Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Should Conductors Listen To Recordings When They Learn Scores?, Jan Pellant

Theses and Dissertations--Music

We can observe the conductor’s work at his performances and rehearsals. However, we cannot see the process of score preparation from the time they get the score to the downbeat of the first rehearsal because the conductor does this work alone. This dissertation discusses the debate among conductors past and present about whether, when, and how to use recordings as part of the score preparation. It considers the advantages and disadvantages of using recordings in the score preparation process. I conducted several types of research on the use of recordings by living conductors. I interviewed conductors using Skype and phone …

An Examination And Analysis Of Four Collegiate Holiday Programs: St. Olaf College’S Christmas Festival, Emory University’S Festival Of Nine Lessons And Carols, Florida State University’S Seasonal Celebration, And The University Of Kentucky’S Holiday Collage, Margaret Gurtcheff

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The choral departments of St. Olaf College, Emory University, Florida State University, and the University of Kentucky are well-known for their excellent and successful programs. In addition to respected and accomplished choirs, each of these schools offer a choir-centric, winter holiday event. The traditions and community relationships that have developed through these programs are reflections of the strengths of these schools’ choral departments. Each event may serve as a model for individuals to adapt and modify for their own programs.

The St. Olaf College Christmas Festival premiered in 1912 and offers a look into how such a program may serve …

Revising The Orchestral Reduction Of Jacques Ibert's Concerto For Flute And Orchestra, Nathan Stites

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Given the popularity of Jacques Ibert’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra amongst flautists, and the frequent need to perform the work with a pianist, the high-difficulty threshold of its current reduction for piano may prove to be a potential liability for both soloist and collaborator. For this project, solutions to the complications that arise as a result of the Concerto’s burdensome piano reduction were investigated. This investigation ultimately led to the construction of a carefully reworked version of the original orchestra reduction for piano—i.e., a revision. The purpose of this paper is to explain the editorial choices that went into …

Choosing Alternative Repertoire: Pedagogical Considerations For Robert Fuchs's Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 83, Jerram Isaac John

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This document serves to promote Robert Fuchs's Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 83, as a study piece for the cello, piano, and collaborative duo, showing the pedagogical benefits of this Romantic sonata. This project will begin with a biography of Fuchs and background of the work, followed by an analysis that establishes the piece in the Romantic tonal tradition. The next section will discuss the pedagogical benefits of the cello part, the technical accessibility in the piano part, and the collaborative opportunities encountered in the piece, comparing it with other Romantic sonatas in the standard repertoire. Additionally, I will be …

Perspectives On Cultivating A Positive Collegiate Clarinet Studio Environment: A Survey Of Students And Professors, Katherine Nichole Breeden

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Data was analyzed from a survey of collegiate clarinet students and professors concerning student and faculty preferences and perceptions concerning the cultivation of a positive collegiate clarinet studio environment. Over two hundred respondents indicated preferences for the structure of individual lessons and studio class.

The data indicated it is essential that the professor adapt their teaching to individual students during lesson instruction. Goals should be recorded, a verbal agreement alone is insufficient. Contact information for all studio colleagues should be available, and the professor should be accessible should the need arise. Large ensemble concert attendance should be encouraged, and recital …

Orchestral Excerpts For Trombone From Villa-Lobos’S “Chôros”– Performance Considerations And Collected Edition, Hugo Eustáquio De Faria Pinheiro Sr.

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The daily routine of playing in a professional orchestra can be very challenging. An important and useful tool for students, professors and professional players in the preparation process of playing is the focused study of orchestral excerpts, where one can consciously practice ahead of time the most technically demanding passages, in order to be ready for rehearsals and performances.

The orchestral output of the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos is vast, with many technical and musical challenges for low brass musicians. This research will cover Villa-Lobos’s Chôros series, with a special focus on the works that present at least one trombone …

An Analysis Of Kingdom Of The Heart's Content, Op. 11 By Joseph Baber, Sanghee Kim

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Kingdom of the Heart’s Content, Op. 11 is a selection of twelve sketches written between 1952 and 1956. In this work, Joseph Baber draws inspiration from his childhood memories and a variety of locations in Richmond, Virginia, using his unique blend of folk idioms, traditional forms and harmonies, and capricious metric changes to bring these vignettes to life. Kingdom of the Heart’s Content is comprised of twelve movements with the programmatic titles: Introduction: Stick Horses, Walk to Monroe Park, Charlie Short, Tag, Monument Avenue, Battle Abbey, Cycling, Sleighbells, Park Avenue Triangle, Goblins, Spring, and Finale: West End Farewell. …

Michael Daugherty’S Bells For Stokowski: Historical Context & Comparative Analysis For Orchestra And Wind Band, Jeremy Harmon

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Michael Daugherty’s Bells for Stokowski (2001/2003) is an original work for orchestra and wind band. This work has continued to be performed by ensembles around the world including live performances, and studio recordings.

