Composition Commons^™

How A Thrown Shooe Became A Tragedy And Other Funny Stories: A Study Of The Three Burlesque Cantatas (1741) By Henry Carey (1689–1743), Jennifer Cable

Music Faculty Publications

This is not to say that Carey thought ill of Italian music, per se. Contemporary accounts, including Carey’s own poems, reveal his high opinion of Handel and others who composed in the Italian style. Rather, Carey’s literary barbs were directed toward his English brothers and sisters who were all too swift to support Italian opera and Italian singers at the expense of English music and musicians. Carey spent much of his career addressing this cultural issue from a variety of creative vantage points: prose, song texts, original melodies, Italian-style cantatas, burlesques of Italian operatic style, and anonymous commentaries. This essay …

A New Geometric Model And Methodology For Understanding Parsimonious Seventh-Sonority Pitch-Class Space, Enoch S. A. Jacobus

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Parsimonious voice leading is a term, first used by Richard Cohn, to describe non-diatonic motion among triads that will preserve as many common tones as possible, while limiting the distance traveled by the voice that does move to a tone or, better yet, a semitone. Some scholars have applied these principles to seventh chords, laying the groundwork for this study, which strives toward a reasonably comprehensive, usable model for musical analysis.

Rather than emphasizing mathematical proofs, as a number of approaches have done, this study relies on two- and three-dimensional geometric visualizations and spatial analogies to describe pitch-class and harmonic …

Christopher Rouse: An Exploration Of Three Percussion Standards, Brian T. Nozny

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The percussion ensemble is still a relatively young ensemble, with the first works by Edgard Varèse and Amadeo Roldan composed in the first third of the 20th century. Because of this youth, it is important to examine significant works for the percussion ensemble which establish themselves as staples to the repertoire. Christopher Rouse, a Pulitzer-Prize winning composer has written three such works, Ogoun Badagris (1976), Ku-Ka-Ilimoku (1978), and Bonham (1989). This study will closely examine each of these works, providing background, detailed analysis, and performance practice for each of these works.

April: A Song Cycle For Low Voice And Chamber Orchestra, Daniel Arnold

Theses and Dissertations--Music

An original composition in five movements for voice and a chamber orchestra of eleven instruments. The first movement is an overture; the second and fifth movements have text by Sara Teasdale; the third and fourth movements have text by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Gloria, Abigail L. Kempson

Student Publications

A four part (SATB) motet written with Renaissance counterpoint, specifically in the style of Palestrina. Set to the text of the Gloria. About 2 minutes and 15 seconds in length.

Exploring The Multi-Generational Influence Of American Ragtime Music Through The Works Of Charles Ives, William Walton And William Bolcom, Rebecca E. Smith

Theses : Honours

Ragtime music is a style of popular music established in America that came to prominence between the years of 1896 and 1918. It is believed to have its roots in Blackface minstrel shows, it's defining feature, the heavily syncopated rhythm, quickly becoming a stereotype of African-American music. This thesis will explore the multi-generational influence of American Ragtime music on the art-music world through the works of Charles Ives (1874-1954), William Walton (1902-1983), and William Bolcom (1938-). It will timeline the undulating influence of Ragtime music on these subsequent generations of composers, noting in particular the revivals of the 1940's and …

A Survey Of The Sacred Choral–Orchestral Works Of Sir Henry Walford Davies (1869–1941), Martin C. Cook

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

In the closing years of the 19th Century, when Charles Villiers Stanford, Hubert Parry and Edward Elgar were at the height of their fame and influence in British musical society Henry Walford Davies emerged as one of the most promising talents of the day, receiving commissions from the provincial music festivals of Great Britain, which were a rite of passage for emerging composers.

Between 1904 and 1929 Davies produced eleven sacred choral-orchestral works for these festivals and one further work, which were received favorably in their day but are now almost forgotten. There are five large multi movement works: The …

The American Homophilic School Of Composition, Rik Noyce

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A small enclave of gay composers in New York, led by Aaron Copland (1900-1990) and Virgil Thomson (1896-1989), established a distinct twentieth-century musical sound that became synonymous with America. Copland and Thomson were prominent among a group of gifted gay musicians and conductors in New York in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. While perhaps not self-identifying as gay, as the term had not yet been coined, they did however acknowledge, honor, and support one another's lives as being homosexual. Is it possible that something as seemingly unrelated as sexual preference could, in fact, impact a musical style?

In this document, …

Clarinet Performance Practices For Alberto Ginastera's "Variaciones Concertantes": Solutions For Orchestral Auditions And Performances, Thomas James Kmiecik

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The principal clarinet part of Alberto Ginastera's Variaciones concertantes (1953) requires the performer to execute a number of exposed passages that are considered impractical by many clarinetists as published. The Boosey & Hawkes edition of Variaciones concertantes was published for the B-flat clarinet. On account of this clarinet choice, the part exceeds the traditional upper range of the instrument in the third variation (Variazione in modo di Scherzo per Clarinetto ). Moreover, it requires very awkward fingering patterns in passages because they are written in the Phrygian mode of C-sharp. To avoid some of these technical obstacles, many professional …

2011-2012 New Music Festival, Thomas Mckinley, Lisa Leonard

New Music Festival

Sixth Annual New Music Festival

• Thomas McKinley, Composer-in-Residence
• Lisa Leonard, Director

Monday, November 7, 2011 at 7:30 pm

• Spotlight: Young Composers

Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 7:30 pm

• Contemporary Forum

Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 7:30 pm

• Spotlight 2: Thomas McKinley

Commissioned Work

Double Visions for Clarinet, Violin, Cello & Piano by Thomas Lawrence McKinley. The full score is displayed in the Creative Works collection.

