Composition Commons^™

Theoretical And Compositional Analysis Of Select Metal Works, Jacob Bird

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper is a comprehensive essay on the history, form, and compositional techniques of Extreme Metal music. Within Extreme Metal this paper will cover three sub-genres using compositions by Burzum, Death, and Gojira. This paper is meant to show a link between the compositional techniques used in Western Classical music and Extreme Metal through analysis of form, harmony, and tonality/modality. The scope of this paper primarily focuses on the popular music form verse/chorus which is compared to a variety of Western Classical music forms. The goal is to promote future research into the Extreme Metal style and other popular music …

The G7 Suite: Score And Analysis, Joseph C. Dunn

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The G7 Suite is a multi-movement chamber work that combines elements of European Art Music, Indigenous Music from Latin America, and various representations of American music. The melodic material is derived from the national anthems of the Great Seven nations: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Each melody is re-set to new music genres and aligns itself to the rules and expectations within each idiom. This compilation is more than a series of arrangements or reharmonizations of the anthems; these are new compositions based on melodic elements from previous works.

This analysis of The …

On Five Degrees: For Voice, Flute, Cello, Vibraphone And Piano, David Patterson, Tenbroeck Davison

Compositions of David Patterson

On Five Degrees (do si la sol fa - fa sol la si do) musically develops TenBroeck Davison's poem, The Five Degrees. Her song, Melancholy Nights, is an inlay at the composition's center.

The Five Degrees

The glance, the look.
The arms that open wide
to hold the moment - Melancholy Nights - and the kiss
in time. And then beyond. 
To glance, to look. Again.

Melancholy Nights

City lights they all astound me, 
and the noises still confound me 
since you've gone, it's been so long 
I can't recall a single song to take— 
nights that always …

Opera | Saint Mary Of Egypt (Original Version, 2021), John Craton

Craton Scores Collection

This is the original version of Craton's Saint Mary of Egypt; the opera was revised in 2026, and the revised version is also available in this collection.

Pity The Nation, Kameron Zebadiah Mechling

Graduate Thesis Collection

In light of the unprecedented events of social unrest that took place in the year of 2020, this piece takes inspiration from the timeless poem “Pity the Nation” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Just as the text and themes relate to the United States during this time, they continue to resonate beyond multiple areas and eras.

When recalling the events of 2020, some remember fear, uncertainty, pain, anger, disgust, and loss. Pity the Nation depicts these emotions. The alto and tenor voices follow each line of text in the poem, interpreting the themes musically as they are given. The fear of the …

Circuition: Concerto For Jazz Guitar And Orchestra, Richard Alan Robinson

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Circuition: Concerto for Jazz Guitar and Orchestra is a programmatic musical composition which tells the story of the life cycle. Each part is designed to represent a particular time in life through age or set of events that relate to all people regardless of the specifics in one’s life. Although I disclose how the program of relates to specifics within my own life, the goal is that a listener will find resonance with their own. In this document I examine how the elements of form, harmony, melody, and rhythm shape the composition and inform its programmatic nature.

Topics are divided …

Chimurenga Chepfungwa: A Liberated Cultural Curriculum For The Madzimbabwe Singer, Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Chimurenga ChePfungwa is the self-liberation of the mind. Education can either be an instrument for liberation or a tool for colonial indoctrination, brainwashing, and enslavement — the European colonization of Africa in the late-nineteenth century and the continent's epic efforts at self-liberation have amply taught us this.

Chimurenga ChePfungwa calls for the centering of ChiVanhu knowledge systems such as Ngano, Tsumo neNziyo. ChiVanhu encapsulates Madzimbabwe indigenous knowledge systems, cosmologies, and ways of being, and this paper insists on the primacy of these ChiVanhu epistemologies for the construction of knowledge and knowing.

Amagama ayadala. Words create. So much of the language …

Shining A Spotlight On Female African American Composer Evelyn Simpson-Curenton, Iris E. Fordjour-Hankins

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Those who are interested in learning more about Evelyn Simpson-Curenton (b. 1953) will find it challenging to find scholarly material on her life and music. She is best known for her arrangements of spirituals that were sang and recorded by Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman (whose concert recording Spirituals in Concert was released in 1991). Simpson-Curenton is also known for her choral work, “Psalm 91,” made famous by Oakwood University’s Aeolians. Though she is self-published, her absence from compilations, volumes, and anthologies for solo voice and piano is regrettable. This dissertation provides well researched scholarly information about her musical life …

Symphony No. 3 For Chamber Orchestra, Derrik Nelson

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Symphonic works provide the composer an opportunity to create and explore an entire world, establishing the rules and laws by which the music operates, subject only to the whims and wishes of the composer. I view large-scale symphonic works as one of the highest achievements of musical expression and craft a composer can accomplish. I chose to compose for the chamber orchestra due to its intimate arrangement, narrowing down the orchestra to its most essential components: strings, woodwinds, and brass, along with the inclusion of the piano. Though the piano is technically not an “essential” component of the orchestra, I …

Developing A Music Composition Practice: Exploring The Choreography Of Cymatics, Joshua Jervis

Theses : Honours

Cymatics is an area of physics popularised by Hans Jenny that observes the influence of sound but more simply vibration on physical matter. When sound is directly applied to a substance, for example, water, the vibrations create kaleidoscopic movement within the medium. Specific variables primarily of pitch, container size, and water volume contribute to creating a variety of geometric shapes. Without sound cymatics does not exist and is, therefore, a visual characteristic of sound itself.

