Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Ethos Of The Blues: An Ethnography Of Blues Singers And Writers, Zoë Emilie Peterschild Ford

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Dawn Tyler Watson, a blues singer based in Montreal, QC, performs a variety of genres. No matter what she performs, however, she continually expresses a blues ethos. Through improvisation and her resolute individuality Dawn writes and sings narratives always with a nod to the blues. What I call the “ethos of the blues” refers to a blues spirit that exists not only in music, but in literature, and in everyday life. Dawn’s practice reveals that blues is a music that values protective, generous, and exploratory narrative. As important as its storytelling quality is the genre’s Americanness. Blues, derived from a …

Despite The Blues: Richard Wright And Ralph Ellison’S Blues Based Works, Miranda Virginia Reale

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Ain't got no mother, ain't got no culture

Ain't got no friends, ain't got no schoolin'

Ain't got no love, ain't got no name

Ain't got no ticket, ain't got no token

Ain't got no god

–Nina Simone, “Ain’t Got No-I Got Life,” from the album Nuff Said (1968).

In between human intention and reality lies a disproportionate space that Albert Camus labels “the absurd.” Modern man’s affliction is thus absurd, as orthodox systems turn obsolete, the traditional virtues of the past cease to be familiar. The epistemology of the absurd may not have developed from American soil; but I …

Pull2 And Wish2, Nicolas Roman Fopeano

Senior Projects Spring 2020

My senior project consists of two individual parts, completed at the ends of both semesters.

The first project, titled “Pull2”, is a fully composed piece written for piano, violin, cello, and live processed 4 channel electronics. It was performed on December 13, 2019 in Bard Hall. The players were Maeve Schallert on violin, Kate Gonzales on cello, Clay Hillenburg controlling the electronics, and I played piano. The playing was sparse and spacious, and the electronics held certain tones for long periods of time. This was achieved with a MAX patch which loops short moments of the audio from the instruments …

The Feminine Voice / Self Titled, Teddy Mckrell

Senior Projects Spring 2020

My senior project consisted of two concerts, one in classical voice and one in electronic composition.

Tell Me A Story; Hell Hath No Fury: A Set Of Voice Recitals On The Overlap Of Music, Literature, And Classics, And Their Treatment And Depiction Of Women, Alexandra Hobart Gilman

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Over the past four years, I have had the privilege of answering the question, “what is your major?” My reply exists in various degrees of specificity. I am a Music major. I am a Classical Voice major. I am a voice major who is concentrating in Medieval Studies. Layer upon layer is added. The more specific I am, the more niche it all seems to become. Yet, that which I love exists in these niches, the in-between spaces where different areas of academia come together to create something new. Something that I have always appreciated about art, in general, is …

8/28 - 12/8, Cluno (Madison) Marie Clark-Bruno

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Let It Fall // The Bath, Emma Nicole Houton

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Let it Fall

“Let it Fall” was a senior concert in jazz voice and electronics comprised of original work and arrangements of jazz standards and pop songs. Inspired by the films of David Lynch, it was a work embracing disintegration and the unsettling. This concert was intended to combine my two academic focuses, jazz voice and electronic music, and evolved from a project in which I attempted to produce dream-pop covers of jazz standards.

The concert took place in the Old Gym, which I designed to look like an amalgamation of venues featured in Lynch’s films, with eerie red and …

The Impact Of Live Coding Within An Educational And Performance Setting, Alexus Renee Foster

Senior Projects Spring 2020

For the past three semesters at Bard, live coding has become my newest form of creative expression and performance. This method of coding involves either creating on the spot from scratch or editing pre-existing code in a real time manner. There is no real set structure or steps that must be followed, however, one rule must always be followed: show your code. In the classroom, live coding occurs when the professor demonstrates some algorithm by displaying the program on a projector for the entire class to observe. During musical performances, the same improvisational nature of live coding is also present, …

Bottled Letter, Edgar Guzman

Senior Projects Spring 2020

This project was originally intended to be a concert that explored the harmonic and performing skills I learned in college. Naturally, like any project, all my expectations had to be thrown out the window. The ensuing chaos after the pandemic tested a lot of things; creativity, discipline, friendships, and our ability to maintain sanity without structure. Bard has a funny way of challenging your preconceived notions, and I found that the chaos of being a student here for four years left me surprisingly prepared for this pandemic.

The album you will listen to is the culmination of the things I’ve …