Musicology Commons^™

Diva Diversity: National Vocal Schools And Qualities, Emma Plotnik

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Hearing the term “opera singer” for many triggers an image of a German dramatic soprano bearing viking horns and powerfully bursting into a high C. Yet, what is it that perpetuates this stereotype that German singers possess weighty instruments with dark timbres? Why are classically trained North American vocal students told by their teachers to sing lightly and delicately when performing French mélodie, and not any other genre?

Research in vocal pedagogy has demonstrated that singers from particular regions have been typified by their vocal qualities in terms of size and color. These qualities by nation mainly stem from contrasting …

The Voice Of The Motherland: Exploring The Development Of Russian Music Before Mikhail Glinka, Alvin Ly

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

When learning about early western classical music history, the first countries often discussed include England, Germany, France, and Italy beginning around the time of Gregorian chant. It is not until approximately the early Romantic Era that we begin to learn about Russian composers such as Mikhail Glinka, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, or those of the “Mighty Handful” including most notably Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Alexander Borodin. The emergence of Russian music into the western classical world is often taken for granted and seldom asked how or why it happened. In this study, I will compare the development of Russian music alongside …

From A Chat In The Parlor To Viral Music Videos: An Analysis Of Music As A Social Occasion, Emma Plotnik

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Imagine an intimate room filled with people playing cards and casually chatting, while one of Chopin’s piano sonatas plays elegantly in the background. This scenario is characteristic of the atmosphere surrounding Classical and Romantic European salons. Salons served as havens of musical discourse from the Baroque era to the early twentieth century. However, with the advancement of technology from the mid-twentieth century to the present, there has been a decline, or, arguably, even a cessation of salon life.

The aim of this project was to recreate the salon environment through the generation of the online discussion forum, "Music Soirée." To …

Lost Chords And Christian Soldiers: The Sacred Music Of Sir Arthur Sullivan By Ian C. Bradley (Review), Julian Onderdonk

Music Theory, History & Composition Faculty Publications & Performances

No abstract provided.

The History Of The Guitar, Júlio Ribeiro Alves

Music Faculty Research

Conceived as instructional material for the guitar students at Marshall University (or anyone interested in the subject), it presents the historical process of the guitar in a clear and attainable fashion. Several topics related to the guitar will be discussed in detail throughout the book: the postulates associated with its origins, its evolution through the centuries, its repertoire, composers, performers, techniques, etc., culminating with the achievement of the privileged status of a respected concert instrument which it currently possesses.

Tracing Josef Suk’S Stylistic Development In His Piano Works: A Composer’S Personal Journey From Romanticism To Czech Modernism, Jana K. Manning

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

The purpose of this document is to trace the stylistic development in the piano works of the Czech composer, violinist, and pedagogue, Josef Suk (1874-1935). Suk’s piano music is largely unknown in the United States and, unfortunately, neglected in his homeland. Because the majority of research about Josef Suk is in the Czech language, this work is intended to be the first English language document pertaining to Suk’s piano works. The three chapters synthesize information from both primary and secondary sources, including the composer’s first biography, collection of his letters and speeches, musical scores, dissertations, thematic catalogue of his works, …

The Feast Of Corpus Christi As A Site Of Struggle, Barbara R. Walters

Publications and Research

Multiple versions of the liturgy for the new fest of Corpus Christi provide evidence for changes in the theology of the Eucharist during the thirteenth century. These changes give pause in crediting the Miracle of Bolsena as the source of inspiration for the 1264 version of the liturgy by St. Thomas Aquinas. An earlier version of the "original office" with approbation from Liege Bishop Robert Thourotte in 1246 and a celebration of the feast by Hugh of St. Cher in 1252 weigh against the Bolsena Miracle as the source. Moreover, the idea of a corporeal presence with blood issuing from …

Jazz And Puerto Rican Traditional Music: A New Generation Of Musical Exploration, Pedro Lavezzari

Masters Theses

Many musical styles around the world have been born from struggle and search for cultural identity. The same idea applies to Jazz and the Afro-Caribbean music created within the African diaspora and influenced by Latin and European styles in the United States. More recently, the meaning of diaspora has been used to refer to a group of people and some aspects of their culture (Rivera 2010, 104). For older and newer generations of Puerto Rican musicians two traditions have intersected to create a modern form of expression that reaffirms Puerto Rico’s musical creativity and contemporary tendency. In 1989 Warren Pinckney …

Report On Ams, Kenneth M. Cotich, Holly Gardinier

Faculty Papers and Conference Presentations with CGU Graduate Co-authors

This presentation summarizes and evaluates the American Musicological Society's website as a reference tool for music scholars. Evaluation methods used come from Laurie Sampsel (2012) and Holly Gardinier (2015).

