Music Commons^™

Volume 36, Various Authors

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Set Class 014 And Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, Gabe Fankhauser

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

This one-page assignment on set class 014 and Schoenberg’s “Nacht” is designed for use in undergraduate or graduate courses involving analysis of 20th-century music. The main question requires students to trace 014 trichords in the introductory measures. A chart of pitch classes approximating location in the score simplifies the task. Other questions guide students to consider questions of meaning, specifically connecting abstract trichords to the narrative of the music, which exemplifies Expressionism. A separate PDF provides a key and commentary for instructors.

Introduction To Modes, Daniel Lee

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

This lesson will introduce the Lydian, Mixolydian, and Dorian modes, as well as connect the major and minor scales/keys to the terms of Ionian and Aeolian. Students will need to know the WT/HT sequence within major and minor scales before receiving this lesson, and the visuals in this lesson include examples in treble, bass, and alto clefs. Also, musical excerpts and review/assessment examples are given in various keys.

This lesson is appropriate for undergraduate or high school theory students, or for anyone desiring a review of modes. During the lesson an acknowledgement of the system of assigning modes to specific …

Eye-Movements Of Vocal Performers Across Experience Levels, Charlotte Kelly

Honors Program Theses

Expertise, such as music expertise, is commonly studied through an analysis of eye-movements. Experts typically have fewer fixations, longer saccade amplitudes, and thus greater perceptual spans when reading music than non-experts. Most musical expertise literature is focused on instrumentalists and sight-reading. The current study aimed to extend the research to include vocalists and to see if there are still expertise effects when both experts and non-experts are familiar with the piece of music. Participants were recruited to sing a piece from their choir once when they had first started learning the piece and again right before their concert. They were …

A Unified Theory Of Musical Meaning, Luis Verdin

CMC Senior Theses

In this thesis, I present a novel theory of musical meaning. This theory posits a complementary relationship between the theories described in Lerdahl and Jackendoff’s Generative Theory of Tonal Music and Arnie Cox’s Music and Embodied Cognition. Each of these theories explain particular aspects of musical meaning (semantic and grammatical, respectively), though I argue that by unifying these theories into a broader framework, they can explain more about musical meaning than they could individually. This unification is performed via the novel theory I present: the Analogical Argument. This argument suggests that Lerdahl and Jackendoff’s Generative Theory of Tonal Music is …

Longitudinal Changes In Auditory And Reward Systems Following Receptive Music-Based Intervention In Older Adults, Milena Aiello Quinci, Alexander Belden, Valerie Goutama, Dayang Gong, Suzanne Hanser, Nancy J. Donovan, Maiya Geddes, Psyche Loui

Faculty Works

Listening to pleasurable music is known to engage the brain’s reward system. This has motivated many cognitive-behavioral interventions for healthy aging, but little is known about the effects of music-based intervention (MBI) on activity and connectivity of the brain’s auditory and reward systems. Here we show preliminary evidence that brain network connectivity can change after receptive MBI in cognitively unimpaired older adults. Using a combination of whole-brain regression, seed-based connectivity analysis, and representational similarity analysis (RSA), we examined fMRI responses during music listening in older adults before and after an 8-week personalized MBI. Participants rated self-selected and researcher-selected musical excerpts …

Shakespeare As Opera In English: Britten's Dream And Adès' The Tempest, Joanne E. Gates

Presentations, Proceedings & Performances

I assert that we learn Shakespeare better when we study him against the adaptation. Some of the adaptation choices made by opera composers and librettists-- and especially by stage designers in recent productions-- provoke us to critique a production concept for its innovative staging, forcing us to learn more about Shakespeare's original. The recent Metropolitan's The Tempest conveys the 2004 Thomas Adès Tempest as if an 18th century impresario Prospero had conjured or appropriated the contents of the Milan opera house to his island. Meredith Oakes's libretto simplifies much of Shakespearean language to efficient rhyming couplets, yet this opera eloquently …

Fashioning The Flapper: Clothing As A Catalyst For Social Change In 1920s America, Julia Wolffe

