Arts and Humanities Commons^™

For The Love Of Music: Yuri Lily Funahashi Shares The Gift Of Collaboration, Mareisa Weil

Colby Magazine

A virtuoso is quietly going about her business in the classrooms of the Bixler Art and Music Center. Yuri Lily Funahashi, accomplished chamber musician, assistant professor, and Music Department co-chair, is strengthening and inspiring her students’ relationship with music.

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.

Court Musician: Four-Year Starter Sam Willson Is Composed On The Basketball Court - And At The Keyboard, Charles Eichacker

Colby Magazine

Four-year starter Sam Willson is composed on the basketball court—and at the keyboard

A Collaborative Note: Colby Symphony Orchestra Is A True- And Unusual- Musical Community, Christina Dong

Colby Magazine

After a final warm-up trill, the room quiets and conductor Stan Renard reaches for the baton. As the musicians watch him intently, he raises his arms, takes a breath, and delivers the opening cue. With that, Colby students and faculty, high schoolers, local amateurs, and seasoned professionals begin to play.

Lifting The Curtain: New Jersey Symphony Is Susan Stucker's Musical Home, Gerry Boyle

Colby Magazine

When as a sophomore Susan Stucker '89 agreed to manage the Colby Symphony Orchestra, she didn't know she was setting the course for her entire career.

Read/Listen/Watch, Eric Thomas

Colby Magazine

Colby faculty members have rich lives that extend beyond the classroom. In this, the first installment of a regular feature, we asked musician and composer Eric Thomas what he's listening to- and why.

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?

Rock Never Dies: Sixties Rock Finds New Fans Among Today's Students, Brendan Sullivan

Colby Magazine

Today’s college students have something in common with their parents—music. From The Beatles to Led Zeppelin, ’60s rock echoes through the campus.

Listen, Rebecca Green

Colby Magazine

When you think composer, do you think dead, white, male, with scary hair? Well, think again. Colby has fostered a number of composers who are neither dead nor exclusively white or male. They use the medium of music in a variety of ways to express their artistic ideas, and they want you to listen.

Colby alumni and faculty composers use the medium of music to express their artistic ideas.

All That Jazz: Vinnie Martucci Composes And Improvises A Life In Music, David Mckay Wilson

Colby Magazine

On stage in a cozy New York club with his most recent quartet and jazz singer Laurel Massé, Vinnie Martucci ’77 leads the band through an eclectic set of tunes. The set is more than an interesting mix. It’s a road map of Martucci’s ever-changing musical career.

Radioheads: Lee L'Heureux And Crew Boost Wmhb To The Next Level, Rebecca Green

Colby Magazine

Lee L’Heureux ’03 and a band of devotees of music and college radio have worked to make WMHB better than ever.

8-Mile High: With Eminem On His A-List, Lawyer Randall Cutler Is All About Hip-Hop, Kate Bolick

Colby Magazine

No abstract provided.

Breaking Through: With Today's Technology, Singer-Songwriters No Longer Need To Wait To Be "Discovered", Susan Sterling

Colby Magazine

Wait to be “discovered?” Not today’s singer-songwriters. Jason Spooner ’95 and Carolyn Altshuler Currie ’85 are part of a generation that is using technology to reach a far-flung fan base.

In Search Of The Information Commons Model In Arts Libraries: Bibliography, Margaret D. Ericson

Faculty Scholarship

Recommended resources for the study of the information commons model in art and music libraries.

In Search Of The Information Commons Model In Arts Libraries: A Library Travelogue And Discussion, Margaret D. Ericson, Janette Blackburn

Faculty Scholarship

This presentation offers a new model for art and music libraries spaces using the precepts of the information commons.

In Search Of The Information Commons Model In Arts Libraries: Bibliography, Margaret D. Ericson

Margaret D. Ericson

Recommended resources for the study of the information commons model in art and music libraries.

In Search Of The Information Commons Model In Arts Libraries: A Library Travelogue And Discussion, Margaret D. Ericson, Janette Blackburn

Margaret D. Ericson

This presentation offers a new model for art and music libraries spaces using the precepts of the information commons.

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 …

Beethoven’S Influence On Modern Musical Thought, Avi David

Undergraduate Research Symposium (UGRS)

Ludwig van Beethoven is undoubtedly one of the most important and influential composers of Western art music. From a young age, he exhibited considerable talent, independence, and willful nonconformity. Over the course of his life, these themes came through both in his compositions, and in his attitude towards social norms regarding music. Composing symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, concertos, and one opera, Beethoven shattered musical boundaries and set the stage for how musicians and listeners would think about music for the next 200 years, up to modern day. This afternoon I will explore various ways in which Beethoven’s conception of music …

Carl Maria Von Weber’S Overture To Oberon: A History Of Recorded Performance, Stephen Planas

Undergraduate Research Symposium (UGRS)

My research examines the recorded performance history of the Overture to Weber’s Oberon in light of these aesthetic goals. I have charted changes in performance practice trends, including in timing, tempo fluctuation, rhythmic accuracy and ensemble, and the use of portamento. The twenty recordings studied that I surveyed span nearly seventy-five years, and include many of the 20th century’s most prominent conductors and orchestras, including groups from Communist Russia, both pre-World War II and post-World War II continental Europe, the British Isles, and the United States.8 Though by no means comprehensive, my selections encompass a diverse sampling of surviving recordings, …

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 …