Digital Commons Network^™

A Comparative Study Of The Effects Of Lessons From Music Theory Websites On The Engagement Levels Of Fifth Grade Students, Casey Artis

Masters Theses

The purpose of this correlative research study is to determine if a significant difference exists between fifth grade students learning from musictheory.net and those who learn from 8notes.com. Student engagement and achievement will be measured after they have finished interacting with their assigned music website. The study will explore the relationship between music technology and student engagement and achievement in the music classroom. The results of the study will help music educators add to their list of tools for teaching music with technology and provide them with more data about technologically enhanced student achievement and engagement. It is important for …

Metal/Emo Music And Their Effect On Millennials In The United States, Kevin Mcpherson

Masters Theses

The goal of this paper is to understand the relationship between two related genres and a generation. Both genres have different interpretations, some catharsis, and others self-destruction. Finding modern and historical evidence of a need for sad music revealed a need for music that empathizes with a person’s current state. These genres did have the potential to engage in self-destruction, however, it was found this was due to external factors far more than the cause itself. When music is involved in destructive behavior it gives the individual permission to do so, rather than be the motivator towards it. As art …

Change Through Learning: Observing The Need And Benefits Of A Multicultural Music Education Through Applying Coursework About The Korean And Korean American Musical Diaspora, Austin Eamnarangkool

Masters Theses

Music education is often synonymous with Western Music education, or more specifically, Classical music education. Music theory and analysis surrounding the styles of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven have been central to the pedagogy of a collegiate musical background, while expertise in Carnatic, Gamelan, or African drumming—to name a few—is seen as nonessential. This research project aims to uncover the reasons why (higher) music education is so narrowly focused and provides the skeletal framework for a practical method to begin constructing diverse, holistic curricula. While the overarching goal is to diversify music education in all cultures, the project focuses on the …

Psychochoreography, Nora Bayer

Masters Theses

All architects are spatial choreographers. Every individual subconsciously partakes in a unique choreography when occupying space. This reality is unavoidable. When an architectural site is considered in the urban landscape, there is an existing choreography that’s already in play, thus architects must consider how their project will entwine with the existing composition. There is great responsibility for architects to be mindful of this choreography and to consider, in an incredibly rigorous manner, the way in which bodies will move and feel when existing within their designed space.

I was trained in classical ballet for 15 years. The training was intensive …

An Analysis Of Nonverbal Communication Behaviors Enacted By Christian Worshipers Of Various Denominations, Holly Alexandria Vasiliki Smith

Masters Theses

This study seeks to determine how members of different denominations use nonverbal communication in their worship practices within the Christian faith. Previous studies have looked at specific elements related to music, classified the common behaviors and beliefs of denominations, and provided descriptions of nonverbal communication cues. However, no study has looked at the intersection of these factors. In order to determine how members of different denominations use nonverbal communication in their worship practices, a qualitative data gathering method in the form of an open-ended survey was distributed to 40 participants of a preliminary screening survey, providing 26 responses. Participants were …

The Effects Of Growth Mindset Strategies On The Rhythmic Notation Comprehension And Personal Musical Self-Efficacy Perceptions Of High School Instrumentalists, Frederick Conrad Krieger

Masters Theses

Despite the depth of research in general education and music education teaching methods as well as an implied overlap in these concepts, there is little research directly linking methodology and strategies across these content areas. More specifically, the benefit and implementation of growth-mindset instruction is considered best practice in the general education classroom but is rarely discussed in the context of the performing ensemble. Consistency in educational methods between content areas is critical because it unifies each into a single education process and promotes lifelong learning that will extend into other areas and beyond the classroom. This study will explore …

