Musicology Commons^™

Review Of Beethoven's French Piano: A Tale Of Ambition And Frustration By Tom Beghin, Dorian Bandy

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Music Of The Divine: Interweaving Threads Connecting Contemporary Chant-Based Piano Repertoire, Jeremy D. Duck

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

The purpose of this document is to prove chant remains an important source of inspiration among living composers, and, despite the number of piano works already incorporating chant, composers today are still finding unique ways to include chant in their music. To achieve this objective, representative works have been selected for research and analysis for four of the major chant traditions. Connor Chee’s The Navajo Piano, Victoria Bond’s Illuminations on Byzantine Chant, and Hayes Biggs’ E.M. am Flügel: Poem-Étude for Piano Solo, though the chants from which they are inspired are diverse in concept and style, they …

Form In The Preludes Of J.S. Bach's Well Tempered Clavier, Daniel E. Prindle

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the forms of the preludes in J.S. Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier. The prelude originated as an improvised genre in the mid-fifteenth century. Treatises of the period gave instruction on how to improvise and eventually compose preludes and that tradition informed Bach’s compositional practice. However, an additional genre, the invention, played a similarly important role in influencing the composition of the preludes in the Well Tempered Clavier, particularly in Book II. I analyze the forms of the preludes by proposing a new method: dimensional interplay. This method examines the form of each prelude in three musical dimensions: melody, …

Chopin’S Piano Sonata No. 3 In B Minor Op. 58: A Structural Analysis, Maverick Harrold

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in b minor Op. 58 is an incredibly important composition to the world of music. This work will uncover many of the unique facets and features of this piece as well as discover the beautiful intricacies of each of the four movements. By learning about this sonata, the reader will gain an understanding of the importance of musical structure and musical form and will gain insight into the ways of Chopin’s compositional style and of romantic piano music as a whole.

From Story To Song: Exploring The Storytelling Potential Of Instrumental Music, Celine Darr

Honors Projects

For this project, I have composed a piece of program music with the aim of capturing scenes from Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" through music. The project seeks to answer questions regarding the elements that make instrumental music "programmatic", or able to portray a story.

Adult Recreational Music-Making And Its Place In Piano Pedagogy: An Examination Of The Value Of Rmm To Both Student And Teacher, Jen Bowlds

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

This project aims to answer the following research question: How can the piano pedagogy community embrace the Recreational Music Making movement to expand its reach among adults and transform the piano teacher’s sense of professional satisfaction and career sustainability? I will examine the opportunities that exist within piano pedagogy and the growth potential for RMM as a valuable pedagogical approach for adult group piano classes. As is routinely used in strategic business planning, a SWOT analysis will be conducted to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the RMM movement within the piano pedagogy field. A relatively new (and …

Don't Lose Your Keys: Exploring The Transition From Harpsichord To Piano, Justice Post

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper explores keyboard technology in music from the Baroque era to today. Central focus is on the initial dominance of the harpsichord in Western music and how this shifted to the piano. Using this context of evolving instrumentation, the paper considers how this coincided with changing styles of music composition. Finally, the paper considers the question of how a keyboardist of today should handle music written in eras before the piano existed, and whether it is appropriate to perform harpsichord music using a modern piano.

A Bird’S Eye View: Large-Scale Tonal Structures In Robert Schumann’S Four Song Cycles (Op. 42, 24, 39, And 48), Peter Kramer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Some of Robert Schumann’s most notable works are his Lieder for solo voice and piano accompaniment. Schumann's Lieder are considered some of the best compositions in this genre, engendering various interpretations by performers and exciting vigorous debate among musicologists and theorists. Robert Schumann’s early music was almost entirely composed for the piano alone; it wasn’t until 1840 that he started to compose almost exclusively Lieder and song cycles inspired by his predecessors Beethoven and Schubert. This was a prolific year for Schumann compositionally, in part due to his marriage to Clara Schumann who was one of Europe’s most preeminent piano …

Choosing Alternative Repertoire: Pedagogical Considerations For Robert Fuchs's Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 83, Jerram Isaac John

