Digital Commons Network^™

Bohuslav Martinů’S Eight Preludes For Piano H. 181: Style Analysis And Pedagogical Approaches In Piano Performance, Jinkyung Kim

Theses and Dissertations

This treatise delves into Bohuslav Martinů’s Eight Preludes for Piano H. 181, offering a comprehensive exploration of the twentieth-century Czech composer’s life; discussing his compositional significance; analyzing the style of his Eight Preludes using the framework of Sound, Harmony, Melody, Rhythm, and Growth (SHMRG); and suggesting pedagogical approaches for advanced piano learners. The study examines Martinů’s life and the socio-cultural influences that shaped his artistic language. His compositional journey, combining elements of Czech folk music with Parisian influences of impressionism, neoclassicism, and jazz, illustrates his versatility and ingenuity. Through the SHMRG framework by Jan LaRue, the style analysis of Eight …

Creative Insights On The Commissioning, Analysis, And Performance Of Four New Works For Saxophone, Andrew Joseph Hutchens

Theses and Dissertations

This document explores, in detail, four works for saxophone, which the author commissioned. These pieces were performed on the author’s degree recitals prior to the writing of this document. The selected works are At the Seams by Baljinder Singh Sekhon II, Intrepid by Russell Wharton, Unity Synonym by Michael Laurello, and Third Rail / Revelation by Stephen Karukas. This document focuses on the commissioning process, musical performance, and theoretical aspects of these four pieces. Interviews were conducted virtually via Zoom and then transcribed for inclusion in this document. There have been no previous studies that have explored these four works. …

Contemporary Vocal Pedagogy In The Choral Ensemble Rehearsal: A Guide For Secondary Educators, Luke Lee Browder

Theses and Dissertations

The field of contemporary commercial vocal pedagogy is relatively new, with serious academic study primarily taking place over the last twenty-five years. In that time, however, a growing body of research has shown that the function of the vocal mechanism operates in essentially the same manner across classical and contemporary commercial music (CCM) genres, but the application of vocal function is what differentiates classical and CCM singing. Since secondary music educators often represent the only vocal training their students will ever receive, it is helpful for them to know the differences in vocal techniques and how to effectively train singers …

The Impact Of Incorporating Self-Myofascial Release Into Voice Lessons: A Six-Week Study, Benjamin Patrick Stogner

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the integration of Self Myofascial Release (SMR) techniques within voice lessons over six weeks; aiming to alleviate muscular tension, enhance vocal performance, and improve singers' overall well-being. The study employed a qualitative pre-test/post-test design. The data collected indicates that while SMR offers significant benefits, it is impractical to incorporate a comprehensive routine into applied lessons. However, using SMR techniques in vocal warm-up routines, and encouraging the student to use SMR techniques on their own, yielded promising results. Consistent SMR application led to improved posture, jaw mobility, and overall well-being, with older participants …

The Post-Tonal Evolution Of David Diamond: A Theoretic-Analytical Perspective, William John Ton

Theses and Dissertations

David Leo Diamond (1915–2005) was a prolific and highly esteemed American composer whose works were premiered by such notable conductors as Dimitri Mitropoulos, Eugene Ormandy, Serge Koussevitzky, Leonard Bernstein, and Gerard Schwarz. In addition to his significant output and a large circle of famous friends and professional acquaintances, his sphere of influence also included his tenure as professor of composition at the Juilliard School where he worked from 1973 until 1997. His impressive roster of students includes distinguished composers such as Lowell Liebermann, Eric Whitacre, and Vivian Fung. Despite his stature as a composer, however, there is a surprising lack …

Injury Prevention Exercise Guidelines For Flutists, Ziqing Guan

Theses and Dissertations

Playing-related musculoskeletal disorders (PRMDs) have long been a common topic among performing musicians. There are studies of PRMDs specific to flutists, but not much detailed guidance of playing-related injury prevention has been provided. As increasing numbers of students have taken up the flute in recent years, PRMDs in flutists have become more of a concern. However, large numbers of flutists are still lacking education on prevention of PRMDs. The purpose of this document is to help flutists better understand the major muscle groups that we use in playing the flute, how these muscles are affected by flute-playing, and to introduce …

