2013

Neighborhood Music For Soprano And Piano Trio (With Jazz Violinist) [12'], Randy Bauer

Randy R. Bauer

Premiere: WFMT Chicago Classical Radio, live broadcast, June 2013 Release on Cedille Records, Fall 2014

Confluence For Cello And Piano, Chris Rutkowski

Chris Rutkowski

Commissioned by the Audi/Montenegro Duo, Confluence was performed by the group in multiple performances in Florida and Indiana, as well as being one of the featured works in the capstone concert of the College Music Society International Conference 2013 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The Flap-O-Phone, A Site-Specific Turntable, Christopher Delaurenti

Christopher DeLaurenti

A Devil's Abecedarium (26 Of Ambrose Bierce's Cynic's Definitions), Jonathan D. Green

Jonathan D Green

No abstract provided.

There's A Song In The Air! - 2-Part Choir, Keith D. Rowley

Keith D Rowley

An original Christmas carol arranged for 2 part choir and piano. Words by Josiah Gilbert Holland

Argentine Conducting Tour, Dan Rager

Dan Rager

Argentine Educational Conducting / Lecture Tour, Dan Rager

Dan Rager

Voice Recitals At The Unl School Of Music: Compilation Study, Audrey M. Nicholson

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Creative Work, and Performance

An informative compilation of Voice Recitals at the UNL School of Music categorized by Masters, DMA, and Faculty recitals from 1988-2012. Information includes: composer, work title, song title, performer, performance date, instrumentation, audio availability, and online program link.

"Download" button links to pdf version of file. Spreadsheet version (.xls) is attached below as "Related file." ".xlr" files are spreadsheets and can be opened from MS Excel.

Makiko Kinoshita And Her 9 Preludes For Piano: The Amalgam Of American Jazz And European Tradition, Mai Nagatomo

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Creative Work, and Performance

Makiko Kinoshita is one of the leading contemporary composers in Japan. Kinoshita’s 9 Preludes (2001) is remarkable twenty-first century piano literature that provides abundant use of various musical styles. The most important style that Kinoshita combined with traditional Western writing is jazz; especially the rhythmic and harmonic language of Jazz music. This document provides a detailed analysis of Kinoshita’s unique treatments of form, tonality, harmony, rhythm, and motivic materials. The central section of this study employs musical examples in order to examine how Kinoshita fuses diverse elements of musical styles with modern musical language to create her own idiom. Along …

The Choral Music Of Allen Henry Koepke (1939-2012) With A Conductor's Special Focus On The Preparation Of His Seminal Work, Missa Brevis, Keith J. Curington

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Creative Work, and Performance

Although American choirs have been performing Allen Koepke’s compositions since 1973 and his music is witnessing greater and greater international appeal, especially in Asia, academic writings about the composer and his contribution to the choral art have been absent. This document examines Missa Brevis, the seminal work by Allen Koepke, and serves as a conductor’s guide for score study and rehearsal preparation. It will address practical problems unique to the work and will suggest solutions that will ensure excellence in its performance. A biography, a complete catalogue of the composer’s large number of choral works in print, a listing …

Directional Tonality In Schumann's Early Works, Benjamin K. Wadsworth

Faculty and Research Publications

Beginning and ending a work in the same key, thereby suggesting a hierarchical structure, is a hallmark of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century practice. Occasionally, however, early nineteenth-century works begin and end in different, but equally plausible keys (directional tonality), thereby associating two or more keys in decentralized complexes. Franz Schubert’s works are sometimes interpreted as central to this practice, especially those that extend third relationships to larger, often chromatic cycles. Robert Schumann’s early directional-tonal works, however, have received less analytical scrutiny. In them, pairings are instead diatonic between two keys, which usually relate as relative major and minor, thereby allowing Schumann …