Musicology Commons^™

Orchestra Machines, Old And New, Jonathan De Souza

Jonathan De Souza

Foreword And Front Matter, Nota Bene Editors-In-Chief

Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology

No abstract provided.

Discriminating Ears: Critical Receptions Of Blackness In The Music Of George Gershwin And William Grant Still, Hannah Edgar

Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology

At the apex of their careers, composers George Gershwin and William Grant Still produced what they believed were their finest works: respectively, Porgy and Bess (1935), an opera by a white American composer about African American subjects, and Troubled Island (1949), an opera by an African American composer about Haitian subjects. However, both works fared poorly upon their premiere, with critics decrying Porgy and Bess and Troubled Island as “unoperatic.” Besides providing historical context to both operas, this paper argues that the critical rhetoric surrounding them was tinged by racialized notions of what musical “blackness” sounded like, or should sound ...

Cover Songs And Tradition: A Case Study Of Symphonic Metal, Benjamin Hillier

Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology

This paper examines the role of cover songs in the continuation of tradition, and in the formation of a musical canon. It explores the connections between ‘classical’ and heavy metal music as expressed by musicians of said genres, specifically those who partake in both. Furthermore, I argue that the practice of covering works from the Western art music canon in the metal genre, evinces the consequent development of the symphonic metal sub-genre. An embedded investigation attests to Western art music having inspired numerous metal musicians, who have in turn covered said music as a means to show their respect for ...

A Mythic Heroine In Der Rosenkavalier , Bridget Ramzy

Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology

This paper explores the Allomatische—Strauss and Hofmannsthal's concept of transformation by means of taking risk—through its application to Der Rosenkavalier's Marie-Therese (the Marschallin). The Allomatische’s very apparent presence throughout Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s collaborations in their “mythic” operas, urges its examination in Der Rosenkavlier. This paper explores the Marschallin's risk in context of gender, arguing that her self-acceptance as an ageing woman is an exceedingly brave act, that in-turn transforms her. In this paper, a character study of the Marschallin in Act I before the transformation, and after in Act III is presented and ...

Not To Be Born Were Best? A Review Of Henry Zajaczkowski's Article On Tchaikovsky's Hidden Program Within The Pathétique Symphony, Céleste Pagniello

Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s death and final symphony have long been shrouded in mystery. The well-known myth of the symphony’s program suggests that Tchaikovsky left behind a program for his Sixth, to whose existence he hinted throughout his letters and diaries. However, his original program has not been found and divulged after his death. Musicologists have since attempted to reconstruct it from the clues available, although his vague description of it has led to a wide range of speculations. This task is further complicated by the questionable legitimacy of much of the early scholarship surrounding the issue at hand ...

Behind The Bandstand: Jay G. Sims And The Internal Workings Of The Sousa Band, Caitlin D. Mcalister

Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology

From 1919 to 1932 trombonist, Jay G. Sims, served as the personnel manager for the Sousa Band. The Harry Ransom Center at University of Texas at Austin holds Sim's business correspondences which divulge his crucial role in the band’s operations, shedding light on his contributions to the band's success as a touring group. Notwithstanding so, there is relatively little information about him in the existing scholarship on John Philip Sousa and the Sousa Band. This paper explores Sims’ position as personnel manager for the Sousa Band through an examination of his correspondences. There is particular focus on ...

The Horror Queen's English: Elisabeth Lutyens And The Paradoxes Of Twentieth Century British Music, Rebeca Ramos

Music Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to illuminate the paradoxical work of British serialist Elisabeth Lutyens. Musical Englishness in the mid-twentieth century was mainly conceived of as tonal, narrative and folk or folk-inspired. Lutyens was an oddity in the English musical scene as a serialist, but she utilized many of the qualities of traditional Englishness while maintaining a modern, idiomatic sound. Although this combination seems paradoxical, Englishness can be understood in far more inclusive terms than simply tonal, narrative, or folk-like. I begin by defining Englishness as it was perceived and promoted through mainstream music festivals or radio broadcasts from ...

Soundscape Composition: Music As Environmental Activism, Megan A. Reich

Honors Program Theses

Soundscape composition is an emerging genre of experimental music that incorporates sounds from natural environments. While soundscape composers utilize a wide variety of mediums, techniques, and performance contexts, they share a common purpose of encouraging audiences to question and reflect on their relationship to the environment in the age of the “Anthropocene,” enabling listeners to re-connect to the places in which they live through sound. This study asks how soundscape composers use their music as a rhetoric that communicates environmental issues in ways that depart from typical portrayals in mainstream media. Drawing from the works, interviews, and writings of a ...

The Handmaiden Of Gnosis: Music In Esoteric Societies, Justin Andrew Owen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Western esotericism, or the practice of trying to understand divinity through secret initiatic means, exists in several philosophical strains, which mystics through the ages have formalized into systems of teaching. One aspect that appears in many of the traditions is music. Music is a direct language of the consciousness within esoteric traditions because it does not rely on language to express higher concepts. Just as these societies teach truths mainly through symbolism, they use music, since it lends itself to interpretations beyond the connotation-laden nature of words. This dissertation focuses on three major strains of western esotericism: Rosicrucians, Theosophists, and ...

A Story Of Feminine Sacrifice: The Music, Text, And Biographical Connections In Amy Beach's Concert Aria Jephthah's Daughter, Clarissa E. Aaron

Honors Projects

Jephthah’s Daughter (Op. 53), a concert aria for soprano and orchestra written by Amy Beach (1867-1944) in 1903, has long suffered neglect due to the fate of its manuscript and the fate of Beach’s work in general. This investigation seeks to probe how Beach engaged the Biblical subject matter and mid-1800s French text in her setting. I discuss this engagement through stylistic comparison with the musical traits of her other work, translation comparison between the literal meanings of the original poem and Beach’s English rendition, and contextualization of Beach’s setting within the history of how this ...

