Composition Commons^™

Bibliography, Matthew Herman

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of music pieces commissioned, performed and published by Matthew Herman.

Bibliography, Jack G. Montgomery Jr.

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of publications by Jack Montgomery.

Buckberry, Ray B., Jr., B. 1934 - Collector (Mss 685), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 685. Research material collected by Ray B. Buckberry, Jr. related to Ernest Hogan, an African American musician from Bowling Green, Kentucky, who is sometimes credited as one of the pioneers of ragtime music. He composed and wrote lyrics for numerous musical pieces for minstrel shows and published sheet music.

Schulman, Steven A. (Fa 1227), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1227. Student paper titled “The Preacher’s Just Like a Grasshopper: A Study of a Kentucky Song Maker” in which Steven Schulman details the life of Howess Dewey Winfrey, a song-maker from Cumberland County. Schulman collected folk songs and performances from Winfrey over the course of two months. His fieldwork revealed that Winfrey was a creator of satirical tunes, which were influenced by his childhood, his experiences with the Church of the Nazarene, his time spent as a logger, his relationships with family and friends, politics, and land ownership. The paper includes excerpts from …

Evolution Of The Cello In Music, Joshua Propst

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

With this project, I have studied cello music written throughout many of the major musical eras in an attempt to discover the cello, specifically regarding playing style, technique, and tonal ability. The composers included in this project are Bach, Haydn, Dvořák, Pärt, and Amanti. Most of the major musical styles are represented, with a focus on baroque, classical, romantic, minimalism, and jazz. I performed this wide variety of pieces at my Senior Recital for the Western Kentucky University (WKU) Music Dept. The goal of the recital was to showcase the rich musical history of the cello and how cello composition …

Flaher For Wind Ensemble, Benjamin W. Lee

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Music compositions are vehicles of communication. Organized music ensembles in schools allow for students to share in the process of music-making and extramusical expression within the curriculum. As of late, school districts have made a push in mental health awareness and suicide prevention within professional development seminars. This project views the music classroom as an important, open environment for such pressing social subjects. In such, my composition—Flaher (pronounced “flare”)—pays homage to a friend, Anthony Flaherty, who committed suicide (keeping his namesake in the work’s title). Flaher is an accessible piece for high school or college band that directors can …

Olympia: A Musical Composition For Wind Ensemble, Kyle Macdonald

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Olympia is a one movement musical composition to be performed by a wind ensemble. Written for the composer’s honors capstone project, Olympia is an exploration into the world of composing for large musical ensembles. The main theme, heard in the trombone solo at measure 40, is the proverbial “voice in the wilderness” that heroically comes out of chaos and is heard throughout the piece in different forms. Starting in short score with piano and percussion, the piece was then orchestrated into the final version. Written in the fall of 2011 and the spring of 2012, Olympia was rehearsed and performed …

America Sings: An Oratorio For Mixed Choir, Brass, Percussion, Narrator, William Cates Jr.

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

I wrote this work with the nation's Bicentennial Celebration in mind. I was completed on Dec. 1, 1975. I hope the musicians who perform it will do so with the same attitude of pride in being an American that I feel and that I experienced as I wrote it.

The underlying motive, in the beginning, was to write a "Bicentennial piece" that would be totally different from other works that would be most surely coming out in the '75-'76 Bicentennial year. I chose the vocal medium first because the ability to sing is God's gift to man. It is 'natural' …

Classical Music In Early Kentucky, 1850-1889, Kentucky Library Research Collections

Research Collections

No abstract provided.