Digital Commons Network^™

Alternate Minimalisms: Repetition, Objectivity, And Process In The Age Of Recording, Zachary Schwartz

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis examines the core concepts of early minimalism and the ways that they were influenced by recording as a medium of musical creation. The first chapter considers early minimalism’s historical lineage as the narrative has been passed down by music scholars, noting over-arching trends and problems of exclusion and misunderstanding inherent within it. Having established the myriad of concepts at the core of the early minimalist movement, the second chapter examines the recording medium’s effect on art music performance, noting trends in repetition, objectivity, and process that are represented within minimalism itself. With these ideas in mind, the idea …

From A Chat In The Parlor To Viral Music Videos: An Analysis Of Music As A Social Occasion, Emma Plotnik

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Imagine an intimate room filled with people playing cards and casually chatting, while one of Chopin’s piano sonatas plays elegantly in the background. This scenario is characteristic of the atmosphere surrounding Classical and Romantic European salons. Salons served as havens of musical discourse from the Baroque era to the early twentieth century. However, with the advancement of technology from the mid-twentieth century to the present, there has been a decline, or, arguably, even a cessation of salon life.

The aim of this project was to recreate the salon environment through the generation of the online discussion forum, "Music Soirée." To …

Diva Diversity: National Vocal Schools And Qualities, Emma Plotnik

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Hearing the term “opera singer” for many triggers an image of a German dramatic soprano bearing viking horns and powerfully bursting into a high C. Yet, what is it that perpetuates this stereotype that German singers possess weighty instruments with dark timbres? Why are classically trained North American vocal students told by their teachers to sing lightly and delicately when performing French mélodie, and not any other genre?

Research in vocal pedagogy has demonstrated that singers from particular regions have been typified by their vocal qualities in terms of size and color. These qualities by nation mainly stem from contrasting …

I Want To Be In That Number: A Song Profile Of "When The Saints Go Marching In", Gregory H. Jacks

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

“When the Saints Go Marching In” has never been subject to a sustained study of its origins, disseminations, and current manifestations. A study like this, focused on a song’s perceptions via various viewpoints through time, is typically referred to as a song profile; a form of reception history specifically concentrated on a single musical composition. “When the Saints Go Marching In,” also known as “Saints” or “The Saints,” is an African-American spiritual typically listed as a traditional in most songbooks without a composer.[1] I have laid out this paper into four sections, one for each period of the song’s …

Antonio T. De Nicolás: Poet Of Eternal Return, Christopher Key Chapple

Research Resources

This book includes essays in honor of Professor Antonio de Nicolas.

Arts Outreach In The Middle East, Matthias Clark

Masters Theses

After centuries of debate and discussion regarding the value and appropriateness of arts in the Middle East, specifically music, many indigenous people have recently pursued active roles in championing indigenous and international arts toward social reform, identity formation, and spiritual development. This shift in use and function of the arts has been reflected in some groundbreaking attempts of using arts in contextualized forms that have impacted spiritual communities. This study is designed to compare two specific case studies that exemplify these shifts: the "School of Worship and Music" and the "Creative Center". These organizations will be analyzed and compared in …

Emergent Rhythmic Structures As Cultural Phenomena Driven By Social Pressure In A Society Of Artificial Agents, Joao Pedro Magalhaes Martins

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

This thesis studies rhythm from an evolutionary computation perspective. Rhythm is the most fundamental dimension of music and can be used as a ground to describe the evolution of music. More specifically, the main goal of the thesis is to investigate how complex rhythmic structures evolve, subject to the cultural transmission between individuals in a society. The study is developed by means of computer modelling and simulations informed by evolutionary computation and artificial life (A-Life). In this process, self-organisation plays a fundamental role. The evolutionary process is steered by the evaluation of rhythmic complexity and by the exposure to rhythmic …

Tributes To Leonard B. Meyer: He Was The Very Model Of A Modern Musicologist, Alexander Rozin

Music Theory, History & Composition Faculty Publications & Performances

No abstract provided.

Rock Music Scholarship, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

My challenge is to take my master’s thesis, a lengthy annotated bibliography of academic monographs on rock in American culture, and make it come alive and, in the process, provide a sense of how the academic rock discourse has evolved.

Richard Wallaschek's Nineteenth-Century Contributions To The Psychology Of Music, Amy B. Graziano, Julene K. Johnson

Music Faculty Articles and Research

RICHARD WALLASCHEK (1860-1917) is most widely known for his contributions to comparative musicology; however, he also made significant contributions to the field of music psychology. From 1890 to 1895, Wallaschek pursued interdisciplinary studies at the British Museum in London. During this time Wallaschek proposed theories about the perception and production of music. According to Wallaschek, the perception of music occurs through two types of mental representation: Tonvorstellung (tone representation), which referred to the perception of individual musical elements, and Musikvorstellung (music representation), which referred to the perception of the higher-order structure of music. Wallaschek emphasized Gestalt-like concepts in his discussion …

The Organ Works Of Fela Sowande: A Nigerian Organist-Composer, Godwin Simeon Sadoh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Fela Sowande (1905-1987) has a huge compositional output including orchestral and vocal works. However, his organ music outnumbered the totality of his compositions. His organ pieces represent a truly intercultural music in which distinct tripartite cultural idioms are evident—Nigerian, African American and European. Works of this nature serve as creative source materials for aspiring composers, performers, scholars, music educators, and students in Africa and the world. This composer, folklorist, and music educator was born into a well-known music family in Nigeria. He was active in radio broadcasting, Yoruba folklore and mythology, indigenous music research, Nigerian art music, performance, orchestral conducting, …

Postmodern Musicology, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

The discipline of musicology is a rather specificially 20th century institution growing out of a disparate range of 19th century studies of music theory, history, composition, etc. The OED edition extant at the time of the writing of this article dates the term musicology itself to 1909 or later. Although there are indeed practitioners throughout the world, most theorists are Anglo-American, with echoes in the French tradition of musicologie and German Musikwissenschaft. As a still-modern project, postmodern musicology derives from a predominantly Austro-German generation of scholars who translated an originally European tradition of analysis (Heinrich Schenker and -- in …

Michael H. Kater, "Carl Orff Im Dritten Reich," Vierteljahrshefte Für Zeitgeschichte 43, 1 (January 1995): 1-35., David B. Dennis

History: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A review of Michael H. Kater's article, "Carl Orff im Dritten Reich." Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 43, 1 (January 1995): 1-35.

Rubellite Kawena Johnson's Review Of Elizabeth Tatar's Nineteenth Century Hawaiian Chant, Rubellite Kawena Johnson

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.