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 …

Austin Taylor Papers, 1916, Austin Taylor

Center for Restoration Studies Archives, Manuscripts and Personal Papers Finding Aids

No abstract provided.

Weeps Happiness: The Dysfunctional Drama Of The White Album, Devin Mckinney

All Musselman Library Staff Works

With Wilde’s words in mind, listen again to the White Album, or simply its opening. About seven seconds into the first track, “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” as we hear the descent of a jet—a masterful, momentous sound, universally recognized—there’s another, much odder sound: a sound that is not monumental at all, and that no one could recognize. If you know the Beatles, you know the sound; you can hear it in your head this moment if you try. But what is it? A throat imitating a guitar? A guitar imitating a throat? It’s like something out of Spike Jones. Yet …

The Roles Of Academic Libraries In Shaping Music Publishing In The Digital Age, Kimmy Szeto

Publications and Research

Libraries are positioned at the nexus of creative production, music publishing, performance, and research. The academic library community has the potential to play an influential leadership role in shaping the music publishing life cycle, making scores more readily discoverable and accessible, and establishing itself as a force that empowers a wide range of creativity and scholarship. Yet the music publishing industry has been slow to capitalize on the digital market, and academic libraries have been slow to integrate electronic music scores into their collections. In this paper, I will discuss the historical, technical, and human factors that have contributed to …

Conceptual Metaphor And Its Role In The Composition, Performance, And Consumption Of Music, Loren Natario

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

An analysis of conceptual metaphor (as described by George Lakoff) within the field of music discourse. I examined specific instances of conceptual metaphor and extrapolated to draw conclusions regarding patterns of reasoning and conceptualizations of music as a whole. Despite my observations of conceptual metaphor being limited to the English language, I argue that there is a degree of universality of these conceptualizations (at least within the domain of Western music) and provided evidence of similar conceptualizations outside of the English language. I also argue that significant changes in musical aesthetics in the 19^th and 20^th century can …

Fragments D'Un Diari Musical, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Vetllada musical al pis d'Ursula Oppens. A pesar de les connotacions vuitcentistes que pugui tenir qualsevol saló musical, Ursula no és ni una Guermantes ni una Verdurin, sinó una defensora tenaç dels segles XX i XXI. Elliott Carter, John Adams, Lutoslawski, Ligetic, etc., tots els grans compositors des segles XX i XXI li han dedicat obres, i ella, amb els seus enregistraments, alguns amb nominacions als Grammys, ha estat la gran advocada del pianisme contemporani als EUA.

Midwestern Portrait For Chamber Jazz Ensemble And Solo Tenor Saxophone, Andrew Janak

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

“Midwestern Portrait” for Chamber Jazz Ensemble and Solo Tenor Saxophone is an original composition consisting of three main movements, an introduction, and two interludes. The piece is written for a full ensemble of 17 musicians – one solo tenor saxophone, four woodwinds, four brass, four strings, and four rhythm section players. The “Introduction,” “Interlude 1,” and “Interlude 2” feature smaller performing forces while the three main movements (“For GK,” “The Tradition,” “The Search) are written for the full ensemble.

“Movement 1: For GK (Lincoln)” is a tribute to my time at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and showcases the solo tenor …

Songwriting, Digital Audio Workstations, And The Internet, Joe Bennett

Faculty Works

This chapter investigates the interrelationship between songwriting process and product, focusing on two digital tools that became available to songwriters toward the end of the twentieth century: the digital audio workstation (DAW) and broadband internet connectivity. Two songwriter case studies are used—a “digital immigrant” who began to write songs professionally before either of these tools were available, and a “digital native” who has always used DAWs and an internet connection in his songwriting. The participants were asked to describe their creative processes in detail, and to reflect on how these tools may have influenced their decision making and artistic direction. …

Missa Gloriæ Patris (Score Sample), Alexander Seefeldt

All College Thesis Program, 2016-2019

Missa Gloriæ Patris is a Latin mass setting in four movements for SATB choir and organ. The complete score is 55 pages long, and the full piece runs just over 25 minutes. Included here are first pages of each movement, as well as a companion paper, recordings of two of the pieces, and a worship aid from the premiere of the piece.

