Composition Commons^™

Guitar Suite, Stephanie Boyer

Theses and Dissertations

Guitar Suite is a two movement piece composed for solo guitar. In addition to the guitar suite, an orchestral arrangement of its second movement, "Dance of the Fields," concludes this thesis, presenting the same melody in various textures.

Operabbit, Mariel C. Mayz

Theses and Dissertations

OPERAbbit takes place in an unknown country with unnamed characters who are struggling for basic necessities amongst a political, social, and economic crisis. Questions of loyalty, trust, and nationalism are brought to the foreground as our Protagonist receives an unconventional government hand-out: a bunny. This fictional story— written by the composer and her brother— is met with humor and the liveliness of Latin American culture. The underlying truth, however, is more tragic. Many countries in Latin America have faced deep political, economic, or societal problems throughout their histories. None, however, have faced them all simultaneously as the country of Venezuela …

Melting Crayons, Ho Lam Tang

Theses and Dissertations

Melting Crayons was inspired by a conversation with a clarinetist and a good friend, Jena Nahnsen, last summer in Italy. As we were waiting for our friend to finish her shopping for souvenirs next to Ponte Vecchio, Jena and I had a conversation about combining visual colors and music.

A few months go by, and Melting Crayons is created. A collection of melodies is generated using the six-digit crayon color code based on the fundamental E-flat. Using Mango Tango #e77200 as an example, the color code is a combination of letters and numbers. Letters reference for pitch, with my choice …

Two Suites For Solo Instruments, Matthew O. Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

TWO SUITES FOR SOLO INSTRUMENTS:

MA Thesis

Matthew O. Thomas, Composer

This Thesis contains two Suites for Solo Instruments: Suite Médiévale for guitar and Seven Recital Studies for Intermediate Grade for piano solo. The recital studies were conceived as a way to fill a void in music literature for beginning advanced pianists; those students not quite ready for the large works of the masters, but are seeking challenging repertoire beyond the formulaic lesson and recital books. Each of the seven is an example of a different style, form, or theoretical concept. Notes for the performer have been included with recommendations …

Missa Gloriæ Patris (Score Sample), Alexander Seefeldt

All College Thesis Program, 2016-2019

Missa Gloriæ Patris is a Latin mass setting in four movements for SATB choir and organ. The complete score is 55 pages long, and the full piece runs just over 25 minutes. Included here are first pages of each movement, as well as a companion paper, recordings of two of the pieces, and a worship aid from the premiere of the piece.

8scenes, Spencer G. Perkins

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

This work explores the juxtaposition of a live ensemble, and pre-collected field recordings. The material for the ensemble is divided into eight sections, or “scenes,” which unfold one after the other without pause, at times blending musical material to where it is unclear when the music has transitioned to the next section. The field recordings are divided into three main sections, which are defined by the underlying loop as follows: “sunny day recording”; “people talking recording”; and “rainy day recording.” Atop these structural loops, it is the responsibility of the “electronics player” to que other recordings in a manner that …

Asylum For Mezzo-Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone, & Chamber Orchestra., Cullyn D. Murphy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 1884, Daniel Paul Schreber was admitted into an asylum in an attempt to help treat his paranoid schizophrenia. He documented his time in the asylum through a memoir titled Memoirs of My Nervous Illness. His memoir noted the extremely poor living conditions and treatment of patients, while also illustrating Schreber’s slowly deteriorating mental state. Prior to his admittance, Schreber was a well respected judge in Germany and the son of a renown child psychologist. This societal decline contributed to the acceptance of these memoirs as a serious account of the events that transpired on a daily basis for mental …

The Far Green Country., Lincoln A. Sandham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work was inspired by a beautiful image from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: “And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.” ~The Return of The King, Book VI chapter 9. This imagery inspired the three movements of this work. The first, The Gray Raincurtain, depicts a violent end, the world crashing down around you. The musical material of this movement gradually …

When The Ground Shakes., James May

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the spring of 2017, I approached friend and writer Mickey Osthimer about collaborating on text for a song cycle. I was concerned about questions of identity, especially in America—why and how do certain ideologies lay “claim” to American values? Are protesters less representative of our values than police or government? More? Why do we ignore certain sub–communities, uphold others, and mourn or empathize with them accordingly? What emerged from our discussions was a series of poems and prose selections about community, identity, memory, and trauma. Some of the text deals with childhood and nostalgia, while we culled other excerpts …

Tuba Concerto In D Minor, Eric Dreggors

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Writing the Tuba Concerto in D minor was a long and tedious process that required help and inspiration from many different people. The process began with a suggestion from a friend to write a tuba concerto for him, and soon progressed into a thesis. Since only one tuba concerto exists in the standard repertoire (the concerto by Ralphe Vaughan-Williams), the challenge to create a new concerto was very powerful.

Eleven minutes long, it is much shorter than the average concerto, but only a minute or two behind the Vaughan-Williams concerto. The first movement, the Prelude, is made to sound just …

The Experience Of Live And Recorded Music: A Cello Solo, Sarah Hunter

Honors Projects

Americans experience 98.5% of their music in a recorded medium such as radio, online streaming, TV, CDs, or other physical mediums. As a composer of classical concert music, I challenged myself to compose music that offered audiences a meaningful experience as a live performance and as a recorded piece of music.

