Music Practice Commons^™

New Paradigms In Band Performance: An Analysis Of Three Prototypes, Scott Walker-Parker

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

This document seeks to propose new paradigms in band performance through inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinarity. Initial inspirations were drawn from performance innovations shaped by the new music theater which became popular in the 20^th century. Key concepts which were used throughout the creative, planning, logistic, rehearsal, and performance processes are analyzed in three recitals through prototypes of new paradigms in band performance. These concepts include accessibility and community, nonverbal/multimodal performance and instruction versus time, and nonverbal/multimodal communication.

The document has been organized in a manner which highlights successes and breakdowns of each process so future refinement can be made. …

The Singing Conductor: Interviews On The Benefits And Limitations Of Choral Conductors And Teachers Continuing To Sing, Anne Carissa Gassmann

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

It is our duty as musicians, conductors, and teachers to continue developing our teaching and musicianship. One of the ways growth can occur is by singing regularly in ensembles outside of teaching. As one balances career and personal life, continuing to sing is a choice each must make. It is through this document that one may see the relevance of pursuing opportunities to sing, as it may inform and elevate one’s teaching and conducting. Eleven interviews were conducted with elementary, high school, and collegiate teachers and conductors, only half of them still singing in an ensemble. This document is intended …

Transcribing Astor Piazzolla's Works To Maximize Stylistic Fidelity: An Examination Of Three Saxophone Quartets With A New Transcription, Sarah L. Cosano

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

Astor Piazzolla is recognized as a pivotal figure who drew tango music onto an international stage. His output of written compositions and recordings provide a reference for studying tango. Though Piazzolla adapted a collection of flute etudes in 1988, he did not write specifically for saxophone during his lifetime. Saxophonists must instead rely on transcriptions of his music. Today, tango is a widely performed idiom for saxophone quartet.

Because of its tessitura, timbral variety, and flexibility, the saxophone is uniquely suited to perform tango music. This instrument has an expansive range when altissimo is included. Its written range spans from …

The Iconic One-Hit Wonder: The History And Reception Of Franz Biebl's Ave Maria, Matthew Oltman

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

Franz Biebl’s Ave Maria is one of the most well-known small-scale choral pieces written in the latter half of the twentieth century. Since its introduction to American choirs in 1970, it has become an important part of the standard choral repertoire and is often performed perennially, especially at Christmas. It was integral to the rise in popularity of Chanticleer, the American professional male chorus, and remains closely associated with the ensemble thanks to it being recorded and published in the United States under Chanticleer’s auspices. Despite these facts, very little has been written about the composer or his iconic setting …

Virtuoso Violinist Maud Powell: Enduring Champion For American Women In Professional Music, Sarah Joy Pizzichemi

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

Maud Powell, the first great American virtuoso violinist, sparked a change in the spirit of the advancement of classical music throughout North America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This document addresses gender inequality present in the classical music profession during Powell’s lifetime. It also explores the roles women occupied in the public and private spheres in Western art music of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. More specifically, it investigates the life of virtuoso violinist Maud Powell through her activism and interest in American women in professional music.

The document is divided into three parts. After a …

Love's Austere And Lonely Offices: An Analysis Of Tom Cipullo's America 1968, Joshua Zink

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

My study reveals how the music of Tom Cipullo’s America 1968 mirrors the theme of adversity leading to resolution as found in the poetry of Robert Hayden. This study should serve the purposes of investigating Cipullo’s music in relationship to Hayden’s poetry, and be a practical tool for anyone interested in performing these marvelous pieces. This study contains an introduction, a systematic look at each poem and song, and a conclusion reflecting upon my findings.

Advisor: William Shomos

The Evolution Of The Cello Endpin And Its Effect On Technique And Repertoire, William Braun

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

This document investigates how the concept of a lifting device has evolved into the modern endpin that is a now a standard part of the cello. The endpin has a unique history that, prior to this writing, has not yet been fully documented. The evolution of the endpin has caused significant changes to cello technique, as its use, or lack of, alters the basic posture and setup of the instrument on the cellist’s body. Written and iconographic evidence show that endpins and other lifting devices have been used throughout all eras of the cello’s history. There are many instances when …

Tracing The Development Of Vivaldi's "L' Estro Armonico" Concerto No.8 In A Minor Through J.S. Bach And Samuil Feinberg's Keyboard Transcriptions: Exploring The Possibilities Of A Modern Authentic Performance, Andreas Xenopoulos

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

This document explores the development of the Concerto No.8 in A minor from the collection L’Estro Armonico by Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) through the transcriptions by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) and Samuil Feinberg (1890–1962). Feinberg was a Russian and Soviet pianist, composer and piano pedagogue, highly influenced by the teaching of Franz Liszt and the principles of the new, modern ‘piano school’ during the end of the 19^th century. Biographical information about Samuil Feinberg along with the influences Franz Liszt had upon piano education in Russia and the Moscow conservatory in particular is offered. Two comprehensive comparisons between the two …

Sing Solo Pirate: Songs In The Key Of Arrr! A Literature Guide For The Singer And Vocal Pedagogue, Michael S. Tully

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

Pirates have always been mysterious figures. They came out of nowhere, attacked their victims, plundered their goods, and vanished. Reason tells us that pirates were no more than common criminals, but over the centuries, history has come to portray them as romantic and even heroic figures. This stereotype of piracy has long been a fascination of authors, poets, and composers, and it is evident in our cultural landscape.

