Composition Commons^™

Music Of The Divine: Interweaving Threads Connecting Contemporary Chant-Based Piano Repertoire, Jeremy D. Duck

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Creative Work, and Performance

The purpose of this document is to prove chant remains an important source of inspiration among living composers, and, despite the number of piano works already incorporating chant, composers today are still finding unique ways to include chant in their music. To achieve this objective, representative works have been selected for research and analysis for four of the major chant traditions. Connor Chee’s The Navajo Piano, Victoria Bond’s Illuminations on Byzantine Chant, and Hayes Biggs’ E.M. am Flügel: Poem-Étude for Piano Solo, though the chants from which they are inspired are diverse in concept and style, they …

Chopin’S Piano Sonata No. 3 In B Minor Op. 58: A Structural Analysis, Maverick Harrold

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in b minor Op. 58 is an incredibly important composition to the world of music. This work will uncover many of the unique facets and features of this piece as well as discover the beautiful intricacies of each of the four movements. By learning about this sonata, the reader will gain an understanding of the importance of musical structure and musical form and will gain insight into the ways of Chopin’s compositional style and of romantic piano music as a whole.

From Story To Song: Exploring The Storytelling Potential Of Instrumental Music, Celine Darr

Honors Projects

For this project, I have composed a piece of program music with the aim of capturing scenes from Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" through music. The project seeks to answer questions regarding the elements that make instrumental music "programmatic", or able to portray a story.

Don't Lose Your Keys: Exploring The Transition From Harpsichord To Piano, Justice Post

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper explores keyboard technology in music from the Baroque era to today. Central focus is on the initial dominance of the harpsichord in Western music and how this shifted to the piano. Using this context of evolving instrumentation, the paper considers how this coincided with changing styles of music composition. Finally, the paper considers the question of how a keyboardist of today should handle music written in eras before the piano existed, and whether it is appropriate to perform harpsichord music using a modern piano.

Jeremy Lee In A Student Composers Recital, Jeremy Lee

Honors Thesis

This recital and collection of original sheet music represent the culminating work for senior Music major (Contemporary Styles and Practices concentration) Jeremy Lee at Loyola Marymount University. The program features a selection of musical compositions that encapsulate different styles, genres, and unique compositional devices. Pieces also utilize a variety of arrangements and mediums, including compositions for multiple instruments and for film. Program notes for the included selections describe the historical influences and/or the personal stories and inspirations behind each piece. Performed live on April 21^st, 2022, in Murphy Recital Hall.

A Bird’S Eye View: Large-Scale Tonal Structures In Robert Schumann’S Four Song Cycles (Op. 42, 24, 39, And 48), Peter Kramer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Some of Robert Schumann’s most notable works are his Lieder for solo voice and piano accompaniment. Schumann's Lieder are considered some of the best compositions in this genre, engendering various interpretations by performers and exciting vigorous debate among musicologists and theorists. Robert Schumann’s early music was almost entirely composed for the piano alone; it wasn’t until 1840 that he started to compose almost exclusively Lieder and song cycles inspired by his predecessors Beethoven and Schubert. This was a prolific year for Schumann compositionally, in part due to his marriage to Clara Schumann who was one of Europe’s most preeminent piano …

The Meaning Of Music, Caleb Loius Orenstein Carman

Senior Projects Fall 2021

This project combines solo performances of music on piano, collaborative playing/rehearsing, improvisation, and composition. In both parts of the project, I share my performances of François Couperin, J. S. Bach, Schubert, and Ravel, and include my own compositions alongside. I tackle certain pieces that lie within the ‘long eighteenth century’ and demonstrate how improvisation is an integral part of music-making for composers. I believe in order to fulfill my own desires as a musician, I need to develop my aptitude in multiple areas — performance, composition, improvisation, chamber music, etc. — in such a way that the practice of one …

Performing Rhythmic Dissonance In Ligeti’S Études, Book 1: A Perception-Driven Approach And Re-Notation, Imri Talgam

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Interpretive approaches to the Études have been limited by Ligeti’s choice of notation, which creates several layers of difficulty in the presentation of complex rhythms. In order to resolve some of these difficulties, this dissertation includes a complete re-notation of four Etudes, using a methodology based on research in cognition and perception of rhythm.