8scenes, Spencer G. Perkins

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

This work explores the juxtaposition of a live ensemble, and pre-collected field recordings. The material for the ensemble is divided into eight sections, or “scenes,” which unfold one after the other without pause, at times blending musical material to where it is unclear when the music has transitioned to the next section. The field recordings are divided into three main sections, which are defined by the underlying loop as follows: “sunny day recording”; “people talking recording”; and “rainy day recording.” Atop these structural loops, it is the responsibility of the “electronics player” to que other recordings in a manner that …

String Quintet No. 2, Johnny Smith-Wilson

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

This work is a four movement String Quintet constructed in cyclical form.

Advisor: Thomas Larson

21 Modes, Adam Bodine

Senior Thesis Compositions in Music

21 Modes
by Adam Bodine

In three movements.

Performed by Quartet Nouveau
April 19, 2018
French Parlor, Founders Hall
University of San Diego

Batya MacAdam-Somer and Missy Lukin, violins
Annabelle Terbetski, viola
Elizabeth Brown, cello

21 Modes was inspired by curiosity. I wanted to know how many scales would result from reordering the half and whole steps of the major scale. As it turns out there are 21. I composed each of the three movements to explore the sonorities of each scale. The first movement is inspired by Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. The aggressive eighth note string texture became …

The Effect Of Post-Production On Storytelling In Narrative And Documentary Filmmaking, Natalie Pace

Senior Honors Theses

Documentaries and narrative films both tell stories in different ways. A common saying states that narrative filmmakers write one movie, shoot another, and edit a third. In postproduction, timelines are rearranged, montages are created, new dialog and voiceovers are written, and the score can alter the mood and meaning entirely. Documentaries can change even more over the course of their creation. Usually, the script of the documentary is not written until the edit, after most of the interviews and B roll have been shot. This paper examines whether documentary post-production makes more or less use of storytelling techniques than does …

From Korngold To The Movies: Korngold's Influence On Film Scores, Michelle L. Grosser

Student Publications

During the 1920s, a new cultural movement called Neue Sachlichkeit (or New Objectivity) was developing in Germany and Austria. During the rise of Nazi Germany, the Neue Sachlichkeit movement protested by bringing back elements of the Romantic era in art, literature and music. One of the most recognizable composers of this time was Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 – 1957). Today’s listeners often hear Korngold’s concert works as being very similar to contemporary film scores; but in reality, Korngold wrote in his very distinctive harmonic and melodic style from the beginning of his career, before film scores came to be, and …

Cultivating "Musical Wildflowers": A Look At Parcy Grainger's Linconshire Posy, Sierra Westberg

Scholars Day

The legacy left by Percy Grainger is that not only of his innovative compositional styles, but also that of his role as a “music-activator in a changing world.” By diligently seeking out, listening to, and recording the songs of often forgotten folksingers, Grainger gave a voice to those who society failed to acknowledge. Through the examination of one of his most wellknown works, Lincolnshire Posy, it will be shown that the encouragement of musical development in students of all ages can be beneficial to their understanding of the world around them while equipping them to then impart their knowledge to …

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.

A Content Analysis Of Beginning Guitar, Electric Bass, And String Bass Method Books, Michele Berlin

Masters Theses

Guitar instruction is an integral part of 21st-century best music education practices. This quantitative study compares six beginning guitar method books to beginning electric bass and string bass books. The books in the sample are Essential Elements for Guitar by Will Schmid and Bob Morris, Mel Bay's Modern Guitar Method Grade 1 Expanded Edition, Alfred's Basic Guitar Method by Morty Manus and Ron Manus, FJH Young Beginner Guitar Method Lesson Book 1, Belwin 21st Century Guitar Method 1 (2nd edition) by Aaron Stang, and KJOS Guitar Sessions Book 1: A Comprehensive Method for Individual or Group Study by Kevin Daley. …

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, …

Animè, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

For Piccolo/Flute, English Horn, Clarinet in Bb, and Bassoon

Animè (animated) is a 4 minute scherzo whose relentless 16th note moto perpetuo rhythm is interrupted only by short cadenzas by bassoon, English horn, flute, and clarinet. The wheels seem to come off towards the anarchic end with faster rhythmic subdivisions.

The work was recorded by Iwona Glinka and the Gdansk Trio.

"Animated"

This work is a revision of Logoriffic Tropes (2011).