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This document serves to promote Robert Fuchs's Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 83, as a study piece for the cello, piano, and collaborative duo, showing the pedagogical benefits of this Romantic sonata. This project will begin with a biography of Fuchs and background of the work, followed by an analysis that establishes the piece in the Romantic tonal tradition. The next section will discuss the pedagogical benefits of the cello part, the technical accessibility in the piano part, and the collaborative opportunities encountered in the piece, comparing it with other Romantic sonatas in the standard repertoire. Additionally, I will be …

Chasing Expression: Tracing Notated And Performative Devices That Create A Bel Canto Style At The Piano, Paul Zeller

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

Discussions of interpretation and performance practice often address specific historical periods, offering analyses of musical practices within a predetermined set of dates, such as ornamentation in the Baroque period, articulation as applied in the Classical era, and phrasing “the long line” in the Romantic era. Such a sectionalized approach yields many valuable insights on how to perform the music of specific composers, but it fails to consider the development of notational practices and performative idioms across different historical eras. Studying the ways in which musicians of different eras applied the same set of musical devices within a specific style could …

Memorizing Music: A Problem That A Pianist Has To Face, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

As we all know, now the piano is usually an instrument that needs to be played by memory. Except piano ensemble pieces, most solo piano pieces are required to be performed by memory, even including piano concerto works. For a long time, many pianists have had mixed attitudes towards memorizing music.

How Music Theory Sequencing Can Improve Classroom Management And Attention Issues In Beginner Students' Piano Lessons, Greta Dilyte

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

This research has been inspired by an observation of the different music-theoretical concepts and their sequencing in different piano methods. After working in three different countries as a piano teacher I wanted to explore differences and similarities as well as improve my lesson engagement level by beginning students, which is admittedly the most complicated level to teach mainly due to the focus maintenance issues. This is the evidence of my preliminary research which can be used and explored by any piano teacher who is interested in incorporating music theory concepts in their classroom, to help with attention issues, more all-rounded …

Influence And Innovation: Beethoven's Impact On The Sonatas For Piano And Cello By Mendelssohn And Chopin, Patrick T. Bellah

Dissertations, 2020-current

The bulk of the scholarship in this paper centers around Beethoven’s five sonatas written for piano and cello and how he established a new normal within the genre. This is evidenced by what are arguably the two most noteworthy sonatas for the same instrumental medium, written by Mendelssohn and Chopin, following Beethoven’s death. I posit that the five sonatas written by Beethoven establish a series of models upon which the latter two works by his successors are based.

Chapters two and three of this document are separated into subsections that detail the plausibility of Beethoven’s influence through circumstantial evidence, musical …

Is Parental Support Necessary For Children’S Piano Learning And What Implications Can Piano Teachers Take Away From This Finding?, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Nadia Boulanger’S Fantaisie Variée Pour Piano Et Orchestre A Study Of A Significant Unpublished Piece, Sarah Elias

Dissertations

The research consists of a brief historical and biographical overview of Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), a main focus of a thematic and motivic analysis of her work Fantaisie variée pour piano et orchestre, along with touching upon the influences of Fauré, Debussy, Widor, Reger, and Franck on its composition, and a mention of the process of obtaining the Fantaisie from the Centre international Nadia et Lili Boulanger. Boulanger produced works in a variety of genres, including: a fugue; more than thirty songs for voice and piano; two completed works for solo piano; three works for organ; several chamber works; three works …

Performing Rhythmic Dissonance In Ligeti’S Études, Book 1: A Perception-Driven Approach And Re-Notation, Imri Talgam

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Interpretive approaches to the Études have been limited by Ligeti’s choice of notation, which creates several layers of difficulty in the presentation of complex rhythms. In order to resolve some of these difficulties, this dissertation includes a complete re-notation of four Etudes, using a methodology based on research in cognition and perception of rhythm.