Honors Program Theses

Fashion has been a catalyst for social change throughout human history. Fashion in 1920s America in particular reflects society's rapidly evolving attitudes towards gender and race. Beginning with how corsetry heavily restricted women for nearly four hundred years up until the twentieth century, this thesis explores how clothing has acted as a tool for societal progression following World War I and Women's Suffrage and during the Jazz Age and The Harlem Renaissance. Specifically, this thesis examines how the influence of jazz music and dance that originated from Black American communities led to the creation of the flapper evening dress. The …

Using Neural Networks To Model Guitar Distortion, Caleb Koch, Scott Hawley, Andrew Fyfe

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

Guitar players have been modifying their guitar tone with audio effects ever since the mid-20th century. Traditionally, these effects have been achieved by passing a guitar signal through a series of electronic circuits which modify the signal to produce the desired audio effect. With advances in computer technology, audio “plugins” have been created to produce audio effects digitally through programming algorithms. More recently, machine learning researchers have been exploring the use of neural networks to produce audio effects that yield strikingly similar results to their analog counterparts. Recurrent Neural Networks and Temporal Convolutional Networks have proven to be exceptional at …

Guide To The Cheryl A. Wall Collection Of Margaret Bonds And Florence Price Manuscript Scores, Margaret Bonds, Florence Price

CBMR Collection Guides / Finding Aids

Cheryl A. Wall was a literary critic and English professor at Rutgers University who donated three manuscript scores to the CBMR – Troubled Water by Margaret Bonds with a handwritten autobiographical sketch by the composer on the back and two works by Florence Price, Negro Fantasy and Concerto in One Movement for three pianos. The Bonds score was given to Cheryl Wall by the composer and the two Price scores belonged to her aunt, Nannie Strayhorn Reid, a classical pianist and teacher in Chicago, Illinois.

The Evolution Of Flute Articulation From The Baroque To The Present: Changes In Flute Construction And Design And Design And Articulation Techniques For The Playing Of The Instrument, Syrina Elace Robinson

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The technique of articulation is not static and it is essential to the art of flute playing. It is currently and always evolving. This entire nature of performance practice has widened and become more sophisticated. The ambiguity of articulation has now been replaced by a highly managed approach by composers. In the Baroque the choice of how to articulate a certain passage in flute music was left up to the performer’s discretion. Modern professional flute players are expected by flute teachers and called upon by major orchestras and music conservatories around the world to be able to play all extended …

Music Artists’ Online Streaming Business Strategies, Angela S. Arnold

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Music artists’ incomes are directly affected by online music streaming technology advancements. A lack of business strategy, when faced with online music streaming, can lead to an inability to maintain a steady revenue stream among music artists. Rooted in the conceptual framework of disruptive innovation, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore online streaming business strategies music artists use to maintain a steady revenue stream. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with six music artists in the New York City area who maintained a steady revenue stream in the past 5 years and focus group responses …

Guide To The Doug Lofstrom Music Collection, College Archives & Special Collections

Collection Guides / Finding Aids

A composer and bassist whose scores reflect his involvement in theater, dance, film and symphonic music, Doug Lofstrom also formed The New Quartet, a chamber ensemble which performs original music and arrangements, Trillium, and, most recently, joined the group The Last Word. He was composer-in-residence for the Metropolis Symphony Orchestra and musical director of Chicago's Free Street Theatre before joining the faculty of Columbia College Chicago’s Music Department.

