Music Commons^™

Understanding Music: Past And Present, Jeffrey Kluball, Elizabeth Kramer, N. Clark, Thomas Heflin

Fine Arts Open Textbooks

Understanding Music: Past and Present is an open Music Appreciation textbook co-authored by music faculty across Georgia. The text covers the fundamentals of music and the physics of sound, an exploration of music from the Middle Ages to the present day, and a final chapter on popular music in the United States.

Remixing Dialogue: A Case Study On Perceptions Of Hip Hop Pedagogy In A Professional Learning Course, Kelly Thelen

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This qualitative case study examines how teachers’ decision-making and professional autonomy shift while participating in a Hip Hop Pedagogy Professional Learning course supported by structured FIXIT (Lo & Wachter, 2023a, 2023b, 2023c, 2023d; Wachter & Lo, 2024) game-facilitated dialogue in a rural, culturally and linguistically diverse Midwest community. Grounded in Freire’s (1970) Critical Pedagogy, Ladson-Billings’ (1995) Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (Paris and Alim, 2017), and Adult Learning Theory (Knowles et al., 2005), the study explores the reclamation of agency by teachers in a time of constrained creativity and educator autonomy shaped by strict policy environments, an emphasis on …

The History Of The Guitar

Music Faculty Research

Conceived as instructional material for the guitar students at Marshall University (or anyone interested in the subject), it presents the historical process of the guitar in a clear and attainable fashion. Several topics related to the guitar will be discussed in detail throughout the book: the postulates associated with its origins, its evolution through the centuries, its repertoire, composers, performers, techniques, etc., culminating with the achievement of the privileged status of a respected concert instrument which it currently possesses.

Chopin’S Piano Sonata No. 3 In B Minor Op. 58: A Structural Analysis, Maverick Harrold

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in b minor Op. 58 is an incredibly important composition to the world of music. This work will uncover many of the unique facets and features of this piece as well as discover the beautiful intricacies of each of the four movements. By learning about this sonata, the reader will gain an understanding of the importance of musical structure and musical form and will gain insight into the ways of Chopin’s compositional style and of romantic piano music as a whole.

Melodia : A Comprehensive Course In Sight-Singing (Solfeggio)

Open Educational Resources

Melodia is a 1904 book designed to teach sight-singing. The educational plan is by Samuel W. Cole; the exercises were written and selected by Leo R. Lewis.

Melodia is presented here as a complete edition and has also been divided into its four separate books.

A Failure Of The Music Industry: The Frustration Of Women Of Color, Christina Estes-Wynne

Backstage Pass

Throughout the history of the music industry, women of color have not received the same recognition as their male counterparts because males have dominated the industry resulting in lack of female representation. Women have been oversexualized reducing their clout in their fields and the lack of acknowledgement of success, which discourages future generations of colored women from attempting to reach their highest potential.

Igor Stravinsky (Primitivism & Cubism), Daniel Rager

Dan Rager

Blending European And Latin Sounds: A Study Of French Horn Repertoire In Mexico, Aj Bernal

Theses and Dissertations--Music

As a first generation Mexican-American, it is crucial that I advocate and promote music of the culture I grew up in. This project aims to unearth Mexican compositional techniques that derive from the fusion of European and Indigenous roots in an effort to promote diversity within the realm of Western Classical music. Music in Mexico is characterized by a unique blend of indigenous rhythms, European classical structures, and regional folk influences. This project will discuss how the bold timbre of the French horn intertwines with traditional Mexican and indigenous melodies, rhythms, and forms that create a unique style. The horn’s …

Warning: Music Therapy Comes With Risks, Susan Gardstrom, James Hiller

Music Faculty Publications

Bob Marley sings, “One good thing about music—when it hits you, you feel no pain.” Although this may be the case for some people and in some circumstances, we dispute this statement as a global truth. After all, couldn’t any phenomenon commanding enough to alleviate human pain (ostensibly instantaneously) also harbor the potential to catalyze undesirable, even injurious, effects? And couldn’t this influence then logically extend to music employed within the context of a therapeutic process? As music therapist and Concordia University Associate Professor Dr. Laurel Young writes, “the ‘miraculous’ effects of music as featured in popular media along with …

Music: Its Language, History, And Culture, Douglas Cohen

Open Educational Resources

From Cohen’s proposal:

In 2006 faculty of the Conservatory of Music wrote and published their own textbook for Core Curriculum 1.3 (CC 1.3), Music: Its Language, History, and Culture. Published by Kendall-Hunt, the reader was bundled with a subscription to the Rhapsody music streaming service. The reader and music service were to give a skeletal structure for all instructors of CC 1.3 for the development of course content focusing on the individual musical strengths and interests of each instructor. We also wanted to keep the costs to students as low as possible by not taking any royalties. The result was …