Evolving Performance Practice Of Debussy's Piano Preludes, Vivian Buchanan

LSU Master's Theses

Between 1910 and 1912 Claude Debussy recorded twelve of his solo piano works for the player piano company Welte-Mignon. Although Debussy frequently instructed his students to play his music exactly as written, his own recordings are rife with artistic liberties and interpretive freedom. Interestingly, many of the interpretive gestures that Debussy employs in these recordings are consistent with playing techniques utilized by French Baroque keyboardists. This paper will situate Debussy’s own performance in this Baroque playing style. I will first discuss the recording technology used by Welte-Mignon to establish the reliability of these recordings. By studying harpsichord manuals, I ...

Bali’S “Forgotten Stepchild”: The Cultural And Sonic Vitality Of The Balinese Rebab, Mikaela Marget

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The rebab is one of the only traditional stringed instruments found on the island of Bali, Indonesia. Though it is ever-present in musical ensembles in Bali, the rebab has been consistently overlooked in scholarship of Balinese music by Western ethnomusicologists. Through participant observation, personal interviews, and library research, I explore the idea that the rebab deserves a place in the scholarship of Balinese music. In addition, I argue that the Balinese rebab not only persists in Balinese music culture as a vital object, but that it is also an active participant in shaping Balinese music culture. In this paper, I ...

Sounds Of The Singing Revolution: Alo Mattiisen, Popular Music, And The Estonian Independence Movement, 1987-1991, Allison Brooks-Conrad

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Estonian identity, history, and music are deeply intertwined. In the late 20^th century, when faced with Soviet domination, Estonians relied on music to carry their message as part of their independence movement, which was eventually referred to as the Singing Revolution. Composer Alo Mattiisen emerged as one of the most influential members of the Estonian music scene in the 1980s, not only by defining Estonian popular music as political and activist, but also by developing experimental reinterpretations of larger Western popular music traditions. We can view Alo Mattiisen’s contributions to the Estonian music scene of the 1980s as ...

Electronics And The Music Of Miles Davis, Darren E. Shekailo

School of Arts & Sciences Theses

Miles Davis produced a wealth of music relying on the use of electronic instruments and new technology. With their adoption, the famous trumpeter began his “electric” period. Examining the electric period of Davis’s career helps us trace the profound impact of electronic instruments and technological advances on his music.

The Composer, The Musicologist, His Wife, And Her Lover: On Lacan’S Relevance To Music, Thomas Reiner

Directions of New Music

This paper asks what it is to write about music. When we ask students or colleagues to write about music are we asking them to describe music structurally, or to cope with music’s ever-shifting signifieds? The paper attempts to answer this question by clarifying the relationship between composition, musicology, and music “itself” by way of a Lacanian reading of Peter Greenaway's film The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. Lacan’s existential concepts of the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real are first introduced in relation to music with reference to music by Hans Werner Henze ...

"Lehadlik": Radical Jewish Music, Gender And Disidentification In Aviva Endean’S Work, Shoshana Rosenberg

Directions of New Music

This paper undertakes a hermeneutic analysis of Aviva Endean’s “Lehadlik”, exploring the complex relationship between the player, a Jewish woman living in Australia, and traditional Jewish culture and rituals. This analysis connects Endean’s work to the larger body of Radical Jewish Music, a movement which seeks to diversify and expand the meaning of contemporary Jewish music beyond the confines of Klezmer and religious hymns. The analysis includes an exploration of the relationship between Endean’s womanhood, Orthodox Jewish traditions, and women’s historical place in Judaism.

Steve Reich's ‘Music For 18 Musicians’ As A Soundscape Composition, Jesse Budel

Directions of New Music

Over the past half century, there has been much research into the acoustic qualities of soundscapes from a variety of perspectives: the humanities and social sciences as per the ‘acoustic ecology’ movement (established by Schafer, Truax, and Westerkamp et al.), and more recently the environmental science and ecology as per ‘soundscape ecology’ (established by Farina, Pijanowski, and Krause, et al.). Collectively, these disciplines provide diverse methods for engagement with analysis of acoustic environments. Simultaneous to the rise of the acoustic ecology movement in the 1970s (marked by the publication of Schafer’s ‘The Tuning of the World (1974)), the composition ...

Homenajes: Finding Spanish Identity In Falla's Orchestral Suite, Leanny Munoz

LSU Master's Theses

Using biographical criticism, this thesis examines Manuel de Falla’s Homenajes (1939) as a reflection of the composer’s views of Spanish identity on regional, national, and international levels. Falla completed Homenajes—a four-movement orchestral suite dedicated to Enrique Fernández Arbós, Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, and Felipe Pedrell—in Argentina. He began the work in Spain in 1938, during a period of great personal and political disturbance. In 1939, Manuel de Falla left Spain following the end of the Spanish Civil War, which cemented the regime of Francisco Franco. The Francoist regime notoriously aimed to homogenize Spanishness within the country ...

Resources And Exercises For Expanding Your Approaches In Teaching The Bach Cello Suites To The High School Violist, Dragana Loncar

Strings Graduate Theses & Dissertations

This paper is a useful resource for teaching Bach’s cello suites to young violists age 13-18. The first part contains background information on the six suites and suggested uses of the four manuscripts in teaching. Seven excerpts, four copies and three published editions of the first eight measures of the Sarabande from Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007 are included as an example of the different edition markings that the teacher/student can refer to. The second part explores key affekts and Karen Tuttle’s Emotion list as possible teaching tools for expression. At the end of ...