Composition Commons^™

Golliwog's Cakewalk From Children's Corner Arranged For Clarinet Quartet, Elizabeth Johnson

Honors Projects

By demonstrating integrated learning through interdisciplinary connections between music performance and arranging techniques, this honors project was the culmination of a process of using my knowledge of piano and clarinet performance techniques to arrange the piece “Golliwog’s Cakewalk” by Claude Debussy from piano to clarinet quartet. To arrange the piece for clarinet quartet, I utilized my experience in playing piano and clarinet to critically analyze the piano score and decide how it would best aurally transfer to an ensemble of four clarinets. The project also demonstrates critical thinking as I arranged the piece to be at a playing level appropriate …

Creating And Marketing Your Demo Cd, Daniel Rager

Dan Rager

A "one stop book" used in ALL genres of music today and is a required text for many college and university music business courses.

A complete guide on how to create successful DEMO's along with the tools of the trade on getting published, Record deals, Funding, obtaining Copyrights, Contracts, Press Kits, Band business, Touring and much more.

This book is an insightfully direct and informational text without the fluff of other musical books on the subject. It shows the MAZE and money flow of the music business and has a listing of 680 Publishing companies and 125 Record labels for …

First Flight, Alisha Symington

Student Composition Recitals

In early September I had the opportunity to travel to Florida by airplane for a friend's wedding. Flying is a form of transportation I have always been most drawn towards: the excitement of finding the right gate in the airport, the rattling take off, and the breathtaking clouds. Fortunately, I have had many opportunities in my lifetime to fulfill my enjoyment of this thrill. As I sat on the plane, I attempted without success to remember the first time I flew in an airplane. I started to think what it would feel like to experience this for the first time. …

Emergence, Michael Carbaugh

Student Composition Recitals

Emergence was one of the first pieces I wrote when I came to Cedarville. It was a significant step in my learning experience as I employed different writing styles and scales. The name Emergence came about as I was listening to the finished piece. At first, the piece seems triumphant and glad, but then it retreats into a piercing dark for a time. However, the triumphant tune returns in the end, brighter than before. The piece reminded me of a walk a dark place. The dark portion reminded me of cautious steps through mysterious, eerie circumstances, but the ending signifies …

Whole-Tone Sax, Joshua Drake

Student Composition Recitals

Whole-tone Sax is my very first composition for alto saxophone. I came up with the opening theme while experimenting with the whole-tone scale, hence the title. Although the piece begins with a lively excursion into the whole-tone landscape, I quickly depart from it and began transposing my theme into more familiar diatonic (major and minor) scales. This was very necessary as the whole-tone scale can quickly become monotonous if you're not careful and exceptionally creative. The second movement is much calmer and peaceful in contrast to the first. Again, I chose to stay away from the confines of the whole-tone …

Suite From Know Me, Sean Kisch

Student Composition Recitals

This piece acts as a preview for the show Know Me, a dance-theatre show I created with my older sister Haley, who is currently studying dance at Anderson University in Indiana. The show is loosely based on the parable of the Good Samaritan, and it combines many styles of dance, including ballet, modern, jazz, swing, and tango. The show will be performed at Cedarville on January 18, 2015, and in Anderson on January 24, 2015. In this suite, you will hear many of the main themes, each of which represents a specific character or place. Even though you will …

What If..., Calvin D. Hitchcock

Student Composition Recitals

My enigmatic title presages the sinuous gestures found in the music. I invite you to consider the various forms of ambiguity implicit in the score as you experience this work with little foreknowledge of its terrain.

Chrysalis, Sean Kisch

Student Composition Recitals

I owe a great deal of thanks to both the clarinetists and Dr. Curlette for putting a great deal of time into this piece. Chrysalis is quite challenging, both technically (because of the complex rhythms and counter-rhythms) and musically (because of the unique harmonic language). The idea behind Chrysalis is that the tiny phrases, syncopations, and runs would create the picture of a thousand tiny little pieces being changed and rearranged, much like how God transforms a caterpillar into a butterfly. Also like a caterpillar, near the end of the piece, the quartet goes through a transformation as well, as …

Heavy Droplets In The Light Rain, Michael Carbaugh

Student Composition Recitals

Heavy Droplets in Light Rain is a Bach-inspired, fast-paced violin solo. It’s a piece filled with minimalistic changes. Listen for the heavy droplets, the changing notes, among the light rain (the repeated patterns).