The purposes of this dissertation are to 1) provide historical context of the composer and inspiration for the work, through interviews with its composer, Michael Daugherty, and premiere conductor, Michael Haithcock; 2) provide relationships between the Liberty Bell (architecture), several composers Stokowski worked with and conducted (art), modern and historical compositional styles through pieces like Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (pop culture), how an audience perceives the sound …

A Glimpse Into Chinese Piano Education And Performance Through An Influential Professor, Xin Zhang

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Although China traditionally did not have keyboard instruments of its own origin, the country has taken to the modern piano exceedingly well. In the past decades, piano performance and education have progressed at an impressive rate, its popularity reaching unprecedented heights. The virtuosity of Chinese pianists has earned them prizes at renowned international competitions. These developments have sparked the interest of scholars as well as the general public.

First introduced to China around 1840, the piano was slow to be accepted, but interest grew steadily in the twentieth century. Missionaries and foreigners were the first piano teachers, with figures like …

The G7 Suite: Score And Analysis, Joseph C. Dunn

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The G7 Suite is a multi-movement chamber work that combines elements of European Art Music, Indigenous Music from Latin America, and various representations of American music. The melodic material is derived from the national anthems of the Great Seven nations: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Each melody is re-set to new music genres and aligns itself to the rules and expectations within each idiom. This compilation is more than a series of arrangements or reharmonizations of the anthems; these are new compositions based on melodic elements from previous works.

This analysis of The …

A Musical Analysis Of William Grant Still's Songs Of Separation: The Chamber Arrangement, Michael Preacely

Theses and Dissertations--Music

William Grant Still was given the title “The Dean of African American Music” because of the many firsts he accomplished as an African American musician in the early twentieth century. He is known for fusing his African American musical tradition of Jazz and blues with the classical European musical tradition. This study explores one of Still’s most famous song cycles, “Songs of Separation,” in the arrangement for string quartet, voice, and piano. This document considers the instrumentation of the string quartet arrangement and how Still uses the instrumentation to enhance the character OF the poetry. This document also provides a …

A Study Of Language And Its Uses In Flute Performance And Pedagogy, Sarah Tuley

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Various tone colors can be produced on the flute in part by altering the shape of the lips, jaw and tongue movement, and air speed. As these actions are similar to those in the production of speech, flutists and flute teachers often associate aspects of playing with consonants and vowels. However, the shape of the oral cavity can vary depending on the spoken language of the flute-player. By becoming familiar with the pronunciations of different sounds from various languages, the flutist may discover a wider variety of tone colors at his/her disposal. This document will investigate the use of vowels …

Beyond The Notation: Developing Tools To Guide Artistic Decisions Of Performers In The Wind Ensemble, Brent Johnson

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Music is a subjective art form that is enhanced by emotional connection and understanding of the relationship of line and phrasing to both the performer and the audience. Performers and conductors are charged with making artistic decisions about the expressive qualities of a phrase within moments of seeing the notation for the first time. In the development of wind ensembles, there is often a disconnect between the technique and accuracy of a musician’s performance and the emotional connection and understanding required to perform a lyrical melody or phrase within a piece of music. As musicians progress, often the attention is …

Chimurenga Chepfungwa: A Liberated Cultural Curriculum For The Madzimbabwe Singer, Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Chimurenga ChePfungwa is the self-liberation of the mind. Education can either be an instrument for liberation or a tool for colonial indoctrination, brainwashing, and enslavement — the European colonization of Africa in the late-nineteenth century and the continent's epic efforts at self-liberation have amply taught us this.

Chimurenga ChePfungwa calls for the centering of ChiVanhu knowledge systems such as Ngano, Tsumo neNziyo. ChiVanhu encapsulates Madzimbabwe indigenous knowledge systems, cosmologies, and ways of being, and this paper insists on the primacy of these ChiVanhu epistemologies for the construction of knowledge and knowing.

Amagama ayadala. Words create. So much of the language …

Crouching Tiger Cello Concerto - A Melding Of Form And Content For The Concert Stage, Xiaohang Yu

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger Concerto for Amplified Cello and Orchestra is not only one of the most frequently performed cello concerto of the recent past; it also demonstrates Tan’s masterful synthesis of artistic forms from the Chinese and the Western art music traditions with visual media that extends beyond the concert-hall. The music for this concerto was initially composed as part of the score for Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, itself a landmark blend of Chinese cinema with Western technique. The score broke boundaries, combining Western orchestral music with traditional Chinese instruments and thematic material. This melding …

The Clarinet And Piano Works Of Ernst Mahle: A Collaborative Pianist’S Perspective, Edgar Augusto Gonsales

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Ernst Mahle is a German-Brazilian composer who not only became a Brazilian citizen but also a reference for Brazilian classical music. His vast list of compositions includes works for all major genres, as well as containing instrument combinations that are not mainstream. In addition to being a composer, Mahle dedicated a big part of his life as a pedagogue, as a teacher and as the director of the Escola de Música de Piracicaba (Piracicaba Music School).

