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Martial Caillebotte’S Mélodies And Scènes Lyriques: Analytical Essays And Performance Guide, Dominique Mccormick

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Composer, pianist and photographer, Martial Caillebotte (1853–1910) was the unknown younger brother of famous Impressionist painter, Gustave Caillebotte. Martial studied piano and harmony at the Paris Conservatory from 1870–1874. Martial created a substantial number of musical compositions including mélodies, scènes lyriques, operas, symphonic poems, as well as sacred choral and symphonic works. Born into a wealthy Parisian family, he did not need to work for a living and did not self-promote, therefore his pieces were rarely performed and after his death, most of his compositions were left in family archives. In the late 1990’s a rebirth of interest in the …

Korngold’S Compositional Style: A Comparison Of His Violin Concerto And The Film Scores Of Another Dawn, Anthony Adverse, And The Prince And The Pauper, Ji In Yang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the origins of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto (1945) and the derivation of much of the principal thematic material from three related film scores: Another Dawn, Anthony Adverse, and The Prince and the Pauper. (Unfortunately, the film score of Juarez, which is also related to the concerto, was not publicly available, so it is not mentioned in this dissertation.) Korngold was a child prodigy trained in Vienna from an early age, and he had a very successful career in Europe. He then accepted an offer from Warner Brothers around 1934 to work in the Hollywood film …

The Modes Of Intervention In Alvin Lucier’S I Am Sitting In A Room, Daniel Fox

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Alvin Lucier’s I am sitting in a room (1969) is an icon of experimental music and sound art. The sizable literature addressing the aesthetic and philosophical implications of this piece rarely discusses the performance practice beyond what is indicated in the score itself. This is problematic for two reasons: 1) The meaning that is derived from the piece often hinges not just on what sounds are obtained, but on how they are obtained. 2) Over the past 50 years, changes in the performance practice have altered what constitutes the work: magnetic tape was used until 2000 when it was replaced …

Coltrane Plays The Blues: Multi-Level Coherence And Stylistic Tendencies, Lukas Gabric

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As a principal musical figure of the twentieth century, John Coltrane created a legacy that still resonates with listeners. Similarly, the blues may be regarded as one of the most iconic genres of the twentieth century. This dissertation examines Coltrane’s shifting stylistic tendencies to the blues and explores structural relationships with reductive voice leading analysis. As a variation form, the blues poses issues of continuity since every chorus may be regarded as self-sufficient and internally closed. Voice leading analysis provides a powerful explanation for the fact that Coltrane’s blues solos may be perceived as structurally unified. I also develop a …

Mashing Through The Conventions: Convergence Of Popular And Classical Music In The Works Of The Piano Guys, Alina Kiryayeva

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is dedicated to examining the symbiosis between popular music and Western classical music in classical/popular mashups––a new style within the classical crossover genre. The research features the works of The Piano Guys, a contemporary ensemble that combines classical crossover characteristics and the techniques from modern sample-based styles to reconceptualize and reuse classical and popular works. This fusion demonstrates a new approach to presenting multi-genre works, forming a separate musical and cultural niche for this creative practice.

This dissertation consists of three chapters. The first chapter is further divided into two thematic discourses: genre and authorship. The research draws …

“From The Heart, May It Go To The Heart”: Liturgy And Embodiment In Beethoven’S Missa Solemnis, Brigid J. Coleridge

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Since its 1824 premiere in St. Petersburg, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, Op. 123 has only ever been performed in secular concert settings. This performance history is reflected in critical trends in Missa solemnis scholarship. Following Adorno’s 1959 essay that characterized the Missa as “alienated,” critical perspectives on Beethoven’s last Mass have largely responded to the work as "absolute" music, indifferent to or disregarding the Mass text. Despite its exclusively secular performance history, however, the Missa solemnis was written for use in the Mass liturgy (at the installation of the Archduke Rudolf as Archbishop of Olmütz). Moreover, the Missa was composed …

The Mutability Of The Score: An Examination Of The Value Of Score Alteration In Virtuosic Piano Repertoire, Wayne Weng

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a defense of the value of score alteration in virtuosic piano repertoire. Score alteration is a performance practice, much heard during the so-called “Golden Age” of pianism, in which pianists would freely modify the score in order to suit their interpretation and make their performances more effective. In our present age of urtext editions and absolute fidelity to the score, I believe that a re-examination of score alteration is crucial to any modern performer.