This document examines an area of pirate literature that has been neglected, if ever discussed: the published pirate song for solo voice and piano accompaniment. Over the past two centuries many such …

A Survey Of The Sacred Choral-Orchestral Works Of Sir Henry Walford Davies (1869-1941), Martin C. Cook

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

In the closing years of the 19th Century, when Charles Villiers Stanford, Hubert Parry and Edward Elgar were at the height of their fame and influence in British musical society Henry Walford Davies emerged as one of the most promising talents of the day, receiving commissions from the provincial music festivals of Great Britain, which were a rite of passage for emerging composers.

Between 1904 and 1929 Davies produced eleven sacred choral-orchestral works for these festivals and one further work, which were received favorably in their day but are now almost forgotten. There are five large multi movement works: The …

An Evaluation Of Compositions For Wind Band According To Specific Criteria Of Serious Artistic Merit: A Second Update, Clifford Towner

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

This study is an update to the 1978 thesis of Acton Eric Ostling, Jr. and the 1993 replication study by Jay Warren Gilbert. These two studies explore a process for evaluating specific compositions, from a selected list, against a set of ten criteria defining serious artistic merit. This study reevaluates those compositions that met the criteria in the previous studies, as well as those compositions that were within ten points of meeting the criteria in the previous studies. Additional compositions, especially those composed since 1993, are also included.

The study utilizes eight procedures for accomplishing its objective, including defining the …

Cognitive Processes For Infering Tonic, Steven J. Kaup

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

Research concerning cognitive processes for tonic inference is diverse involving approaches from several different perspectives. Outwardly, the ability to infer tonic seems fundamentally simple; yet it cannot be attributed to any single cognitive process, but is multi-faceted, engaging complex elements of the brain. This study will examine past research concerning tonic inference in light of current findings. First I will survey the recent history of experimental research in cognitive functions for memory retention and expectation as they relate to the recognition and learning of musical schemas. Then I will discuss distributional theories associated with the tonal hierarchy of major and …

Randall Thompson's Requiem: A Text Setting Analysis And Recommendations For Performance, Zachary J. Vreeman

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

Randall Thompson is a well-known composer of some of the most familiar and accessible American choral music of the twentieth century. His conservative harmonic language and idiomatic writing for voices has made many of his works popular with both amateur and academic choirs. They are particularly admired for their sensitive setting of English text.

In 1958, Thompson wrote a large work titled Requiem, inspired by a young terminally-ill choral conductor, and commissioned by the University of California. Though positively reviewed, it received only a handful of performances, and is little known today outside of a few extracted movements. The …

David Maslanka's Desert Roads, Four Songs For Clarinet And Wind Ensemble: An Analysis And Performer's Guide, Joshua R. Mietz

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

Known primarily as a composer for the wind band, few American composers have received the notoriety and widespread acclaim that David Maslanka has since 1970. His works for wind ensemble are now considered standard repertoire and are played frequently by high school, college-level, and professional ensembles alike. Additionally, his works for chamber groups and soloists have continued to gain in popularity. As of the writing of this document, Maslanka has composed concertos for saxophone, euphonium, flute, marimba, trombone, and piano. Early in 2005, he completed his first large-scale work for solo clarinet with wind ensemble accompaniment: Desert Roads. Desert …

A Metrical Analysis And Rebarring Of Paul Creston's Sonata For Alto Saxophone And Piano, Op. 19, Christopher Kyle Sweitzer

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

The Sonata For Alto Saxophone and Piano Op. 19 is one of the most popular pieces in the saxophone literature, commonly played by professional saxophonists during their training. It features exciting rhythmic devices like irregular and mixed meter, the notation of which is the main focus of this paper. Although Creston often used irregular and mixed meter in his compositions, he rarely specifically notated them, choosing instead to use accents, beams, slurs, and other phenomenal cues at the musical surface to create the effect of these metric plans. Time signatures often remained constant throughout entire movements. Creston believed this would …

A Performer’S Guide To The Original Works For Solo Horn, Horn And Piano, Two Horns, And Two Horns And Piano By Paul Basler, Nicholas A. Kenney

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

The horn music of Paul Basler, while extremely popular and widely recognized, is relatively unexplored in academia. Basler’s experiences have led him all over the world from Wisconsin, Florida, and New York to Kenya and the Dominican Republic. Because of Basler’s variety of experiences, his music encompasses many styles and media. This document focuses on the life and influences of Paul Basler as a composer for the horn as the featured instrument. It provides a historical context for each of his original pieces for solo horn, horn and piano, two horns, and two horns and piano. Also present is a …

The Contributions Of Axel Jørgensen To The Solo Trombone Repertoire Of Denmark In The Twentieth Century, Andrew H. Converse

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

Axel Jørgensen is one of a few Danish composers who has contributed compositions to the solo trombone repertoire that gained an international and lasting reputation in the twentieth century. Jørgensen, like many Danish composers from the first part of the twentieth century, is often overlooked due to the imposing figure of Carl Nielsen. Jørgensen’s compositions, while not overly patriotic, give the trombonist a sense of the Danish Nationalistic Romantic style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Jørgensen was one of the first composers to write for the emerging slide trombone idiom in Denmark at the beginning of the …