Preserving Wmu’S Musical Heritage: Digitizing Aging Magnetic Tape Audio Recordings, Marianne Swierenga, Christina Doane

University Libraries Faculty & Staff Presentations

Western Michigan University has decades worth of unique recorded content on aging magnetic media. WMU’s School of Music has a particularly rich collection of recordings featuring student and faculty ensembles, visiting artist performances, and graduate recitals. Facing the possibility of losing these invaluable recorded sound artifacts through obsolescence or decay, the University Libraries realized we could wait no longer and needed to develop a preservation and digitization strategy to ensure long term access.

The Music Of Herbert Howells, Edited By Phillip A. Cooke And David Maw (Review), Julian Onderdonk

Music Theory, History & Composition Faculty Publications & Performances

No abstract provided.

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 …

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 …

The Intersections Of Music, Love, And Worship, Jacob C. Wessel

Senior Honors Theses

When a right understanding of the doctrine of love infiltrates the art of music in the event of corporate worship, an opportunity arises for a unique synergism of knowledge, emotion and relationships. These qualities are paramount in the doctrine of love and practice of corporate worship, and they are especially encouraged by the powers of music. An exploration of these three aspects of love—knowledge, emotion and relationships—is here provided with special attention to the opportunity music and worship provide for intersections between them.

The Irish Experience: Identity And Authenticity In Irish Traditional Music, Elizabeth Graber

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Over the last century, Irish traditional music, or “trad,” has become a global phenomenon that has flourished in communities from the United States of America to Japan. A musician need not be Irish in heritage to play and do justice to Irish traditional music or to feel a strong emotional connection to it; yet ethnic ties, real and imagined, constitute a powerful reason to play. The music is inextricably linked with the poetically-titled Emerald Isle even if its musicians are not. In this project, I explore and analyze the many facets of perception of and participation in Irish traditional music, …

On The Hallelujah Efect: Priming Consumers, Recording Music, And The Spirit Of Tragedy, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

An overview of The Hallelujah Effect concentrating on priming or sonic branding, media, online porn as well as marketing and media programming, with a special excursus on the space of music --and radio in Adorno's Current of Music, and a detailed discussion on Nietzsche and music in antiquity as he explores this with reference ot Beethoven in The Birth of Tragedy.

"There, In The Fastness Of Rural England": Vaughan Williams, Folk Song And George Borrow’S 'Lavengro', Ryan M. Ross

College of Education Publications and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

"Goodbye, Old Arm": The Domestication Of Veterans' Disabilities In Civil War Era Popular Songs, Devin Burke

Faculty Scholarship

IN October of 1863, two years into the Civil War, a short editorial titled "Empty Sleeves" appeared on the front page of the Staunton Spectator.1 It addressed a question that had become familiar in the wake of the war's unprecedented violence; namely, how to encounter, or how to look at (in both the literal and figurative senses), the quickly growing population of veterans whose injuries marked them as "disabled:' This question could be cause for considerable anxiety in able-bodied Americans whose beliefs were shaped by Victorian and muscular Christian values.

The Decibel Scoreplayer - A Digital Tool For Reading Graphic Notation, Cat Hope, Lindsay R. Vickery Dr

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

In 2009, the Decibel new music ensemble based in Perth, Western Australia was formed with an associated manifesto that stated “Decibel seek to dissolve any division between sound art, installation and music by focusing on the combination of acoustic and electronic instruments” [1]. The journey provided by this focus led to a range of investigations into different score types, resulting in a re-writing of the groups statement to “pioneering electronic score formats, incorporating mobile score formats and networked coordination performance environments” [2]. This paper outlines the development of Decibel’s work with the ‘screen score’, including the different stages of the …

Sonic Jihad — Muslim Hip Hop In The Age Of Mass Incarceration, Spearit

Articles

This essay examines hip hop music as a form of legal criticism. It focuses on the music as critical resistance and “new terrain” for understanding the law, and more specifically, focuses on what prisons mean to Muslim hip hop artists. Losing friends, family, and loved ones to the proverbial belly of the beast has inspired criticism of criminal justice from the earliest days of hip hop culture. In the music, prisons are known by a host of names like “pen,” “bing,” and “clink,” terms that are invoked throughout the lyrics. The most extreme expressions offer violent fantasies of revolution and …