Music Theory Commons^™

One For The History Books Or The Trash? Changes In American Piano Literature, S. Andrew Granade

Honors Theses

Since the eighteenth century, the piano has been one of the dominant instruments for musical expression. In numerical terms, only the symphony orchestra can boast a larger repertoire than the piano. Most of that vast amount of literature was composed during the nineteenth century. At the beginning of that century, technological advances allowed piano makers to add more notes to the instrument's range and more strings to existing notes to strengthen the sound and timbre they produced. In its basic design, that of small hammers striking three strings each, the piano is a percussive instrument. The advances of the nineteenth …

Speaking And Singing: How Speaking On One's Optimal Pitch Affects The Singing Voice, Cindy Hood

Honors Theses

The fields of vocal pedagogy and speech pathology are often thought to be completely separate entities. This misconception has existed for decades and continues to inhibit the vocal growth of the voice student. The student is not permitted to explore the benefits that could come from a combined application of the two fields of study. This is due to the fact that a large number of voice teachers refuse to acknowledge that the scientific study of speech pathology even remotely applies to the study of the ''singing" voice. Richard Miller ( 1986) states:

There is a breed of singing teacher …

A Study On The Acoustical Foundations Of Music By John Backus, Sally Mccarty

Honors Theses

For this project, the book, The Acoustical Foundations of Music, by John Backus, was read and studied. The purpose of reading this book was twofold. The first was to gain a better understanding of how musical sounds are produced and transmitted to the listener. The second purpose was to decide whether or not this book would be suitable to use as a textbook in a course dealing with acoustics as it applies to music. Since it would be impractical to discus in the bounds of this paper, all that was learned concerning the subject of acoustics, the topic of …

A Discriminative Study Of How Hymns Should Relate To The Present Age, Shelby Earl Cowling

Honors Theses

Today, when the church and church music no longer dictate the cultural development of music as it once did long ago, and when composers use on of the three basic elements of music as the basis for their compositions thus offering many different types of styles of music, church music finds itself in a state of confusion. It culturally lags behind that of secular music and quite often gets trapped when trying to decide on which style to adopt today. It does not attract as it once did the composers of its century to compose music for the church, it …

Vocal Techniques, Ginger Murdoch

Honors Theses

After studying voice for two years, I have fount this general study f vocal techniques to be very educational as well as interesting. When I began the study I was classified as a mezzo-soprano, due to a limited range. Therefore, I was interested mainly in material dealing with the mezzo-soprano voice. During the year, however, my range has increased and, because of the quality of my vice added to this increase in range, I am now beginning to sing more lyric soprano music. Naturally, then, my interest has shifted to the lyric soprano voice, its qualities, tessitura, etc.

I believe, …

Chords Employed In Twentieth Century Composition, Camille Bishop

Honors Theses

The traditional triad of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries tends to sound trite in the surroundings of twentieth century dissonance. The composer faces the problem of imaginative use of the triad so as to add freshness to a composition. In modern composition, major and minor triads are usually used as points of relaxation before and after sections of tension.

A Study Of Music Theory Teaching In The Arkansas Foundation Of Associated Colleges, Janis Nutt Watkins

OBU Graduate Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine the place of music theory in the curricula of seven selected colleges in Arkansas through a survey of the departments of music of these schools. This study is approached through comparison of semester hour requirements in theory, content of harmony courses, class procedures, and sims of the faculties.

The theory programs differed principally in the depth of study and methods of presentation. The majority of the faculties interviewed agreed that the purposes of theory were to represent fundamentals in a functional way and to contribute to the students' understanding of structure of …