Comprehensive Method For Clarinet Latin American Music Heritage Case Study – Venezuela, Carmen Teresa Borregales

Theses and Dissertations

Latin American music and music-making have much to offer in their performance traditions and richness of genres, which demand technical proficiency and musicianship. In particular, some contemporary new music for clarinet carries traditional elements, including rhythmic patterns, accentuation, articulation, harmonic progressions, and instrumentation, among others. This study proposes an innovative approach to technical practice and skill development for clarinet, based on twelve etudes for clarinet, commissioned from twelve outstanding Venezuelan composers who explore Venezuelan traditional music genres. The results represent a comprehensive method for clarinet, appropriate for advanced-level players, and its application to pedagogical and performance practices.

Luis Abraham Delgadillo: A Rediscovery Of His Piano Music, Fanarelia Auxiliadora Guerrero López

Theses and Dissertations

Luis Abraham Delgadillo (1884–1961) is one of the most representative Nicaraguan musicians from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Works such as his Sinfonía Indígena (Indigenous Symphony), Suite Teotihuacán (Teotihuacán Suite), and Sinfonía Incaica(Incaic Symphony) positioned him as one of the most important composers and pianists from Latin America. He had great success during his career as a composer and toured North America and South America extensively during the 1930s and 1940s. During these visits, he had many of his works performed, and met other influential composers and musicians such as Carlos Chavez, Amadeo Roldán, Aaron Copland, Arthur …

“Everything Old Is New Again”: The Rise Of Interpolation In Popular Music, Grayson M. Saylor

Theses and Dissertations

With hip-hop becoming the number one genre in the United States, many artists working outside of the hip-hop genre are trying to emulate the success of hip-hop artists by incorporating compositional techniques of hip-hop into their own music. One of the most common hip-hop techniques adopted by artists working in other genres is sampling. However, with copyright rules and regulations becoming more strictly enforced, artists are finding creative ways to emulate sampling styles, while trying to avoid copyright concerns, including interpolation. Through the technique of interpolation, by reperforming aspects of the original song, artists are able to quote and reference …

A Holistic Approach For Neurodivergent Learners In The High School Choral Classroom, Peter Allen Haley

Theses and Dissertations

There is a wealth of literature in the fields of music education, music therapy, and psychology regarding neurodivergent people, but next to no pedagogical material relating to large-group practices, particularly within the choral rehearsal. Many, if not most high school choir directors will encounter neurodivergent students in their programs at some point and will likely not know which strategies effectively include their neurodivergent learners in their classrooms. This paper includes a survey of existing research and literature related to music education (particularly secondary choral music education) and Universal Design for Learning, and offers rehearsal techniques, classroom management strategies, and repertoire …

How Do They Do It: A Narrative Of Disabled Public School Instrumental Ensemble Conductors And Their Positive Working Relationships With Their Administrators, Lia Alexandria Patterson Snead

Theses and Dissertations

As the leader of the instrumental ensemble, the conductor’s role is important on and off the stage. Public school conductors have especially demanding jobs because they must act as a conduit between composer and ensemble as well as handle all administrative duties pertaining to running a music program. Subsequently, this results in a heavier workload than the average teacher. The demanding workload can add to any preexisting issues for disabled ensemble conductors who struggle at work due to insufficient support from their administrators. The lack of strong administrative support for disabled or impaired faculty and staff may be due to …

Appalachian Dreams: Traditional Folk Songs In Concert Literature For Classical Guitar, Jackson Douglas Roberson

Theses and Dissertations

Transcriptions and arrangements of works for other instruments make up a substantial portion of the concert literature for the classical guitar. Additionally, the classical guitar’s connections with folk music traditions from around the world are undeniable. While much of the folk-inspired repertoire for guitar engages with the musical traditions of Spain and Latin America, this document will examine a work for solo guitar that uses traditional Appalachian folk music as source material: John Duarte’s Appalachian Dreams.

