Musicology Commons^™

Symbolism, Sensuality, And The Space In-Between: Contextualizing The Queer Expression Of Mikhail Kuzmin In Russia’S Fin De Siècle, Avery Elizabeth Noe

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Sacred Music In Colonial Era Hispaniola: The Evangelization Of The Taino People, Tito J. Gutierrez

Student Theses

During the 15th-18th centuries, the major European religious orders; the Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, and Jeronymites, journeyed to the newly colonized American territories in an attempt to convert the multitudes of natives peoples living there. Along with prayer books, crucifixes, and religious images, these missionaries brought sacred European music to American shores in an attempt to attract the native people to the Catholic faith.The use of music as a tool for conversion of native people in places such as Mexico, South America, California, and the South West United States, have been well researched and documented. However, the research of the spiritual …

Songs For High Voice: An Annotated Guide To African Romances, Op. 17 By Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Makeda Danielle Hampton

Theses and Dissertations--Music

African Romances, Op. 17, composed in 1897 by African-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), is a collection of seven songs for high voice that is uniquely both African and American. The lyrics of this song cycle were first published in the book Majors and Minors, a collection of poems published in 1895 by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906).

An analysis of resources supports that academic discourse in Black vocal music has been underrepresented due to the absence of centralized information, such as published scores, recorded materials, catalogs, and guides for study and performance. While in depth research focusing on the art …

An Introduction To Serbian Piano Music: Musical And Cultural Influences On Three Selected Composers, Jelena Djukic

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

Serbia is a country that has survived many political and religious conflicts. Perhaps the best way to describe Serbian culture and tradition would be a country whose inhabitants struggled for many years, yet managed to incorporate the best elements of its conquerors’ cultures. Serbian musical identity is an amalgam of local and international influences and styles.

Different foreign authorities occupied this country for centuries. The Danube River was the main border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, located in the north, and the Turkish Ottoman Empire, situated south of the Danube. The Austro-Hungarian influences on Serbian music are most evident in piano …

Edwin Fischer And Bach Performance Practice Of The Weimar Republic, Bradley V. Brookshire

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Edwin Fischer (1886-1960) provided a synthesis of approaches to Bach pianism that resolved dialectical tensions of long standing between schools that opposed one another throughout the nineteenth century. I argue that Fischer’s synthesis––which permits exegetical interpretation while maintaining a preservationist stance toward the integrity of the text––resembles both Felix Mendelssohn’s bifurcated approach to Bach’s music and Moses Mendelssohn’s description of a similar duality within modern Judaism. Such resemblance may not be coincidental or superficial, given that Fischer married into the Mendelssohn family at the height of its cultural influence in Weimar-Era Berlin. Although pieces of the Mendelssohnian construct were in …

How The Axe Falls: A Retrospective On Thirty-Five Years Of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Performance, Linda Marie Zaerr

Accessus

This retrospective represents a new approach to using historical performance as a tool for understanding medieval narrative performance. The core of the article traces how an individual performer’s interaction with a stable medieval text both indicates directions medieval performers may have taken and suggests the limitations imposed by modern performance conventions. The discussion touches on issues of adaptation and translation, variation in troupe composition and audience, expectations of modern audiences, impact of costume choices, and limitations of audio and video recordings as documentation of live performance. Juxtaposing eight performances of a single passage clarifies how performance can transform a text, …

Re-Thinking Paris At The Fin-De-Siècle: A New Vision Of Parisian Musical Culture From The Perspective Of Gabriel Astruc (1854-1938), Cesar A. Leal

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Gabriel Astruc (1864-1938), a French impresario of Jewish background, is mostly known for his collaborative work as an impresario with Sergei Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes. His role within Parisian musical culture at the fin de siècle, however, was much broader. He was a critic, creator of a leading periodical, producer of musical and circus events, music publisher, and associate of many important cultural figures of his day. Although Astruc has been mentioned in scholarly literature, his multifaceted activities have never been carefully studied.

