Composition Commons^™

Play Makes Perfect: An Exploration Of Game And Play Elements In Composition And Performance, Gabrielle Chou

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation aims to explore the intersection of play and games in Western classical music and define a new category of pieces, “ludic pieces,” which contain play structures and game mechanics within their composition. Starting with surveying perspectives in ludology and ludomusicology, including those by Roger Caillois, Johan Huizinga, Jesper Juul, Katie Salen, and Eric Zimmerman, I will examine various definitions of a “game” and what its qualifying aspects are. I will then turn to music and consider pieces that interact with play and games without containing game structures, including examples of musical humor and pieces which evoke the imagery …

Overlapping Gestural Zones And Modulation On The Fifteen-Tone Guitar, William R. Ayers

The 21st Century Guitar

With its unconventional tuning, notation, and performance requirements, Easley Blackwoodʼs Suite for Guitar in 15- Note Equal Tuning serves as a reappraisal of both tonality (through its application of a microtonal equal temperament) and guitar performance practice (with a modified fretboard and note layout). Using concepts from the fields of transformational theory and gestural music theory, this study considers modulatory and sequential passages in two movements from Blackwoodʼs Suite. This paper demonstrates how the fifteen-tone tuning and fretboard provide a unique opportunity to recontextualize the diatonic scale and its generative interval cycles in a consistent transformational space that allows the …

Proceedings Of The 21st Century Guitar Conference 2019 & 2021

The 21st Century Guitar

This volumeʼs contributions grew from 20 of the 94 scheduled keynotes, lectures and lecture-recitals of the first and second editions of The 21st Guitar Conference. Five items stem from the inaugural edition (2019, 44 contributions) and 15 from the second edition (2021, 50 contributions).1 This conference is unique in that it is centered on contemporary guitar research, performance and pedagogy.2 Previously, guitar research had gained increased visibility thanks to the International Guitar Research Centre, launched in 2014 (Stephen Goss, President), which regularly (co-)organizes conferences on guitar research; and Soundboard Scholar, launched in 2015 (Jonathan Leathwood, Editor) ‒ currently the only …

Honors Capstone Composition Recital, Kayla L. Bivin

Honors Capstones

The Honors Capstone Composition Recital is an exhibition of my own musical compositions from throughout my undergraduate study. The purpose of the event was to perform original music and share it with the community. The program is completely comprised of original works for a variety of instruments and ensembles and includes five world premiere performances out of the seven pieces, totaling about 45 minutes of music. The performance was held at the NIU Recital Hall (located in the Music Building at 550 Lucinda Ave.) at 7:00 pm CST on April 16, 2023. It was available for free to the public, …

A Composer's Perspective On The Clarinet Concerto, Sarah Marze

Honors Scholar Theses

While seminal literature on concerto form analysis and compositions for clarinet and orchestra has been conducted, this undergraduate thesis is an exploration from a young composer’s perspective. My priority was discovering the breadth of what the clarinet concerto has to offer in order to learn how to place my own work as a composer into historical, cultural and aesthetic contexts.
First, I present an abridged history of the clarinet concerto. Despite this musical form being hundreds of years old, concerto composition is still relevant today because it is a display of balance; the best concerti are delicate balancing acts of …

Transference Music: For Electric Guitar Soloist And Amplified Orchestra, Andrew Noseworthy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Transference Music: for Electric Guitar Soloist and Amplified Orchestra is a concertante work with an approximate duration of 25 minutes. The work is inspired by my experiences as a composer-electric guitarist. Its musical parameters are constructed via the act transferring those experiences between the typically separate designations of ‘performer’ and ‘composer.’ These experiences involve aspects of style and genre, electric guitar-specific performance gestures and various timbral or textural ideas, as well as concepts of electronic sound production. These experiences are then used as the basis for the work’s form, motivic relationships and orchestration. As the electric guitar is somewhat of …

The Planets, Reimagined: Translating Science Into Music, Kaitlyn Wincup

Honors Projects

Inspired by Gustav Holst’s The Planets, this project analyzed the qualitative properties of the planets in our Solar System and translated them into a composition, created by Connor Gibbs, to represent an overall aural depiction of each planet. Where Holst created an astrological depiction of each of the planets, this piece is an astronomical depiction that broadens the perspectives of its listeners.

The Game: A Contemporary Opera In One Act, Kailey Erwin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My opera entitled “the game: a contemporary opera in one act” began as a project in my undergraduate composition lessons. My vision for this opera is to make it accessible and easily performed by singers with minimal “operatic training.” This is an opera for developing singers, and a great introduction to the style of opera without long, draining arias, or complicated ensembles. This opera was performed on April 2nd, 2022 in Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall as a partial fulfillment for my degree requirements. Long-term, I envision The Game performed by singers in high school, undergraduates, or even community theaters. …

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.

Strength And Vulnerability In Maurice Ravel’S Sonata For Violin And Cello And Osvaldo Golijov’S Mariel For Cello And Marimba: An Analysis Through Performance And Composition, Andrea Casarrubios

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In order to “stimulate more ambitious performances,” as David Lewin writes in his Studies in Music with Text, this dissertation is meant to provide new perspectives into two preexisting works, Maurice Ravel’s Sonate pour Violon et Violoncelle, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Mariel for cello and marimba, through the active making of two original compositions written for similar instrumentations, La Libertad se levantó llorando for violin and cello, and Speechless for cello and percussion. Taking Lewin’s proposition into consideration, I share performance insights and discuss how the creation of these new compositions have influenced my interpretations of the two respective …

Red Note New Music Festival Composition Competition Announcement, 2021, Carl Schimmel, Roger Zare,

Red Note New Music Festival

The RED NOTE New Music Festival at Illinois State University is a week-long event which features outstanding performances of contemporary concert music.