Solo Composition Recital (October 14, 2011), Dominic Dousa

Selected Works Temporary Series

Faculty Compositon Recital, presented by Gregory Luffey (soprano saxophone, UTEP), Melissa Colgin-Abeln (flute, UTEP), Mark Schuppener (violin, UTEP), and Dominic Dousa (piano). Performances of the following original compositions: "A View from Within" "Two Pieces for Flute and Piano" "Sonata for Violin and Piano"

Fugue In A Minor, Ryan A. Stones

Student Publications

"Fugue in A Minor" was composed during the Fall 2011 section of "Counterpoint and Composition" offered at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College. The piece is composed in the style of J. S. Bach's fugues in his famous collection of solo keyboard music called The Well-Tempered Clavier. "Fugue in A Minor" is a four part fugue, featuring a traditional exposition, followed by a development section including sequences and fugue subject entries, and concluding with a recapitulation of the initial fugue material and a coda.

Marshall University Department Of Music Presents A Senior Composition Recital - Chris Miller, Live Electronics, Chris Miller

All Performances

No abstract provided.

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 …

Multiple Media Outlets For Composition, Bethany A. Ciullo

Honors Scholar Theses

Through integrating different forms of media, the creator is able to give their audience a unique, multi-sensory experience. In my honors thesis, I concentrated on combining sight and sound as a communication tool and to further engage the observer.

The first type of media I chose to include was original solo instrument, voice, and piano songbooks focusing on lyrical playing for student and amateur musicians. I have also created audio realizations of the songs through Finale, which I then organized into CDs with the intention that the musician could understand how the music sounds before practicing. I combined the visual …

The Tardy Recognition Of J.S. Bach's Sonatas And Partitas For Violin Solo, Di Su

Publications and Research

J. S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo (BWV 1001-1006) are among the most important masterpieces in the literature of violin music. They are included in standard repertoire for serious violin students; they are frequently performed in solo recitals; they are recorded by numerous virtuosi; and they are required in major violin competitions. The vast amount of editions also indicates the importance of the works. In Edlund’s catalogue, one finds as many as seventy-seven editions ranging from Simrock (1802) to Henle (1987)

However, the Solos did not enjoy such a prominent status in Bach’s own time and even in …

Helen: An Opera In One Act, Garrett Hope

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

Helen is a one-act opera that tells the story of a woman whose husband would later betray her trust and love. It begins with her debut as an eligible young woman and ends with the husband’s demise. Through the course of the story it becomes apparent that her husband is both verbally and physically abusive as well as unfaithful to her. In the end her situation is redeemed through his death because his bacchanalian behavior resulted in his fatal sickness.

The opera is a retelling of a portion of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë, which was adapted …

New Horizons: A Folk Song Cycle, Chris Cresswell

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The purpose of the project was to create a piece of music that transcended musical genres and told the story of my coming of age in the first decade of the 21st century. The work featured both original text and original music and culminates in a live performance of the work.

I wanted to tell a story. More specifically, I wanted to tell my story. The story of coming of age in the 21st century. I was 11 in the year 2000, I was 21 in 2010. My formative years correlate directly with the formative years of the 21st century. …

Possibilities For Tuba Quartet/Ensemble And Percussion, Anthony J. Burnham

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

Possibilities for Tuba Quartet/Ensemble and Percussion is an exploration of the possibilities and potential that such an ensemble contains. The piece is set in sevencontrasting movements, each of which highlight, showcase, and challenge different members of the ensemble. Knowing that music for such a group is limited in quantity and scope, this piece has been written to fill a void in the repertoire for both the low brass and percussion families while allowing them an opportunity to collaborate on a level rarely seen. This piece presents a very unique and fun experience for performers and listeners alike.

David Maslanka's Desert Roads, Four Songs For Clarinet And Wind Ensemble: An Analysis And Performer's Guide, Joshua R. Mietz

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

Known primarily as a composer for the wind band, few American composers have received the notoriety and widespread acclaim that David Maslanka has since 1970. His works for wind ensemble are now considered standard repertoire and are played frequently by high school, college-level, and professional ensembles alike. Additionally, his works for chamber groups and soloists have continued to gain in popularity.  As of the writing of this document, Maslanka has composed concertos for saxophone, euphonium, flute, marimba, trombone, and piano.  Early in 2005, he completed his first large-scale work for solo clarinet with wind ensemble accompaniment:  Desert Roads.  Desert …