Based on this new score, the notion of rhythmic dissonance is developed as an analytical tool to investigate in-time perception of rhythmic complexity, drawing on existing work on metric entrainment and metric dissonance. Different compositional strategies for the production of rhythmic dissonance are shown to have …

Abandoning Abuse: Acknowledging Adoption In The 21 Century, Deborah Elizabeth Ellis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The inspiration for this set of pieces arose from a friendship with fellow grad student Morgen Cavanah. Morgen and I were both adopted as children, and it this common background that gave rise to these pieces. The poems chosen were written by Morgen about individuals or events in her life. Though I had planned to set 9 of the original 12 poems, this set is comprised of my four favorites. Each piece uses repetitive piano motives that underlie the melodic lines of the voice, flute, and cello. This choice explores harmonic and melodic possibilities that expand minimal accompaniment. Much of …

From Improvisation To Artistry: A Study Of The Piano’S 12 Sides By Carter Pann, Louis Claussen

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Creative Work, and Performance

Intended as a resource for pianists who may analyze or perform Carter Pann’s The Piano’s 12 Sides, this study provides biographical information on the composer and explores his professional relationship with the pianist for whom it was composed, Joel Hastings. Each piece from The Piano’s 12 Sides is discussed in terms of form, melody, harmony, texture and Pann’s approach to the pianistic compositional idiom. The composition is also examined with regard to extra-musical details and programmatic elements as well as inspiration and dedications that influenced Pann’s compositional process.

Correspondence and interviews with the composer reveal the motivation and inspiration behind …

Transcending The Keyboard: The Development Of Non-Traditional Piano Techniques, Brian Hinkley

Music: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

A Comparative History And The Importance Of Chamber Music, Aaron M. Sacks

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone presentation focuses on the role of chamber music in both social and academic contexts. Using examples from the past five centuries and including local examples, parallels and divergences are drawn to points of most import. The spotlight is upon three areas: a) what the role of chamber music was in the past, compared to today; b) why it is an important genre, to both musicians, as well as non-musicians, and c) in what ways more exposure to the form can be built. Much of the focus is on composers and their influence, but the impact of and upon …

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 …

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 …

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.

The Life And Selected Piano Works Of David Burge, Mary Chung

Dissertations

Although David Burge is recognized as one of the most important American pianists dedicated to contemporary music in the twentieth century, little is known about his contributions as a pedagogue, lecturer, writer, novelist, and, especially, as a composer. This biographical study focuses on three of his piano compositions: Second Sonata, Eclipse II, and Go-Hyang. Each work represents one of three distinct compositional periods: the first reflects the influence of Prokofiev and features characteristics of the neoclassicism; the second marks a turn to experimentalism, atonality, and serialism; and the final indicates the return to a more traditional style that makes use …

Nq + (X) (By Doug Lofstrom And The New Quartet), Doug Lofstrom, Michael Levin, Leandro Lopez-Varady, James Sanders, Sarah Allen

Doug Lofstrom

Music performed by Doug Lofstrom and The New Quartet, released on Emphasis Entertainment Group in Naperville, Illinois in 2007. The New Quartet: Michael Levin, clarinet and soprano saxophone; Leandro Lopez-Varady, piano; James Sanders, violin; Sarah Allen, percussion; Doug Lofstrom, bass and keyboards; with orchestra.

