Digital Commons Network^™

The Effect Of Musical Training On Second Language Grammar Acquisition, Deven Joseph Hunsaker

Theses and Dissertations

Music's effect on non-musical domains has been an area of intense research. Musical training has been shown to positively affect the processing of phonology, lexical tone, and syntax. While music also has positive effects in second language phonology acquisition, its effect on grammar acquisition is contested. This thesis aimed to study the under-researched topic of music and second language grammar acquisition using electroencephalography (EEG), thereby studying the electrical responses of the brain. Beginning level Spanish students were trained on a new grammatical principle prior to performing a grammaticality judgment task, and their behavioral and neural results were analyzed. Those students …

El Futuro Ya Está Aquí: A Comparative Analysis Of Punk In Spain And Mexico, Rex Richard Wilkins

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the punk genre's evolution into commercial mainstream music in Spain and Mexico. It looks at how this evolution altered both the aesthetic and gesture of the genre. This evolution can be seen by examining four bands that followed similar musical and commercial trajectories. In Spain, Kaka de Luxe and Radio Futura; in Mexico, Size and Ritmo Peligroso. Since punk music's gesture is both visceral and political, various methods of suppressing or containing the punk gesture arise. For both Spain and Mexico, containing the punk gesture was a matter of government censorship in the early years of punk. …

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall: An Experimental Study Examining The Relationship Between Music Lyrics And Body Satisfaction In Emerging Adult Women, Emilie Jill Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade, there has been an increase in academic research on media and its influences on body satisfaction. To date, the majority of body image literature focuses on low body satisfaction. While low body satisfaction leads to negative outcomes, high body satisfaction leads to a host of positive outcomes. Further, in a non-academic domain, it would seem that even some media icons are starting to take part in the effort to try to promote positive appearance messages. Singers like Christina Aguilera, Colbie Caillat, and Alessia Cara have begun writing songs like Beautiful, Try, and Scars To …

Developmental Changes In Response To Music-Evoked Emotion Among Children And Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Kevin G. Stephenson

Theses and Dissertations

Significant symptoms of anxiety in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may arise due to impaired emotion recognition. In light of reports showing ASD-specific developmental changes in amygdala volumes, we expanded a previous study of recognition of music-evoked emotions in ASD versus typical controls (CON). We explicitly compared both behavioral and psychophysiological response to music-evoked emotions of children (ages 8-11) and older adolescents (ages 16-18). A total of 91 participants (42 ASD) listened to segments of instrumental music that had been previously validated to evoke happy, sad, or scary emotional valence. We measured accuracy and reaction time while also …

Distraction, Enjoyment, And Motivation During An Indoor Cycling Unit Of High School Physical Education, Kelsey Higginson

Theses and Dissertations

With the increased rate of overweight and obese youth in the United States many people began looking for ways to increase youth exercise quality and habits; one such way was by using an external distraction during exercise to increase personal motives toward exercise. This study involved 81 high school aged students enrolled in a required physical education class. Students rode an indoor cycling bike for 20 minutes while wearing a heart rate monitor. They were told to maintain a heart rate between their 70 and 79% maximum heart rate. Every 5 minutes students were asked to rate how hard they …

“One More Drinkin’ Song”: A Longitudinal Content Analysis Of Country Music Lyrics Between The Years 1994 And 2013, Keith Mckay Evans

Theses and Dissertations

The lyrical content of pop music has rarely been studied, particularly for country music. The lyrics of the top 50 country songs for each year between 1994 and 2013 were coded for violent, sexual and substance use-related content. Violence had increased, as had sexual references, substance use, and substance use associated with sexual activity. Of particular note is the frequency of references to alcohol; 21% of the 1,000-song sampling frame contained alcoholic references, and the average for the final five-year period (2009-2013) was 1.01 references per song. This research should serve as a springboard into further studies about the lyrical …

The Effects Of Music On Physical Activity Rates Of Junior High Physical Education Students, Lindsey Kaye Benham

Theses and Dissertations

Music is used and can be found in everyday life and throughout society. With many studies pointing towards music being a motivating stimulus for exercise, it is plausible that music would positively affect the physical activity rates of junior high school students in physical education classes. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of popular music on physical activity rates, via pedometry, and enjoyment levels of junior high physical education students. There were 305 junior high physical education students that participated in the study with 151 being male and 154 being female. This was a quasi-experimental …

Devastating Diva: Pauline Viardot And Rewriting The Image Of Women In Nineteenth-Century French Opera Culture, Rebecca Bennett Fairbank

Theses and Dissertations

Historically vilified, the vocalizing woman developed a stereotyped image with the emergence of the prima donna in eighteenth-century opera. By the nineteenth century, the prima donna became the focal point for socio-cultural polemics: women sought financial and social independence through a career on the operatic stage while society attempted to maintain through various means the socio-cultural stability now threatened by women's mobility. The prima donna represented both a positive ideal for women as well as a great threat to western patriarchy. A discourse emerged in which the symbol of female independence and success ”the prima donna" became the site of …