Blue Mountain: A Chamber Opera For Winds And Voices By Justin Dello Joio: A Unique Contribution For Wind Band Literature, Armando Saldarini

Dissertations

Blue Mountain is an opera in one act scored for four voices, and thirty-three instruments, commissioned by Det Norske Blaseensemble. Under the direction of Kenneth Jean, the premiere took place on October 8, 2007, at Kanonhalen in Oslo, Norway, as part of the Edvard Grieg Centennial celebrations and the 2007 Ultima contemporary Music Festival. The opera takes place in Troldhaugen, Norway, during the last days of Edvard Grieg’s life. Suffering from emphysema, Grieg was being treated by his doctor with morphine that created great anxiety, fear, and mental torment. A visit from his friend, Percy Grainger, gave Grieg great …

Aesthetics In Culture, Dan Rager

Dan Rager

This article examines the role of aesthetics in art, music, non-art objects, and activities in daily life. It shows that recognition is vital to our understanding of art and art-objects and sometimes creates conflicts which ask, what does one do with art? The question becomes more confusing when we think about non-art objects and activities which concern our everyday experiences from eating, clothing, cleaning and dealing with life's natural elements. The author points out that Western cultures have a distinct artworld that is usually limited for special occasions set aside for that purpose. He suggests that aesthetics in culture is …

The Interpretation Of Sousa, Daniel Rager

Dan Rager

This article creates a recording anthology from four of John P. Sousa's finest marches and includes "The Washington Post," "The Fairest of the Fair," "Hands Across the Sea," and "The Thunder." The titles were chosen because of their popularity as being the most recorded marches, and that they all have a common thread between them. Together, they create a unique collage of themes that when put together take on a new life. The author shows how all four compositions were assembled into a symphony titled Symphony on the Themes of Sousa written by Hollywood composer Ira Hearshen. Frederick Fennell recorded …

Johann Sebastian Bach's Wind/Brass Instruments And Scoring Techniques, Daniel Rager

Dan Rager

Each time period has its own social, cultural and religious rules from which composers obey. Bach’s sacred and secular works walk a fine line and are hard to distinguish between, but each has been performed throughout the ages in a variety of settings. This paper investigates Bach’s: Ideologies and Scoring which include his petition of August 23, 1730, his Horn (Corno) and its many names and uses. The author details Bach’s trombone (s), how he use them and in what compositions they can be found as well as Bach’s trumpet (s), their various keys and uses including musical excerpts, ornaments …

Bridge To A Millennium, Daniel Rager

Dan Rager

1) Sedona (D. Rager) 2) As Torrents in Summer (Elgar/D. Rager) 3) Percussive Soundscapes - 4 mvts, percussion septet (D. Rager) 4) Ever Endeavor (D. Rager) 5) Bridge to a Millennium - Symphony No. 1 (D. Rager)

Colours Of Saratov, Daniel Rager, Natalya Rager

Dan Rager

The International Orchestral and Symphonic Wind Music of Dan Rager

Gesture-Sensing Technology For The Bow: A Relevant And Accessible Digital Interface For String Instruments, Zachary Boyt

Masters Theses

Technological advances in powerful, miniaturized electronics have created a growing potential to continue the evolution of string instruments through an accessible digital interface. Although many new types of instruments and controllers have explored this goal, gesture-sensing technology, when paired with the expressive nature of the bow, has provided the most eligible solution towards bridging technology and tradition. Through a selective showcase of technical development, artistic application, and future possibilities, this thesis traces the evolution of gesturesensing bow technology as an accessible digital interface in string instrument performance.

Born To Conquer: The Fortepiano’S Revolution Of Keyboard Technique And Style, Rachel A. Lowrance

Musical Offerings

The fortepiano had a rough beginning. In 1709 it entered a world that was not quite ready for it; a world that was very comfortable with the earlier keyboard instruments, especially the harpsichord. Pianists and composers were used to the harpsichord technique and style, which is drastically different from the piano. This is because the harpsichord was actually a very different instrument than the piano, as is explained in this paper. This paper traces the history of the piano's rise to dominance over the harpsichord, and how its unique hammer action began creating an idiomatic piano style. The piano also …

A Composed Space, Adam S. Hogan

Graduate School of Art Theses

My practice is invested in expanding our conscious scope—revealing phenomena and observations, and presenting the information to the viewer through auxiliary channels. Using the language of minimalism, cinema, and abstraction I create technologically sophisticated systems to produce spaces of contemplation (a meditative space challenging the ephemeral relationships between our sensorial perceptions, space, and time).

Material, space, and technology become instruments for composition manifesting as silent experimental cinema (created and controlled sonically). My work seeks to illuminate our conscious scope through the succession of frames.

Mirrors, Zachary R. Ross

Undergraduate Honors Theses

MIRRORS is a cycle of songs composed for soprano voice and piano using five poems by Sylvia Plath. The work features the creation of a protagonist and tells a chronological story through the arrangement of the five poems colored and unified by the manipulation of a thematic twelve-tone row.