Through research on Mahle’s biography, compositional styles, and an interview with the composer, the purpose of this paper is to study his four clarinet …

Songs For High Voice: An Annotated Guide To African Romances, Op. 17 By Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Makeda Danielle Hampton

Theses and Dissertations--Music

African Romances, Op. 17, composed in 1897 by African-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), is a collection of seven songs for high voice that is uniquely both African and American. The lyrics of this song cycle were first published in the book Majors and Minors, a collection of poems published in 1895 by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906).

An analysis of resources supports that academic discourse in Black vocal music has been underrepresented due to the absence of centralized information, such as published scores, recorded materials, catalogs, and guides for study and performance. While in depth research focusing on the art …

Shining A Spotlight On Female African American Composer Evelyn Simpson-Curenton, Iris E. Fordjour-Hankins

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Those who are interested in learning more about Evelyn Simpson-Curenton (b. 1953) will find it challenging to find scholarly material on her life and music. She is best known for her arrangements of spirituals that were sang and recorded by Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman (whose concert recording Spirituals in Concert was released in 1991). Simpson-Curenton is also known for her choral work, “Psalm 91,” made famous by Oakwood University’s Aeolians. Though she is self-published, her absence from compilations, volumes, and anthologies for solo voice and piano is regrettable. This dissertation provides well researched scholarly information about her musical life …

Engaging The Eclectic Bulgarian Soul In Viola Concerto No. 1 By Marin Goleminov (1908-2000): A Faceted Analysis With New Pedagogical Studies, Lubitza Braikova

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The main purpose of this monograph is to provide a faceted study of Marin Goleminov’s Concerto for Viola No.1, a work of art complexly revealing its creator’s constructive study of style – including national style. It is hoped that this will, among other things, assist in deepening relevant performances and researches.

This document examines the M. Goleminov Concerto for Viola and Orchestra no.1, 1950 (Концерт за Bиола и Oркестър Hомер 1 Марин Големинов, р.1908–п.2000). It would bring essential features of it to the attention of a broader audience, perhaps beginning with inquisitive violists. If, with the necessary selectivity, …

Steven Bryant’S The Automatic Earth: A Conductor’S Analysis And Performance Perspectives, Corey S. Bonds

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The purpose of this research is to present a conductor’s analysis and performance perspectives of The Automatic Earth, composed by Steven Bryant for the Arizona State University Wind Orchestra, and premiered by its conductor, Professor Gary Hill, at the 2019 College Band Director’s National Association National Conference. Through the conductor’s analysis and performance perspectives, the author seeks to provide future conductors and performers with necessary musical interpretations and technical guidance. The four-part process of research includes: 1. detailed analysis of the musical score of The Automatic Earth, 2. observation of rehearsals and world premiere of the work, 3. in-depth …

The Vespers Psalms Of Baldassare Galuppi, Scot Buzza

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Although Baldassare Galuppi was arguably the best known and most successful Italian composer of the eighteenth century, his name, his history, and his works have been relinquished to the periphery of the historiographical narrative. While Galuppi's masses, operas, and solo motets have been examined, his vespers psalms have been neglected by previous musicologists; most of the existing studies have been superficial, with little consideration of important questions such as formal approach, stylistic development, compositional idiosyncrasies, questions of authenticity, or what those factors might collectively tell the twenty-first-century musicologist about music in settecento Venice.

The bulk of this work consists of …

The Taiwanese Violin System: Educating Beginners To Professionals, Yu-Ting Huang

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The purpose of this study is to provide scholars information concerning of the Taiwanese violin educational system from the introduction of the violin in Taiwan to its current status as one of the most popular instruments to study.

