Music Theory Commons^™

The Impressionist Impact: How Claude Debussy Influenced Non-Western Composers And Music, Ragan Love

University Honors Theses

Achille-Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was a French composer and a pioneer in Impressionist music and experimented with an original system of harmony which would shape music for the rest of the 20th century. His work would go on to impact the compositional style of two other composers, Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996), a Japanese composer, and Herbie Hancock (1940- ), a jazz performer and composer. Throughout this project you will see the influence that Debussy had on these other composers through a multimedia experience with scores and recordings. Debussy's use of chromaticism and modal melodies are big contributors to the music of Takemitsu …

Teaching Music Theory And History With Collaborative Awareness, Karin Thompson, Max Keller

Andrews University Teaching and Learning Conference

The disciplines of music history and music theory are integrally linked: One cannot be studied without the other. Courses in these disciplines are at the core of many undergraduate music degree programs, and upon completing a graduate degree in music at Andrews University, students are expected to demonstrate the ability to synthesize their knowledge in both disciplines. The path towards successfully teaching these skills of synthesis involves awareness and collaboration between teachers in both disciplines, and it involves active inclusion of students’ own choices and goals in the music they study.

Soundboard Scholar No. 8: Cover

Soundboard Scholar

Cover image: Ex Libris bookplate for Jane Patterson by Robert Anning Bell. Line illustration from 1893 that appeared in The Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art. Private Collection.

A Musical Debt Repaid With Interest: Haydn’S “Farewell” Symphony, Clementi’S Piano Sonata, Opus 25/5, And Haydn’S Piano Trio, Hob. Xv: 26, James S. Mackay

HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America

In 1772, Joseph Haydn composed his Farewell Symphony, so named because of the elaborate ruse of its closing movement, in which the performers depart one by one, leaving two violinists to complete the movement on their own. This eccentric finale, though justly famous, has overshadowed the equally bold and tonally unusual opening movement, in which Haydn bypasses the relative major in the exposition, instead concluding this section in the minor dominant. This tonal decision, though common in C. P. E. Bach (whose music Haydn knew and admired), was exceedingly rare in Haydn’s output, and represents a unique tonal experiment among …

Editor's Letter, Jonathan Leathwood

Soundboard Scholar

An introduction to the contents of Soundboard Scholar, no. 8.

One Bite At A Time: Writing In The Theory Classroom, Jennifer Shafer England

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

Prose writing in the music theory classroom is often a daunting task for both instructors and students. For instructors, the very thought of the heavy grading load associated with writing assignments combined with the difficulty that we know students encounter when writing about music (especially if students’ general written communication skills are still developing) can be overwhelming, even if we personally believe that our students would benefit from engaging in written communication about music. For many students, communication in written form is a skill that they are still developing, and writing about music only adds an additional challenge—especially when they …

Music Lessons, Cecilia-Rose Louise Bender

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

music lessons is a digital chapbook that explores the relationships between James Baldwin’s writing and Beauford Delaney’s paintings through music. From Delaney’s “Composition 16” (1954-56) to Baldwin’s “The Uses of the Blues” (1964), their collaboration with the core elements of jazz music gives their work rhythm and melodic contour that any/body can vibe with. Absorbing the influences of artists Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, and putting them to paint and text, music lessons demonstrates how music not only transforms the ways we experience and move our bodies but also the ways that we perceive space, relationships, and time. What’s …

Voice Leading In Fugue, Yuval Shapira

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines voice leading in the fugues of J. S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier from a Schenkerian perspective. In Bach’s fugues, thematic material usually permeates all the parts, making the surface diminutions unusually complex. Given the predominance of the subject, there is a tendency in the Schenkerian tradition to base the voice-leading analysis of a fugue on an a priori analysis of the subject by itself. Based on the subject’s outline, one might expect to find the fugal thematic layout reflected in the underlying voice leading, conceiving the fugal surface as an elaboration of a simpler quasi-fugal substructure. I argue …

Identity And Complexity In Chaya Czernowin’S Ina, Eliav Kohl

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chaya Czernowin’s Ina (1988) for solo bass flute and six pre-recorded flute parts, unfolds the drama of a protagonist battling her conflicting inner voices. Czernowin interrogates the concept of identity and asks the questions—what is an identity? To what extent can a particular identity endure its own complexities? My analysis demonstrates how the growing levels of musical complexity represent the growing independence of Ina’s multiple inner voices, and how musical simplicity enables their unification. I present two oppositional forces: an intertwining force, and a splitting force. The intertwining force acts very much like a gravitational force in the musical domain—it …

Exploring Jam Sessions In New York, Ricardo Pinheiro

The IASJ Journal of Applied Jazz Research

This paper addresses the relationship between jazz jam sessions in Manhattan, and the concepts of Scene, Ritual and Race. These issues emerged during research that, from an ethnomusicological perspective, focused on the role of jam sessions in Manhattan as a privileged context for the following:

i) learning performative styles of jazz,

ii) developing the creative process,

iii) constructing professional networks,

iv) establishing of the status of musicians.

