Music Theory Commons^™

Isomorphic Midi Controller, Jay Wyatt

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

No abstract provided.

An Exploration Of Modes In Polyphonic Compositions Of The Sixteenth Century, Marcella Marie Columbus

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Modes in the Renaissance era were vital to understand the inner workings of a piece. Modal theory implies every Renaissance composition should have a distinct mode in which it belongs. The mode of any piece from this era is theoretically obvious by the first or last note of the piece as well as the range given, but researchers have argued the validity of this claim. Complications arise in the case of pieces with two or more voices. Polyphonic music causes uncertainty regarding the method of identifying the mode of a piece. This paper will look deeply at the Missa Papae …

Paul Moravec: Polystylism In Cool Fire (2001), Jennifer Kuk-Bonora

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The goal of this document is to provide a structural and stylistic analysis of Paul Moravec's chamber piece, Cool Fire (2001) within the context of Alfred Schnittke's polystylism. Fundamental polystylism is the use of two or more music styles within one composition and focuses on a more evolved portrayal of the style when, "there are no longer any direct quotations, but rather a certain element which indicates a `genetic refill' of memories." Techniques from Impressionism, Jazz, Baroque and Classical styles are utilized in Cool Fire.

The method of analysis will follow Jan La Rue's Guidelines for Style Analysis to better …

"Western Evening Vistas" For Concert Band, Dominic Dousa

Selected Works Temporary Series

A performance of my original composition by the UTEP Wind Symphony, conducted by Ron Hufstader.

Fsu Ovation: 2012-2013 Season Fine Arts Series And Chancellor's Distinguished Speaker Series, Lamb Earnest

Choir History

The Department of Performing and Fine Arts Building Community through the Arts

Vision: The Department of Performing and Fine Arts will be the cultural and intellectual center for Fayetteville and its environs.

Mission: The primary mission of the Department of Performing and Fine Arts is to produce graduates in the performing and fine arts — music, dance, theater, visual arts — that will be leaders in their respective fields and its advocate. The Department is also committed to building community through the arts by being a resource for performing and fine arts pedagogy, cultivating a climate where creativity flourishes, engaging …

Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, Conduction And The Network Of Composition, Mark Zanter

Music Faculty Research

In Noise, The Political Economy of Music Jacques Attali outlines how musical practice presages periods of economic development. The current late capitalist, post-Fordist, stage resembles what Attali calls the “network of composition”; where codes are oriented toward receiving pleasure from instruments of communication, use, and exchange value is experienced not accumulated. Post-Fordism affords a climate in which new codes of use and exchange emerge through limited production, flexible labor, and increased information flow. These codes increasingly support choice, nonconformity, and free-expression. Improvised/creative music, free jazz, and forms where self-expression, exploration of human potential freed from production signify the emergence of …

The Synthesizer: Modernist And Technological Transformations In Film Sound And Contemporary Music, Dusin J. Green

CMC Senior Theses

The invention of the synthesizer meant the possibility of achieving virtually any sound in one mechanism, a superbly convenient device for musical creativity. Perhaps the perfect space for this approval of sound creativity was in the modern electronic film score. The synthesizer also flourished in popular music immediately following its emergence, but a common form began to solidify itself among synthesizer music. Shortly after, improvements in electronic instrument technology led to the democratization of electronic music and equipment, ultimately leading to electronic music as the new mainstream.

Volume 27, Various Authors

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

0810: The Huntington Symphony Orchestra Collection, 1974-2012, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The Huntington Symphony Orchestra Collection focuses mainly on the EFFORT (Education For Future Orchestra Related Tradition) Program. The EFFORT Program went from school to school performing for students, and teaching them about the instruments. This collection consists of many EFFORT reports from various years which show the schools the orchestra traveled to. It also includes a variety of programs and flyers and a multitude of newspaper clippings and photographs ranging from residencies to EFFORT In-School performances.

Romantic Exoticism: The Music Of Elsewhere In The Nineteenth Century, Josiah Raiche

Senior Honors Theses

Western art music has drawn on many sources. One of these is non-western music, which can be integrated into European classical music tradition in the form of exoticism. This paper will highlight musical elements used by composers seeking to create exoticism, examine selected works, and note common elements of western music that have exotic roots. In the nineteenth century, there were three general trends in exoticism. The first, non-musical exoticism, utilizes conventional western music alongside extra-musical exotic elements. Romantic exoticism portrays distant lands using musical elements, drawing these from the audience’s perceptions of the music represented. Realistic exoticism attempts to …

The Design Of P200: Mensural Quantity And Proportion In The Early Version Of The Art Of Fugue, Joel Thomas Runyan

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The intended structure of Bach's ostensibly unfinished Die Kunst der Fuge has been debated since the work's publication in 1751. This study examines the proportional design of an early version of the work, subsisting in the autograph manuscript (P200) of the early 1740s. As the only complete source extant, P200 and its revisions provide substantial insight into Bach's intentions for the later version of the Art of Fugue.