An Empirical Study On The Effects Of Music And Sound Effects In Fiction E-Books, Alissa Eugenia Strong

Theses and Dissertations

Research indicates that music has a unique and powerful ability to affect how listeners react to a story (Schaefer, 1998). Publishing houses are increasingly incorporating music and other multimedia effects into their products, with companies such as Booktrack now including novel-length soundtracks with e-books. The present study aimed to empirically investigate the relationship between music and text by examining whether readers' enjoyment of and distraction from a fiction e-book is affected by the inclusion of music or sound effects. One hundred and twenty undergraduate students at Brigham Young University completed an e-book reading task (either accompanied by sound effects, music, …

Gesamtkunstwerk And Other Trifles: Poems, Derk A. Olthof

Theses and Dissertations

In all their various categories, the arts serve as the dominant subject matter of Gesamtkunstwerk and Other Trifles. The title itself begins with a German word-meld—gesamt (total) + kunstwerk (work of art). Thus a primary aim of these poems is to bring as many elements of art together as possible and to use their various forms (self-portraits, nocturnes, odes, etc.) as metaphorical frameworks that inform abstractions such as regret ("How to Draw Regret"), psychological disorders ("Insomnia Nocturnes") and confusion in how one should feel about living realities as opposed to inanimate objects ("Dead Starling"). Most of the poems …

Musical Query-By-Content Using Self-Organizing Maps, Kyle B. Dickerson

Theses and Dissertations

The ever-increasing density of computer storage devices has allowed the average user to store enormous quantities of multimedia content, and a large amount of this content is usually music. Current search techniques for musical content rely on meta-data tags which describe artist, album, year, genre, etc. Query-by-content systems, however, allow users to search based upon the actual acoustical content of the songs. Recent systems have mainly depended upon textual representations of the queries and targets in order to apply common string-matching algorithms and are often confined to a single query style (e.g., humming). These methods also lose much of the …

Music And The Modern Maya: A Reception Study Of Rock-Maya Music In Guatemala, Malcolm Miguel Botto

Theses and Dissertations

The current global flows of people, capital, technology, images and ideas--a phenomenon described as "mediascapes" by Arjun Appadurai (1996), traverse the most isolated Maya communities in Guatemala. These flows have recently influenced the creation of hybrid media products among the Maya. Among them we find an emerging indigenous musical genre called "Rock-Maya." I use reception analysis methods to document the encoding and decoding of this new indigenous medium of communication. Through qualitative interviews I attempt to show how K'iche'-Maya youth appropriate, what Motti Regev (1997) calls, the rock aesthetic to promote a sense of K'iche'-Maya youth identity in a modern …

Objective Test Methods For Waveguide Audio Synthesis, Steven Gregory Wood

Theses and Dissertations

Acoustic Physical Modeling has emerged as a newer musical synthesis technique. The most common form of physical modeling synthesis in both industry and academia is digital waveguide synthesis. Commercially available for the past thirteen years, the top synthesizer manufacturers have chosen to include physical modeling synthesis in their top of the line models. In the area of audio quality testing, the most common tests have traditionally been group listening tests. While these tests are subjective and can be expensive and time-consuming, the results are validated by the groups' proper quality standards. Research has been conducted to evaluate objective testing procedures …

Help!: An Annotated Bibliography Of Resources For The Beginning Choral Conductor, Bonnie Marie Ashby

Theses and Dissertations

This bibliography is intended as a resource for choral conductors at the beginning of their journey of musical and personal development. While this project cannot possibly cover every aspect of or resource on choral music, it is a beginning. I admit I have spent more time researching my personal weaknesses and have not covered as thoroughly areas in which the choral conducting program at Brigham Young University is exceptionally strong. Even so, I hope this compilation will help address common challenges of beginning choral conductors.

The bibliography is divided into sections by topic, with additional sections on Internet sites and …

Design And Development Of The Self-Efficacy For Musical Studies Scale, Kathryn Rae Pearson

Theses and Dissertations

Scale development in psychological studies is an area of intense growth (Clark & Watson, 1995). This report builds upon academic interest in the value of producing viable measurement tools. The purpose of this research project was to evaluate a self-efficacy measurement scale intended to determine individual music students' perceptions of capability. The areas of interest were four self-regulatory skill domains: strategy use, planning, monitoring, and evaluating in two music environments: independent practicing and performance.

