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The Direction We Grow, Reid Willis Jan 2009

The Direction We Grow, Reid Willis

LSU Master's Theses

The Direction We Grow is a composition for orchestra, solo soprano, and choir. It is a summation of the compositional knowledge I’ve accumulated throughout my undergraduate and graduate programs at LSU. The piece reflects my compositional style, which is characterized by rich melody and complex rhythm. With sweeping melodic motives, climactic builds, and percussive coloration, the piece incorporates characteristics of the Classical, Romantic, and Impressionistic musical periods. The piece is palindromic in structure. It builds upon a simple, celestial one-note motive and introduces new melodic patterns until it finally morphs into a steady, percussive section. The section builds to a …


The Mise En Scène Of Rossini's Le Siège De Corinthe And The Conventions Of Staging At The Paris Opéra In The 1820s, Tina Huettenrauch Jan 2008

The Mise En Scène Of Rossini's Le Siège De Corinthe And The Conventions Of Staging At The Paris Opéra In The 1820s, Tina Huettenrauch

LSU Master's Theses

Shortly before 1800, the publication of livrets de mise en scène, short manuals including information regarding costumes, set designs, and blocking (i.e., the movement of characters on stage), became increasingly popular in France. While theater scholars (Gösta M. Bergman, Marvin Carlson, Hellmuth Christian Wolff) have recognized the value of these documents for the history of staging (and blocking in particular), musicologists have tended to focus on their impact on visual aspects and realization of drama. Those who have looked at staging (H. Robert Cohen, Rebecca S. Wilberg, M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet) have largely ignored the period prior to 1827, …


Sound Frames, Maira Cimbleris Jan 2008

Sound Frames, Maira Cimbleris

LSU Master's Theses

Sound Frames is a one movement piece for orchestra. Its formal structure is free. As the title demonstrates, each section of this composition is “framed” side by side with the next one. The piece is organized in a non-traditional way, with contrasting sections one being followed by another and occasionally they are recollected throughout the work. The music of the well known 20th Century composer György Ligeti was the primary inspiration for this composition, specially his “Zehn Stücke Für Bläserquintett”. One of the techniques used in the first movement of this Ligeti’s work is the disguising of the beat using …


Night, Nick Hwang Jan 2008

Night, Nick Hwang

LSU Master's Theses

Night is a work in 2 movements, each depicting different aspects or qualities of night. Several instruments are given solo roles to depict the many parts of a night, from the wind, stars, moon, and the individual observing the night. The first movement, an introduction and prelude, brings forth elements of the overwork. These elements are later developed in the later movements. The second movement uses the solo clarinet as a character trying to escape an enveloping night. The dissonance and darkness seem overwhelming at points and pushing the clamorous clarinet to its extremes.


The Consensual Assessment Technique As A Measure Of Creativity In Children's Musical Compositions Motivated By Visual And Verbal Stimuli, Katie Elizabeth Toups Jan 2008

The Consensual Assessment Technique As A Measure Of Creativity In Children's Musical Compositions Motivated By Visual And Verbal Stimuli, Katie Elizabeth Toups

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT The purposes of this study were: 1) To compare the relationship between the degrees of creativity shown in musical compositions of third grade students (N=163) when they were exposed to either a visual or verbal stimulus, and 2) to examine inter-judge reliability for creativity ratings using the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) with instrumental group compositions. Throughout a nine-week teaching unit, all subjects participated in regular music classes where they learned compositional techniques and concepts. They worked in small cooperative learning groups of 3 to 6 students throughout the unit to compose several “mini” compositions and two large-scale compositions. For …


"Shui Diao Ge Tou" From Poems Of The Sung Dynasty, Wennan Wang Jan 2008

"Shui Diao Ge Tou" From Poems Of The Sung Dynasty, Wennan Wang

LSU Master's Theses

“Shui Diao Ge Tou” from Poems of the Sung Dynasty is a piece for full orchestra. It was suggested by two poems of Su Dong Po. One is “Shui Diao Ge Tou”. The other one is “Jiang Chen Zi”. No movement of this piece has a fixed form, but the whole piece takes on the arch structure. The musical development is analogous to the texts of the poems, and the whole piece is controlled by two principal themes. They can first be found at measures 6 and 15. The materials of this work are drawn from the old traditional Chinese …


The Apologia Of Franchino Gafurio: A Critical Edition And Translation, Patrick Joseph Kaufman Jan 2007

The Apologia Of Franchino Gafurio: A Critical Edition And Translation, Patrick Joseph Kaufman