Directional Tonality In Schumann's Early Works, Benjamin K. Wadsworth

Faculty Articles

Beginning and ending a work in the same key, thereby suggesting a hierarchical structure, is a hallmark of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century practice. Occasionally, however, early nineteenth-century works begin and end in different, but equally plausible keys (directional tonality), thereby associating two or more keys in decentralized complexes. Franz Schubert’s works are sometimes interpreted as central to this practice, especially those that extend third relationships to larger, often chromatic cycles. Robert Schumann’s early directional-tonal works, however, have received less analytical scrutiny. In them, pairings are instead diatonic between two keys, which usually relate as relative major and minor, thereby allowing Schumann …

"The Performance Of 16th-Century Music: Learning From The Theorists" By Anne Smith, Kenneth Kreitner

Performance Practice Review

Kenneth Kreitner discusses and reviews Smith's 2011 work.

Smith, Anne. The Performance of 16th-Century Music: Learning from the Theo­rists. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

ISBN 978-0-19974261-5.

From Profane To Divine: The Hegemonic Appropriation Of Pagan Imagery Into Eastern Christian Hymnody, Jordan Lippert

Scripps Senior Theses

Spanning the first seven centuries of Christianity, this paper explores how Eastern Christian and Byzantine hymn chant was developed alongside pagan and Jewish worship traditions around the Near East. Comparison of hymns by Christian composers such as St. Romanos the Melodist and pagan poetry reveals many similarities in the types of metaphorical imagery used in both religious expressions. Common in Christian hymn texts, well-known metaphors, like the “Light of God,” are juxtaposed with pagan mythological gods, such as Apollo and Helios. This paper attempts to explain how and why Christians appropriated and adopted ancient pagan imagery into the burgeoning musical …

The Impact Of Vowels On Pitch Finding And Intonation In The Movable-Do Solmization System, Thomas Neuerburg

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

The modern movable-Do solmization system based on syllables devised by Guido d'Arezzo was modified and pieced together over centuries by various scholars and pedagogues, each with their own rationale. To date, considerations of the movable-Do system have not sufficiently examined the effects of the vowels contained within its solfège syllables. While vowels have been thoroughly analyzed among vocal pedagogues, that information has not been adequately transferred to the realm of aural theory. Individual vowels contain perceptual qualities and intonational tendencies, due to their physiological articulation and acoustic properties. This document relates vowel characteristics with the solfège syllables used in the …

Metrical Transition And Resolution In The Music Of Blindside, Patrick Sallings

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Meter in rock cannot always be determined by the backbeat. I have adapted metrical analysis models developed by Harald Krebs and others to the music of the rock band Blindside to address the issue of identifying logical metrical schemes in a particular repertoire of rock music. Blindside's use of metrical dissonance necessitates expansion of the existing analytical models in that the meter in some of their songs is ambiguous at times, allowing for a period of transition from one metrical scheme to another. The ambiguity of the meter in songs such as "The Endings," combined with the message of the …

Pitch Perception In Changing Harmony, Cecilia Taher

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The role of harmony in the definition of tonality provides theoretical framework for the hypothesis that harmonic context affects pitch perception. In tonal music, the stability of individual notes depends on the harmonic setting. It seems then reasonable to expect harmonically guided variations in the cognitive representation of tones. With the purpose of enhancing current models of pitch perception, this thesis proposes an empirical investigation of the effects of harmony on pitch sensitivity. In two experiments, nonmusicians performed a same/different discrimination task on two pitches (a reference tone RT and a comparison tone CT) that were embedded in a melody …

Variations On A Russian Folk Song, Brian R. Denu

Student Publications

This piece for solo piano demonstrates a wide range of techniques utilized in twentieth century composition. The theme is taken from the Finale of Igor Stravinsky's ballet "The Firebird", which itself is based on a Russian folk song. Each subsequent variation focuses on one or more compositional technique.

I. Theme

II. March (chords by thirds, extended triads)

III. Molto grave e expressivo (chromaticism)

IV. L'istesso tempo (ten-tone row)

V. Fast and light (twelve-tone row, secundal harmony)

VI. Much less (minimalism, extended techniques)

VII. Hazy (quartal harmony, modal melody)

VIII. Finale (spectralism)

The order of the variations partly reflects a chronological …

The Count's Dilemma, Or, Harmony And Dissonance In Legal Language, Ian Gallacher

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

Lawyers have had a long, but ambivalent, relationship with metaphor. Viewed by some as a mere literary device, a trick of language that "adds little of substance to an argument," metaphor is seen by others as an essential component of legal language, a rhetorical device inseparable from thought. On one thing, though, all can agree: lawyers only have words to express their thoughts, so they have an obligation to use words, whether used metaphorically or not, as exactly as possible.

This article offers a critique of the way lawyers meet this obligation when they use metaphors based in musical language. …

Book Reviews, John M. Cipolla

Music Faculty Publications & Performances

Book reviews by John Cipolla of:

• Mandat, Eric. Chips Off the Ol' Block for Solo Bass Clarinet
• Rossini, Gioachino & Carlos Pässler. Divertimento for Clarinet & Piano
• del Aguila, Miguel. Pacific Serenade, Op. 59 for Clarinet & String Quartet
• Wilson, Jeffrey. Colour Studies for Clarinet