Studying and analysing the jam sessions at five jazz performance venues in New York, I demonstrate the vital importance of participating in jam sessions by examining their relationship with this performative occasion (Pinheiro …

Restructuring Hierarchy Within And Between Jazz And Classical Orchestras, Emiliano Sampaio

The IASJ Journal of Applied Jazz Research

From 2017 to 2021, Emiliano Sampaio dedicated his time and energy to the development of a jazz symphonic orchestra artistic research project. To put this complex and intricate journey in words, he wrote this article, which guides the reader through the development of the four-year work. It describes, discusses and reflects on some paths I experienced through the research, and how they contributed and transformed my views on the subject and on his music. The backbone of this article will be the discussion of the practical process conducted with different large ensembles, where hypotheses and ideas were put into practice.

Music: Numbers In Motion, Graziano Gentili, Luisa Simonutti, Daniele C. Struppa

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Music develops and appears as we allow numbers to acquire a dynamical aspect and create, through their growth, the various keys that permit the richness of the musical texture. This idea was simply adumbrated in Plato’s work, but its importance to his philosophical worldview cannot be underestimated. In this paper we begin by discussing what is probably the first written record of an attempt to create a good temperament and then follow the Pythagoreans approach, whose problems forced musicians, over the next several centuries up to the Renaissance and early modern times, to come up with many different variations.

Thirty Years On: Reflections On Haydn’S “Farewell” Symphony By James Webster, L. Poundie Burstein, Elaine Sisman, W. Dean Sutcliffe, James Webster

HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America

It has been just over thirty years since James Webster published his influential monograph Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony and the Idea of Classical Style: Through-Composition and Cyclic Integration in His Instrumental Music (Cambridge University Press, 1991). To honor the anniversary of Webster’s groundbreaking book, the Encounters with Eighteenth-Century Music: A Virtual Forum steering committee asked L. Poundie Burstein, Elaine Sisman, and W. Dean Sutcliffe to offer perspectives on the book, and James Webster to respond to their perspectives. The interesting online session occurred on Tuesday, October 18, 2022, and included a lively open discussion following the presentations and Webster’s response. The …

The Research Cataloque, Casper Schipper

The IASJ Journal of Applied Jazz Research

The Research Catalogue is an online, open-access research platform, developed for documenting artistic research outcomes. Provided by the Society for Artistic Research, it offers more than just the traditional formats such as PDFs. The RC offers researchers in the arts to expose artistic practice as research, by creating online presentations that can include video, audio and other media and building an “exposition” out of these elements. A growing number of academies, conservatories, and universities in Europe require their master students to publish their artistic research in the Research Catalogue.

Five Tips For (Re)Entering The Professional World After The Pandemic, Wojtek Justyna

The IASJ Journal of Applied Jazz Research

Building and sustaining a career, as a performing jazz artist, has always been a path filled with challenges and roadblocks of many sorts. The current climate has definitely made the hill we have to climb steeper. Nevertheless, understanding the oppositions at hand, adequately preparing for them, combined with careful planning and structured execution will lead to the ability to comfortably navigate this new reality.

Applied Groove Research, Toni Bechtold, Rafael Jerjen, Olivier Senn

The IASJ Journal of Applied Jazz Research

This paper is the first step to bridge this gap by asking whether groove research can help us teach groove to students, and, if so, how it can best be taught. Simultaneously, the paper serves as an introduction to groove research for those unfamiliar with this academic discourse.

Teaching Jazz History Out Of Order, Josiah Boornazian

The IASJ Journal of Applied Jazz Research

Abstract: Jazz history unfolded chronologically, but chronology does not necessarily imply teleology or causality. In other words, the fact that certain jazz styles came after others does not unquestionably mean that jazz history followed a fixed course dictated by the perceived inevitability of artistic “progress.” Although it is important for jazz history students to have a foundational understanding of jazz history in a chronological fashion, presenting history on a straightforward, simplistic timeline defined by distinct style periods is not the only way to teach the music of the past. There may be significant merit in reorganizing the way jazz history …

Master And Apprentice: Lessons From Six Jazz Masters, Richie Beirach

The IASJ Journal of Applied Jazz Research

Jazz pianist and composer Richie Beirach, now a jazz master himself, learned important lessons from the masters he worked with. The lessons learned are of great value for anyone who wants to play jazz professionally.

Improvisation, Consciousness And Cosmos: An Integral View Of Jazz Research, Ed Sarath

The IASJ Journal of Applied Jazz Research

Ed Sarath on improvisation, consciousness and cosmos, as well on integral theory.

Introduction To The Iasj Journal Of Applied Jazz Research, Wouter Turkenburg, Kurt Ellenberger

The IASJ Journal of Applied Jazz Research

Jazz research started as a duplicate of classical music research. As became clear during the Ongoing Dialogues during the annual IASJ Jazz Meetings that started in 1990, jazz research needs a dimension and a dynamic of its own. This has become 'applied jazz research', the kind of research that is directly linked to jazz performance and jazz education. The IASJ Journal of Applied Jazz research offers the platform.