Music Practice Commons^™

Modernizing And Diversifying Western's Audio Engineering Curriculum: First Stage, Kyle Haddad

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This was the first stage in a much larger study designed to update the audio engineering curriculum at Western University, to reflect modern trends and to diversify beyond the UK 1970s prog rock bias of traditional curriculum. An undergraduate student was hired from within the Popular Music Studies program here at Western University to work in the studio for the summer, and to provide recommendations for change in studio design at the end fo the summer based on that work. The student worked on his own material, and engineered record sessions for a PhD candidate currently at work on a …

Collection Of Violin Technique Fundamentals, Patricio Flores Esquivel

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This book provides a sampling of exercises and studies for violin playing. It serves as both a collection of useful materials and a reference to other studies and exercises aimed at the playing level of an average incoming violin student at Western University. This compilation of exercises is sorted according to the fundamental aspect of violin technique that each exercise addresses.

Much of the book is made up of patterns and variations on studies and exercises that are sorted by skill and designed to be reusable and useful for other studies beyond this book, as well as violin repertoire. It …

Relocating Community To The Virtual: Sound Knowledge, Affective Listening, And The (Dis)Embodying Of Sound And Space, Zachery D. Coffey

Masters Theses

Music within Protestant church communities frequently reduces the distinction between performers and audience, emphasizing the collective, participatory role of all congregation members, in manners of music making similar to those discussed by Thomas Turino. This dynamic helps establish individual and communal identities. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, church communities saw changes in their services, music, and ways of life. Meeting in a physical building proved impossible due to the dangers of COVID-19 and many churches mitigated these dangers by streaming, recording, and posting services online. Between 2020 and 2022, I observed and participated in changes to technological production …

The Great Generalization: Organizational Adaptation Strategies As Entrepreneurship In Higher Music Education, Jacob Bruce Hertzog

Music Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study sought to measure how higher music education has evolved in response to the music industry’s digital revolution. I utilized a framework of organizational adaptation theory to synthesize five distinct organizational adaptation strategies: decentralization, generalization, specialization, formalization, and inaction. Music leaders were surveyed (n = 100) to assess adaptations across ten common domains in higher education. Higher music education was found to have undergone a great generalization through the expansion of activities in nearly every domain. Consistent with elements of organizational adaptation theory, and like individual musicians, higher music education has been entrepreneurial in response to the digital revolution.

Applications Of Tao Of Bass, Vol. I, In Orchestral And Solo Double Bass Repertoire, Santiago Zorrilla De San Martin

Dissertations

This dissertation is not only an exploration of left-hand techniques found in Tao of Bass, Vol. 1, but also an inside of the performance and didactic approach of Dr. Marcos Machado to organize and create its content. That said, one of the objectives of this dissertation is to focus on developing an awareness of the didactic strategies in Tao of Bass created to develop the utmost proficiency in double bass performance. I expect to prove this objective in my dissertation by acknowledging how Tao of Bass encompasses a didactic approach that is universal and academically relevant to prepare for …

Disposizione Scenica Per L’Opera Simon Boccanegra: An Insight Into Verdi’S Sense Of Drama And A Valuable Tool For Contemporary Performance, Giordana Rubria Fiori

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this dissertation is twofold: while it aims to provide a valuable tool for performers and all artists involved in a production of Simon Boccanegra, it also simultaneously explores and outlines several instances in which Verdi’s all-encompassing idea of drama shapes and directs this opera.

Throughout this process, the disposizione scenica to Simon Boccanegra constitutes the central document that connects the practical and the aesthetic perspective of this dissertation. Each chapter is dedicated to a different character of Simon Boccanegra, allowing the reader to follow each character on a journey through the opera as it is presented in …

The Significance Of Sonic Branding To Strategically Stimulate Consumer Behavior: Content Analysis Of Four Interviews From Jeanna Isham’S “Sound In Marketing” Podcast, Ina Beilina

Student Theses and Dissertations

Purpose:
Sonic branding is not just about composing jingles like McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It.” Sonic branding is an industry that strategically designs a cohesive auditory component of a brand’s corporate identity. This paper examines the psychological impact of music and sound on consumer behavior reviewing studies from the past 40 years and investigates the significance of stimulating auditory perception by infusing sound in consumer experience in the modern 2020s.

Design/methodology/approach:
Qualitative content analysis of audio media was used to test two hypotheses. Four archival oral interview recordings from Jeanna Isham’s podcast “Sound in Marketing” featuring the sonic branding experts …

A Poet's Voice: Music In Service To Poetry: Elements Of Text Painting In Juliana Hall's Song Cycle "How Do I Love Thee?", Hayley Z. Coughin

Dissertations, 2020-current

American composer Juliana Hall has established a reputation as one of the leading composers of contemporary American art songs, having composed over 60 song cycles, totaling over 300 works for the voice. Hall’s song cycle How Do I Love Thee? expresses a narrative arc told through five selections from Victorian-era poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese. The poems selected include Sonnet 3: “Unlike,” Sonnet 43: “How Do I Love Thee?,” Sonnet 37: “Pardon,” Sonnet 21: “Say Over,” and Sonnet 41: “Thank You.” Hall’s cycle describes the relationship between the lover and the object of their love, including …

Production As Analysis In Commercial Music Recordings, Simeon P. Church

Composition/Recording Projects

Since the 1960s, scholarship of popular music in the fields of musicology and music theory has blossomed (Kajanová 2013). The inclusion of the social sciences and humanities in music analysis has allowed for new methodologies in commercial music analysis. Although new methodologies have been developed around popular song analysis, they are notably absent in the field of music production (Blake 2012, 1). In this thesis, I will assert that music production is an under-explored facet of commercial music that offers abundant opportunities for analysis.