One Voice (By Doug Lofstrom And The New Quartet), Doug Lofstrom, Michael Levin, Leandro Lopez-Varady, James Sanders, Sarah Allen

Doug Lofstrom

Music performed by Doug Lofstrom and The New Quartet, released on Little Miracles Music in Downers Grove, Illinois in 2004. The New Quartet: Michael Levin, clarinet and soprano saxophone; Leandro Lopez-Varady, piano; James Sanders, violin; Sarah Allen, percussion; Doug Lofstrom, bass and keyboards.

La Belle Au Bois Dormant (Opera Ouverture) - Piano Solo, Keith D. Rowley

Keith D Rowley

This is the overture to my French opera, La belle au bois dormant (Sleeping Beauty). It was first performed in Nice, France in 1968. It was later performed at Brigham Young University by the French Club in collaboration with the Music Department and under the direction of Dr. Clifford Barnes.

The Structure Of Paul Creston's Narrative No. 2, Op. 79 No. 2 For Piano, Myrna Evelyn Johnson

All Master's Theses

This paper presents an analytical discussion of the structure of Paul Creston's Narrative No. 2. An explanation of Mr. Creston's approach to composition is followed by a general description of the free-sectional form. Next, each section is investigated separately according to its rhythm, harmony, and melody. However, at the same time relationships between the sections are mentioned also. Some characteristics of Mr. Creston's style which are revealed in this study are his use of various rhythmic structures, pantonality, the lydian mode, and tangential variation.

Volume 69, Number 04 (April 1951), John Briggs

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Dilemma in Detroit: Survivors of the Detroit Symphony Support Themselves with Odd Jobs and Look for a Successor to Sponsor Henry Reichhold

Zoltan Kodaly was my Teacher

How to Teach Adult Beginners

Music Has No Short-Cuts: Solid Careers Emerge Only for Unhurried, Systematic Training (interivew with Joseph Fuchs)

It's Free—It's Fun—It's Forum!

More About the Pharyngeal Voice: Widely-Used Method in the Golden Days of Italian Bel Canto

Class Piano Teaching Gets Results . . . A Successful Teacher Reveals the Formula She Has Developed Through Years of Trial and Error

Sing with Your Fingers

Volume 68, Number 03 (March 1950), John Briggs

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Richards Strauss . . . Conducting is a Difficult Business

Modern Piano Musical Metaphysics . . . Its Cause and Cure

How to Build a Voice Psychologists

Evaluate Music

So You Want to be a Piano Teacher

Structure of Music Clarence Dickinson—Pioneer of Church Music

Let's Simplify the Liebestraum Cadenzas Master Lesson on Brahms' Intermezzo in E-Flat Major, Op. 117,

No. 1 Musical Medicos

For TV Thrillers

Volume 67, Number 01 (January 1949), James Francis Cooke

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

On Keeping a Musical Diary

Eugène Ysaÿe as a Teacher (interview with Jeannette Ysaÿe)

Musical Fireworks Behind the Iron Curtain

Composer Needs Determination and Faith (interview with William Grant Still)

Musical Boston in the Gay Nineties: Haycyon Days at Harvard

Theodore Presser (1848-1925): A Centenary Biography (Part 7)

Mania for Speed by Performers of Music, Part 2

Do Musicians Live Longer Than Others?

Volume 66, Number 06 (June 1948), James Francis Cooke

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Eternal Chopin

Orchestra As a Municipal Asset (interview with Harl McDonald)

Nest of the Nightingales: An Exquisite Musical Fairy Story

How Can I Become a Pianist? (interview with Artur Rubinstein)

Romeo and Juliet of the Mountains: How Music and Drama Ended the Notorius Hatfield and McCoy Feud

Natural—or Impossible! (interview with Cloe Elmo)

Concert Hall in Your Home

Approach to Elementary String Class Teaching

Pride of the Navy

Shifting—Sliding—Change of Position

Wednesday Afternoon With the Cecilians

Basis for Piano Technique

Volume 65, Number 05 (May 1947), James Francis Cooke

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Voice of the Village Square

Tribute Dinner to a Great Conductor

Make the Right Start! (interview with Risé Stevens)

Was Music a Gift of Religion?

