Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Convolutional Audio Source Separation Applied To Drum Signal Separation, Marius Orehovschi

Honors Theses

This study examined the task of drum signal separation from full music mixes via both classical methods (Independent Component Analysis) and a combination of Time-Frequency Binary Masking and Convolutional Neural Networks. The results indicate that classical methods relying on predefined computations do not achieve any meaningful results, while convolutional neural networks can achieve imperfect but musically useful results. Furthermore, neural network performance can be improved by data augmentation via transposition – a technique that can only be applied in the context of drum signal separation.

African-American Poetry, Music, And Politics, Tyler H. Macdonald

Honors Theses

The 2016 decision to award songwriter and musician Bob Dylan the Nobel Prize in Literature sparked a worldwide debate on the relationship between music and poetry and raised many questions about music’s place in literary canon. However, this debate is nothing new. Questions about the relationship between music and poetry have long been debated. Some scholars believe the two disciplines should be studied separately, while others prefer to consider the connections between the two.

My project begins with a question: if Bob Dylan’s songs can be considered poetry, what other forms of music might also be considered poetry? Rap implements …

Compositional Craft And Theory Across Tonal Languages, Liam Butchart

Honors Theses

This paper accompanies Liam Butchart's senior honors voice recital and his composition for the Colby Symphony Orchestra, Genevan Overture. The essay examines how form and cadence, two integral components of compositional craft, have been utilized by composers who either were included in the voice recital or were major influences on the composition. Specifically, the paper analyzes how different composers end their musical sentences similarly and differently through the lens of structurally-relevant cadences.

In Search Of Murmurings (Full Score), Luke Martin

Honors Theses

"In Search of Murmurings" is deeply indebted to my reading of Marcel Proust's Swann's Way and explores his concept of recombining lost memories in the liminal space of our inner selves. Certain moments in the piece act as aural triggers for memory eruptions into my lost and fragmented experience of past composers' works. As much as this piece is an exploration of Proust, it is also an exploration of myself. By following these memory eruptions, I am departing from the convention, expected, and narrative path; I am asking: what happens when I allow the illogical and non-linear to take control?

Hearing Arnold In A New Space : Building A Transformational-Theory Patrimony, Whitney Simmonds

Honors Theses

The old song goes "you always hurt the one you love", Harold Bloom's The Anxiety of Influence takes that idea a step further: for Bloom, artistic creation is born from an anxiety that compels artists to rebel against the influences of their predecessors, their artistic fathers: one has to metaphorically kill the thing one loves in order to escape its shadow. I realize that in order to do an honors thesis, I have to do a bit of good natured killing of my own - or at least do some sharp elbow jabbing - if only for a moment, to …

John Coltrane: Jazz Improvisation, Performance, And Transcription, Garry J. Bertholf

Honors Theses

John William Coltrane (1926-1967) was a prominent African-American jazz saxophonist and prolific composer. The evolution of his mature career seems, from my perspective, to fall roughly into the following periods: (1) “Vertical” (ca.1955-59), (2) “Modal” (ca.1960-63) and (3) “Avant-garde” (ca. 1964-67). During this entire 12-year interlude, the artist was moving in several different directions.

Unfortunately, his working band was not well documented. However, a recording of this group in concert at Carnegie Hall in 1957 was discovered and issued in 2005 by Blue Note Records. The Blue Note compilation is the first and only full-length high-quality recording of the group. …

The Realization Of The Basso Continuo In German And Italian Music, 1680-1750, John Saunders

Senior Scholar Papers

The technique of the basso continuo (or firgured bass) serves as one of the major unifying elements in almost all music written between 1600 and 1750. As such the realization of the basso continuo forms a particularly sensitive area of performance. This paper investigates some specific genres of music as well as historical evidence in order to draw conclusions about the kinds and number of instruments that should be used to perform continuo parts The study begins With an investigation of chamber music continuo practice. The paper examines 86 Italian trio sonatas written between 1680 and 1699. This examination focuses …

Verdi's Settings Of Shakespeare : From Play To Liberetto To Opera, Ann S. Earon

Senior Scholar Papers

As a Senior Scholar pursuing the topic, Verdi's Settings of Shakespeare: From Play to Libretto to Opera, I have endeavoured to study a project relevant to my majors, Music and English. During first semester, I carefully analysed Shakespeare's plays, Macbeth, Othello and Falstaff. The highlight of my project was in January when I travelled to New York City and spent the day working with the Metropolitan Opera Guild. I was also able to see a performance of Verdi's Othello with Jon Vickers in the lead role. During the second semester, I studied the musical aspects of the compositions. I spent …