Music Commons^™

Dowland Is For Everyone! The Making Of A New Biography, K. Dawn Grapes, Katharyn R. Benessa

Soundboard Scholar

Following the publication of her new biography of the Elizabethan lutenist John Dowland, K. Dawn Grapes details her research journey in conversation with Katharyn Benessa. They discuss both the history of Dowland research, including the legacy of Diana Poulton, and the gaps that still remain. Grapes offers new context for understanding Dowland’s music and considers how his travels and experiences may have shaped his life and work.

Ritual Action Reed Trio: September 4, 2026, Andy Nogal, Andy Hudson, Ben Roidl-Ward

School of Music Programs

This is the second program of the 2025-2026 season.

Kemp Recital Hall

September 4, 2026

Thursday Evening

7:30 p.m.

"The Sounds Of Handy's Music On The Tennessee River", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

William Christopher Handy "the father of the blues" was raised in Florence, Alabama. The article offers a synopsis of the connection between Handy, his music, and the Tennessee River.

More information about W.C. Handy and a digitized image gallery is available at the William Christopher Handy Collection.

2026-2027 Performance Forum - September 4, 2026, Ziling Wang, Hanting Peng

Performance Forum

No abstract provided.

So Much For Musicology: William Carter Plays Santiago De Murcia, Ellwood P. Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

Review of La Guitarra Española: Santiago de Murcia (1682–1732), by William Carter (Baroque guitar).

Harmonicthreads: A Formative Evaluation Of A Fabric-Based Digital Musical Instrument Toward Inclusive Music-Making, Ellie Nguyen, Franceli L. Cibrian

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Background:

Inclusive music-making requires instruments that support varied bodies, abilities, musical backgrounds, and forms of participation. Digital musical instruments provide diverse approaches to sound creation, and fabric-based interfaces offer an alternative interaction modality that may support participation for some users and contexts. Their tactile and deformable properties enable forms of interaction that differ from conventional rigid or screen-based controllers and may offer inclusive possibilities in particular settings.

Objective:

This paper presents HarmonicThreads as a formative interaction-design case of a fabric-based digital musical instrument. The prototype explores how tactile cues, fabric deformation, projected visual feedback, and assisted accompaniment can support low-barrier …

Fast Discovery Of Motivic Patterns In Symbolic Music Via Lossy Compression, Adam James Wilson

Publications and Research

Generative systems that react to live musicians require rapid analysis of musical data, which rules out deep learning models: they cannot be trained within the time constraints of live performance. But because analysis results are often transformed before use, we are free to reduce the parameters that undergo transformation to a small set of primitive states. We address this coincidence of constraint and opportunity with an algorithm for online discovery of maximal musical motives that achieves speed through lossy compression: the pitch and inter-onset-interval deltas for all pairs of events in a potential motive are reduced to two-bit values, conceptualized …

Creolized Baroque: Early Music In A Brazilian Key, Ellwood P. Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

Review of Iberian and Afro-Brazilian Music of the 17th Century, by Ensemble Banza, Rogério Budasz, (Baroque guitar).

A Two-Winged Murcia: Spanish Dance, Italian Corelli, One Guitar, Ellwood P. Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

Review of Santiago de Murcia (1673–1739): Entre dos almas, by Stefano Maiorana (Baroque guitar).

A Living Source Report: Cristian Gutiérrez Plays Cifras Selectas, Ellwood P. Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

Review of Cifras selectas de guitarra, by Cristiano Gutiérrez (Baroque guitar).

