Music Theory Commons^™

Ear Training With The Music Of Radiohead, Victoria Malawey

Victoria L. Malawey

No abstract provided.

Clarinet Performance Practices For Alberto Ginastera's "Variaciones Concertantes": Solutions For Orchestral Auditions And Performances, Thomas James Kmiecik

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The principal clarinet part of Alberto Ginastera's Variaciones concertantes (1953) requires the performer to execute a number of exposed passages that are considered impractical by many clarinetists as published. The Boosey & Hawkes edition of Variaciones concertantes was published for the B-flat clarinet. On account of this clarinet choice, the part exceeds the traditional upper range of the instrument in the third variation (Variazione in modo di Scherzo per Clarinetto ). Moreover, it requires very awkward fingering patterns in passages because they are written in the Phrygian mode of C-sharp. To avoid some of these technical obstacles, many professional …

Faculty Wind Quintet: Five High School Tour, South And Central Oregon, Nicole Molumby, Jeanne Belfy, Leslie Moreau, Janelle Oberbillig, David Saunders

David Saunders

These performances spanned 150 years of wind quintet repertoire including works by György Ligeti, Carl Nielsen, August Klughardt, Jacques Ibert, Paul Hindemith, Sir Malcolm Arnold and Paquito D’Rivera.

Solo Composition Recital (October 14, 2011), Dominic Dousa

Dominic Dousa

Faculty Compositon Recital, presented by Gregory Luffey (soprano saxophone, UTEP), Melissa Colgin-Abeln (flute, UTEP), Mark Schuppener (violin, UTEP), and Dominic Dousa (piano).

Performances of the following original compositions:

"A View from Within"

"Two Pieces for Flute and Piano"

"Sonata for Violin and Piano"

Introducing The Learning Portfolio Into Music Theory Core Pedagogy, Anna Ferenc

Music Faculty Publications

Undergraduate music programs at North American institutions of higher learning typically require music majors to complete successfully a core grouping of theory courses in order to fulfill degree requirements. These courses are considered foundational not only for further study of music theory, but for all areas of music specialization because they provide students with basic analytical and musicianship skills necessary to understand musical organization in the western tradition. Although specific curricular content may vary from one institution to another, the theory core usually includes the study of diatonic and chromatic harmony, form and analysis, aural skills and possibly instruction in …

Ars Musice, Johannes De Grocheio, Constant J. Mews, John N. Crossley, Catherine Jeffreys, Leigh Mckinnon, Carol J. Williams

TEAMS Varia

Ars musice, composed in Paris during the late thirteenth century, reflects Johannes de Grocheio's awareness of the complexity of the task of describing music. As the editors note in their introduction, "Grocheio is aware of the enormous range of types of music performed in different ways in different places. How can he impose order on this enormous subject matter? He decided to resolve this question by structuring his discussion around the practice of music that he observed in the city of Paris, organized into three main 'branches': music of the people (musica vulgalis), composite or regular, 'which they call measured …

Our Varying Histories And Future Potential: Models And Maps In Science, The Humanities, And In Music Theory, Eugene Narmour

Departmental Papers (Music)

Part 1 briefly recounts the influence of social unrest and the explosion of knowledge in both psychology and the humanities circa 1970-1990. As the sciences rely on explicit top-down theories connected to bottom-up maps and models, and whereas the humanities build on bottom-up differences within malleable top-down “theories” (approaches, themes, theses, programs, methods, etc.), the changes in the sciences during this period contrasted sharply with the changes in the humanities. Part 2 discusses in detail how these two social transformations affected the histories of music theory and cognitive music theory. The former fractiously withdrew from its parent organization (AMS), whereas …

Cognitive Processes For Infering Tonic, Steven J. Kaup

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

Research concerning cognitive processes for tonic inference is diverse involving approaches from several different perspectives. Outwardly, the ability to infer tonic seems fundamentally simple; yet it cannot be attributed to any single cognitive process, but is multi-faceted, engaging complex elements of the brain. This study will examine past research concerning tonic inference in light of current findings. First I will survey the recent history of experimental research in cognitive functions for memory retention and expectation as they relate to the recognition and learning of musical schemas. Then I will discuss distributional theories associated with the tonal hierarchy of major and …

An Explanation Of Anomalous Hexachords In Four Serial Works By Igor Stravinsky, Robert Sivy

Masters Theses

Igor Stravinsky's precompositional process was so methodical that his move to serialism is no surprise. After becoming acquainted with the music of Schoenberg and Webern, Stravinsky was moved to experiment with serial techniques. He rejected many of the conventional approaches developed by the serial architects, only to adopt the technique at its basic form—the use of a series of pitches—and cultivate it into his own compositional style. Stravinsky continued to refine his style throughout his serial period (1951–1966) as each composition grew increasingly more serial than the last. For each work composed after 1960, Stravinsky constructed rotation arrays, a serial …

Pianistic Imagery In Franz Schubert's Die Schone Mullerin, Kristen (Wargo) Kiekel