The first chapter of this dissertation will discuss the most influential violin educators in Taiwan, about which very little has been published. The key figures such as Fu-Xing Zhang and Shu-De Li capitalized on the opportunities provided them by the Japanese occupation, playing a crucial role in the development of the Taiwanese music education system. The accomplishments of these musicians continue to …

Ictus Or Rebound? The Experience Of Behind-The-Beat Playing In Orchestral Conducting, Sey Ahn

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The origin of playing behind-the-beat is attributed to the Hungarian conductor Arthur Nikisch (1855-1922), who is one of the most important figures in the history of the art of conducting. Nikisch, serving as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra during a critical moment in the development of orchestral playing, influenced a generation of conductors who followed. Behind-the-beat playing, as many conductors and musicians refer to in describing experiences of top professional orchestral musicians, is a prevailing characteristic of theirs, not often observed in amateur orchestras and their conductors. It is an …

An Understanding Of Style Of Baroque Ornamentation In Handel’S Operatic Arias: A Study Of Selected Recordings (1950s – 2010s), Junghyun Lee

Theses and Dissertations--Music

From the early 20^th century to the present, new discoveries in Handel scholarship and changing ideas of Baroque performance practice have greatly affected the manner in which Handel’s operas and individual arias have been performed. Since the appearance of the first volumes of the Hallische Handel-Ausgabe in 1958, Handel’s works have experienced a renewed appreciation among performers and scholars alike, including countless opera productions. Since the introduction of the CD, many talented singers have published recordings of his operas and individual arias, influenced by a greater under-standing of period-performance practices and audience expectations. As such, performers are expected to …

A Performance Analysis Of Cloud Folk For Percussion Octet And Piano By John Psathas, James Vilseck

Theses and Dissertations--Music

John Psathas is the one of the most forefront, living New Zealand composers and is considered to be one of the three most important living composers of the Greek Diaspora. His music is performed across the globe, most notably as the opening and closing ceremony music for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. His percussion music has been championed by percussionists for three decades, starting with Dame Evelyn Glennie with the work Matre’s Dance. Psathas still receives regular commissions for percussion instruments, having released multiple works in the last few years and multiple works still to be premiered.

The …

A Performer’S Guide To Norman Bolter’S Morning Walk For Trombone And Piano, Justin Croushore

Theses and Dissertations--Music

For the past 45 years, Norman Bolter has been one of the most prolific and important composers, performers, and educators for the trombone. Born in Minnesota in 1955, Bolter held the position of Second Trombone of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Principal Trombone of the Boston Pops from 1975 until 2009. He has taught at leading conservatories, universities, and festivals around the world and continues to teach as trombone faculty at the New England Conservatory and the Boston Conservatory today. His compositional output is large and wide-ranged, including works for solo trombone, trombone and piano, trombone ensemble, chamber ensemble, band, …

An Exploration Of Smetana’S Z Domoviny (From My Homeland), Two Pieces For Violin And Piano, Jb 1:118, Yeseul Kim

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Z domoviny (From My Homeland), by Bedřich Smetana (1824-84), is among the most colorful and effective works for violin and piano of the 19^th century, and yet it is not as well-known, nor as often performed, as many other works by Antonín Dvořák, Johannes Brahms, Pablo de Sarasate, Henryk Wieniawski and their contemporaries. This document will attempt to balance the work’s place in the repertoire and provide a performer’s guide. It consists of an historical background of the composition, including a biography of Smetana; a discussion of his compositional technique and style, along with an exploration of his nationalistic …

Passacaglia And Its Related Forms: Before, During, And After 18th Century Baroque And Program Notes, Austin Han

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The purpose of this project is to inform readers of the importance musicology has in informing one’s own learning experience as a performer and listener. As an expression of this exercise, I’ve focused on the history of the passacaglia in Europe from its origins in Spain to its culmination in the music of Paul Hindemith (1895-1963). Through the process of learning about different renditions of passacaglia through musical analysis and comparisons with contemporary art movements and their legacies, I hope the results of what are shown displays an urgent appreciation for applying a more nuanced and openminded approach to the …

Songs In The Heart: The Cornet Solos Written For Derek Smith, Jeffrey Barrington

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Derek Smith stands as one of the most talented cornet soloists of his generation. From the 1940s to the early 1970s, Smith wowed audiences all over the world with the ease of his technique and the simple vibrato of his beautiful expressive sound. While much has been documented regarding Smith’s later years as the conductor of The Salvation Army’s New York Staff Band, there is a gap in written biographical knowledge concerning his career as a cornet soloist. During his influential career, there were several solos written specifically for him. The purpose of this research is two‐fold. First, it is …

Theoretical Study And Performing Edition Of Sonata Iii By Javier G. Compeán, José Mario Ortiz Sánchez

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Mexican composer Javier G. Compeán finished Sonata III, his most recent composition for solo guitar, in December 2015. Since the composition of his first such work in 2003, the composer has been experimenting with texture, register, dynamic range, extended techniques, harmonic possibilities, timbre, and form in his solo guitar music. In Sonata III, Compeán applied the experience he gained in previous compositions for guitar.

This work represents the composer’s current style, in which he returns to a more traditional language but continues to experiment with the technical capabilities of the instrument. Sonata III is Compeán’s most ambitious guitar composition and …