Composition Commons^™

Orthography, Jeremy Gill

Music & Musical Performance

The myth of Pope Gregory I taking melodic dictation from a magical singing bird is the imaginative starting point of Western musicʼs love-hate relationship with the music notation systems it later developed. This essay traces that development through Thomas Tallis and J. S. Bach to the dichotomous modern examples of Brian Ferneyhough and Arvo Pärt. In it, I suggest that Western musicʼs eventual development hinged upon that earliest desire to document and codify melodies, answering Gregoryʼs contemporary Isidore of Seville, who lamented that “unless sounds are held by the memory of man, they perish, because they cannot be written down.”

William Albright's Whistler (1834-1903): Three Nocturnes: "Why The Hell . . . Should Anyone Listen To This?!", R. Douglas Reed

Music & Musical Performance

William Albright's Whistler (1834-1903): Three Nocturnes: "Why the hell...should anyone listen to this?!"

By Douglas Reed--2022

The article explores William Albright's Whistler (1834-1903): Three Nocturnes (1989) through historical context, musical analysis, performance practice, and the composer's essay on the relationship between his composition and Whistler's paintings. Commentary by composer Sydney Hodkinson gives information about the 1960s new music scene in Ann Arbor (the ONCE Group, The Grate Society) composition study with Ross Lee Finney.

Two Essays On Contemporary Music, Bálint András Varga

Music & Musical Performance

Bálint András Varga (1941–2019) was an advocate for and a keen critic of contemporary music, first on radio, and later as an acquisitions editor for both Editio Hungarica and Universal-Edition. He interviewed many musical figures and planned to interview visual artists before he died. His interlocutors were impressed with Varga’s insightful questions and frequently answered them much more comprehensively than they would ones from standard journalists. These two essays were intended to be published in Varga’s third book, From Boulanger to Stockhausen: Interviews and a Memoir. The first, “What to Listen for in Music,” refers to Aaron Copland’s book …

Contributors To Issue 2, Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal Digitalcommons.Fiu.Edu/Mmp

Music & Musical Performance

No abstract provided.

Christopher Luna-Mega: Time’S Arrow. Other Minds Om 1031-2, 2022 [Review], Rob Haskins

Music & Musical Performance

No abstract provided.

Sylvie Bodorová: Snow And Stars. Cesky Rozhlas Cr 1117-2, 2021 [Review]., Tom Moore

Music & Musical Performance

No abstract provided.

Christopher Fox: Trostlieder. Kairos 0220005kai, 2022 [Review], Rob Haskins

Music & Musical Performance

No abstract provided.

Brown Eyes, Black Magic, Marcus Duane Norris Jr

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis consists of a large composition for chamber orchestra titled Brown Eyes, Black Magic and an accompanying analytical paper. The piece, approximately twelve minutes long, is a tribute to women of color in America. The title pays homage to the “Black Girl Magic” campaign that CaShawn Thompson founded in 2013 to empower women of color by highlighting their achievements in different fields (Wilson 2016). Although the piece is not programmatic, I tried to create a mysterious sound world, in which the listener focuses on the beauty of ever-shifting sonic colors. The composition explores musical texture and timbre, and is …

Sonic Activation: A Multimedia Performance-Installation, Alex Joseph Lough

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sonic Activation is a multimedia performance-installation featuring sound sculptures, video projections, and performance with live electronics for solo and mixed ensembles. The work aims to unpack the nature in which we hear and interact with sound, space, and gesture. It is a project that recontextualizes the typical practice of performance and installation modes of music and art. The event uses 12 loudspeakers spaced around a gallery to create a densely layered sonic atmosphere that gently fluctuates and slowly evolves. Throughout the event, the audience is encouraged to freely navigate the gallery and experience the subtle changes in sound as they …

Stf, Gilbert Kong

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

STF is a large ensemble work in three movements: "Fatwa," "Hitchens," and "Albino Sex." It is scored for piano, double bass, cello, viola, violin, French horn, clarinet in Bb, bass clarinet in Bb, flute, baritone, tenor, alto, soprano, narrator, and electronics. Its underlying concept is how religious worldviews can collide with freedom of speech, atheism, and fundamental human rights. In extreme cases, zealots will interpret disease as evidence of divine intervention or even demand the death of blasphemers. The text in the first movement, “Fatwa,” expresses freedom of speech and incorporates passages from Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses.” The second …

Vocal Synthesis And Deep Listening, Chelsea A. Bruno

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My composition, Maitreya, combines vocal synthesis techniques with the theoretical concept of Deep Listening. This essay discusses developments in vocal synthesis and digital signal processing (DSP) software that can be performed in real-time and contributed to my composition. Deep Listening involves meditative practices to make one more aware of sounds that are both audible and inaudible. The composition utilizes recordings of male and female voices that recite poetry, chant, and are phase-vocoded.

