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Composition Commons

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Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Composition

Telling Stories Through Music—Music Without Words, Isabella Thomas Apr 2024

Telling Stories Through Music—Music Without Words, Isabella Thomas

Composition/Recording Projects

This paper explores the study of listening modes associated with music with lyrics and instrumental music without words. Studies are explained in depth with explanations to current culture and society. The history of Neoclassical and Minimalist music in discussed in relevance to American culture. This background information leads into the creation of my own original compositions and how i have been inspired by life and culture around me.


Modern String Writing In Various Styles, Se Young Ko Apr 2024

Modern String Writing In Various Styles, Se Young Ko

Composition/Recording Projects

The purpose of this project was to demonstrate the use of modern string writing in various styles. The project includes over 25 minutes of recorded original compositions, four pieces written for a string quintet (with bass) and one piece written for a piano quintet. The paper is organized in two parts. The first part discusses the composers and works that influenced this album. The second part is a compositional analysis of the album and how the influences for the music were appropriately used while the artist maintained his unique musical language. A production note is provided to explain the recording/mixing …


Indistinct Personalities: The Threads Between Modern Hip-Hop, R&B, Jazz, And Gospel Guitar And Production, Tahina A. Fiaferana Apr 2024

Indistinct Personalities: The Threads Between Modern Hip-Hop, R&B, Jazz, And Gospel Guitar And Production, Tahina A. Fiaferana

Composition/Recording Projects

As a guitarist in the world of commercial music, part of the job is to be able to play and cover as many styles and genres as possible. In a world in which the lines between genres are continually being blurred, this skill becomes even more valuable. Modern hip-hop, R&B, jazz, and gospel music are perfect examples of this. While these genres are constantly bringing new innovations to the music scene, they are also very clearly influencing and collaborating with each other. When looking at modern artists such as Robert Glasper, Tye Tribbett, H.E.R, Victoria Monet, Butcher Brown, Flying Lotus, …


Reborn: The Documentation And Processes Of A Fusion Project, Natalie Merrill May 2022

Reborn: The Documentation And Processes Of A Fusion Project, Natalie Merrill

Composition/Recording Projects

Many musicians aim to create something new, fresh, unprecedented, unpredictable. They seek uniqueness, attempting to create a sound that will be traced back to their work as music history progresses. As they work to find their distinct voices, musicians spend years trying to find their right sound, hoping it will leave a legacy of music tied to their original creativity. Composition, when based on various musical influences, is an incredible tool for the musician because it can bring together styles – and more importantly, people and cultures – from all over the world. The chapters of this paper tell the …


Grrrls, Grrrls, Grrrls: Incorporating Feminist Theory Into Punk Rock Composition, Bryan M. Waring Apr 2022

Grrrls, Grrrls, Grrrls: Incorporating Feminist Theory Into Punk Rock Composition, Bryan M. Waring

Composition/Recording Projects

This project argues that one can make rock music with anti-sexist values by incorporating feminist criticism and gendered performance into the composition of punk rock music. To test this thesis, the history of feminism and its implementation within musical discourse were examined. Using feminist music theory as a lens for observation, several songs from female artists and mix-gender bands within the punk genre were analyzed. This was done in order to find similarities in compositional practices and to explore punk rock’s symbolic representations of gender. Areas covered were the expression of jouissance by the proto-punks, the use of détournement by …


The Elements, Soren Andrew Allen Apr 2021

The Elements, Soren Andrew Allen

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

The Elements is a five-movement composition for wind ensemble inspired by the five classical elements: earth, water, fire, air, and aether. These elements were once thought by Plato to be made of small, indivisible solids which were later named the Platonic Solids: the cube, the icosahedron, the tetrahedron, the octahedron, and the dodecahedron, respectively. I utilized compositional techniques developed in the twentieth century to explore these elements and their connections to their solids.