This report describes the development and analysis of the Self-efficacy for Musical Studies (SEMS) scale. The report includes statistical analysis of the response data from formative …

The Symphony In America: Maurice Abravanel, And The Utah Symphony Orchestra: The Battle For Classical Music, Alex D. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Between 1947 and 1979 the Utah Symphony Orchestra was transformed from an obscure, part-time, amateur orchestra into one of the major symphony orchestras in America. By 1947 the orchestra, which had begun as a Works Progress Administration organization, was barely hanging on. The symphony struggled to remain financially solvent, performing only a few concerts per year. Thirty-two years later the Utah Symphony Orchestra was one of the most prestigious musical ensembles in the country— receiving rave reviews from critics around the world, touring extensively, and with more than a hundred albums to its credit. The remarkable growth of the Utah …

The Sound Of Utah: The Presence Of Geographical Elements In Music Written About The State Of Utah, Kamia Walton Holt

Theses and Dissertations

Music is a by-product of place and time. Musicians have opportunities to use the idea of place in their music. Thus, music has regionally distinctive characteristics which reflect human perceptions of the physical environment. Artists of the past and present focus on geographical themes, and paint a picture of ‘place’ in their music. This thesis focuses on the music of a geographical location: Utah. Musicians wrote of Utah in hymns of the past, and contemporary musicians continue to write music about Utah. This thesis answers the questions: Is music characterized by geography? How have the local musicians been influenced by …

William Claude Clive His Life And Contribution To Music In Utah, David C. Andersen

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence and contribution of William Claude Clive to the musical culture of Utah. In order to determine the measure of his influence and contribution, answers to the following questions were sought: Did William Claude Clive have the necessary training to offer a contribution to the musical culture of Utah? Was his contribution primarily from his performing, composing or teaching? Were Mr. Clive's students instrumental in spreading any contribution offered by him?

Mr. Clive's greatest influence and contribution was in his teaching. He taught hundreds of students the violin, piano and cello. …

An Analytical Study Of The Formal Treatment Of The Cantus Firmus In Thirty Chorale Preludes On Well-Known Hymn Tunes Op. 68, 69, And 70, By Flor Peeters, E. Donnell Blackham

Theses and Dissertations

This study represents an effort to analyze the forms used by Flor Peeters in his Thirty Chorale Preludes on Well-Known Hymn Tunes, op. 68, 69, and 70. Through this analysis it has been found that Flor Peeters has systematically used certain devices in the treatment of the cantus firmus. Furthermore, these devices can be used as a criterion in developing a classification system for the chorale preludes, which logically divide into six groups or types.

The first type includes the chorale preludes in which the composition begins immediately with the first phrase of the chorale melody and continues without interruption …

Pioneer Bands And Orchestras Of Salt Lake City, Martha Tingey Cook

Theses and Dissertations

Early Mormon leaders realized the value of music as an important element in spiritual and recreational activities. Consequently, they encouraged and sponsored musical groups.

Three pioneer bands of Salt Lake City—the Nauvoo Brass Band, Nauvoo Legion Martial Band, and Quadrille Band—had originated during the early 1840's in Nauvoo, Illinois, under the sponsorship of Joseph Smith. They performed at all important civic and social occasions.

George Edward Percy Careless: His Contributions To The Musical Culture Of Utah And The Significance Of His Life And Works, Howard Hoggan Putnam

Theses and Dissertations

Through study of the conditions of the past one is often able to appreciate the present a great deal more. Particularly does this seem true when one looks into the early musical activities in our State of Utah. Most people are aware of the great amount of musical activities existing at the present time in Utah, but many fail to stop and realize the background of work and effort applied to bring these musical experiences before the public. Many fail to realize the pioneering work done by individuals to advance music to its present degree of performance. Names such as …

John Elliott Tullidge: The Influence Of His Life And Works On The Musical Culture Of Utah, Virgil H. Camp

Theses and Dissertations

John Elliott Tullidge was one of a group of early musicians that exerted a considerable influence on the culture of Utah. He was a gentlemen well trained in the musical arts and intensely proud of his profession.

He was born November 5, 1807, a son of Edward and Mary Elliott Tullidge, in Weymouth, Dorsetshire, England. His parents were wealthy and realized the value of an education, and he was given the privilege of studying with the finest teachers of his day. He sang at a very early age in church choirs. Many positions were granted him both as a performer …

Music History Of The Salt Lake Theatre, The Formative Years: 1862-1870, Alfred S. Morris

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to bring to light as much of the music as possible, all the performers that could be recorded, and sufficient audience reaction to indicate the musical preferences of the area in order to provide an accurate, detailed account of the early years in the Salt Lake Theatre, 1862 - 1870. There was also the desire to present these things in such a way that they would be reliable, factual, complete, and still, if possible, interesting. An attempt was made to capture the spirit of the times, to make the characters "live," to transport the …

Eighty Years Of Music In St. George, Utah, 1861-1941, Reed Paul Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study has been to trace the development of music in St. George, Utah from its settlement in 1861 to 1941, an eighty-year period of much change. It has been an attempt, therefore, to show the musical heritage which this city now enjoys.

An Historic Account Of Music Criticism And Music Critics In Utah, Basil Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

My purpose in making a study of music criticism in Utah is to realize a reliable historical account of criticism as expressed by means of journals and the growth of music within the state. This study, it is granted, is not a complete history of music in Utah. It merely treats one phase of a yet unwritten history.

A secondary interest is to defend the assertion that Utah has had music criticism and not to eulogize or deride the music pioneers of the state. It may also impress the need of constructive criticism to insure the stimulus and incentive necessary …