Following the revisionist initiatives of previous scholars (e.g., Pasler, Huebner, Garafola, Fauser), this project offers …

Béla Bartók: The Father Of Ethnomusicology, David Taylor Nelson

Musical Offerings

Béla Bartók birthed the field of ethnomusicology as an academic discipline through his tireless pursuits of folk music, his exposition of the sound of the rural people, and his incorporation of folk-style into his own personal compositions. His work revealed to the world that folk music exists, is important, and stands as an independent academic discipline. I argue that Bartók’s efforts established the field of ethnomusicology because he was one of the first musicians to branch into the study of ethnic music by travelling to collect samples of music, by aurally recording and transcribing folk-tunes, by re-writing these songs into …

Der Zauber Der Musik: E.T.A. Hoffmann Und Das Erleben Des Sublimen, Katelin M. Richter

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Die Werke von E.T.A. Hoffmann konzentrieren sich auf ein bestimmtes romantisches Konzept: auf die Sehnsucht nach dem Unendlichen und auf das Erlebnis dieses sublimen romantischen Reiches. Um Hoffmanns romantische Ästhetik besser zu begreifen, lohnt es sich seine Werke (Novellen, musikalische Schriften, Aufsätze und Kompositionen) heranzuziehen, um festzustellen, wie seine Figuren vor allem durch die Musik das romantische Reich erleben und wie und aus welcher Perspektive der Zuschauer auf dieses Reich reagieren kann. Diese Arbeit wird untersuchen, wie sich Hoffmanns romantische Ästhetik in den Erzählungen, den theoretischen Schriften und in der Oper Undine offenbart, wie seine Charaktere durch die Musik danach …

A Study Of Robert Schumann And His Impact On The German Song Cycle, Melissa A. Mills

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this research was to gain information about Robert Schumann and his impact on the German song cycle. The specific problems of the study were as follows: 1.) To trace the origins and development of the song cycle; 2.) To identify the significance of Robert Schumann to the German song cycle; and 3.) To analyze Frauenliebe und-Leben (‘A Woman’s Life and Love’), a song cycle composed by Schumann in 1840, in terms of form, style, and vocal technique. This research investigates the return of Robert Schumann from instrumental music back to vocal music and how he helped develop …

A Musical Poet: Themes In The Lieder Of Robert Schumann’S Year Of Song, Mary H. Harkrader

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

My thesis will research themes of solitude, love, nature, mood or emotional states, and the duality of joy and pain in the Robert Schumann’s Lieder composed around the year 1840. This year was the year of Schumann’s marriage to his music teacher’s daughter Clara Wieck and is, consequently, the year when Robert Schumann turned to writing Lieder or songs. Lieder were a unique lyric genre created in Germany during Romantic era. These songs combined the works of great German poets of the time with the artistic expression of emotions captured by the composer. Tracing the themes in Robert Schumann’s Lieder …

A Study Of Lars-Erik Larsson And His Contributions To Trombone Repertoire, Thomas S. Brown

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this research was to gain information about Lars-Erik Larsson and his contributions to trombone repertoire. The specific problems of the study were as follows: 1) to identify and investigate Larsson’s major contributions to twentieth century music; 2) to identify and investigate Larsson’s contribution to trombone repertoire; 3) to analyze Larsson’s Concertino for Trombone and String Orchestra Op. 45 No. 7 in terms of form, structure, and twentieth century techniques. A biographical overview of Larsson’s life is given as background and as insight to his compositions.

Frankenstein: Man Or Monster?, Leigh P. Mackintosh

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Since its first publication in 1818, Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein has left a lasting impression upon the world speaking to a multitude of audiences including artists, scientists, philosophers, and society as a whole. Considering the impact of Frankenstein through its evolution as a cultural myth in various plays and films, this thesis will provide a way to gauge the relevance of Shelley’s story as an adaptation. Only by knowing what has been done in the past and how the materials have been used by other playwrights and screenwriters can one understand how to handle them as an original work. The …