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.

Representation Of Women & Bbia Composers In The Teaching Music Through Performance In Band Series, Alicia M. Turnquist

Honors Thesis

One problem seen in music education curriculum today is the underrepresentation of Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian (BBIA), and female composers in the band ensemble repertoire. Throughout history, these composers have been excluded in the curriculum causing an overrepresentation of white non-Hispanic male composers. Some music education organizations are beginning to address this issue but, few, if any, have addressed the problem in the band classroom setting. This project examined the repertoires selected in the first ten volumes of the Teaching Music through Performance in Band series to examine how representative the composers included in the series were to the K-12 …

Creative Practice For Classical String Players With Live Looping, Caleb Yang

Music Theses

In recent years, string pedagogy discussions have highlighted the greater need for creative practice as classical string players. Since the second half of the nineteenth century, string methods have shifted towards a limited scope of improvisatory techniques, parallelling the decline of improvisation in Western classical music performance practices. This thesis explores live looping as a practice tool to facilitate learning concepts and help string players develop musicianship skills including improvisation, participate in non-classical genres, and explore their creative voices. Examining the results of string educators that incorporate live looping into their own teaching reveals the tool’s effectiveness in bridging curricula …

Concert Audience Engagement: A Select Overview From The Post-Pandemic World, Payton Gehring

Honors Projects

A select overview of five articles outlining audience engagement practices and how they have changed throughout the 21st century.

A Performance Practice Guide For :Only.Just.Almost.Never For Solo Vibraphone By Jay Alan Yim, Dustin Ray Haigler

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

Currently, there exists little scholarship on Dr. Jay Alan Yim’s percussion music, and none exists for :only.just.almost.never for solo vibraphone. Establishing a performance practice guide will allow future percussionists a glimpse into the compositional process of Yim and allow them to expand their repertoire to include this challenging music. The purpose of this project is to create a comprehensive performance practice guide for :only.just.almost.never for solo vibraphone by Jay Alan Yim.

Resources Required

This project relies mainly on the score of :only.just.almost.never for solo vibraphone. I have also conducted multiple interviews with Yim regarding his compositional process, sketches, and …

Design Factors Affecting Music Students' Practice Duration And Quality In Higher Education, Aiyana Demmons

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this research is to help determine practice room design guidelines to increase music students’ practice duration and quality in higher education. The Foy Building music practice rooms on the Statesboro campus of Georgia Southern University are being used as the basis for this research, as these spaces are used daily by music students to practice their instruments. The study population for this research was music majors and minors, as these individuals are the main users of the practice room spaces. The research design consisted of two phases- one qualitative and the other quantitative. An initial online questionnaire …

Finding Aid For The Guy Sterling Collection (Mum00147)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids

No abstract provided.

Guitar Thinking, Jonathan De Souza

Soundboard Scholar

Playing the guitar develops physical skills but also ways of listening and thinking about music. For example, guitarists often conceptualize chords as two-dimensional shapes—an approach that is foreign to pianists. What does it mean, then, to think like a guitarist? This article approaches “guitar thinking” through music theory and cognitive science. Psychological experiments help to reveal auditory, visual, and tactile aspects of guitar playing and to show how guitarists respond to the instrument’s affordances (i.e., its possibilities for action). Additionally, recent research in music theory models fretboard space and examines patterns of body-instrument interaction. To demonstrate this mode of analysis, …

Sanjo Nova, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

Sanjo Nova is a reimagining of the traditional Korean solo instrumental genre that developed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It expands the number of performers to a trio, and, along with the Changgo drum, uses the violin and cello, suggesting the Haeguem and Komungo. The work follows the general slow to fast form, using aspects of traditional Changdans (rhythmic patterns). Unlike the traditional Sanjo however, this piece is an arch form, with decreasing energy in the second half, arriving at the slow Chungmori tempo at the end. Janggu should play in the folk style, using a mallet …

Abstract Visions, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

American Visions is a musical portrait of six mid-century American Abstract Expressionist painters.

Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) uses twisted, elegant lines in 'biomorphic' forms in his abstract paintings along with an overlay of colors, synthesizing Surrealism with abstraction. Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) is identified with the use of fluid shapes, abstract masses, and lyrical gestures. She used formats on which she painted, generally, simplified abstract compositions.staining into raw canvas Willem de Kooning (1904–1997) painted in a style that came to be referred to as "action painting” .The female figure is an important umage.. Mark Rothko (1903-1970) evolved to a style best known …

Integrating Sensor Technology Into Artistic Practice: A Critical Examination Of The Role Of The Performer, Marcella Barz

Doctoral

This research questions how interactive music technology might enable creativity in performers. The format is a semi-autoethnographic narrative that follows the performer’s artistic process of preparing nine compositions for performance; these works are for bass clarinet or clarinet and live processing (created with Ableton Live, Max for Live, and the SABRe multi-sensor and remote).

In order to conduct this research, I remixed two existing bass clarinet works, collaborated with two composers on six new works, and composed my own piece. I maintained a reflective journal for four and a half years that documented the process of preparing these compositions for …