Arts and Humanities Commons^™

"A New World For Instrumental Art": An Exploration Of The Nineteenth-Century Saxophone Quartet And Its Repertoire, Laney Sheehan

Honors Projects

This Honors Project examines the major characteristics of the nineteenth-century saxophone quartet and its repertoire through the lens of four musical works: Hector Berlioz’s Hymne (for six wind instruments of Adolphe Sax), Jean-Baptiste Singelée’s Premier Quatuor, Jérôme Savari’s Quatuor pour Saxophones, and Caryl Florio’s Quartette (Allegro de Concert).

Mus 121: Writing About Music (Syllabus, Zero Cost), Emily Wilbourne

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

A Schema-Theoretic Approach To Hierarchy In Eighteenth-Century Tonality, Simon K. S. Prosser

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Prevalent modern-day theories of tonal hierarchy for eighteenth-century music, especially those influenced by the ideas of Heinrich Schenker, have been called into question by schema theorists such as Robert Gjerdingen and Vasili Byros, who argue from both cognitive and historical evidence that eighteenth-century tonal cognition was sequential or “windowed” rather than hierarchical. This dissertation seeks to recuperate the concept of tonal hierarchy in eighteenth-century music, drawing on research that reconstructs the implicit tonal theories of the partimento and thoroughbass traditions, as well as concepts of hierarchy from schema theory itself, to formulate a historically and cognitively grounded theory of tonal …

“Leisure With Decorum”: Gentlemen Making Music In The Georgian Era, Lidia A. Chang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project examines the musical activities of Georgian gentlemen with the goal of illustrating the ways that recreational music-making tested the boundaries of gender, class, and nationality. While the English nobility could respectably engage in music-making, socialize with professional musicians (subverting, or temporarily suspending otherwise rigid class boundaries), and openly extol the virtues of Continental culture without compromising their gentlemanliness, English gentlemen walked a much thinner line. In pursuit of these claims I will expand the scope of primary sources beyond conduct books and novels to include selections of unpublished, peripheral accounts of recreational music-making as found in letters, diaries, …

Palestinian Evangelical Christian Music In Bethlehem, Israel/Palestine, Abby Smith

Senior Honors Theses

Often the story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is portrayed as Jewish vs. Muslim, Hebrew vs. Arab. There is little room in the international dialogue for minorities such as Arab Christians. Though Palestinians have a rich culture of Arabic musical and poetic heritage, they are unable to produce their own new songs. In this study I interviewed three members of Immanuel Evangelical Church on their experiences and opinions on local Christian worship. The findings show that Palestinian Christians may feel unable to write worship music because of a prevalent feeling of inadequacy and a lack of musical training. I propose several …

Ishmael Album Review, Robert N. Moore

Backstage Pass

This is an extensive review of the metal album Ishmael, written, performed, mixed, mastered, and released all by Jared Smith. The album combines religion, intricate guitar riffs, and metal to create an avant-garde piece of art.

Producer Interview: Teak Underdue, Kris Jones

Backstage Pass

This interview is with three-time Grammy-nominated music producer Teak Underdue of Hallway Productions. He discusses his background and the path he has taken to become a well respected music creator and producer. The interviewee offers advice for aspiring producers on how to build their reputation and credits in the music industry.

Signal To Noise: Harmonic Temperaments And Patterns Of Interference, Dylan A. Marcheschi

Theses and Dissertations

An audio/visual exploration of historical tuning systems. Most contemporary Western audiences will seldom if ever encounter harmony outside of post-Renaissance tuning conventions. This presentation highlights some of those pre-orthodox harmonic relationships which existed throughout most of history. The corresponding paper documents correlates in recent advances of acoustic ecology.

Sound Healing, Devina L. Pulido

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Most people would imply that music is used for solely entertainment, artistic expression, celebration, ceremony, or communication. Whether we are musically inclined or not, music is the one thing that genuinely connects humans from all cultures and corners of the earth. Another application of music is sound healing, a therapeutic practice that utilizes different signals and vibrations to improve the physical and emotional health of individuals, groups, and cultures. This can entail listening to various musical experiences (such as a concert), singing along to a favorite song or chant, dancing to the beats of other music, meditating, or playing an …

The Correlation Between Traditional And Modern Day Performance Poetry: Where Music And Poetry Collide, Jaya Hodges

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

"Music and poetry have similar roots that have made them both into what they are today. From chants to church hymns, they both have kept the Black community intact during times of sorrow and grief. The words that ride along the rhythm and structure of any song brings an unforgettable emotion out of these art forms. This paper will discuss how they have merged themselves together along with the influences they have made within Jame Weldon's "Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing" and Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)".