Flow, Tommy Bravos

Compositions

Flow was composed in the Spring of 2014 and premiered in it’s entirety during the April Student Composition Concert here at Illinois Wesleyan University. I composed the piece during an emotionally tumultuous time, and it represents many events that were occurring cyclically in my life at the time. The emotional events that directly inspired Flow were like opposite sides of a coin: one being relationships attempting to grow and the other being relationships gradually turning sour, needing to be left behind. These ideas are represented by the piece revolving around the recurring motive, showing how these events constantly wove in …

2013-2014 New Music Festival, Lisa Leonard, Shirley J. Thompson

New Music Festival

Eighth Annual New Music Festival

• Shirley J. Thompson, Composer-in-Residence
• Lisa Leonard, Director

Sunday, February 23, 2014 at 7:30 pm

• Spotlight: Faculty Concert

Sunday, February 24, 2014 at 7:30 pm

• Contemporary Music Forum - Post Modernism: Contemporary Influences in Art Music

Tuesday, February 25, 2014 at 7:30 pm

• Spotlight: Young Composers

Wednesday, February 26, 2014 at 7:30 pm

• Spotlight: Shirley J. Thompson

Commissioned Work

Tequesta Song for Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano by Shirley J. Thompson. The full score is displayed in the Creative Works collection.

Sonata Divina Commedia (Part I: Inferno), Anthony Elia

Bridwell Library Research

Part 1 of planned 3-part violin and piano sonata modeled after Dante's "Divina Commedia." Part 1 "Inferno" is a wild modernist adventure for violin and piano, echoing the terrors of inferno. As the piece is incredibly virtuosic, the composer allows for variation, adaptation, and some minor changes if necessary for performers to execute the piece, as faithfully as they can. The work was written in honor of two superb musicians, who by random chance, the composer met or had connections with separately, before realizing the violinist (Mr. Kerr) and the pianist (Mr. Wallace) actually met and went to school together …

Fiesole: The Hillsides Of Tuscany, A Musical Work For The Classical Guitar And A Study Of The Compositional Process, Matthew Goodman

Music

Fiesole: The Hillsides of Tuscany

This piece of music is composed for 4 guitars, and it includes all of the right and left-hand fingerings for all notes. The individual parts are printed out so it can be distributed easily.

Dolce Stil Novo, Timothy W. Mcdunn

Compositions

Dolce Stil Novo is a slightly unconventional kind of tone poem. As the title suggests, the main inspiration for the piece is the poetry of Dante Alighieri, especially that subset of it which belongs to his so-called "Sweet New Style." While the three successive intermezzi are tied only obliquely to this subject, the first and final movements make direct reference to Dante's Sweet New Style as found in the Vita Nuova, an autobiographical compilation of prose and verse. In this way, the piece is a reflection on Dante's writings from two perspectives: that of the author (in the first and …

Eleven From The Japanese, Randall Snyder, Kenneth Rexroth

Randall Snyder Compositions

notes

In addition to the complete performance, a selection of individual songs may be assembled in any order, with the exception of #8, which must follow #7.

Passages marked “Free”, and “ad lib”, are to be sung individually without section synchronization creating a sound mass effect.. A single-numeral time signature indicates the approximate number of seconds in the measure.

Japanese is pronounced similar to Italian.

It is suggested the English translation be recited directly before each song.

written in 1987 for James Hejduk and the University of Nebraska Singers revised 2014

duration: c. 16 minutes

Le Livre De Mormon Musicale (1966), Keith Rowley

Keith D Rowley

The music score for a Book of Mormon musical performed in Marseille and Nice, France in 1966.

Graduate Recital In Composition, Joseph Carey

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This graduate composition recital was a compilation recital of two separate events. The first was a public recital which took place on 29 March 2013. This recital included three main pieces: in the day, cloak + dagger, and Fib. The second event was a reading session of Corpus Loci by UNI Concert Chorale, which took place on 14 November 2013. This abstract will summarize the structural, rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic components of each of these pieces, and will recognize and acknowledge the many musicians who donated their time to make this recital possible.

Requiem: All That's Left Is Noise, Danielle R. Dobkin

Senior Projects Spring 2014

Danielle R. Dobkin

Artist Statement

May 2014

Requiem: All That’s Left if Noise

Requiem: All That’s Left is Noise is a personal interpretation of the traditional Latin liturgy of the Western Church’s Requiem Mass- a composition meant to be the carrier for the soul, on it’s journey to paradise. The requiem is comprised of 7 movements: Introit, Kyrie (Lord have Mercy), Dies Irae (Day of Wrath), Lycrimosa (Day of Weeping), Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy), Lux Aeterna (Eternal Light), and the Libera Me (Deliver Me). These seven movements sonically replicate the range of human emotion, ending on the soul’s delivery in …

Explorations In Double-Stops: Three New Pieces For Expanding The Role Of The Double Bass In The Jazz Ensemble, Ashley De Neef

Theses : Honours

This dissertation investigates the potential for using double-stops - the sounding of two or more simultaneous notes - as a means for extending the traditional role of the double bass, within compositions for a small jazz ensemble. It is the contention of this dissertation that it is possible to use double-stops to perform a more advanced function within the jazz ensemble, without compromising the double bass’ primary harmonic and rhythmic duties.

A historical overview of the history of the double bass within western classical and jazz music will be provided, as to outline and define what the double bass’ role …

Argentine Dances (6 Mvts.)

Dan Rager