Composition Commons^™

An "Alien Foundation": The Eclectism Of Antonin Dvorak's American Period, Kelly Marie Fallon

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In 1891 Bohemian composer Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) was offered a position as the Director of the American Conservatory in New York City by Jeanette Thurber (1850-1946) due to his reputation as a nationalistic composer. Thurber was intending to create a national music for America and hired Dvorak to not only promote the American Conservatory, but help her achieve her goal of an American style. By early 1892 an agreement was reached between the two parties, and Dvorak assumed his role as Director of the Conservatory in October of 1892, a tenure which lasted until May 1895. This three year period, …

Boz For Jazz Orchestra And Vocal, Esin Gunduz

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

“Boz” means grey in Turkish and is a word that also connotes unclear or mixed substances or situations.

The source of all the pitch material in the piece is a tetrachord, that is, the first tetrachord of a Turkish makam “Sedaraban” (0145). The lines and the vertical sound in the brass and woodwind, the chords in the piano, the bass line are all produced form the transpositions of this same material. The name “Boz,” which means “grey” or “unclear” in Turkish, is supporting this idea. From the chords that the brass and woodwinds play, it is impossible to define which …

The Body Of Light : Poems, Alicia Matheny

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This creative thesis explores the different facets of Pink Floyd and their music, drawing inspiration from albums varying from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) to Dark Side of the Moon (1973). Using images drawn from nature, the cosmos, and Pagan mythology, this thesis also incorporates biographical details found in Nicholas Schaffner’s important biography, Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey (New York: Harmony Books, 1991). There are also experiments with form in the poems, in that in many of the poems, instead of commas, there are tab spaces. Each space expresses the silence between each word. …

J.A.C. Redford's A Psalm Triptych As Sonic Altarpiece, Erin Jones Kishpaugh

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

J.A.C. Redford’s love of music for the voice and the importance of his faith, key factors in understanding this composer who is best known for his film and television scores, are displayed through the song cycle A Psalm Triptych. This study examines the structure of and inspiration behind this song cycle as a means to determine its function. Redford’s approach to text setting is motivated by a desire for the meaning to be more clearly understood when illuminated by his music. Inspired by visual art, he generated a textual structure resembling triptych altarpieces, through which the listener hears the psalmist’s …

Hillbillies And Sharecroppers: An Introduction To East Coast And Mississippi Blues Styles, John Wesley Taylor

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In his thesis, Hillbillies and Sharecroppers: an introduction to East coast and Mississippi blues guitar styles, along with the accompanying CD performance, John Taylor discusses pre-WWII blues. The discussion includes regional guitar styles as well as physicalities involved in the performance of early acoustic blues in Appalachia and Mississippi. There is a chapter devoted to subjects covered in early blues songs with a list of lyric examples as well as a biography section devoted to both white and black performers in these styles. The live performance utilizes stories behind the songs and historical information of the performers discussed in the …

The Masculine And Feminine Encounter In Song : An Analysis Of Six Poems As Set By Both Male And Female Composers, Catherine Bodo Schoew

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

That fusion of poetry and music which we call song has provoked controversy, evoked ecstasy, and has tempted nearly every composer sometime during his musical career. What is it that drives a man to take immortal words and endeavor to transcend them in music? Indeed few composers have ever been truly successful, but even the idea of "perfect song" stimulates argument. The well-worn controversy of the importance of music above the words, and vice versa, has never been resolved, nor is it likely to be. The greatest problem lies in the fact that a poem existed as an independent work …