Horned & Hidden Child: The Minotaur & Modern Opera, Mikeila Ashley Mcqueston

Masters Theses

Picture a world in which stories never die. Just down the street is the Halfway House for the Mythically Challenged, where fairytale creatures learn how to prepare for job-interviews. This is the world of Pasiphae, a beautiful sorceress, queen, and former wife of the ancient King Minos. After millennia on her own, she enlists the help of her Greek Chorus to rescue her children from their respective prisons – first Ariadne from the island Naxos, and now the Minotaur from Daedalus’ labyrinth. Horned & Hidden Child is a contemporary opera with music by Mikeila McQueston and libretto by Nicole Yackley. …

Music Educators As Worship Leaders: The Impact In Music Ministries Led By Music Educators, Patrick Robert Eckelkamp

Masters Theses

Some of the most competent musicians in local communities are the music educators in local school districts. Since the Bible commands us to play skillfully to God, local music teachers may be an excellent resource for churches. Some churches cannot hire a full-time worship pastor from a seminary or Bible college. In these scenarios, a skilled music teacher looking for additional income and sharing convictions with their church may be a great candidate to fill a vacant worship leader role. Since music teachers primarily study classical and orchestral music, there may be challenges for classically trained music educators leading a …

The Impact Of Southern Baptist Worship Ministries On Denominational Effectiveness, Laura S. Brod

Masters Theses

Worship ministries maintain prominent roles in Southern Baptist (SB) churches. Despite ample available literature for today’s church educational methods and congregational discipleship, little study has focused on ways SB music ministries can bolster the spiritual health of congregants. SBs currently experience the consequences of recent scandals alongside dwindling attendance numbers. To address this multifaceted, spiritually rooted issue, this historical qualitative study proposes to discover characteristics and methods of music and worship ministries (WM) and leadership qualities that can best promote spiritual growth within SB churches to strengthen the denomination’s health. To undertake this, the study will explore SB history and …

The Need And Value Of Adding A Gifted Music Curriculum To Education Using Music Technology, Haven K. Clippinger

Masters Theses

Research in music education has increased drastically since its emergence in the 20th century. Philosophers developed detailed music education philosophies, and music education changed in American education. In addition, the 20th century also brought an increased awareness of gifted students in the school system. Musical talent has been considered a gifted quality, yet there appears to be minimal research on gifted students in music classes. Initial research was conducted to examine literature on gifted music. This research served to provide a greater link between music and gifted education by utilizing a music technology curriculum for gifted music students. This project …

Exploring The Pulse Of Design And Music: The Impact Of Visual Rhythm In Design For Auditorily Impaired Music Students, Nina Marie Tedeschi

Masters Theses

Auditorily impaired music students struggle to understand musical rhythms and patterns which can lead to frustration, low self-esteem, lack of developing musical skills, and reduced music appreciation. Often, the needs of those with hearing challenges are overlooked in the curriculum planning process. This research aims to show the importance of providing appropriate learning methods and materials for music students who are hearing impaired. Specifically, this study focuses on the elements of patterns, repetition of patterns, and rhythm within the visual designs used in the instruction of musical elements. The methods used in this research are based upon observation, investigation, and …

The Japanese Church And Cultural Engagement, Sarah Jane Garon

Masters Theses

This thesis addresses the current cultural engagement done by the Japanese church, with particular attention given to music and the arts. Japan has hosted Christian missionaries for over five centuries and yet most of the population do not claim the religion as their own. Much research has been devoted to understanding the history of Christianity in Japan and the relationship between Japanese Christians and non-Christian Japanese culture. However, very little research has been done on the interactions between Japanese Christians and music and art specifically. This thesis, therefore, is dedicated to discovering how Japanese Christians are currently engaging with music …

Engaging Urban Music Students Through Elements Of Rap And Culture, Jasmine Christian Jackson

Masters Theses

Teaching in the urban community requires an undertaking of counseling, constant understanding, and helping advance students’ prior knowledge to provide future comprehension. The goal as an educator is to guide the student along their journey in learning and practicing information that they receive throughout. Giving students the opportunity to see that they are capable of comprehending a subject they never thought they could is the main goal. Teaching the urban community can be a big challenge. The educator must take on learning the specific history of the demographic they instruct, and focus educate themselves on the challenges that the students …

The Decline Of Middle School Music Programs In Major U.S. Inner-City Schools, Kuronde Washington

Masters Theses

This study examines the correlation of music programs in inner-city schools to affluent schools. This thesis will view the impact of socioeconomic status, living environment, retention of teachers, high-accountability testing, and how these factors affect the reduction of secondary music programs in inner-city schools. This research is intended to aid music teachers as well as administrative supporters improve the quality of music education in inner-city schools.