Red Note New Music Festival Composition Workshop Announcement, 2021, Carl Schimmel, Roger Zare

Red Note New Music Festival

The RED NOTE New Music Festival at Illinois State University is a week-long event which features outstanding performances of contemporary concert music.

Red Note New Music Festival Program, 2020, Carl Schimmel, Roy Magnuson

Red Note New Music Festival

The RED NOTE New Music Festival at Illinois State University is a week-long event which features outstanding performances of contemporary concert music.

Red Note New Music Festival Composition Competition Announcement, 2020, School Of Music, Carl Schimmel, Roy Magnuson

Red Note New Music Festival

The RED NOTE New Music Festival at Illinois State University is a week-long event which features outstanding performances of contemporary concert music.

Red Note New Music Festival Poster, 2020, Carl Schimmel, Roy Magnuson

Red Note New Music Festival

The RED NOTE New Music Festival at Illinois State University is a week-long event which features outstanding performances of contemporary concert music.

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 …

Mobile Music Development Tools For Creative Coders, Daniel Stuart Holmes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project is a body of work that facilitates the creation of musical mobile artworks. The project includes a code toolkit that enhances and simplifies the development of mobile music iOS applications, a flexible notation system designed for mobile musical interactions, and example apps and scored compositions to demonstrate the toolkit and notation system.

The code library is designed to simplify the technical aspect of user-centered design and development with a more direct connection between concept and deliverable. This sim- plification addresses learning problems (such as motivation, self-efficacy, and self-perceived understanding) by bridging the gap between idea and functional prototype …

Red Note New Music Festival Poster, 2019, Carl Schimmel, Roy Magnuson, School Of Music

Red Note New Music Festival

The RED NOTE New Music Festival at Illinois State University is a week-long event which features outstanding performances of contemporary concert music.

Red Note New Music Festival Composition Competition Announcement, 2019, School Of Music, Carl Schimmel, Roy Magnuson

Red Note New Music Festival

The RED NOTE New Music Festival at Illinois State University is a week-long event which features outstanding performances of contemporary concert music.

Red Note New Music Festival Program, 2019, Carl Schimmel, Roy Magnuson

Red Note New Music Festival

The RED NOTE New Music Festival at Illinois State University is a week-long event which features outstanding performances of contemporary concert music.

Singing The Landscape: A Meditation On Song, Sound And Community At The Fall Line Of The James River, Sara Bouchard

Theses and Dissertations

I work in the medium of song. A multidisciplinary artist and composer, I make work that is immersive, time-based and often participatory. I interact with landscape and the complexities of American history, bringing into focus local ecologies through the lens of song.

This document accompanies my thesis performance The Sound of a Stone, an immersive exploration of song, language, ecology and locational listening performed in a 4-channel surround format. In the semi-improvised composition, I sample live vocals, mandolin and found natural objects in a combination of roots music traditions and experimental techniques. Utilizing the software Ableton Live to process …

The Experience Of Live And Recorded Music: A Cello Solo, Sarah Hunter

Honors Projects

Americans experience 98.5% of their music in a recorded medium such as radio, online streaming, TV, CDs, or other physical mediums. As a composer of classical concert music, I challenged myself to compose music that offered audiences a meaningful experience as a live performance and as a recorded piece of music.

Red Note New Music Festival Program, 2018, School Of Music,

Red Note New Music Festival

The RED NOTE New Music Festival at Illinois State University is a week-long event which features outstanding performances of contemporary concert music.

Compositional Craft And Theory Across Tonal Languages, Liam Butchart

Honors Theses

This paper accompanies Liam Butchart's senior honors voice recital and his composition for the Colby Symphony Orchestra, Genevan Overture. The essay examines how form and cadence, two integral components of compositional craft, have been utilized by composers who either were included in the voice recital or were major influences on the composition. Specifically, the paper analyzes how different composers end their musical sentences similarly and differently through the lens of structurally-relevant cadences.

Creating And Performing A Composition For Tuba And Piano, Joel A. Ragona

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this creative thesis, I compose and perform a six movement art composition for tuba and piano. The reason for this performance and composition is two-fold. First, I am able to express myself in a way that other methods do not allow. Second, I reinforce important skills that will be vital in my future teaching career. To create the composition, I use various compositional methods, but I mainly adjust the composition by listening to it using piano and online compositional software. Preparing the composition for performance requires that I practice for multiple hours and find an accompanist who will perform …

Beethoven Ahead Of His Time: Sonata In C Major No. 21 Op. 53, Carolina E. Perez Ms.

Honors College Theses

This research looks at the work of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata in C major No. 21 Op. 53. A historical, theoretical, and technical analysis helps set a foundation for a better comprehension of the work and influence the overall performance.

Composed Performance, Jessie Marino

Jessie Marino

Notes on works made between 2009-2013 by composer/performer Jessie Marino and her performance duo On Structure and questions about performative postures adapted by contemporary classical musicians.

Roussel: The Flute And Extramusical Reference, Wendell Dobbs

Music Faculty Research

The article Roussel: The Flute and Extramusical Reference reveals the literary side of Roussel's flute music.