Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Transference Music: For Electric Guitar Soloist And Amplified Orchestra, Andrew Noseworthy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Transference Music: for Electric Guitar Soloist and Amplified Orchestra is a concertante work with an approximate duration of 25 minutes. The work is inspired by my experiences as a composer-electric guitarist. Its musical parameters are constructed via the act transferring those experiences between the typically separate designations of ‘performer’ and ‘composer.’ These experiences involve aspects of style and genre, electric guitar-specific performance gestures and various timbral or textural ideas, as well as concepts of electronic sound production. These experiences are then used as the basis for the work’s form, motivic relationships and orchestration. As the electric guitar is somewhat of …

Soundcurrents: Exploring Sound’S Potential To Catalyze Creative Critical Consciousness In Adolescent Music Students And Undergraduate Music Education Majors, Jashen I. Edwards

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this study was to examine how and in what ways a reorientation towards sound could catalyze creative critical consciousness in high school music students and university music undergraduates. Specifically, this study sought to uncover how and in what ways sonic lifeworlds: everyday sound currents streaming in/out/through participants’ lived experiences at school, home, neighborhood, park, playground, street, alleyway, train station, cyberspace could potentially excite creative aspects of knowing and being via “cultural production” (Gaztambide-Fernández, 2011) and also elicit critical ways of thinking about and responding to the world as “cultural citizens” (Benedict & Schmidt, 2014). This study stems …

The Tale Of Rowan O'Shera (A Musical Drama), Emma T.L. Verdonk

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Tale of Rowan O’Shera is a musical drama for solo violin, chamber ensemble (percussion, harp, classical guitar, viola, cello, double bass), choir (including solo alto and solo tenor), and sound files. The libretto was written by the composer with the exception of the text in Angus Dei (Movement 7), which uses the traditional Latin text. This drama is divided into eight movements with each being a different step on the journey of the main character, Rowan O’Shera, who is represented by the solo violin. The narrative follows Rowan as he leaves his hometown of Dunlea (a fictional town invented …

Dreamvision Songbook: Five Songs For Mixed Ensemble, Maxwell R. Lucas Mr.

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The DREAMVISION SONGBOOK is a musical dream vision: a cycle of allegorical songs for mixed ensemble (three sopranos, guitar, violin, double bass and percussion). The text for the work consists of five original English poems written by the composer. The poems take the characteristics of the medieval rondeau, virelai and ballade as a formal departure point. The five poems depict a series of episodes that weave together a dream vision; a pilgrimage in which the dreamer encounters imagery of environmental collapse, death, decay and catastrophe, but also symbols of hope and repair.

The Old House, Eric Swiatoschik

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Old House is a programmatic children's suite in four movements based on a short story of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. The story is about a young boy who befriends a man who lives in an old house on his street. The narrative of the music focuses on the beginning of the story when the boy enters the house for the first time with each movement musically depicting something the boy sees. The piece utilizes straightforward programmatic elements in conjunction with Neo-Romantic harmonic and melodic content to appeal to younger audiences (children), while still maintaining the same …

Antoinette, An Opera In One Act, Colin Mcmahon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Antoinette is a chamber opera in one act. It is a dramatization of the events leading to the execution of Marie Antoinette and is 30 minutes in length. The narrative of the opera was developed together with Vancouver based poet Ray Hsu, who wrote the libretto. Antoinette is intended to address modern societal issues through musical drama. These issues represent the biographical reality of the characters but are intended to resonate with modern audiences. Themes will include overconsumption, the dangers of so-called “Strong-man Politics”, mortality, and feminism. Antoinette is written for five principle vocalists (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, bass) accompanied …

Requiem, Wendell Glick

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Requiem is a five-movement work for SATB chorus and chamber orchestra and is approximately 28 minutes in duration. The text is a compilation of traditional and adapted excerpts from the Roman Missal, combined with poetry by Tamar Zehr and Psalm 67 from the King James Version of the Bible. In this work, contemporary texts are intertwined with traditional ones to explore textual and musical narratives of doubt and faith, loss and gain, death and rebirth. This document contains the full score of the work, followed by three discussion chapters. The first chapter offers a glimpse into the background of the …