Diversions, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

Instrumentation: Flute 1 (Picc.), Flute 2, Oboe 1, Oboe 2, Bb Clarinet 1, Bb Clarinet 2, Bassoon 1, Bassoon 2, Horn 1, Horn 2, Bb Trumpet 1, Bb Trumpet 2, Trombone 1, Trombone 2, Tuba, Timpani, Percussion, Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Cello, Double Bass

Duration c. 6 minutes

Program note: This music references the dual meaning of the title: - an activity that diverts or amuses or stimulates (e.g. Divertimento); - a turning aside of your course or attention or concern; "a diversion from the main highway"; "a digression into irrelevant details"; "a deflection from the goal"

Transposed score …

Legong Variations, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

Instrumentation: Flute, Oboe, Bb Trumpet, Vibraphone, Piano

Program note: Legong Variations are comprised of over two dozen reiterations of an Javanese melody, its overall shape a modified palindrome, with variants becoming more and more dislocated, venturing further and further from the original tune before reversing the process and returning back to the initial theme. This is also reflected in the sequence of ever-increasing then descreasing tempi. Much of the ensemble writing is meant to suggest the heterophonic texture of the Indonesian Gamelan.

Duration: c. 5 minutes

(winner 2019 McMurry New Music Project)

"Redolent"

Janus Quintet, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

For Flute, Oboe, Bb Clarinet, Horn, and Bassoon.

This piece opens with an intoning of a series of seven notes F F# Eb (F) E A B, each serving as the pitch center for the following set of variations, The intervals of the "theme" are used to generate vertical and horizontal sonorities. The form is a modified palindrome. The variations share similar styles with their complimentary pairings:

I - VII

II - VI

III - V

(IV)

The fourth variation is a nested palindrome standing alone without a pairing.

This quintet is a reworking of a 1967 piece for piano …

Examining The Irish Art Song: Original Song Settings Of Irish Texts By Irish Composers, 1900-1930., David Scott

Masters

Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, arrangements of Irish airs were popularly performed in Victorian drawing rooms and concert venues in both London and Dublin, the most notable publications being Thomas Moore’s collections of Irish Melodies with harmonisations by John Stephenson. Performances of Irish ballads remained popular with English audiences but the publication of Stanford’s song collection An Irish Idyll in Six Miniatures in 1901 by Boosey and Hawkes in London marks a shift to a different type of Irish song. This was a move away from the typical ‘Irish ballad,’ towards original art song settings of Irish …

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 …

John Williams: An Evaluation Of His Impact Upon The Culture Of The Classical Guitar, Michael O'Toole

Doctoral

This thesis examines the career of the Australian guitarist John Williams and his impact upon the culture of the classical guitar. Williams has been a celebrated guitarist for more than six decades and has performed and recorded extensively during that period. He has made a remarkably varied contribution to guitar culture, performing in a wide variety of different styles, highlighting the guitar’s unique strength as a versatile and adaptable instrument. Williams’ career is in marked contrast to that of many of his contemporaries, including his mentor Andrés Segovia. Segovia believed the classical guitar must assert its individuality in order to …

The Eleven Days Of Christmas: An Analysis Of And Conductor's Guide To Alfred Reed's Russian Christmas Music, Logan Vander Wiel

Graduate Research Papers

In 1944, twenty-three-year-old Alfred Reed, staff arranger and copyist for the 529th Army Air Corps Band in Atlantic City, NJ, was invited to participate in a special concert in Denver, Colorado. There, a select group of musicians from several of the leading wind bands from across the country planned to premiere works by both American and Russian composers with the goal of strengthening relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. Roy Harris organized the event, programming a transcription of a movement from his sixth symphony, titled "Gettysburg," as the American work. 1 The Russian work was to be …

Mucp 183-983: Applied Music Composition--A Course Benchmark Portfolio, Gregory Simon

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

MUCP 183-983, Applied Music Composition, is the core of the music composition course curriculum for students at all levels, from freshman to doctoral candidate. Like all applied lesson environments, it is a one-on-one, individualized study that principally involves the instructor giving students feedback on their musical works-in-progress. This time-honored paradigm for teaching composition has produced brilliant artists, but is rife with pitfalls and traps that can tarnish a student’s growth: composition pedagogues can coerce students into writing music like their teachers, or can prescribe a curriculum that makes composition accessible only to students who have already played classical music for …