Digital Commons Network^™

Engaging With The Score: Wadada Leo Smith, Graphic Notation, And The Performer’S Perspective, Kennedy Taylor Dixon

Masters Theses

As a Composer/Performer, my work exists in both realms. This thesis reflects the principle that my experience as a violist influences my compositional process and vice versa. Since identifying under both artistic skill sets, it has become evident that the two areas that exist as a creative and presentational output, thrive off one another’s success.

In June 2019, I had the chance to play Wadada Leo Smith’s String Quartet No. 3: Black Church, The First World Gathering of the Spirit (1995) at the Nief-Norf Summer Festival. This encounter was the first time I interacted with graphically notated scores as a …

Integrating The Latin American Villancico In Baroque Music History Studies, Linssey Ma

Masters Theses

The Baroque Villancico is a popular genre in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula that reflects a history of musical and cultural intersection. Chapel masters composed an extensive work of sacred villancicos to perform in Cathedrals during religious ceremonies and festivities. In the twentieth and twentieth first centuries, the Latin American Baroque villancico has been a growing interest by many musicologists. J. Peter Burkholder, author of the current eighth edition of the Norton Anthology of Western Music and ninth of A History of Western Music, addresses the existence of the villancico which has never been mentioned in previous textbooks. Integrating …

Outcomes Of Music Improvisation Experiences: A Scoping Review, Julia Mccarren

Masters Theses

Music improvisation is a therapeutic music intervention utilized frequently by board-certified music therapists in various clinical settings. While music therapists frequently use music improvisation as a treatment intervention, research on music improvisation outcomes is limited. The purpose of this scoping review is to summarize current knowledge about the outcomes of music improvisation experiences in music therapy and non-music therapy contexts. This review aims to identify and address gaps in the literature to provide suggestions for future research. The findings of this review will inform clinical music therapy methods. To conduct the scoping review, the researcher used the following five-stage framework: …

The Effect Of Synchronous And Asynchronous Music On Heart Rate Variability And Mental State Among Runners, Jeni Gustafson

Masters Theses

The primary purpose of this N-of-1 study was to examine whether running to synchronous, asynchronous, and no music affected the physiological measure of heart rate variability (HRV) and the perceptual measures of rate of perceived exertion (RPE) and experience of flow state while running. In this study, the term synchronous referred to music that is set at a tempo where running pace can synchronize to each beat. The term asynchronous referred to music set at a tempo where it is not possible to synchronize the running pace to each beat. A chest belt that measured heart rate variability via RR …

The Library Of Babel, Jared Tubbs

Masters Theses

The Library of Babel is an installation that allows users to search through a sea of sonic and visual representations of alphabetical symbols and punctuation that are encompassed in an infinite textual library. Users peer through the various walls, shelves, and volumes of the library, searching for whatever they wish - be it meaning, sense within the chaos, or audiovisual euphony. The default sounds for symbols can be replaced by recordings that the user creates on location, allowing the user to provide their own sonic reconstructions of the Library’s contents. The Library of Babel breaks language into its constituent parts, …

Wwisdom In Action, Drew R. Tomasik

Masters Theses

Writing music to score for video games requires an extensive artistic vocabulary, but equally important is an understanding of game development and the technological integration required. This text is an overview and interpretation of a semester’s work in Wwise, a software environment designed specifically for the integration of sound into video games. As Wwise is standard for the industry, facility with it increases marketability to a job candidate wanting a career in game development. The text stands alone to recount the process of learning Wwise from square one, as well as creating a soundtrack for a sample game; that said, …

The Best Is Yet To Come: Approaches To Rhythmic Development, Robert W. Lindsay Ii

Masters Theses

For my Masters of Arts thesis, I recorded a number of songs that I had written between 2015 and 2020 for an album titled “The Best is Yet to Come.” In this adjunct essay, I will analyze four of those pieces to demonstrate my use of rhythmic development; I use rhythmic development extensively in my work in order to generate cohesion between songs. The opening song, “Fresh Vegetables,” demonstrates the rhythmic motive that all other songs develop from. If anyone chooses to learn or analyze my music in the future, this document can be a reference.

Common Ground, Cody Christopher-Park Ray

Masters Theses

Common Ground is a work that explores ideals of unity through the shared awareness of human mortality. I wrote the majority of this work during the COVID-19 pandemic in the fall of 2020. Throughout this period, including the summer leading up to it, political and social tension was felt throughout the country. This sentiment stemmed from the unjust killings of unarmed people of color at the hands of law enforcement, to blatant errors in the way political figures handled the spread of this newfound disease, leading to more than 400k civilians prematurely dead. In experiencing these external pressures, I found …

Compositions For 0 Or 1 Performers, Rodrigo Valente Pascale

Masters Theses

This thesis includes a collection of pieces composed for 0 or 1 performers – unaccompanied solo, solo and electronics or fixed media. The compositions for solo instruments include “Unnest” for bassoon solo, premièred by Ariane Petri during the V Congress of Music and Mathematics in 2020, and “Assemblage” for baritone saxophone solo, premièred by Erin Rogers in 2020. “Reizantwort” is a composition for viola and electronics which was first recorded by Laura Parra in summer 2020. Finally, "Discontinuous Mediation I" and "Discontinuous Mediation II" are fixed media compositions that were composed in Summer 2020 and Spring 2021, respectively. This collection …

The Role Of Music In The Trauma Narrative And “Storytelling”: Perspectives Of Clinicians, Taylorlyn N. Mehnert

Masters Theses

There is a lack of detailed literature describing how music is used for expressing and processing the trauma narrative. This study used a constructivist grounded theory approach through an anti-oppressive lens to explore the ways in which music therapists use music in exploring clients’ stories. The term “story” is used as opposed to “narrative” or “memory” to incorporate a broader definition of expression including non-verbal, musical, metaphorical, or any other method the client chooses. Eight board-certified music therapists (MT-BC) were interviewed regarding their use of music in the context of clients’ stories. Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis was used …