Musicology Commons^™

Cyber-Narrative In Opera: Three Case Studies, Naomi Barrettara

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation looks at three newly composed operas that feature what I call cyber-narratives: a work in which the story itself is inextricably linked with digital technologies, such that the characters utilize, interact with, or are affected by digital technologies to such a pervasive extent that the impact of said technologies is thematized within the work. Through an analysis of chat rooms and real-time text communication in Nico Muhly’s Two Boys (2011), artificial intelligence in Søren Nils Eichberg’s Glare (2014), and mind uploading and digital immortality in Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers (2010), a nexus of ideologies surrounding voice, …

Imagining Africa: An Analysis Of Tropes And Motifs In Turn Of The Century Black Music, Shane Ortale

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

References to Africa exist in different forms in diasporic music from every country in the New World. In the case of the United States, an abundance of song lyrics of black writers and musicians from the turn of the twentieth century contain imaginings of the African continent. This thesis analyzes the many ways that these depictions were produced within the minstrel and vaudeville genres. While these artists faced many obstacles that limited the scope of their lyrical content, they used diverse strategies to undermine the racist world in which they lived. By juxtaposing and conflating tropes about black folks in …

In Her Own Hands: How Girls And Women Used The Piano To Chart Their Futures, Expand Women's Roles, And Shape Music In America, 1880–1920, Sarah F. Litvin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

American girls and women used the parlor piano to reshape their lives between 1880 and 1920, the years when the instrument reached the height of its commercial and cultural popularity. Newspapers, memoirs, biographies, women’s magazines, personal papers, and trade publications show that female pianists engaged in public-facing piano play and work in pursuit of artistic expression, economic gain, self-actualization, social mobility, and social change. These motivations drove many to use their piano skills to play beyond the parlor, by studying in conservatory, working as classical and popular music performers and composers, founding and teaching at schools, working as department store …

The Incorporated Hornist: Instruments, Embodiment, And The Performance Of Music, M. Elizabeth Fleming

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Roland Barthes famously described the “grain” as “the body in the voice as it sings, the hand as it writes, the limb as it performs.” Stated simply, this project asks What is the body in the horn as it sounds? Instrumentality is typically understood as extension and expression beyond the boundaries of the body; brass instrument musicking, however, begins not where the sound emerges from the bell, but at the very least at the meeting point of the player’s breath, the surfaces of the body, and the tube of the instrument. This project of instrumental incorporation understands music as a …

Reimagining The Flute Masterclass: Case Studies Exploring Artistry, Authority, And Embodiment, Sarah Carrier

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This work explores the flute masterclass as an aesthetic, ritualized, and historically reimagined cultural practice. Based on fieldwork that took place between 2017 and 2019 in the United States, in Italy, and on the social media platforms Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, I argue that the masterclass—an extension of the master/apprentice system that dominates learning in the classical music tradition—is characterized by embodied qualities of artistry and authority. These qualities are not inherent, but are perceived through subjective, social, familied, and affective bodies.

Chapter One outlines the main themes and the research design. Chapter Two is a case study that analyzes …

Performing Rhythmic Dissonance In Ligeti’S Études, Book 1: A Perception-Driven Approach And Re-Notation, Imri Talgam

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Interpretive approaches to the Études have been limited by Ligeti’s choice of notation, which creates several layers of difficulty in the presentation of complex rhythms. In order to resolve some of these difficulties, this dissertation includes a complete re-notation of four Etudes, using a methodology based on research in cognition and perception of rhythm.

Based on this new score, the notion of rhythmic dissonance is developed as an analytical tool to investigate in-time perception of rhythmic complexity, drawing on existing work on metric entrainment and metric dissonance. Different compositional strategies for the production of rhythmic dissonance are shown to have …

Leonora Duarte (1610–1678): Converso Composer In Antwerp, Elizabeth A. Weinfield

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Leonora Duarte (1610–1678), a converso of Jewish descent living in Antwerp, is the author of seven five-part Sinfonias for viol consort — the only known seventeenth-century viol music written by a woman. This music is testament to a formidable talent for composition, yet very little is known about the life and times in which Duarte produced her work. Her family were merchants and art collectors of Jewish descent who immigrated from Portugal in the early sixteenth century to escape the Inquisition; in exile in Antwerp, they achieved enormous success and provided the means with which to educate their children and …

Is Love A Ladder? Reading Plato With Leonard Bernstein, Joshua T. Parks

The Hilltop Review

This paper reads Leonard Bernstein's Serenade after Plato's "Symposium" as a careful interpretation of and commentary on Plato's text. While a straightforward reading of Diotima's speech in Plato's Symposium suggests that human relationships are merely an instrumental step toward higher loves, Bernstein's music emphasizes the intrinsic goodness of interpersonal love. The connections between the two works have been dismissed as superficial by critics, but Bernstein's piece is actually carefully engaged with the narrative structure of Plato's text. It therefore encourages a re-reading of Plato's dialogue in which its form shapes and complicates its meaning. By depicting in music the interpersonal …

“Native American Folk Song Suite”: A Study Of Traditional Native American Melodies, The Role Of Music In Native American Society, And Its Translation To The Modern Wind Ensemble, Preston Parker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Music holds a sacred place for the many Native American tribes of the United States. Over the past 150 years, ethnomusicologists Dr. Theodore Baker (1851-1934), Dr. Frances Densmore (1867-1957), and John Donald Robb (1892-1989) have preserved these songs by sitting down with indigenous Native Americans and recording their music straight from the source. Through these recordings, these ethnomusicologists created a springboard for composers, including myself, to study the past and create new music that honors the traditions and culture of Native Americans. I have applied my new knowledge of these musical techniques and traditions to create a work for wind …