LSU Master's Theses

Franchino Gafurio’s Apologia (Turin, 1520) is one musical treatise in a series of works that constituted the famous “pamphlet war” between he and Giovanni Spataro. The dispute originated with the publication of Bartholomeo Ramis de Pareia’s Musica practica (Bologna, 1482). Unconventional and unapologetically critical, Ramis rejected venerated musical traditions in an attempt to align music theory with contemporary music practice. He opposed the Pythagorean division of the monochord and Guidonian solmization syllables, and instead proposed a division which produced pure thirds, and a solmization system based on the octave. His iconoclastic proposals and his highly sarcastic tone called forth a …


University Of Pennsylvania Ms Codex 436: A Description And Analysis Of Contents, Jeannette Di Bernardo Jones Jan 2007

University Of Pennsylvania Ms Codex 436: A Description And Analysis Of Contents, Jeannette Di Bernardo Jones

LSU Master's Theses

The University of Pennsylvania Ms. Codex 436, an Italian manuscript dated 1682, is a handbook containing alphabets, linguistic treatises, a computus for calculating the date of Easter, mathematical tables, and rules for music theory and singing the liturgy. The manuscript's contents make it possible to identify the compiler as a student; the contents, along with their mode of presentation and the manuscript's general appearance, make it possible to situate him within the culture of humanism and more specifically within book culture in the transition from manuscript to print. The contents indicate who the compiler is in terms of his social …


The First Movement Of Bartók's Second String Quartet: Sonata Form And Pitch Organization, James N. Bennett Jan 2007

The First Movement Of Bartók's Second String Quartet: Sonata Form And Pitch Organization, James N. Bennett

LSU Master's Theses

The moderato of Bartók's Second String Quartet is a lucid and eloquent sonata form that conforms rhetorically to sonata-form norms of the eighteenth century. This thesis will fully delineate the form and analyze the extent to which it conforms to these norms. In order to precisely place the movement in context, the Sonata Theory of James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy and William E. Caplin's system of formal functions will be employed. In addition, the movement's Grundgestalt will be identified, and motivic connections between it and the other thematic materials will be revealed. Bartók's pitch organization, while non-traditional, also aids in …


A Taxonomy Of The Effects And Affects Of Surface-Level Metric Dissonance, Jennifer Rae Shirley Jan 2007

A Taxonomy Of The Effects And Affects Of Surface-Level Metric Dissonance, Jennifer Rae Shirley

LSU Master's Theses

In his book, Fantasy Pieces, Harald Krebs presents a taxonomy of metric dissonance that lays a foundation for further study. The system that Krebs presents leaves ample opportunity to answer the following questions: Do metric dissonances that are labeled the same way have the same function in their musical context? What is the role of listening in the categorization of metric dissonance? While many theorists, including Richard Cohn, Walter Frisch, and Yonatan Malin, have provided valuable insights to the realm of metric dissonance, their work focuses mainly on hypermeter, large-scale formal implications, or specific analyses. In light of the above …


Symphony Iii, Michael Berthelot Jan 2006

Symphony Iii, Michael Berthelot

LSU Master's Theses

In the summer of 2003 in the outskirts of Portland, Oregon, inspiration was found, and Symphony III is the result. It was here that two conflicting ideas became clear. The juxtaposition of these two ideas is evident throughout this work. Symphony III is a one-movement piece of twenty minutes in duration that consists of five different sections in the arch form ABCBA. One idea is very lyrical, as in Section A, while the other is very rhythmic, as in Section B. The lyrical inspiration can be heard in the opening flutes, and in the piccolo trio, which perfectly reflects the …


Symphony No.1, Jessica Mahan Jan 2006

Symphony No.1, Jessica Mahan

LSU Master's Theses

Symphony No. 1 is a programmatic piece based on the sabbat holidays of the traditional Celtic calendar. The holidays of the Celtic year celebrate the human spirit in context with the changes of the earth during the course of a year. Beginning with autumn, Samhain celebrates death and the preparation for the darkness of the winter months. Yule is the longest night of the year, and the time the Goddess is crowned. Signs of spring come at Imbolg. Ostara is the Spring Equinox, and an equal relationship exists between the Goddess and the God. Beltane is celebrated by wrapping ribbons …


Symphonic Revelations, Carlo Vincetti Frizzo Jan 2006

Symphonic Revelations, Carlo Vincetti Frizzo

LSU Master's Theses

Symphonic Revelations is scored for 3-3-3-3, 4-3-3-1, 1 timpani, 3 percussionists, harp, piano, and strings and is approximately 20 minutes in length. It is a single movement symphonic work that consists of three major sections and is built from the pitch class set [0, 1, 3]. The first section’s overall form resembles both a large crescendo and an accelerando. The music begins softly and slowly and over time gradually builds becoming louder and faster. Eventually in bars 225 to 229, the section comes to an end with a tutti passage that marks one of the loudest and fastest moments in …


