Composition Commons^™

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 …

How To Make An Orchestra Alone: A Critical, Experiential Performance Of Ben’S Year In The Mountains, Ben Kusserow

Summit to Salish Sea: Inquiries and Essays

This paper shares the hour-performance traveled from the boat house to the middle of the dam on Diablo Lake, WA. There were two distinct activities in each of the four sections. In each section, Ben shared a story from his year in the NCI Graduate Residency program. He then engaged the audience in some critical thought leading into an activity.

The Federal Music Project: An American Voice In Depression-Era Music, Audrey S. Rutt

Musical Offerings

After World War I, America was musically transformed from an outsider in the European classical tradition into a country of musical vibrance and maturity. These great advances, however, were deeply threatened by the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the consequent Great Depression. The nation that, for the first time, was developing an international reputation in the arts now faced a crisis of how to support them. Government sponsorship of the arts through the New Deal Federal One projects allowed struggling artists to survive economically during this era. In the realm of music, however, the Federal Music Project (FMP) had …

Rediscovering The Interpersonal: Models Of Networked Communication In New Media Performance, Alicia Champlin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the themes of human perception and participation within the contemporary paradigm and relates the hallmarks of the major paradigm shift which occurred in the mid-20th century from a structural view of the world to a systems view. In this context, the author’s creative practice is described, outlining a methodology for working with the communication networks and interpersonal feedback loops that help to define our relationships to each other and to media since that paradigm shift. This research is framed within a larger field of inquiry into the impact of contemporary New Media Art as we experience it. …

A Study On The Compositional Style Of The Flute Chamber Works Of Mel Bonis, Geraldine Margaret Padilla

Dissertations

Mélanie Hélène Bonis (1858-1937) was a female French composer born at a time when musical trends started shifting away from Romanticism. Amidst the various styles that emerged towards the end of the nineteenth century, Bonis remained faithful to the practices of the Late-Romantic period. Her style, characterized by its adherence to tonality and classical forms, was considered outdated by the Parisian public and proved to be detrimental in her career. This document focuses on the four chamber works originally written for flute. Bonis’ chamber works demonstrated a composer who was willing to experiment with the modern techniques of the twentieth …

Complex Personalities: An Original Composition For Virtual Wind Ensemble And An Accompanying Exploration Of The Effects Of The Internet On Music Collaboration And Composition, Chris Kamerling

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the impact that the internet has had on the esprit de corps of the musical community. As a mechanism for that exploration, it also includes an original composition comprised of three character pieces. The exegesis of the piece will describe the basis of these musical representations and explore the application of the piece as a vehicle for a shared musical experience across the internet. A virtual ensemble was created by crowd-sourcing from social media. Participants played different parts that were combined by computer manipulation into a final product.

Transformations Of Chant In Marcel Grandjany's Rhapsodie Pour La Harpe, Caitlin A. Thom

Celebration of Learning

Marcel Grandjany’s Rhapsodie pour la Harpe is a standard in pedal harp literature. This essay explores Grandjany’s use of the Gregorian Easter Chant Salve festa dies.

"Lehadlik": Radical Jewish Music, Gender And Disidentification In Aviva Endean’S Work, Shoshana Rosenberg

Directions of New Music

This paper undertakes a hermeneutic analysis of Aviva Endean’s “Lehadlik”, exploring the complex relationship between the player, a Jewish woman living in Australia, and traditional Jewish culture and rituals. This analysis connects Endean’s work to the larger body of Radical Jewish Music, a movement which seeks to diversify and expand the meaning of contemporary Jewish music beyond the confines of Klezmer and religious hymns. The analysis includes an exploration of the relationship between Endean’s womanhood, Orthodox Jewish traditions, and women’s historical place in Judaism.

Operabbit, Mariel C. Mayz

Theses and Dissertations

OPERAbbit takes place in an unknown country with unnamed characters who are struggling for basic necessities amongst a political, social, and economic crisis. Questions of loyalty, trust, and nationalism are brought to the foreground as our Protagonist receives an unconventional government hand-out: a bunny. This fictional story— written by the composer and her brother— is met with humor and the liveliness of Latin American culture. The underlying truth, however, is more tragic. Many countries in Latin America have faced deep political, economic, or societal problems throughout their histories. None, however, have faced them all simultaneously as the country of Venezuela …

Real-Time Audio-Midi Controller, Brian Shino Balberchak

Computer Engineering

Most MIDI controllers used in music production use a regular keyboard to generate the MIDI notes that are sent to the synthesizer. This project aims to provide the user with a different way of generating MIDI data: by playing an instrument of their choice with a passive electronic pickup to generate MIDI notes that correspond with the fundamental frequency of the musical pitch being played. The pitch-detecting algorithm used in this application utilizes a modified form of auto-correlation.

As an embedded systems project that uses signal-processing techniques, the knowledge of topics from the following courses was essential:

EE 211: Op-Amp …

Anxiety And Alternative Facts: An Arts-Based Critical Social Improvisation Project, Rebecca Zarate, Nancy Beardall, Talaye Zarafshandardaky, Brooke Rutstein

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

According to Grayson and Meilman (2011) the stakes are too high in current campus culture to not acknowledge the social roots of mental health issues such as anxiety, and concerns of students as related to campus safety. This arts-based, music performance project responded to concerns on campus from recent political and social events. More specifically, it aimed to explore the concept of “alternative facts” and how this idea plays with the collective concepts of truth and falsifications. It explored applications of clinical improvisation and the concept of collective anxiety as a social phenomenon expressed through arts including music, dance, and …

Transcribing And Editing The Selected Works Of Robert Fleming Through Sibelius Music Software, Annaleise A. Lee

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Transcribing and Editing the Selected Works of Robert Fleming Through Sibelius Music Software

Every Sweet Imagined Possibility: A Senior Recital, Ether Atkinson

Student Concert Performances, Programs, and Posters

This is the poster for the senior recital of Esther Atkinson, titled "Every Sweet Imagined Possibility." Kristen La Madrid accompanied the performance. The performance took place on March 7, 2018, in the McBeth Recital Hall.