Based on this new score, the notion of rhythmic dissonance is developed as an analytical tool to investigate in-time perception of rhythmic complexity, drawing on existing work on metric entrainment and metric dissonance. Different compositional strategies for the production of rhythmic dissonance are shown to have …

In Her Own Hands: How Girls And Women Used The Piano To Chart Their Futures, Expand Women's Roles, And Shape Music In America, 1880–1920, Sarah F. Litvin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

American girls and women used the parlor piano to reshape their lives between 1880 and 1920, the years when the instrument reached the height of its commercial and cultural popularity. Newspapers, memoirs, biographies, women’s magazines, personal papers, and trade publications show that female pianists engaged in public-facing piano play and work in pursuit of artistic expression, economic gain, self-actualization, social mobility, and social change. These motivations drove many to use their piano skills to play beyond the parlor, by studying in conservatory, working as classical and popular music performers and composers, founding and teaching at schools, working as department store …

From Improvisation To Artistry: A Study Of The Piano’S 12 Sides By Carter Pann, Louis Claussen

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

Intended as a resource for pianists who may analyze or perform Carter Pann’s The Piano’s 12 Sides, this study provides biographical information on the composer and explores his professional relationship with the pianist for whom it was composed, Joel Hastings. Each piece from The Piano’s 12 Sides is discussed in terms of form, melody, harmony, texture and Pann’s approach to the pianistic compositional idiom. The composition is also examined with regard to extra-musical details and programmatic elements as well as inspiration and dedications that influenced Pann’s compositional process.

Correspondence and interviews with the composer reveal the motivation and inspiration behind …

Fragments D'Un Diari Musical, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Vetllada musical al pis d'Ursula Oppens. A pesar de les connotacions vuitcentistes que pugui tenir qualsevol saló musical, Ursula no és ni una Guermantes ni una Verdurin, sinó una defensora tenaç dels segles XX i XXI. Elliott Carter, John Adams, Lutoslawski, Ligetic, etc., tots els grans compositors des segles XX i XXI li han dedicat obres, i ella, amb els seus enregistraments, alguns amb nominacions als Grammys, ha estat la gran advocada del pianisme contemporani als EUA.

Evolving Performance Practice Of Debussy's Piano Preludes, Vivian Buchanan

LSU Master's Theses

Between 1910 and 1912 Claude Debussy recorded twelve of his solo piano works for the player piano company Welte-Mignon. Although Debussy frequently instructed his students to play his music exactly as written, his own recordings are rife with artistic liberties and interpretive freedom. Interestingly, many of the interpretive gestures that Debussy employs in these recordings are consistent with playing techniques utilized by French Baroque keyboardists. This paper will situate Debussy’s own performance in this Baroque playing style. I will first discuss the recording technology used by Welte-Mignon to establish the reliability of these recordings. By studying harpsichord manuals, I will …

"Werke Für Klavier Zu Vier Händen" By Franz Schubert, Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2013, Su Yin Mak

Performance Practice Review

Su Yin Mak discusses Bärenreiter's 2013 edition of Schubert's work.

Schubert, Franz. Werke für Klavier zu vier Händen, Band III, ed. Walburga Litschauer (Nos. 2-5) and Werner Aderhold (No. 1); Urtext of the New Schubert Edition, BA 9645. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2013.

ISMN: 9790006539871.

"Beyond The Score: Music As Performance" By Nicholas Cook, Aron Edidin

Performance Practice Review

Aron Edidin reviews and discusses Nicholas Cook's 2013 work. Cook, Nicholas. Beyond the Score: Music as Performance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN: 978-0-19-935740-6.

A Comparative History And The Importance Of Chamber Music, Aaron M. Sacks

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone presentation focuses on the role of chamber music in both social and academic contexts. Using examples from the past five centuries and including local examples, parallels and divergences are drawn to points of most import. The spotlight is upon three areas: a) what the role of chamber music was in the past, compared to today; b) why it is an important genre, to both musicians, as well as non-musicians, and c) in what ways more exposure to the form can be built. Much of the focus is on composers and their influence, but the impact of and upon …

Searching For Modeling Of Stravinsky's Petroushka In Poulenc's Rapsodie Nègre: Poulenc's Use Of Popular Forms And Techniques In His Earliest Work, Jeremy Rover