Appalachian folk music is a primarily oral tradition, and documentation of the music did not appear until the late nineteenth century. This project …

Symphony No. V: Elements (Julie Giroux, 2018); An Overview Of Programmatic Elements And Performance Devices, Zackery Augustus Deininger

Theses and Dissertations

Julie Giroux is a multi-faceted composer who has been writing for the wind band since the 1980s. Having composed and arranged over 125 works for wind band, Giroux has dedicated her compositional career to furthering the development of the wind band repertoire while simultaneously working to establish the wind band genre as an area of serious artistic merit. Giroux is in constant demand as a commissioned composer. Her projects are often commissioned by distinguished ensembles, both in the United States and around the world, and many of her pieces receive performances at significant events such as The Midwest Clinic Band …

Fourth-Grade And Fifth-Grade Cover-Band Classes: An Action-Research Project Inspired By Popular Music Education And Music Learning Theory, Julia Turner

Theses and Dissertations

I facilitated “Fourth-Grade and Fifth-Grade Cover-Band Classes,” a popular music education-, informal music learning-, and music learning theory-inspired action-research project. The purpose of this action-research project was to examine the facilitation and learning processes used by my students and me when engaged with those music learning approaches and theory. The guiding questions for this study included: 1) How do I use and adapt principles from modern band (2023), Green (2008; 2014), and Gordon (2012; 2013) to prepare my facilitation of a popular music project for my fourth-grade and fifth-grade students? and 2) How do my fourth-grade and fifth-grade students engage …

A Conductor’S Guide To Lucrecia Roces Kasilag’S Misang Pilipino (1965), Denise Ysabel Ellis

Theses and Dissertations

Composer Lucrecia Roces Kasilag (1918-2008) is a National Artist for the Philippines and a UNESCO International Artist of the World. Though she has many more accolades and triumphs to note, both national and international, Kasilag is not well known outside of her native Philippines. One factor that obscures this composer from the world is that much of her work is unpublished, as are other historical Filipino composers’ works.

Kasilag composed her first Misang Pilipino in 1965 to commemorate the 400^th year of Christianization in the Philippines, but multiple editions of the work were written and used for different occasions. …

The Film Score Music Of John Williams: A Guide To Selected Works For The Principal Percussionist, Andrew Charles Crozier Patzig

Theses and Dissertations

John Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. As one of the most well-known, awarded, and financially successful composers in US history, Williams has scored some of the most iconic films of all time. Of note, he has scored more than one hundred films, many of which were directed by Steven Spielberg.

This study explores Williams’ writing for pitched and non-pitched percussion, particularly in his scores for E.T the Extra-Terrestrial, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Hook, The Cowboys Overture, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

John Williams’ film music is often scored for an extensive inventory of percussion …

An Investigative Analysis Of Fernando Sor’S Introduction And Variations On “O Cara Armonia” From Mozart’S The Magic Flute, Luke James Nolan

Theses and Dissertations

Fernando Sor provides directions for fingering his Introduction and Variations on “O Cara Armonia” in the specific beaming and notation of the work. Although there are numerous publications of Sor’s Op. 9, most fail to provide elegant fingerings for his difficult passages. In these editions, the editor either failed to understand Sor’s intentions rendered in the notation, or disregarded Sor’s technical practices in favor of modern technical practices. Both avenues will lead to a disastrous reproduction of the work. While the piece may offer a challenge for the guitarist, the technical difficulties of Sor’s Op. 9 should not be readily …

A Comparative Analysis Of Samuel Barber’S Third Essay For Orchestra, Op. 47, David Abrams Gordon

Theses and Dissertations

Samuel Barber (1910–1981) was an American composer who lived and worked during the twentieth-century. His list of works includes forty-eight published pieces that span virtually every major genre of western art music. One of Barber’s most unique contributions is the invention of a new orchestral genre: the essay for orchestra. Borrowing the term from literature, Barber is credited with composing the first musical essays. Today, musical essays are understood to be single-movement instrumental works that are non-programmatic in nature.