String Quintet No. 2, Johnny Smith-Wilson

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

This work is a four movement String Quintet constructed in cyclical form.

Advisor: Thomas E. Larson

Palestrina’S Polyphony, Dawson Tillman Dowdy

Undergraduate Research Conference

The intention behind my composition (Kyrie) was to emulate Palestrina’s style by following a set of specific guidelines derived from the common characteristics of his compositions. Ultimately, my goal was to craft a piece that served as a 21st century interpretation of Palestrinian polyphony. Although I took some liberties in terms of harmonic language, I ensured that the essential elements of textual clarity, imitation, stepwise motion, and fluid melodic structure were strictly executed.

Requiem For Orchestra And Choir, Luciano Vaz Correa

LSU Master's Theses

Five Movements of a Requiem is a composition for orchestra, solo soprano, solo alto, solo tenor, solo bass and choir, and is approximately 20 minutes in length. To compose it, I’ve studied many different requiem masses from Renaissance polyphony to our days, works from Tomás Luis de Victoria’s Missa Pro Defunctis to Schnittke’s Requiem. In this study, I’ve tried to understand which techniques they used in their compositions, and how these techniques could be useful on helping me to express my own music. In Christian liturgy, Requiem masses are offered for the dead and the name is derived from the …

Symphony No. 1, Jingyu Xu

LSU Master's Theses

Abstract

Symphony No.1, created on December 10, 2017. It was finally completed on February 1, 2018. This is a music representation of the environment using music. The composer of this symphony believes that at present it is a world of diversity, many different environmental factors and many different music senses and imagination are different. We can’t just stick to traditional music research and modern music research. The author of this music thinks that should complement each other and merge them totally different music materials, representing the three different styles of music materials, representing the three different styles of modern, national …

From Swing King To Swing Kids: The Jazz Era Of ‘Big Band Orchestras’ In World War Ii, Katie Victoria Burnopp

Student Scholar Showcase

Known as the ‘King of Swing’, clarinetist and band leader Benny Goodman (1909-1986) threatened the Nazi cause during WWII. With intent of improving music pedagogy, the purpose of this research was to investigate swing music during World War II. The particular problems of this study were to: (1) identify how the swing music of Benny Goodman (1909-1986) influenced adolescents in the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Germany; (2) explore the Nazi party view on ‘swing’ music of the era; (3) examine how the music of Charlie and his Orchestra became used as a tool for Nazi propaganda; and …

A Rhythmic Transcription And Spectral Analysis Of Luciano Berio's Thema (Omaggio A Joyce), Christopher C. Mccardle

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Thema (Omaggio A Joyce), composed by Luciano Berio resides within a tempo of 80 beats per minute. The discovery of a constant tempo allowed for a precise rhythmic transcription to be created which found musical structures including large formal sections, subsections, phrases, rhythmic and melodic motives, layers, and dialogue. Analysis of the rhythmic phrases shows that electroacoustic music can have a controlled structure and that these structures earned Thema an enduring legacy of masterpiece. The transcription provides a road-map to compare and contrast different elements that reoccur throughout Thema. The work was composed with a well thought-out and …

21 Modes, Adam Bodine

Senior Thesis Compositions in Music

21 Modes
by Adam Bodine

In three movements.

Performed by Quartet Nouveau
April 19, 2018
French Parlor, Founders Hall
University of San Diego

Batya MacAdam-Somer and Missy Lukin, violins
Annabelle Terbetski, viola
Elizabeth Brown, cello

21 Modes was inspired by curiosity. I wanted to know how many scales would result from reordering the half and whole steps of the major scale. As it turns out there are 21. I composed each of the three movements to explore the sonorities of each scale. The first movement is inspired by Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. The aggressive eighth note string texture became …

A Collection Of Three Pieces For Solo Instrument And Electronics, Carolyn Borcherding

Masters Theses

This collection of three musical compositions for solo instruments and electronics explores the interaction between acoustic instruments and electronic media with a specific focus on musical form. The musical form is apparent due to clear musical segmentations, and the coherence of each work is maintained by the inter-contextual relationships evident in the musical material. Each piece is divided into three parts: beginning, middle, and end. Each beginning sets up a strong relationship between the two media by using closely timed action-reaction gestures. The middle section diverges away from these reactionary gestures, while the ending then brings about a short return …

From Korngold To The Movies: Korngold's Influence On Film Scores, Michelle L. Grosser

Student Publications

During the 1920s, a new cultural movement called Neue Sachlichkeit (or New Objectivity) was developing in Germany and Austria. During the rise of Nazi Germany, the Neue Sachlichkeit movement protested by bringing back elements of the Romantic era in art, literature and music. One of the most recognizable composers of this time was Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 – 1957). Today’s listeners often hear Korngold’s concert works as being very similar to contemporary film scores; but in reality, Korngold wrote in his very distinctive harmonic and melodic style from the beginning of his career, before film scores came to be, and …