Singing And Pronunciation: A Review Of The Literature, Kassidy Joyner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Observed differences exist in the pronunciation abilities of individual language learners, especially adult learners. Musical ability and experience are possible factors that have been attributed to language pronunciation abilities. Although there has been a large amount of research concerning the effects of general musical ability and training on language abilities, very few studies have investigated the musical sub-category of singing. Research on the use of songs in the language classroom has largely tested the effects of song on vocabulary acquisition, while very few studies have explored the effects of song on pronunciation. Given that singing and pronunciation both use similar …

Songs For The Journey: The Music Of Pilgrimage, Joshua Taylor

Doctor of Pastoral Music Projects and Theses

Pilgrimage has been a part of Christian experience since biblical times. Creating new stories, pilgrimage affords sacred travelers experiences that transcend nationalism, denominational identity, and cultural borders melding their individual constructs of meaning with communal experiences to create new insights. On these pilgrimages, music has played a significant role in the development of community. While pilgrimage is an independent act, it is also a shared existence with other pilgrims with music serving as a bridge between these two realities. With an estimated 100 million people undertaking pilgrimages at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the rediscovery of pilgrimage, and the …

The Jingwei Bird Sings Performative Resistance: Music And Arts Programming As Catharsis, Acculturation, And Cultural Remembrance For Refugees In U.S. Immigration Detention Centers, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

Scholarship on immigration detention centers as sites for musical exchange and identity formation remain largely unresearched. Adelaida Reyes in her groundbreaking work, Songs of the Caged, Songs of the Free, offers insight into the “heterogeneity” of resettlement camps and their ambiguous sovereignty. Her work, however, does not examine the musical environments and ecologies of modern large-scale immigrant detention centers, nor these center’s specific musical identities. Significant analyses of music programming in detention centers include musicologists Donna Weston and Caroline Lenette’s article, “Performing Freedom: The Role of Music-Making in Creating a Community in Asylum Seeker Detention Centres” and ethnomusicologist Julia Morris’s …

Günther Anders’S Epitaph For Aikichi Kuboyama, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

Günther Anders’s poem Du kleiner Fischerman is read here as a text contribution to the irruption that is violence and its enduring (omnipresent) aftermath. The essay includes a discussion of transmedial expression, including dramatization, or television and social media, text and subtext, as well as the inspiration of Anders’s poem as a work of art continuing in our times: the ongoing exclusion(s) of certain names and certain thinkers as of certain musical modes, including electronic musical works, as of voices and of collective memory, or oblivion. Reading Raymond Williams along with Anders and Adorno on television updated in today’s era …

Tunesmith Terror Techniques: Identifying Patterns In The Music Of Horror Video Games: Annotated Bibliography, Sean Kelliher

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

Ludomusicology, the study of music in video games, is a relatively new field in musicology that faces unique obstacles, like the lack of a standardized analytical method. This paper will use the ALI model proposed by Isabella van Elferen along with techniques suggested by Tim Summers to analyze various video games in the horror genre. Along with using analysis of other games as sources, this paper will compare the compositional techniques used to identify patterns that do or do not show up.

Furthering Cultural Understanding Through Music, Sophia Abukamail

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project explores the role that music plays in fostering cultural understanding and equity by discussing the sociopolitical implications of musical collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli musicians. In order to do this, the paper will dive into the history of the conflict between Palestine and Israel, detail instances of musical collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli musicians, show how music is helping to bridge the divide between these two cultures, and examine the intentions and consequences of such collaborations as they relate to music, politics, and society. The purpose of this project is to investigate the ways that music can affect …

Hearing Ourselves Speak: Finding The Trans Sound In The Ohio River Valley, Gwendolyn Patricia Saporito-Emler

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This thesis discusses at length the experiences of four interviewees, selected for being both musicians as well as transgender people. From the author’s shared perspective as a trans woman, this work addresses the issues and boons of being trans musicians. It reflects their experiences, both positive and negative, as well as provides conjectural analyses of the respondents’ shared stories. It identifies common themes, issues regularly experienced by trans people, and offers arguments on why ending this hate is so vitally essential.

Fostering Music Performers In The 21st Century: A Contemporary Professional Perspective Toward A New Curricular Agenda For Graduate Study In Music, Andre Januario

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

What if the core curriculum for graduate students in music performance were designed to prepare students to succeed in the world of the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

This dissertation offers a hypothetical answer: a structured and systematic academic curricular framework for music graduate students of performance of concert music (especially those in terminal degrees, such as doctoral students), along with music instructors, professional music performers, school administrators, and college professors, seeking to prepare such students for achieving and maintaining a music career more in keeping with the current work environment, especially those skills demanded by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the …