Barber composed three essays for orchestra during his lifetime. His First Essay, Op. 12, was composed in 1937; his Second …

An Analysis Of Selected Vocal Works By George Walker, Ginger Sharnell Jones-Robinson

Theses and Dissertations

George Theophilus Walker (1922–2018), a prolific composer, pianist, and educator, was born on June 27, 1922, in Washington, D.C. He received degrees in music from Oberlin College, Curtis Institute of Music, and Eastman School of Music. His faculty appointments included Dillard University, Smith College, the University of Colorado, the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and Rutgers University.

In 1998, Walker received a Letter of Distinction from the American Music Center for his significant contributions to the field of contemporary American music, and in 1999 he was elected to the Academy of Arts and Letters. Perhaps most significantly, Walker holds …

A Pedagogical And Analytical Study Of The Carnatic Saxophone Performance Tradition Of Kadri Gopalnath, Caleb James Carpenter

Theses and Dissertations

Kadri Gopalnath is a musician who achieved an exceptional level of mastery in the Carnatic musical tradition of South India, and he accomplished this playing the saxophone, a uniquely Western instrument. He was the first person to fully integrate the saxophone to the Carnatic style and was held in high esteem as a classical Indian musician. This document examines the Carnatic tradition, Kadri Gopalnath’s life and work, and the modifications he made to the saxophone. Selected analyses of his performances are reviewed in the context of Carnatic pedagogy, and the significance of learning this tradition for the musicianship of a …

The Theory Of Intonation: Boris Asafiev And The Russian Piano School Tradition, Polina Golubkova

Theses and Dissertations

Boris Asafiev was one of the leading musicologists whose Theory of Intonation is a philosophical and aesthetic study that comprehensively explains the historical and theoretical aspects of musical art. The Theory of Intonation is the methodological basis for music disciplines in Russia, including piano pedagogy. The purpose of this study is to create a source that explains Asafiev’s philosophical and aesthetic vision of the concept of intonation and to show how it can be applied to piano pedagogy. This study is also intended to translate and codify the Theory of Intonation and to provide examples of its implementation in any …

Timeless Light: A Singer’S Compendium Of Art Songs For Tenor By Black Composers, Johnnie J. Felder

Theses and Dissertations

This compendium of Black art songs is intended to serve as both a resource and reference for teachers of singing and performers who desire to assign or program reputable, contemporary art song literature by lesser-known, marginalized composers of the African Diaspora. The American academic structure needs a compendium of African American Art Songs, specifically for the tenor fach, that will provide biographical information, composers’ names, publishing details, and exact locations as to where to retrieve these worthy gems that are still too often excluded from the academic and classical canon. Comprised of more than 331 songs, this document is sure …

Analysis Of Selected Pieces Influenced By Taiwanese Aboriginal Music For Solo Violin And String Quartet, Isabel Hsin-Yi Ong

Theses and Dissertations

This is an analysis of three pieces that contribute to solo violin and string quartet repertoire through the lens of intervallic relationships, rhythmic and gestural motifs, and instrumental technique. Briefly delving into the Aboriginal history of Taiwan and illuminating aural concepts inherent within each tribe, the research blends musicological research, theoretical analysis, and intuitive performance-based interpretations to meld and expand the technical and musical possibilities of the violin with the essence and impact of these songs.

An Analysis Of The Compositional Technique And Structures Of Nikolai Kapustin’S Piano Sonata No. 6, Opus 62, Hyun Jung Im

Theses and Dissertations

The subject of this study is the Russian composer and pianist Nikolai Kapustin and an analysis of his Piano Sonata No. 6, Opus 62. Kapustin’s musical output includes 161 opus numbers, and the works are mainly in a hybrid style combining jazz and traditional Western music. The composition style of Kapustin is to take a jazz approach to harmony and rhythm within traditional forms. The uniqueness and creativity of Kapustin’s music led to its growing popularity, and this has been evident in several ways, including increased performances, recordings, and publications. Based on this fusion of jazz and traditional Western music, …

A Performance Guide To “Four Piano Pieces, Opus 1” By Evgeny Kissin, Andrew Choi

Theses and Dissertations

This document provides a performance guide to Evgeny Kissin’s Four Piano Pieces, Opus 1. Although more musicians are becoming familiar with his compositions, there are no comprehensive scholarly resources available about this work. This document aims to provide that needed resource.