Senior Theses

Why does the view that French composer Francis Poulenc was a musical hack and a fraud continue to be discussed today? To get to the bottom of this, we need to look at the evidence available and find proof to back up these claims. In the predominant research on Poulenc, many scholars mention musical themes and quotations linked to other composers, but most of these claims aren’t backed up with specific examples or score studies. Therefore, in this paper I attempt to trace the “crime” to its source by showing Poulenc’s possible borrowing of harmonies, thematic material, styles, and rhythms …

Born To Conquer: The Fortepiano’S Revolution Of Keyboard Technique And Style, Rachel A. Lowrance

Musical Offerings

The fortepiano had a rough beginning. In 1709 it entered a world that was not quite ready for it; a world that was very comfortable with the earlier keyboard instruments, especially the harpsichord. Pianists and composers were used to the harpsichord technique and style, which is drastically different from the piano. This is because the harpsichord was actually a very different instrument than the piano, as is explained in this paper. This paper traces the history of the piano's rise to dominance over the harpsichord, and how its unique hammer action began creating an idiomatic piano style. The piano also …

Ravel And Roussel: Retrospectivism In Le Tombeau De Couperin And La Suite Pour Piano, Op.14, Qingfan Jiang

Papers

Urged by an increasingly pervading nationalism, many French composers at the beginning of the twentieth century sought to create unique French music by linking to their past musical traditions. This trend of the retrospective approach to musical composition is evident in the works of contemporary French composers such as Vincent d’Indy, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Albert Roussel. Of the latter two composers, however, personal stylistic traits differentiate their Retrospectivism on both the musical level and the aesthetic one.

The Life And Selected Piano Works Of David Burge, Mary Chung

Dissertations

Although David Burge is recognized as one of the most important American pianists dedicated to contemporary music in the twentieth century, little is known about his contributions as a pedagogue, lecturer, writer, novelist, and, especially, as a composer. This biographical study focuses on three of his piano compositions: Second Sonata, Eclipse II, and Go-Hyang. Each work represents one of three distinct compositional periods: the first reflects the influence of Prokofiev and features characteristics of the neoclassicism; the second marks a turn to experimentalism, atonality, and serialism; and the final indicates the return to a more traditional style that makes use …

Innovation And Tradition In Lisan Wang’S Piano Suite Other Hill, Rongjie Xu

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

Lisan Wang is one of the most celebrated musical figures in China. His five-movement piano suite Other Hill (1980) is the composer’s response to the “New Wave”, a compositional trend generated in China after the 1977 Cultural Revolution. Gaining fame as a piano composition for showing the application of multiculturalism and syncretism to music, Other Hill is regarded as a prime example of cross-cultural piano composition in China. Wang challenges Chinese traditional piano composition with different artistic media—philosophy, calligraphy, poems, and various folk elements in Other Hill. This document proposes an interdisciplinary study of Lisan Wang’s musical fusion of …

Volume 69, Number 04 (April 1951), John Briggs

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Dilemma in Detroit: Survivors of the Detroit Symphony Support Themselves with Odd Jobs and Look for a Successor to Sponsor Henry Reichhold

Zoltan Kodaly was my Teacher

How to Teach Adult Beginners

Music Has No Short-Cuts: Solid Careers Emerge Only for Unhurried, Systematic Training (interivew with Joseph Fuchs)

It's Free—It's Fun—It's Forum!

More About the Pharyngeal Voice: Widely-Used Method in the Golden Days of Italian Bel Canto

Class Piano Teaching Gets Results . . . A Successful Teacher Reveals the Formula She Has Developed Through Years of Trial and Error

Sing with Your Fingers

Volume 68, Number 03 (March 1950), John Briggs

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Richards Strauss . . . Conducting is a Difficult Business

Modern Piano Musical Metaphysics . . . Its Cause and Cure

How to Build a Voice Psychologists

Evaluate Music

So You Want to be a Piano Teacher

Structure of Music Clarence Dickinson—Pioneer of Church Music

Let's Simplify the Liebestraum Cadenzas Master Lesson on Brahms' Intermezzo in E-Flat Major, Op. 117,

No. 1 Musical Medicos

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