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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Producing Music Using Negative Harmony, Jeremy Ahn Apr 2021

Producing Music Using Negative Harmony, Jeremy Ahn

Honors Theses

This project uses Negative Harmony as a basis and reference point for producing original songs in the style of instrumental jazz and funk. Negative harmony is a loose term that describes a technique of reharmonization made popular by musician Jacob Collier. While negative harmony is best understood as a reharmonization technique, writing new songs and chord progressions that strive to replace common chord progressions with their negative harmony counterparts can also be an effective way to demonstrate negative harmony. Music can be made with unconventional sounding but harmonically viable chords that challenge both the musician and the listener to grow …


A Phenomological Study: The Adventist Musician Experience, Tiffany Steinweg Apr 2020

A Phenomological Study: The Adventist Musician Experience, Tiffany Steinweg

Honors Theses

What is the experience of a Seventh-day Adventist professional classical musician? Both Seventh-day Adventists and classical musicians have been the subjects of numerous studies in past decades; however, few to none of those studies have focused on individuals who identify as both. The current study seeks to better understand the experiences of Adventist musicians within their church and within the wider classical music community. Interviews were conducted with five musicians using an initial and a follow-up set of questions. Themes were identified from interview transcripts by a content analysis. Several predicted themes were confirmed such as the experience of one’s …


El Sistema For, Or Against, Benton Harbor, Dana Wilson Apr 2020

El Sistema For, Or Against, Benton Harbor, Dana Wilson

Honors Theses

Members of the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra’s Administration envision the adaption of El Sistema, a famed music program from Venezuela, into the community of Benton Harbor, Michigan. My research investigates the pre-adaption of the program through a comparative analysis of both ethnic cultures, definition and description of El Sistema, examination of the program’s application to other urban centers, and assessment of interviews with individuals instrumental to the provision of a free music program in Benton Harbor. As a result, the program demonstrates compatibility, but this study also uncovers the sensitivity of providing opportunities for an underprivileged city to avoid blind-sighted …


The Art Of French Melodie: A Manual For Recital Preparation, Kristen Abraham Sep 2015

The Art Of French Melodie: A Manual For Recital Preparation, Kristen Abraham

Honors Theses

This is a documentation of my journey through the research, development and execution of a voice recital, with a focus on the creation of guidelines for how one may achieve success in a future recital. Moving through three phases: Thinking, Doing, and Reflecting, I highlight the important processes required to transition seamlessly through the phases. During the entirety of this project, I kept a journal of each step, documenting everything to maintain the integrity of the process, and organizing the information into sections to make the findings easier to understand, learn, and replicate. My end goal is to produce a …


Musical Borrowing In Las Cuatro Estaciones Portenas: Piazzolla, Desyatnikov, Vivaldi, Wayanne Watson Jan 2015

Musical Borrowing In Las Cuatro Estaciones Portenas: Piazzolla, Desyatnikov, Vivaldi, Wayanne Watson

Honors Theses

Leonid Desyatnikov arranged Astor Piazzolla's Las Cuatro Estaciones Portenas for violin and string orchestra, interspersing quotations from Vivaldi's Four Seasons throughout the new work. My score-based analysis of the arrangement investigates Desyatnikov's borrowing practice and connects his compositional techniques to musicological meanings. In addition to identifying levels of contrast value between the quotation and the surrounding arrangement, I examine alterations to the original content and context of the quotations and determine whether Desyatnikov maintains or transforms the quotations' identities. I combine identity and contrast value into an interpretive model of musical interaction, providing a more nuanced exploration of musical dominance.


A Composition Project: An Original 12-Tone Fugue Modeled After J. S. Bach's Bwv 847, Ilana Joyce Cady Jan 2014

A Composition Project: An Original 12-Tone Fugue Modeled After J. S. Bach's Bwv 847, Ilana Joyce Cady

Honors Theses

A prominent feature among great composers is they often attempt to expand the boundaries of expectation and strive to discover fresh, new, and innovative styles. Throughout the musical periods, composers have established standard compositional forms; among these processes is the fugue. The specific goal of this project is to explore the compositional techniques of the 12-tone system developed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1921, and apply these techniques to fugal writing. In this process I am taking Bach’s fugue, BWV 847, and using it as a blueprint for my original 12-tone fugue. I follow the same overarching structural pattern of BWV …