Background Conglomerates In Alkan's Quasi-Faust, Op. 33, No. 2, Matthew James Steinbron Jan 2006

Background Conglomerates In Alkan's Quasi-Faust, Op. 33, No. 2, Matthew James Steinbron

LSU Master's Theses

Various approaches have been used over the past 50 years to describe and analyze works that exhibit tonality but have more than one tonic. This paper focuses solely on a subcategory of such works: those that begin in one key and end in another, the first key being permanently replaced by the second. The most prominent systems of terminology and analysis for such works include “progressive tonality,” “directional tonality,” “interlocking structures,” and “background conglomerates.” After examining these systems, “background conglomerates” is determined to best suit works that permanently change tonics. This approach, which was introduced by Harald Krebs, employs a …


Musical Time And Revealed Timelessness, Michael Vincent Blandino Jan 2006

Musical Time And Revealed Timelessness, Michael Vincent Blandino

LSU Master's Theses

Scholarship on musical time recognizes the depiction of timelessness in music as a possibility. However, many theories of musical timelessness center around total stasis as the ideal method for creation of the effect, tolerating relative motion only out of necessity and viewing such motion as a weakening force in this regard. There is little investigation of the interaction between other modes of musical time and the mode of timelessness. Hence, no theory offers a comprehensive expansion of scope to include more complex depictions of timelessness in relation to time. This paper addresses these points, offering a framework for understanding musical …


The Effect Of Music Tempo On Movement Responses Of Preschool Children, Melanie Woods Alexander Jan 2006

The Effect Of Music Tempo On Movement Responses Of Preschool Children, Melanie Woods Alexander

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of tempo on movement responses of children ages one to three. For two weeks, 17 children between the ages of 22 and 36 months were videotaped twice per week to observe and measure their movement responses to fast and slow musical stimuli. During these sessions, the children were videotaped in their classrooms, engaged in either free play or in a quiet group activity. The videotaped sessions were then analyzed using a Motor Observation Form. Once all of the tapes had been viewed and scored, overall percentages of movement and no …


Rhetoric, Form, And Sovereignty In Schubert's "Prometheus," D. 674, Erica Brady Angert Jan 2005

Rhetoric, Form, And Sovereignty In Schubert's "Prometheus," D. 674, Erica Brady Angert

LSU Master's Theses

Franz Schubert's "Prometheus," D. 674 (1819), sets a free-verse dramatic monologue by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in which Prometheus, the Titan who presented fire and hope to mankind, declares himself independent from Zeus. This song belongs to a small group of Schubert's Lieder that resemble scenes from operas more than tonally-closed art songs. The paper discusses some of Schubert's compositional influences in the vocal genre, including Johann Friedrich Reichardt, who composed an earlier setting of the same "Prometheus" text. This paper explores the rhetorical structure of Goethe's text, which follows Quintilian's model for an effective argument, and which Schubert punctuates …


Tonality And Drama In Verdi's "La Traviata", David Bradley Easley Jan 2005

Tonality And Drama In Verdi's "La Traviata", David Bradley Easley

LSU Master's Theses

Scholars hold opposing views concerning the importance of large-scale key relations in Verdi's operas. Julian Budden states that, since Verdi often allowed transpositions of his music in performance, one must take care in assigning structural importance to Verdi's key schemes. Others, including David Lawton, place much significance on Verdi's choice of keys. Lawton describes methods by which Verdi intensifies dramatic situations through associative tonality and recurring musical themes. In La Traviata, several recurring musical themes undergo transposition, a device that Wagner scholar Robert Bailey calls expressive tonality, which is the repetition or recall of a passage transposed by semitone …


Concerto For Orchestra, Alejandro Jose Arguello Jan 2005

Concerto For Orchestra, Alejandro Jose Arguello

LSU Master's Theses

Concerto for Orchestra was written between Fall 2004 and Spring 2005. It is scored for regular orchestra, including piano, harp and celesta. The concerto is written in three separated movements, following the common pattern of the regular solo concerto: Fast-Slow Fast. The purpose of the piece is to create a virtuoso work in which all the instrumental sections have an important and relevant role as if they were soloists. There are three different forms for the movements of the piece. The first movement, Allegro molto, is a modified sonata form. The form of this part is Exposition (A- transition- B- …


