Other Music Commons^™

Art As Truth: The Post-Truth Reception Of Hamilton (2015) And The New Prince (2017), Cecilia Sun

Sound Scripts

No abstract provided.

Everything In Its Place: A Conceptual Framework For Anti-Music, Nicole L. Carroll

Sound Scripts

In this paper I describe my live performance practice utilising bespoke synthesisers and controllers. I address the conceptual approach and processes in the context of esoteric systems and give a technical description of the instruments. I situate my work in the context of Victorian Spiritualism and magic ritual. Following their precedent, I amalgamate systems and esoteric concepts to meet the goals of transformation and connecting to unknown forces, designing hybrid systems that allow me to approach a performance as an automatic mediumship process. I work primarily with NASA’s lunar orbital data, W.B. Yeats’ esoteric system detailed in A Vision (1937), …

Sonic Ventures In Post-Truth Surrealism: Raudelunas, The Rev. Fred Lane, And Lsd: Huxley’S Last Trip, Anne Lebaron

Sound Scripts

In the arena of contemporary music and performance, truthiness—a fuzzy-edged concept linking “truth” and “post-truth”—provides a malleable framework for examining how musicians and musical communities are confronting, reacting to, or embodying belief systems grounded in deception. Does the notion of authenticity embrace deliberate falsifications? In an attempt to answer such questions, I will offer examples of performers, writers, and artists cavorting along the truthiness bridge.

Action Music And Action Painting In The Twenty-First Century, Erik Griswold

Sound Scripts

The painter Jackson Pollock reputedly claimed, “I am nature,” while George W. Bush saw himself as “a gut player. I play by instincts.” Donald Trump echoed these sentiments, insisting he was “a very instinctual person, but my instinct turns out to be right.” But can these instincts be put to good use? Perhaps one solution lies in channelling these forces into more creative endeavours, transforming the masculinist approach of Pollock into a more collaborative and joyous action in music. “Action Music” (2013) and “Action Music 2” (2017) are two compositions of mine in which I have employed both in-the-moment improvisation …

The Uncanon: Radical Forgetting And Free Improvisation, Hannah Reardon-Smith

Sound Scripts

In the first decades of the twenty-first century, the canon narrative within Western Art Music continues to resist the critical deconstructions by feminists and the New Musicology. Its stronghold over the way we talk about musical styles and position our practice is so great that even when we do away with the score and the figure of the composer and improvise freely, we find ourselves still trapped within a logic of canon that pushes certain artists’ contributions to the margins. Emphatically free improvisation implies a conscious attempt to forget our musical training and heritage, and subsequently our musical “families”: style, …

Title Page

Sound Scripts

No abstract provided.

Copyright Page

Sound Scripts

No abstract provided.

Editorial Introduction: Circuits Of Art And Communication In The Twenty-First Century, Jonathan W. Marshall

Sound Scripts

A founding editor of Sound Scripts, Jonathan W. Marshall, introduces the essays that follow in volume six of the journal, taking the reader through a tour of informatic exchanges, truths and falsehoods.

Fake It ‘Til You Make It: The Virtual Orchestra In New Electronic Music, Michael Terren

Sound Scripts

This paper describes a variety of audio technologies under the neologism “the virtual orchestra,” their relationship with neoliberal capitalism, and four electronic music works that utilise these technologies to highlight this relationship. The virtual orchestra comprises digital technologies that emulate orchestral performances, ranging from the ersatz sounds of General MIDI in the 1990s (often used in computer game soundtracks), to orchestral sample libraries, which can be virtually indiscernible from a well-recorded orchestral performance. It is suggested that the virtual orchestra emerged as part of a cultural movement that privileges individualism and control, and that this has precedence in the structure …

Composer-Performer Collaboration In The Development Of Kinabuhi | Kamatayon For Percussion And Electronics, Louise Devenish, Stuart James

Sound Scripts

This paper provides an outline of the collaborative approach taken in the creation of electroacoustic percussion work Kinabuhi | Kamatayon (2015) by Stuart James for performance by Louise Devenish. Written for eleven Indonesian bossed gongs and electronics, the work involved creative and systematic exploration of various percussive and electronic techniques with the primary aim of re-contextualising these instruments. This paper offers an overview of the collaboration process with percussionist Louise Devenish and how these techniques were used in the work. This includes discussion of the performance practices developed and a suitable notation system for effectively executing these compositional ideas.