With an investigation into the behaviour and application of cymatics, this research uses the findings of an investigation to develop a ‘choreographical’ language that can …

Musical Composition Graduate Portfolio, Juan Marulanda

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The musical works included in this portfolio were composed between Fall 2019 and Spring 2021. The compositions encompassed here are: Bordones for percussion trio, Kuvx for flute quartet, Pisces for piano, Pisces Interpolationem for marimba, Raudal for piano and for orchestra,and ¡Oh Selva! for electronics. This document is a concise presentation of salient aspects involved in the creative process of each work.

Exploring A Compositional Practice Through The Lens Of The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, Jie Hong Yang

Theses : Honours

Asian music was an important influence upon some Western composers such as Claude Debussy, Giacomo Puccini, Maurice Ravel, Henry Cowell, Oliver Messiaen, John Cage and Lou Harrison. Since the 1960s, Australian composers such as Peter Sculthorpe, Anne Boyd, Richard Meale, and Julian Yu have similarly been influenced by music of Asia. In 2007, Chou Wen-chung wrote about today’s commercially oriented ‘world music’ environment, and addressed the need for Chinese composers to provide more meaningful contribution to the musical culture by writing music informed by knowledge drawn from their cultural heritage. As an Australian born Chinese composer, this exegesis was an …

Exploring And Reapplying Wayne Krantz’S Method Of Constructing The Album Greenwich Mean, Christian A. Meares

Theses : Honours

Praised for his non-traditional approach to improvised music, his idiosyncratic chordal voicings and strong sense of time, Wayne Krantz has become a touchstone in modern jazz and a unique voice on the guitar. In 1999, Krantz self-released Greenwich Mean, an album comprising of small vignettes spliced together from a year’s worth of recorded live improvisation from his weekly residency gig at the esteemed 55 Bar in New York’s Greenwich Village. This album marks a fundamental shift in Krantz’s approach to composition from through-composed works to smaller, novel arrangements with a strong emphasis on group improvisation.

Using a practice-led research …

Touching Light: A Framework For The Facilitation Of Music-Making In Mixed Reality, Ian Thomas Riley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Drawing upon the historical development of analog and digital technologies alongside the proliferation of computer-assisted performance practices, this research seeks to develop a framework for integrating Mixed Reality applications to live musical performance, specifically through the creation of a Microsoft HoloLens 2 Mixed Reality application in order to facilitate a live performance of an original musical composition for percussion and real-time Mixed Reality environment. Mixed Reality enables a performer to interact with virtual (holograms, VSTs, etc.) and physical (vibraphone, tuned drums, microphones, etc.) objects simultaneously. Tandem to the development of the conceptual framework was the composition of an original score …

Fostering Music Performers In The 21st Century: A Contemporary Professional Perspective Toward A New Curricular Agenda For Graduate Study In Music, Andre Januario

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

What if the core curriculum for graduate students in music performance were designed to prepare students to succeed in the world of the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

This dissertation offers a hypothetical answer: a structured and systematic academic curricular framework for music graduate students of performance of concert music (especially those in terminal degrees, such as doctoral students), along with music instructors, professional music performers, school administrators, and college professors, seeking to prepare such students for achieving and maintaining a music career more in keeping with the current work environment, especially those skills demanded by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the …

Lost In Translation: A Critical Analysis Of The Libretto In Handel's Messiah, Jordan Lehto, Aaron Escamilla, Eden H. Nimietz

2020 Festschrift: Georg Frideric Handel's "Messiah"

Handel’s Messiah is renowned for its lush sound and richly developed message regarding the rejoicing of Christians and the celebration of religion through their faith in a divine savior. Not only is the full oratorio performed by countless ensembles every year, but many scholars have spent months, and even years, poring over its libretto. The conclusions they have come up with regarding the intentions of the librettist, Charles Jennens, have sparked much controversy over the years. Because of Jennens’ personal, religious beliefs, many scholars are concerned that much of his libretto is designed to discredit all other religions and proclaim …

Amen: A Liturgical Prayer Of Thanksgiving For All The Year, Anthony Elia

Bridwell Library Research

A short choral work for religious congregations or groups for SATB configuration. A piano reduction accompanies for conductors.

Arvo Pärt: Sounding The Sacred [Toc], Peter Bouteneff, Jeffers Engelhardt, Robert Saler

Religion

Scholarly writing on the music of Arvo Pärt is situated primarily in the fields of musicology (analyzing Pärt’s signature “tintinnabuli” method), cultural and media studies (Pärt’s audience is uncannily broad within and beyond the contemporary classical world) and, more recently, in terms of theology/spirituality (Pärt is primarily a composer of sacred music). For the most part, this work is centered around the representational dimensions of Pärt’s music (including the trope of silence), writing and listening past the fact that its storied effects and affects are carried first and foremost as vibrations through air, impressing themselves on the human body. In …

Developing A Systematic Approach For Teaching Beginning Improvisation Using The Concert Percussion Ensemble, Ian Mcclaflin

Dissertations

Typically, when studying percussion at a University, a student is required to be proficient at multiple aspects of percussion (snare drum, mallet keyboards, drum set, hand drumming, etc.) and work through multiple method books and solos on the different instruments. This often leaves little to no room for the study of improvisation on their instrument.

Examined in this study are the following points pertaining to the state of teaching improvisation:

• There is an apparent lack of improvisation in the classroom
• Teachers often feel unprepared in teaching improvisation
• Improvisation is most commonly associated with jazz
• Both teachers and students tend to …

Cyberpunk Beginnings: Sos, Mark Zanter

Music Faculty Research

This performance proposal features works for electric guitar, percussion, live processing and visuals performed by Mark Zanter, and Steve Hall of Marshall University, USA. Approximate time 10 minutes. SOS integrates layers of algorithmically generated material, live signal processing, visuals, and live performance in a work exploring boundaries between machine generated sound(s), and human interaction.