The composition also features various DSP techniques, and a custom-built modular synthesizer. The composition has three sections that were compiled and edited in Ableton Live 8.2.2.

Sonic Peace: An Antithesis To Sonic Warfare, Tatiana Maria Schnitman Espindola

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sonic Peace: An Antithesis to Sonic Warfare explores certain frequencies that have been associated with various healing qualities, and seeks to bridge the sounds of antiquity and modernity. The piece draws on numerology and symbolism and adopts a cross-cultural approach in an effort to advance a cohesive universal healing message. The text featured in the composition is original, except for the use of an ancient Japanese Shinto chant.

Materials And Techniques In D’Improvviso Da Immobile S’Illumina, For Bass Clarinet, Two Orchestras, Piano And Percussion, Federico Bonacossa

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

D’improvviso da immobile s’illumina is a concerto for bass clarinet, two orchestras, piano, and percussion, that I composed during my graduate studies at Florida International University in Miami. The work is approximately 16 minutes long and is scored for 30 independent instrumental parts in addition to the bass clarinet soloist. Although the piece does not incorporate electronics, electronic music was a major influence in its creation, and the computer was used extensively as a compositional tool. In addition, the writings of Henry Cowell and the music of Sofia Gubaidulina influenced the concerto in a number of ways. While writing this …

Igrooving: A Generative Music Mobile Application For Runners, Daniel J. Lepervanche

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

iGrooving is a generative music mobile application specifically designed for runners. The application’s foundation is a step-counter that is programmed using the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer. The runner’s steps generate the tempo of the performance by mapping each step to trigger a kick-drum sound file. Additionally, different sound files are triggered at specific step counts to generate the musical performance, allowing the runner a level of compositional autonomy. The sonic elements are chosen to promote a meditative aspect of running. iGrooving is conceived as a biofeedback-stimulated musical instrument and an environment for creating generative music processes with everyday technologies, inspiring us …

An Analysis Of Six Original Latin Jazz Compositions And Arrangements, Ruben Caban

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the cross-cultural fusion of jazz harmony and Afro Caribbean rhythms. These six compositions were chosen for the composers Master's recital to demonstrate how his writing technique was influenced by his cultural and musical experience during his years of study and performance in the United States and abroad. The instrumentation was chosen to exemplify the fusion of the traditional percussive sounds of Latin music with jazz harmony, melody and improvisation. It is important to note that even though one of the compositions, E.T., is not written in a Latin style, it was nonetheless …

The Seven Deadly Sins, Peter D. Carney

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This recital was created with the intention of reconnecting fundamental elements of music that have been estranged from jazz in the last 20 years. The uses of themes, experimentation, original composition, spirituality and social criticism or social commitment have all been pushed aside in the present state of jazz. These elements of music which helped jazz and its popularity have fallen under the shadow of improvisational virtuosity in today’s jazz music.

Today jazz is saturated with various personalities, opinions, and world cultures. This new spectrum of possibilities has created numerous frontiers for the future of improvisation. At the same time …

Jazz Band Arranging : Original Big Band Arrangements, Jay M. Byron

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines five big band arrangements written during a period of two semesters from 1998-1999. I will provide an overview and performance considerations for each arrangement. Each arrangement uses common conventions such as unison lines, octave doubling, four and five part voicings, found in closed, semi-open, and open position. Approach techniques include diatonic, dominant, diminished, chromatic, and parallel. Choice was based primarily on two considerations: desired texture and the best voice leading options identified to provide each part with a swinging line and maintain melodic integrity. Other conventions applied include chord substitution, upper structure triads, and altered and diminished …