Silences [Score], Sage J. Harlow

Sound Scripts

The piece consists of nine (or ten) sections alternating between free and scored; the scored sections all consist of silences of different qualities asking the players to explore ways to facilitate the scored silences. In composing with scored silences, the piece attempts to challenge the idea of silence as a transcendental signifier (or of signifying nothing) and seeks to question the assumption that a piece can convey particular experiences for an audience—silences, in particular, can evoke vastly different responses in people experiencing the ‘same thing’. In this sense, one might read the piece as ‘impossible’ and/or an exploration of the …

Addressing Climate Change Scepticism Through The Sonic Arts, Cissi Tsang

Sound Scripts

This paper discusses the continued denial of climate change despite overwhelming scientific evidence and agreement, through viewing climate change as a “hyperobject”—that is, a concept of such massive temporal and spatial dimensions that it defies traditional understanding. One of the challenges of the scientific community is to combat such scepticism through new ways of framing information, and the sonic arts offers an alternative presentation of truth through its ability to create emotional and narrative rapport, and also humanise esoteric information. This paper will focus on various methods of communicating climate change data aurally—such as sonification of data, and ecoacoustic methods …

Wild Swans By Elena Kats-Chernin: The Journey From The Australian Ballet To The Uk Dance Charts, Helen Rusak

Sound Scripts

In 2003 composer Elena Kats-Chernin collaborated with choreographer Meryl Tankard to produce Wild Swans, a ballet based upon the theme of Hans Christian Anderson’s enduring tale evoking the sufferings of Eliza’s fate to save her brothers from the evil curse of their stepmother. It resulted in a score rich with a wide range of musical sources underscoring a tableaux of dance and images beautifully evocative of the tale. The work was premiered by the Australian Ballet at the Sydney Opera House on 29 April 2003. This paper looks at the unexpected journey that one of the musical movements from the …

“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 …

From Inclusion To Inclusivity: A Scoping Review Of Community Music Scholarship, Deanna Yerichuk, Justis Krar

Music Faculty Publications

This article investigates how community music scholarship has taken up inclusion. Using a modified scoping review methodology, the authors analysed 47 articles published in the International Journal of Community Music from 2008 to 2018, examining how scholars have defined and operationalized the terms ‘inclusion’ and ‘inclusivity’, which were used interchangeably in the literature. The authors found that inclusion was often normatively invoked with no definition or approaches provided. In those articles that provided more detail about inclusion, many focused on musical access, such as removing auditions and not requiring previous music skill or knowledge, and processes of musical inclusion, such …

The Utility Of Music-Based Interventions In Dementia Care, Adriana C. Doerr

Dissertations

While research has investigated the impact of music-based interventions on management of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), there is limited discussion of which music-based interventions are most effective for various levels of dementia severity, or of how to determine which music-based interventions are both accessible and feasible for caregivers and nursing staff. This review sought to identify the benefits of music-based interventions in dementia care within various domains of functioning and determine whether music-based interventions are effective for various levels of dementia severity. Peer-reviewed articles and studies that evaluated the effectiveness of various music interventions or demonstrated music's …

An Analysis Of The Compositional Technique And Structures Of Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 1 In E Minor, Op. 22 “Nordic”, Eunseok Seo

Theses and Dissertations

Howard Hanson was the first American composer who attained international prominence in the early 20th century. During his time as conductor and director of the Eastman School of Music, he was perhaps one of the greatest promoters of modern musical expression and avant-garde performance techniques. However, Hanson was a composer who preferred composing in a traditional style, and his compositional style was faithful to nuanced Romantic expression and a Classical structure. Hanson’s music career ebbed and flowed with contrasting periods of struggle and success. His music was enormously popular during the 1930s and 40s but quickly entered a period of …

Vladimir Pleshakov: A Historiography And Analysis Of His Liturgy Of St. John Chrysostom, Andrew Cameron Pittman

Theses and Dissertations

Vladimir Pleshakov, an accomplished concert pianist, began composing at the age of seventy-five after a struggle with cancer. While awaking from anesthesia after surgery, Pleshakov began hearing spontaneously-composed and completed original Slavonic sacred choral music (in his mind). Over the last decade Dr. Pleshakov has produced nearly sixty compositions. Many of his compositions have found critical acclaim and are published by Musica Russica. This document provides a biography, list of compositions, background information, and a conductor’s analysis of his Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

Communicative Language In The Compositional Output Of Kirke Mechem, Kirstina Rasmussen Collins

Theses and Dissertations

Kirke Mechem (born 1925) has had a long career, spanning several decades. In looking at his large body of work, it is argued that the role of communicative language is central to his compositional style. This priority, originating from his own background, has influenced his choices of musical and textual language, his preferred genres of composition, and his beliefs about the role of music. The importance of communicative language in Mechem’s music sets him apart in the musical landscape of the late 20th and early 21st century.

From early on both music and the written word held a high importance …

Dimër (Winter), Anthony Elia

Bridwell Library Research

This work is an original musical setting of the poem by Albanian poet Lasgush Poradeci (1898-1987). The work was written for the esteemed mezzo-soprano Etleva Shemai.