Namazu, Sean Kim

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Namazu, for Orchestra is a three-movement composition for orchestra and women’s chorus inspired by various mythological accounts for the cause of earthquakes. The dissertation consists of two parts: the composition in full score and an analysis of the composition. The first movement is based on the Japanese myth and namesake for this piece, Namazu. The second and third movements refer to Greek and Norse myths, respectively. The discussion document introduces the synopses of these three myths. Additionally, the document not only outlines pre-compositional processes, including the development of a systematic approach to modifying modes and constructing harmonies, but also examines …

Ethos, William T. Nicolaou

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Ethos – meaning the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations – is a piece that explores Greek music from the 3^rd Millennium B.C.E. to the folk tunes and dances of the 16^th century C.E. Ethos incorporates multiphonics, quarter tones, ancient tonal systems and folk scales to show the differences and similarities between ancient and folk styles. The piece also features the traditional Greek drum ‘Daouli’ and mimics ancient instruments with those in a traditional orchestra. As the piece develops, ancient musical fragments can be heard thought the orchestra, chiefly …

Amor Fati, Aaron Lee

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Amor Fati, for wind ensemble, is built upon a formal design that divides the work into harmonic regions whose durations are based on approximations of the golden ratio. The harmonies in these regions are orchestrated using techniques inspired by Spectralism as well as the electro-acoustic technique of time-variant harmonic enveloping. Klangfarben technique is used to pass sustained harmonies around the ensemble, thereby stretching the duration of individual chords. These harmonies and their progressions are derived from several juxtaposed harmonic series and, at times, resemble the gradually changing triadic progressions characteristic of some examples of Minimalism. Layered with these elements …

Concerto Suite: For Viola Da Gamba And String Soloists, Matthew W. Tozer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Concerto Suite explores a unique hybridization of aspects from the baroque dance suites of the 17th and 18th centuries and from the classical concerto of the 18th and 19th centuries. In addition it also showcases some noteworthy differences in the performance technique and timbre of the viola da gamba in contrast to today's modern string instruments: the violin, viola, cello and double bass. ­

Concerto Suite is made up of three movements that are based on the form, rhythmic patterns, and meters of typical dance suites of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue. Concerto Suite combines …

Three Solitudes And A Dj: A Mashed-Up Study Of Counterpoint In A Digital Realm, Anthony B. Cushing

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation is primarily concerned with developing an understanding of how the use of pre-recorded digital audio shapes and augments conventional notions of counterpoint. It outlines a theoretical framework for analyzing the contrapuntal elements in electronically and digitally composed musics, specifically music mashups, and Glenn Gould’s Solitude Trilogy ‘contrapuntal radio’ works. Conventional studies of counterpoint encompass sixteenth- through early twentieth-century modernist and neo- classical materials but stop there. Composition by magnetic tape and computer software using pre-existing recorded audio offers the potential for a new study of music that displays clear contrapuntal elements but lacks the analytical models to outline …

Green Glass For Orchestra, Carolann K. Deyoung

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My thesis work, Green Glass, is a single movement piece for orchestra lasting 10'30. The piece consists of three main sections and explores spectral harmonies in combination with my own pitch material.

A Modest Proposal: A Chamber Opera In One Act, Kevin Morse

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A Modest Proposal is a chamber opera in one act adapted from the 1729 satirical essay of the same name by Jonathan Swift. The opera’s narrative was developed in close partnership with Toronto-based Governor-General’s Literary Award-nominated playwright Lisa Codrington, whom I commissioned to write the libretto. Set in an unnamed city in the present day, the work explores themes of economic disparity, social class, political power and process, parents and children, love, anger, and revenge. I integrate musical quotations from (or references to) folk lullabies and the works of Mahler, Debussy, and Schoenberg to support and enhance the richness and …