Vibe Diggers: The Sampling Of Brazilian Music In Hip-Hop, Romulo De Carvalho Moraes Barbosa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation investigates the trend of musical borrowings of 1970s MPB (música popular brasileira) by contemporary American hip-hop producers, especially in terms of what they have called a “Brazilian vibe.” A lot has been said about sampling already from legal, sociological, and historical points of view, but less has been said about its aesthetic procedures, and even less about the wider implications of a tendency for using transnational sources. In the case of MPB, hip-hop artists seem to understand the music they sample through an often vague, intuitive representation, which fuses qualities of those recordings with an intersubjective mood, a …

Representasi Identitas Dan Gastronomi Budaya Kuliner Jawa Dalam Lima Lagu Karya Ki Narto Sabdo, Aditya Pratama, Darmoko -, Ari Prasetiyo, Dwi Woro Retno Mastuti

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Culinary is not just food and drink, but has transformed into a study of culinary gastronomy which focuses on aspects of history, values, philosophy, taste and components. The study of the problems discussed in this research is related to the cultural identity of Javanese culinary gastronomy in the five songs by Ki Narto Sabdo. Descriptive qualitative research methods with an objective approach were applied in this research. This research uses Santich's culinary gastronomy theory and Stuart Hall's theory of cultural identity representation with a constructionist approach. As a result, the representation of Javanese culinary gastronomic cultural identity is built on …

Paragliding The Cliff Edge: Introducing Open Mic Studies. A Creative Response To Navigating The Post-18 Landscape For Young Adults With Send., James Tarling, Charlie Robinson, Nick Hall, Sammy Shepherd

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

This conceptual article investigates novel ways of thinking about Open Mic Nights (OMN) – performance spaces understood as free, community arts and performance opportunities where the members of the public are welcome to perform music, poetry and comedy in front of an audience. For the purposes of this article, music-related OMN that take place in pubs or community centres are discussed.

The article is intended to be a primer for OMN studies that offers new and emerging trailheads for future research and discussion. Its central focus is how OMN may benefit the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) community with …

Jury Recognition Recital: August 25, 2026, Illinois State University School Of Music

School of Music Programs

This is the first program of the 2025-2026 season.

Kemp Recital Hall

August 25, 2026

Monday Evening

7:30 p.m.

Melodizing Modern Power: Giacomo Puccini And The Demands Of Thematic Development, Claire Kelly

Music Honors Projects

This paper examines Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s processes of thematic development in three operas, La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), and Il Tabarro (1918). Puccini’s thematic development has been a point of contention for many musicologists and critics. Critics of his own time found his thematic development style to be inconsistent; some regarded his melodies as fragmented and lacking cohesion. Since then, biographers and critics such as Michele Girardi, Mosco Carner, and Alexandra Wilson have reiterated and re-examined these claims. Taken together, my three case studies conclude that Puccini’s multivalent style of thematic development is meant to depict the various effects …

"Unsung Americans Sung" List Of Songs, W. C. Handy

Documents

List of songs in Unsung Americans Sung, a volume of African American music edited by W.C. Handy. The volume's thirty-eight songs range from ballads about specific historical figures, such as Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, to arrangement of poems like Langston Hughes' "The Negro Speaks of Rivers."

"Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled", Russell Smith, Handy Brothers Music Co. Inc.

Documents

Sheet music for the sacred solo "Let Not Your Heart Be Trouble" with lyrics derived from the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of St. John. The sheet music was published by Handy Brothers Music Co. Inc. and signed by W.C. Handy on December 30, 1946

"Opportunity," Signed Sheet Music, Walter Malone, W. C. Handy, Handy Brothers Music Co. Inc.

Documents

Sheet music for "Opportunity" with music by W.C. Handy and lyrics based on the poem by Walter Malone. The sheet music was published by the Handy Brothers Music Co. Inc. and signed by W.C. Handy on December 30, 1946.

"How Like A Rose Is Love," Signed Sheet Music, Hal Hode, Peter Tinturin, Handy Brothers Music Co. Inc.

Documents

Sheet music to How Like a Rose is Love published by Handy Brothers Music Co. Inc. and signed by W.C. Handy on December 30, 1946.

"How The First Song Was Born," Signed Sheet Music, Alexander Hill, Handy Brothers Music Co. Inc.

Documents

Sheet music for the Alexander Hill Ballad "How the First Song was Born" published by Handy Brothers Music Co. Inc. and signed by W.C. Handy on December 30, 1946.