2017-2018 New Music Festival, Scott Wheeler, Lisa Leonard

New Music Festival

Twelfth Annual New Music Festival

• Scott Wheeler, Composer-in-Residence
• Lisa Leonard, Director

Friday, January 19, 2018 at 7:30 pm

• Spotlight I: Young Composers

Saturday, January 20, 2018 at 1:00 pm

• Master Class with Scott Wheeler

Sunday, January 21, 2018 at 4:00 pm

• Spotlight II: Scott Wheeler

Commissioned Work

Nightingale: Scenes from a Ballet by Scott Wheeler. The full score is displayed in the Creative Works collection.

Hegemony, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

For piano and orchestra 1973 - revised 2018

Instrumentation: Flute 1, Flute 2 - Piccolo, Flute 3 - Alto Flute, Oboe, English Horn, Bb Clarinet 1, Bb Clarinet 2 - Eb Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Alto Saxophone - Tenor Saxophone, Bassoon 1, Bassoon 2 - Contrabassoon, Bb Trumpet, Horn, Tromsone, Tuba, Timpani, Percussion 1, Percussion 2, Percussion 3, Percussion 4, Harp, Piano Solo, Violin 1, Violin 2, Violin 3, Violin 4, Viola 1, Viola 2, Cello 1, Cello 2, Double Bass 1, Double Bass 2

Notes: This score is notated in concert pitch, all instruments sounding as written except piccolo, xylophone, …

Place Accumulation: Kingston/Ulster, Callan F. Fish

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Since February 2018, I’ve been listening and recording around Kingston and the town of Ulster; synthesizing interviews, bird song, passing cars, protests, conflict, unique perspectives and oral histories, meetings, optimisms, water, as part of a project called, Place Accumulation: Kingston/Ulster. Using the Dynamic Listening Instrument, an interactive sound sculpture which uses a venn-diagram of electromagnetic fields to allow sounds to be handled as a tactile entity and bended dynamically, sounds are arranged and dispersed back into different locations and events in Kingston. Using a sounding bucket, people in Kingston can listen in, re-arrange, explore, and play with sounds from their …

On Myth & Music, Legend & Landscape, Science, Stars, & Story; A Portfolio Of Compositions: An Animist Aesthetic Argument On Symbolist Sound-Synergies, With Musings On Messiaen And The Taoism Of Takemitzu, In The Work Of Mulvany., Eoin Mulvany

Doctoral

The accompanying portfolio contains eight major works for disparate forces: Brú na Sídhe is a work for Large Orchestra; Bog Bodies is a work commissioned for a heterogenous Quintet; Gáeth Ard Úar is a work written for a Solo Bass/Contrabass Clarinet in B-flat; a Piano Trio, SzyzygyS, follows; a work entitled Blackwater is written for Solo Guitar; a diptych, named Sigil, written for a Dectet of Harp and Vibraphone with double String Quartet, follows; then, O Unworn World for a ten part Choral ensemble is presented as a meditation on a poem by Patrick Kavanagh; and, the last of the …

An Analysis And Performance Guide Of Steve Reich’S Mallet Quartet, Francisco S. Perez

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Steve Reich’s music has had a profound effect on the contemporary percussionist’s repertoire. More recently, his Mallet Quartet (2009) has been one of the most performed works in the rising genre of mallet-keyboard quartets, which was featured in Third Coast Percussion’s 2017 Grammy-winning album Third Coast Percussion | Steve Reich. With Mallet Quartet, Reich codified this type of ensemble into the contemporary repertoire of percussion as evidenced through current commissions in progress by groups such as Sō Percussion and Third Coast Percussion.

The purpose of this document is to delineate the trajectory (past and present) of the mallet-keyboard …

Imaginary Keyboards, Ethan Charles Isaac

Senior Projects Spring 2018

An Imperceptible Future

Originally, the intention was to create a programmatic album of some nature. At first I had come up with the concept of cataloging sounds and experiences from restaurants across the area, an idea which I may come back to at another time. But as it usually happens things do not go as planned. At the start of my senior year, I was enrolled in an electro-acoustic composition workshop run by my senior project advisor, Matt Sargent. In which I began exploring microtonal composition, something I had been building knowledge of as I spent my years here at …

Master's Recital In Jazz Pedagogy: A Performance-Demonstration Of Rhythm Section Instruments, Compositions And Arrangements By Nicholas Leo, Nicholas Leo

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The recital is presented to demonstrate skills and facility on the rhythm section instruments as well as to provide opportunity for the recitalist to present original compositions and arrangements. Proficiency on rhythm section instruments is necessary in that it offers, among other things, an understanding of the technical components and how they relate to the application of musical concepts of performance and education.

The curation of the recital program also functions as a representation of the recitalist’s artistic aesthetic, specifically in how it relates to pedagogy. The influential jazz educator and pianist Ran Blake asserts that an artist’s primary arsenal …