Symphony No.1 - A Symphony Of The Christ, James White Hellums, Iii Jan 2004

Symphony No.1 - A Symphony Of The Christ, James White Hellums, Iii

LSU Master's Theses

Symphony No. 1- A Symphony of the Christ is, in a general sense, a programmatic orchestral work recounting the life of Christ. This is not to say that every musical device or motive represents something explicitly, rather that the music of each movement suggests the overall mood and feeling of its subject matter. The first movement, subtitled “Christ our God to earth descendeth,” corresponds to Christ’s birth. The second movement, subtitled “Dwelt among men, our example is He,” concerns His life and ministry. The third movement, representing His suffering and crucifixion, is subtitled “See, from His head, His hands, His …


The Correlation Between College Students' Familiarity With Potentially Offensive Popular Music And Self-Reported Tolerance Of Obscene Language And Sexual Behavior, Harry Emons Martin Jan 2003

The Correlation Between College Students' Familiarity With Potentially Offensive Popular Music And Self-Reported Tolerance Of Obscene Language And Sexual Behavior, Harry Emons Martin

LSU Master's Theses

This study's purpose was to examine the correlations among popular music preference, sexual behavior tolerance, and potentially obscene language usage. Subjects (N = 81) were college freshmen over the age of 18 who graduated from high school in 2001. They were drawn from one section each of a Music Appreciation course (non-music majors) and an Introduction to Music Study course (music majors). The top 20 songs from the October 27, 2001 Billboard Magazine's Top 100 charts were analyzed for occurrences of potentially offensive words and whole lines of lyrics containing sexual references. Subjects responded to a 4-part questionnaire. In part …


Paradise: In A Dream, Jonathan Beresford Horrocks Jan 2002

Paradise: In A Dream, Jonathan Beresford Horrocks

LSU Master's Theses

Paradise: In a Dream is a poem by Christina Rossetti, which is based on a dream the author had of heaven. It was my goal to give this masterpiece a musical dimension: expanding its meaning and giving the experience dramatic implications. The harmonic language and tensions come from the words of the poem. I used progressive tonality to tie the twentieth-century musical element to the romantic idiom of the poem. There are two important musical themes. The “song of Paradise” theme is Schubertian and dance-like, appearing for the first time before the second verse (meas. 32). The theme of earthly …


Concerto For Trumpet And Orchestra, Matthew Scott Schaffner Jan 2002

Concerto For Trumpet And Orchestra, Matthew Scott Schaffner

LSU Master's Theses

Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra (2002) is a three-movement composition for orchestra and solo trumpet. Each movement has a prominent theme, although there are themes that pervade the entire composition. The main element in the work is a two-note rhythmic statement. This two-note statement unifies the piece. Another prominent idea is a pitch collection of three consecutive minor seconds and their inversions. The first movement, Incipience, begins with a slow foreshadowing of the work’s main themes. Following the introduction is a quick fanfare that leads back to the opening material. A trumpet cadenza develops from the introductory ideas, which leads …


Aspects Of Jazz And Classical Music In David N. Baker's Ethnic Variations On A Theme Of Paganini, Heather Koren Pinson Jan 2002

Aspects Of Jazz And Classical Music In David N. Baker's Ethnic Variations On A Theme Of Paganini, Heather Koren Pinson

LSU Master's Theses

David Baker's Ethnic Variations on a Theme of Paganini (1976) for violin and piano bring together stylistic elements of jazz and classical music, a synthesis for which Gunther Schuller in 1957 coined the term "third stream." In regard to classical aspects, Baker's work is modeled on Nicolo Paganini's Twenty-fourth Caprice for Solo Violin, itself a theme and variations. From Paganini,it borrows aspects of melody, harmony, and articulation, not only of the theme but also the variations. In regard to jazz, Baker transforms most variations (including the theme, which in comparison to Paganini's is already a variation) into distinct styles related …


The Effects Of Internet Guided Practice With Aural Modeling On The Sight-Singing Accuracy Of Elementary Education Majors, Jessica L. Hall Jan 2002

The Effects Of Internet Guided Practice With Aural Modeling On The Sight-Singing Accuracy Of Elementary Education Majors, Jessica L. Hall

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of aural modeling in guided practice through the Internet on the sight-singing improvement of elementary education majors. Students enrolled in a music methods course for elementary education majors (N=37) used software delivered via the Internet to practice sight-singing. The experimental web page included visual examples of sight-singing exercises as well as aural modeling of each of the exercises. The control web page included only visual examples. A t test for independent samples indicated no significant difference in the posttest scores of the two groups in rhythm (p > .05), pitch on …