Reading By Ear: Music Teachers' Roles In And Attitudes About Identifying Students With Dyslexia In Kentucky's Public School System, Alison Ward Brown

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Identifying students with literacy disabilities, such as dyslexia, efficiently in public schools is crucial for early intervention. Literacy and musical skills share common neurological pathways, so music educators possess a skill set that could be advantageous in screening students. This study utilized a descriptive research design to identify music educators’ roles in the identification of students with dyslexia/reading disabilities in Kentucky’s public schools, and their attitudes about those roles. Data was collected through a survey completed by Kentucky public school music teachers. Results indicated that 92% of respondents had not participated in the screening process for children with literacy disorders/dyslexia …

The Benefits Of Offering Classroom Piano Lessons As Part Of The Curriculum In Public Elementary School, Denise Cheeks Mundy

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine the potential benefits of offering classroom piano lessons as part of the curriculum in public elementary schools. The research reviews the educational, neurological, and cultural potential benefits a child may receive if they study the piano. Further study examines the availability for teachers to receive training in teaching group piano, the methods of setting up a piano classroom, and materials needed for such a program in the school system. Records of the history of group lessons showed that this method of teaching has had periods of success and periods of decline in …

Burmese Buddhist Monks, The Seventh Precept, And Cognitive Dissonance, Heather Maclachlan

Department of Music Faculty Publications

Burmese Theravada Buddhist monks have varying degrees of involvement with music; this study of 22 monks from across Burma/Myanmar reveals that most of them often listen to recorded music. At the same time the monks acknowledge that Buddhism’s Seventh Precept is (or ought to be) a guide for their behavior, agreeing that to be “attached” to music is to violate their monastic rule. They therefore experience cognitive dissonance, and they respond to this dissonance in predictable ways - that is, in ways documented by researchers working with Western populations. They differ, however, in their phenomenological experiences of attachment.

Rhyme, Metrical Tension, And Formal Ambiguity In Kendrick Lamar’S Flow, Benjamin Wadsworth, Simon Needle

Faculty Articles

The flow of Kendrick Lamar veers between old-school, metrically rigid and new-school, prose-like rhymes. Through manipulating rhymes within 4/4 time, Lamar increases and decreases affective tension, suggests formal ambiguity, and highlights changes in point of view and literary topic. Although rhyme manipulations have been discussed by Kyle Adams (2009), Mitch Ohriner (2019a), and others as sources of formal contrasts, their effects on affective tension, relaxation, and formal functionality have been unspecified. In this essay, we propose a more comprehensive model of rhyme-based tension and relaxation, then apply it to questions of formal norms and ambiguities in Lamar’s songs. Analyses of …

Music, Identity, And Expectation: An Exploration Of Authentic Identity In The Midst Of A Pandemic, Olivia R. Barnaclo

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the author's beliefs, attitudes, and emotions related to performing a recital during a pandemic. This study focuses on the phenomenon of emotion around a senior recital which is a pivotal moment in a student's experiences. Data were collected from journal entries. These data were analyzed to answer the research question, "what are my feelings about the process of planning a recital given a pandemic?" This arts-based, heuristic inquiry utilized reflective writing, dance, and collage as iterative cycles. Three key themes emerged: falling short of expectations, the inability to accept acknowledgement, and navigating …

Russell Shenton: “Men Of Steel”, Ryan Kelly , Editor

Applied Music Faculty Publications & Performances

F. Russell Shenton was born in Pottstown, PA in 1894. He worked for a time at Lukens Steel in Coatesville, PA before forging a career in music. He studied music at Millersville State Normal School (now Millersville University, PA) for two years before enlisting in the army during World War I, where he served from 1917-1919 in the 316 Infantry, 79th Division, beginning as a Bugler and completing his service with the rank of Musician 1st Class. He earned a Victory Medal for his service in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Following his discharge, he continued studying music at West Chester State …

The Impact Of Collegiate Marching Band On The Intra- And Interpersonal Competencies And Capacities Of Alumni: A Qualitative Case Study, Adam Gumble

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This qualitative study examines how participation in collegiate marching band impacted alumni’s social and emotional development. Specifically, this study examines (1) how the intra- and interpersonal domains and related competencies of former marching band members (now alumni) developed during their time in a nationally recognized collegiate marching band and (2) how those competencies and capacities are deployed in their post-graduation professional settings. Semi-structured hour-long interviews with marching band alumni (N = 9) who graduated from a medium-sized university in the Mid-Atlantic region (Mid-Atlantic University) were conducted between 2019 and 2021. Participants described the impact of participating in a nationally recognized …