Evgeny Igorevich Kissin (b.1971) is a Russian-born internationally acclaimed pianist. He achieved stardom with a performance featuring the two piano concerti by Frederic Chopin in 1984. The event was recorded live and released as an album by RCA Victor. Since then, he has been in constant demand all over the world. Although he mainly performs, he occasionally composes as …

A Performance Guide To Hyo-Geun Kim’S Art Pop For Korean Art Songs, Taeyoung Seon

Theses and Dissertations

This document contains information about instructions regarding singing with Korean diction for Korean Art songs by a gifted Korean composer, Kyo-geun Kim. He is now a Professor of Business at Ewha Women’s University in the Republic of Korea. The writer offers a brief biography of Kim as a composer and a scholar of music and business. This document will help anyone who would like to learn Korean diction for singing Korean Art Song, particularly, Hyo-geun’s Art Pop Art Songs such as Snow, A Thousand Winds, and What Though Life Conspires to Cheat You. The works are termed ART POP, it …

Adapting North American Fiddle Bow Technique To The Double Bass, Spencer Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

Because of the pioneering work of Edgar Meyer in expanding the role of the double bass in American folk music, many bassists are inspired to engage with fiddle music in the way fiddlers do. Thus, bassists who perform in fiddle and string band traditions may seek greater artistic freedom and expression by shifting between a variety of accompanying textures to playing melody and improvised bowed solos.

In seeking to discover how bassists successfully adapt fiddle bowing techniques to the double bass, I have interviewed two bassists who are deeply involved in Americana music traditions, Paul Kowert and Ethan Jodziewicz. From …

Examining Sixth-Grade Students’ Music Agency Through Rhythm Composition, Robert Zagaroli Spearman

Theses and Dissertations

Music agency refers to ones ability to have control over their musical actions and musical ideas. With the intent of examining music agency, the purpose of this action research study was to observe and investigate my sixth-grade students’ rhythm composition processes. The guiding research questions, regarding their music composition processes, were: (a) What did students think about making choices, and (b) How do students describe making choices?

I utilized purposive sampling that comprised the 2021-2022 St. Peter’s Catholic Elementary School sixth-grade students. I led my students through music composition activities in the role of their teacher during nine 45-minute classes. …

Broadway Quodlibets As Hybrid Music, Spencer Ann Martin

Theses and Dissertations

Quodlibets are an important facet of the language of musical theater and exhibit musical hybridity, mixing two or more musical elements. Bruno Alcalde’s framework of musical hybridity—including mixture strategies of clash, coexistence, distortion, and trajectory—provides a framework for the analysis, revealing more about the music itself and how the music contributes to the dramatic narrative of each musical scene. Examples of Broadway quodlibets illustrate the relevant mixture strategies; “Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You” from The Music Man, “An Old-Fashioned Wedding” from Annie Get Your Gun, “All For the Best” from Gospell, “I Still Believe” from Miss …

Social Music Interactions And Vocal Music Improvisations In A Serve And Return Music Community, Kathleen Kaye Arrasmith

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examined how kindergarten students and a music teacher engaged in social music interactions and displayed music characteristics during harmonic improvisation activities. The purpose of this study was (a) to describe social music interactions between kindergarten students and a music teacher and (b) to categorize and to describe kindergarten students’ and a music teacher’s vocal music improvisations during harmonic improvisation activities. The guiding research questions were (a) RQ1: How did kindergarten students and a music teacher engage in social music interactions during harmonic improvisation activities?, (b) RQ2a: What music characteristics did kindergarten students and a music teacher …