Fungal Chapel, Gabrielle Joy Cerberville

Masters Theses

FUNGAL CHAPEL is an interactive installation exploring the ties between people and place through the deconstructed visual language of Judeo-Christian religious iconography. Comprising five sculptures; BELFRY, OFFERTORY, BAPTISMAL, DOORWAY, and ALTAR, visitors are encouraged to interact on multiple levels of physical touch and consciousness, including pouring water, self-expression through writing, interacting with sonified fungal biodata, meditation, and offering and receiving gifts. Most of the objects in the chapel are “sounding sculptures” hooked up to contact microphones with added effects, and can be manipulated to produce a variety of musical sounds. Through the process of semi-guided ritual as an individual moves …

German And Mexican Music In Central Texas: Historical Connections And Present Possibilities, Amy Aline Beckman

Masters Theses

German and Mexican music have a shared musical ancestry due to immigrants interacting since the late 1800s in central Texas. Comparing these genres reveals both commonalities and distinctions regarding style, orchestration, and thematic material. The differences between the genres create cultural boundaries reflecting nationalism that sometimes reinforces racial tension, while the commonalities are opportunities for empathy and open-mindedness through the globalization that occurs from shared musical experiences. While the historical connections between Germans and Mexicans in Central Texas are well-documented, the present-day status and effects of these connections have not been researched thoroughly. This project builds cultural profiles of both …

Collective Expressions Of Monacan Indian Nation Identity: A Communicative Arts Genre Study, Gretchen E. Casler-Cline

Masters Theses

This study considers the current communicative arts practices of the Monacan Indian Nation, an Indigenous Virginia tribe of approximately 2500 people located in Amherst County, Virginia. Historically the tribe was a large nation that extended from the falls of the James River near Richmond, Virginia to the Southwestern portions of the state near Roanoke and now the Monacan Indian Nation homeland is at Bear Mountain in Amherst County, Virginia. The study was conducted through interviews and observations at tribal events such as the annual Powwow and culture class, as well as consistent attendance and participation as a musician at St. …

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 …

The Pedagogical Value Of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Music In A New Jersey Elementary Music Setting, Eric James Mclaughlin

Masters Theses

Elementary music educators’ analyze and select song repertoire based upon a variety of factors and influences. These can include an educator’s level of training, the preexisting standard song literature collection, resources obtained in undergraduate study, the context of the song material, and a song’s pedagogical application. Educators must be selective when choosing literature for pedagogical purposes, such as teaching specific melodic and rhythmic elements. The vast body of musical literature by renowned theatrical composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is not often used for that purpose in the elementary general music classroom. In addition, a recent national effort calling for the reexamination …

Serving Special Education Students In The Music Classroom: Accommodating And Advocating For Learners With Exceptionalities, Kathryn Lambert

Masters Theses

Music education programs positively impact the lives of students both socially and emotionally. As the following research suggests, music may have an even greater impact on students with disabilities or exceptionalities. Due to the lack of accessibility, funding, time, training, and other issues, opportunities in music education programs may be limited to groups of students who may not fit the standard music education student profile. As teachers of common core classes may struggle to accommodate students with exceptionalities and may feel as if they are lacking in resources or other needed preparation to adequately serve these students, these struggles are …