Charles-Marie Widor's Symphonie Romane: An Examination Of The Performance Tradition, Kathryn Scheetz

Music Theses and Dissertations

Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer of the well-known Toccata, composed ten “symphonies” for organ. The tenth and final symphony, Symphonie Romane, Op. 73 (1900), includes a dedication, “To the Memory of Saint-Sernin of Toulouse.” Modern-day organists seem to take this dedication as a performance directive, studying, playing, and recording the piece on the Aristide Cavaillé-Coll organ at the Basilica of Saint-Sernin in Toulouse. In this thesis, I examine the historical contexts and performance tradition of the piece through ethnographic research, interviews, primary sources, and contemporary writings. I begin with biographical information on Widor and his compositions, placing the …

Listening To Early Modern Catholicism: Perspectives From Musicology, Aaron James

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

A book review is presented for Daniele V. Filippi and Michael Noone, eds. Listening to Early Modern Catholicism: Perspectives from Musicology (Leiden: Brill, 2017).

The Function Of Hymns In The Liturgical Life Of Malcolm Quin's Positivist Church, 1878–1905, Paul Watt

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The publication of Auguste Comte’s positive philosophy in the 1830s and 1840s took the world by storm and has come to be regarded as one of the principal turning points in nineteenth-century intellectual culture. A particularly large number of disciples and imitators of Comte’s philosophy sprang up all over Europe, especially in the United Kingdom. They established churches and networks in Comte’s memory and wrote tracts, pamphlets and books on history, philosophy, aesthetics, literature, theology and the bourgeoning field of sociology based on Comte’s works. One such disciple was the musician Malcolm Quin. A singer, organist and hymn-writer, Quin was …

Singing As English Protestants: The Whole Booke Of Psalmes’ Theology Of Music, Samantha Arten

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The Whole Booke of Psalmes, first published in 1562, became the most visible symbol of English Protestant music-making through its immense popularity and its perceived Protestant authority and monarchical authorization, and the psalter was directly responsible for the formation of the Church of England’s musical culture. Through close reading of the hymnal’s words about music—the versified texts of the psalms themselves, particularly the paraphrases of those psalms that speak directly about music, singing, worship, and instruments, and also other material including the versified hymns and prefatory matter—I argue that the WBP promoted a particular theology of music in Reformation …

Dance Genres In Zoltan Kodaly Works, Antonina Budarina

Eurasian music science journal

The article deals with various forms of implementation of dance genres in the works of the outstanding Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly. Analyzes the characteristics of dances in various cycles, such as "Dances from Marosszek", "Dances from Galanta", "Kalai Qetesh". The specificity of national originality of these opuses is revealed in comparison with the cycles of dance pieces of some other XIX – XX century’s composers.

At The Origins Of Musicology In Uzbekistan, Saida Kasimxodjaeva

Eurasian music science journal

The article discusses the main stages of development of musicology in Uzbekistan. The introduction provides a brief overview of Uzbek musicology in the 18th and 19th centuries. The tasks and goals of each period are analyzed, and the most important problems of modern education are put forward from the point of view of two different approaches arising from the very nature of Eastern music making and the academic traditions of the European type of education. From the point of view of modern approaches, we suggest ways to combine all these possibilities for the formation of a fully developed spiritual personality …

Formation, Development Of Piano Performance And Education Of Uzbekistan, Feruza Mukhamedova

Eurasian music science journal

Piano art, which has been formed in the world music culture for several centuries, is today an important factor in the enhanced development of composers' creativity and the performing sphere. The piano art of Uzbekistan is represented in all spheres of creativity: performing, pedagogical, research and educational. The scientific study of the sphere of performance and education as a single integrated development process is becoming one of the priority areas. This work is devoted to the formation and development of piano performance and education in Uzbekistan, the author defines the main stages of its chronology and examines the processes of …

To The Question Of Studying The Phenomenon Of Musical Dynasty, Gulshanoy Tursunova

Eurasian music science journal

Numerous issues related to the study of the phenomenon of the musical dynasty in science are still insufficiently investigated. A comprehensive study of this issue today should attract the attention of not only art historians, but also a wide range of specialists - psychologists, musicians, physiologists, specialists in the field of genetics, sociologists. The results can be achieved in the context of detailed and comprehensive research in various fields of science. The article deals with the phenomenon of musical dynasty, its important role as an engine of progress of the world musical culture, the place and role of dynasties in …

Genre And Stylistic Features Of The Structure And Dynamics Of The Development Of Modern Uzbek Pop Music, Nodira Amanova

Eurasian music science journal

The study is devoted to genre-style structure and dynamics of development of modern Uzbek pop music. The process of identifying the structure was carried out by mathematical analysis of 1893 rotated music compositions according to the "playlists" of FM radio stations and "Internet charts" for the period from 1991 to 2018. There are three stages of modern pop music of Uzbekistan, which reflect the dynamics of genres and styles of Uzbek pop music and allow to predict their future development. The first (adaptation, 1991-1998) period was studied by the material of playlists, rotated 362 compositions for 1997-1998. It is key …

The Development Of The Concept Album, Savannah Klein

Honors Projects

As the world of music has continually evolved and expanded, so has artists’ desire for inventive expression. An important tool that has long satisfied this growing need is the concept album. Although its appearance has been anything but novel in the contemporary music scene, the concept album was not introduced until the 1950s. With influences of Classical and Folk Music, the concept album quickly grew to become a steadfast element of musical culture that has allowed artists to elevate their musical expertise, express their views on societal conditions, and enhance the listening experience of their fans.

Industry Profile: Denny Stilwell, Mack Avenue Music Group President, Axel Tanner

Backstage Pass

No abstract provided.