Beginning the Scale on Each Degree

Technique for the Amateur Pianist

Roy Newman, American Composer (1890-1946)

Master Lesson on Raff's Cavatina

Wonder of Bells

What About the Electric Organ? (interview with Ethel Smith)

Volume 62, Number 08 (August 1944), James Francis Cooke

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Mind's Ear

Why Music Study Is a Priceless Investment

Keep Jazz Within Its Limits! (interview with Paul Whiteman)

Greatest Show On Earth Grew Out of Music (interview with Mrs. Charles Ringling)

Vital Use of Drudgery

Building Character Through Music

Music in the Chinese Theater

Coöperative Pupil's Recital Plan Which Succeeded

Protect your Precious Musical Instruments

If Parents Had Had Their Way

Musical Ideas Come First

Practice With Your Brains!

Technic of the Month—Prelude in F-sharp Major, Op. 28, No. 13, by Frédéric Chopin

Volume 59, Number 09 (September 1941), James Francis Cooke

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Music at Bryn Mawr

Putting Assets to Work

Will Beethoven Stop Hitler?

My Most Momentous Musical Moment

Not as Written

Leader of the Famous Six (interview with Darius Milhaud)

Russian Nationalist Composers, Part 1

Musical Independence for America (interview with Rudolph Ganz)

Wanted Immediately: An Army of Musical Enthusiasts

Poise at the Piano

Great Musical Women of Yesterday

Putting Songs Across the Footlights (interview with Nino Martini)

Technic of the Month—Sixths

Volume 17, Number 10 (October 1899), Winton J. Baltzell

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Ages of One Hundred Famous

Singers

On Program Printing

Unprofessional Advertising

Dumb Pianos

About Tuning

How Leschetizky Teaches Memorizing

Little Knowledge

First Step in the Instruction of Young Children

To a Piano (poem)

Mechanical Music

Honesty in Advertising

Actual Effect of Music Upon an Imagination

Types of Teachers, or Mayburn's Madness

Music or Notes?

Development of the Artistic Sense

Lost Ideals

Value of the Musical Magazine

How to Memorize

What Makes Music Successful?

Studio Experiences: Experiences with the Pedal

Uninterested Pupil

Conservatory and Private Teaching: Another Phase of the Subject

Musical Don'ts

What are Musical Clubs For?

Volume 16, Number 01 (January 1898), Winton J. Baltzell

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Suggestions for the Musical Youth

How Shall We Teach Notation to Beginners

The Gospel of Work

Musical Memory in Its Relation to Pianoforte Playing

How to Make a Living

Problem of American Teaching

Song Writers of the Day

One-Sided Musicians

Nothing But a Name!

Success is the Reward of Toil

Musical Listener

Sight-Reading

Art of Self-Criticism

Helpful Letters to Young Musicians

Cost of Study Abroad

Factors of Musical Expression

Sight-reading in Pianoforte Instruction

Why Do You Take Music Lessons?

Principles of Musical Pedagogy

Thoroughness in Primary Work

Music Education

Moral Influence of Music

Convenient Maxims, Formulas, etc. for Voice Teaching …

Volume 15, Number 09 (September 1897), Winton J. Baltzell

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Would-Be Paderewski

Music No Hindrance to Getting On

Some Don'ts for Students Who are Going to Germany to Study Music

Playing in Public

From Recent Programmes

Neglected Essential: Music and Languages

Self-Exaltation

Time Values

Flowers by the Wayside

Not Yourself, But Your Art

Four Stages of Student Life

Physical Exercises an Aid to Artistic Piano Playing

How a Pupil Rose to Success

Should Piano Students Attend Piano Recitals?

For the Student's Encouragement

Reading New Music

Extracts from Reinecke's Hints to Music Students

Materials and Workmanship

Ear Training

Study on Phrasing

Reed Organ as an Aid in Piano Instruction

Musical Listener …