I have examined numerous recordings and performances (many of them rare and not commercially released), to explore how the practice of score modification …

Corporeal Analysis: The Performing Body As Analytic Site, Laura Cocks

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A framework of corporeal analysis posits that the physicality of the performer can be construed as a primary analytical parameter in a work. This dissertation seeks to set up such a method of analysis largely through anecdata and autoethnography with the aim of eliciting a deeper space for additional performer-driven analyses that prioritize the bodily knowledge of performers and their physical understandings of a work. Centering around David Bird’s 2013 work for solo piccolo and “no-less-than twenty-nine spatialized piccolos,” Atolls, three main aspects of corporeal analysis will be explored. These are: performance physicality as expressive connective tissue between flutist …

Two Cello Works Of Pēteris Vasks: Structure, Symbolism, And Identity, Caroline Bean Stute

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation presents analyses of two compositions for cello by Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks: Grāmata Čellam (1978), for solo cello, and Concerto No. 2, “Klātbūtne” (“Presence,” 2011–2012), for cello and string orchestra. It acquaints readers with defining elements of Vasks’s musical language and relates his music to the concurrent stylistic classifications of Baltic Minimalism and Neoromanticism. The paper also discusses the significance of Vasks’s national identity in his creative process and provides historical context on Latvia.

Chinese Aesthetics And Performance Practice In Three Works For Piano By Chen Yi: Tunes From My Home, Northern Scenes, And Four Spirits, Cong Ji

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation provides both analyses and performance practice suggestions on the three selected works that include piano by Chinese-American composer Chen Yi (b. 1953): Tunes from My Home, Northern Scenes, and Four Spirits. The author takes a step beyond Chen Yi’s widely identified “fusion style” of Chinese and Western music, to explore her cultural roots and how she blends Chinese music, arts, aesthetics, philosophy, and mythology with her musical language and imagination on a deeper level.

As a performer and pedagogue, I believe that it is important not only to analyze Chen Yi’s music from the perspectives of …

International Influence On The Development And Reception Of Cello Playing In England, 1870–1930: Robert Hausmann, Auguste Van Biene, And Guilhermina Suggia, Hannah E. Collins

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The development of cello playing in England in the late nineteenth century was driven largely by the efforts of expatriate and visiting performers trained elsewhere. Performers from abroad, with the support and admiration of British institutions and audiences, elevated the technical level of cello playing and helped to increase the quality and quantity of solo repertoire being written and performed. They also expanded the degree of acceptance that British audiences held for the cello, both as a solo instrument and as an instrument that could be played in public by women. This study explores the impact that three such cellists, …

A Heavy Rain Has Fallen Upon My People: Sindhi Sufi Poetry Performance, Emotion, And Islamic Knowledge In Kachchh, Gujarat, Brian E. Bond

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a study of the use and contestation of Sindhi-language Sufi poetry performance as a means of Islamic knowledge transmission and ethical self-formation in rural Muslim communities in Kachchh, a border district in the western Indian state of Gujarat adjacent to Sindh, Pakistan. Drawing on eighteen months of ethnographic research with Muslim performers and enthusiasts of Sindhi poetry between 2014-2018, I first examine an ecology of performative and interpretive practices revolving around the musico-poetic repertoire of the poet-saint Shāh ʿAbdul Lat̤īf Bhiṭā’ī (1689-1752 CE). I argue that the pedagogical efficacy of Sufi poetry performance is undergirded by its …