Senior Honors Theses

Franz Schubert's Die schone Mullerin was the first true song cycle of the nineteenth century. Known for his contributions and innovations in German Lieder composition, Schubert published this twenty-song cycle in 1824. Composed as a set of songs based on a collection of poems with a continuing story line, the influence of Die schone Mullerin on the art song is still in evidence today. Schubert's use of imagery, especially in the piano accompaniment, was one of his biggest contributions to the development of musical style in Lieder. Treating the piano part as more than just a simple chordal accompaniment, he …

Kevin Volans' She Who Sleeps Witha Small Blanket: An Examination Of The Intentions, Reactions, Musical Influences, And Idiomatic Implications, Peter D. Breithaupt

Masters Theses

Using and expanding upon a theoretical model for examining the meaning of music presented by ethnomusicologist Timothy Taylor, one of the leading scholars on composer Kevin Volans and his music, this research will attempt to properly position Volans' percussion solo, She Who Sleeps witha Small Blanket, composed in 1985, within Volans' African Paraphrase classification. It will also attempt to dissociate She Who Sleeps from the claims of hegemonic cultural appropriation that are attached to Volans' African Paraphrase pieces. In his model, Taylor talks about the "inseparable metatext" that surrounds a piece of music and includes the composer's intentions, the listener's …

Metrical Theory And Verdi's Midcentury Operas, William Rothstein

Publications and Research

Both historical and recent theories of meter have tended to assume that meter is a single phenomenon, definable in a single (though perhaps complex) way. Most U.S. theories of meter have been based on a limited repertoire: instrumental music by German composers. Examination of Verdi's mid-century operas, from Macbeth through La traviata (1846–53), suggests that different theoretical approaches may be appropriate for different repertoires. National traditions of composition, depending often on national poetic traditions, may require different ways of hearing and counting, and thus different ways of modeling meter. The metrical theories of Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff, David Temperley, …

Learning Mechanisms For Acquiring Knowledge Of Tonality In Music, Rikka Quam, Matthew Rosenthal, Erin Hannon

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Most people think that musical knowledge is exclusive to trained musicians. Actually, casual music listeners have implicit knowledge of important structural aspects of music, such as tonality. Tonality contributes to the feeling of anticipation one would experience when hearing someone sing “do re mi faso la ti” without singing the final “do”. Knowledge of tonality may be learned through the statistics of music (Krumhansl, 1990). However, learning mechanisms have rarely been investigated experimentally (Creel et al., 2002). Artificial grammar learning experiments have shown that listeners can acquire highly structured knowledge such as syllable co-occurrence and language syntax through passive exposure. …

Solo Performance, Dana Wilson’S Liquid Ebony For Clarinet And Band, Bsu Symphonic Winds, Leslie Moreau

Leslie M. Moreau

No abstract provided.

The Form Of The Preludes To Bach's Unaccompanied Cello Suites, Daniel E. Prindle

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

This thesis proposes a methodology for understanding the form of a Baroque prelude, particularly the preludes to the Six Suites for Unaccompanied Violoncello written by Johann Sebastian Bach. Four musical dimensions, tonal structure, motive, texture, and the potential implications of a piece’s genre, parse the preludes in different ways. As the features of these musical dimensions undergo either an evolution or a dramatic change over the course of each prelude, they each suggest a different form. Points of change in each dimension delineate segments in the music. When aligned, these changes create significant formal junctures and suggest an overall form …

The Structure And Genesis Of Copland's Quiet City, Stanley V. Kleppinger

Faculty Publications: School of Music

Aaron Copland’s Quiet City (1940), a one-movement work for trumpet, cor anglais, and strings, derives from incidental music the composer wrote for an unsuccessful and now forgotten Irwin Shaw play. This essay explores in detail the pitch structure of the concert work, suggesting dramatic parallels between the music and Shaw’s play.

The opening of the piece hinges on an anhemitonic pentatonic collection, which becomes the source of significant pitch centres for the whole composition, in that the most prominent pitch classes of each section, when taken together, replicate the collection governing the music’s first and last bars. Both this principle …

The Influence And Application Of Eastern Philosophy In The Western Musical Tradition, Matt B. Zavortink

Summer Research

This paper documents my summer research on the philosophy of music. Specifically, my research focused on the connection between the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and the composer Richard Wagner, as is evident in the opera Tristan und Isolde. I composed a piece of music for the University of Puget Sound Wind Ensemble attempting to utilize both a more Eastern approach to Schopenhauer's philosophy, relative to Wagner's interpretation, and to incorporate 20th century developments in musical technique, theory and language.

From Modality To Tonality: The Reformulation Of Harmony And Structure In Seventeenth-Century Music, Lukas Perry

Summer Research

The syntax of common practice tonality creates the potential for expansive musical works, with almost guaranteed gratification for the listener through a harmonic interplay between tension and resolution. The evolution of common practice tonality from the older system of modes spans the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With a focus on the seventeenth century, this study endeavors to clarify how, when, and, to some extent, why the monumental shift between modality and tonality occurred. A discussion of crucial differences between the two systems of musical organization—mainly the melodic basis of the modes versus the harmonic basis of the tonal major and …

Music Theory Pedagogy Bibliography, Mary Wennerstrom

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Volume 25, Various Authors

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

No abstract provided.