A Christmas Cantata, Garth Andrew Olson

Masters Theses

The purpose of this worship ministry research project was to research, prepare for, and lead a Christmas cantata presentation for two worship services at First United Methodist Church in Georgetown, Texas, on Sunday, December 12, 2021. In this thesis, I identified the worship components and the accompanying potential challenges for successfully leading a vital and converging traditional Christmas Sunday worship in a way that promotes authentic, biblically-centered, Christocentric, and participatory worship services for a church community.” The Christmas cantata was a musical composition set for soprano, alto, tenor, and bass voices (SATB) with instrumental accompaniment including solos, chorus, chamber orchestra, …

Bi-Musicality In Kenyan Education: An Irrevocable Impact Of Colonization On A Culture?, Tania Mae Molendyk

Masters Theses

In Kenya today, music at all levels includes both Kenyan music and Western music. The inclusion of Western music in the Kenyan curriculum began when Britain made Kenya a colony. Due to certain circumstances after Kenya became independent, Western music continued to be taught in the schools. This research addresses the question “is the inclusion of Western music in the curriculum today a conscious choice or a remaining impact of British colonization?” To gain insight into this question, a variety of Kenyans from different backgrounds were interviewed. Their answers helped reveal the desires of the people today and whether the …

Importance Of Teaching Native American Music, Kimberly Lorene Fowler

Masters Theses

Music Education has always been the doorway to experiencing something new and wonderful. Music Education, before now in America, has always taught western-styled music. Today, culture has become an essential ingredient to being an American. The learning and appreciation of other cultures have become particularly important in a student's journey within music to ensure the feeling of community, respect for others, and the experience of different styles. Native American music has become threatened with extinction by the shortage of information available and the lack of instructors that can teach it. Generations upon generations have lost this opportunity to learn and …

Funding A Middle School Technology-Based Music Class: An Investigation On Trends In Funding And A Proposed Curriculum, Shebbie L. Williams Iii

Masters Theses

This paper investigates trends of district funding in relation to music programs. The appendix contains a proposed technology-based music curriculum. The study is a convergent mixed-methods design that reviewed current literature on funding sources for music programs; literature about technology-based music courses was reviewed as well. The results revealed the many factors that play a part in a school board deciding to keep or terminate a music program. Findings also include a correlation in funding and music class quality, less funding usually meant lower quality. This paper can be a tool for educators that wish to make a change in …

How Reading, Writing, And Composing Music Enhances A Child’S Creativity, Marisa R. Robertson

Masters Theses

This thesis intends to prove that reading, writing, and composing music in elementary school can help children enhance their creativity. The project will contain recent research that shows how reading, writing, and composing music can enhance a child’s creativity. Research from this thesis will provide parents, educators, and administration with the necessary information to decide to incorporate music into their child’s school curriculum.

The Voice Of The Other: The Influence Of Capitalism On The Representation Of Gender And Race In Western Classical Music, Marie Comuzzo

Masters Theses

This thesis argues that in order to understand the non-representation of women and BIPOC in the Western musical canon, the analysis of their cultural musical production and reception must start in early modern period, a time heavily influenced by the establishment of capitalism. Intertwining political feminist studies, critical race theory and musicology critique, I argue that the witch hunts and the inhumane colonial practices in Africa and the America (fundamental to establish capitalism as a global system), had an important role in shaping Western musical culture as homogeneous and monolithic. Thus, I first trace the change in female customs in …

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, …

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 …

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, …

An Exploration Of Topical Interaction In Symphony For Wind Band, Paul Royse

Masters Theses

Symphony for Wind Band is a single-movement tonal piece for wind band. It features four overarching sections with numerous changes in key, meter, tempo, and mood. The juxtapositions and contrasts of mood reflect a narrative conflict between two music topics: the pastoral and the city. Each of these topics possess musical signifiers present in the piece as well as extra-musical associations that add levels of significance to a narrative interpretation.

This paper will outline my reasons for composing for wind band and present a topical analysis of the piece. This analysis will include hermeneutic interpretations based on how the topics …