Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Nous Sommes Tous Des « Djadjas » : La Question De L’Identité Dans La Musique Française Et Francophone Au 21^E Siècle, Molly Earle

Honors Theses

Le titre de mon travail fait référence à une chanson qui représente les thèmes de la race,1 du genre, de la transculturalité et de la collaboration musicale : « Djadja », une chanson écrite par la chanteuse franco-malienne Aya Nakamura qui a eu beaucoup de succès en 2018 et puis en 2020 avec le remix en duo avec Maluma, un chanteur colombien. Comme d’autres chansons de Nakamura, « Djadja » utilise des sons africains et urbains, mais l’ajout d’influences latino-américaines a aidé la chanson à toucher une plus grande partie du monde (Nakamura et Maluma). Par exemple, cette chanson est …

Shift : For Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Violoncello, Piano, And Percussion, Robby Schranze

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Johann Christian Bach's Influence On Mozart's Developing Style, Austin Bourdon

Honors Theses

The methods by which great composers create their masterpieces often remain a mystery to modern scholars. There are essentially two approaches to determining what these methods might be: investigating a composer’s surviving drafts, sketches, and letters and analyzing their musical influences. The first approach can be very limiting, especially when applied to a composer such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who did not leave behind many musical sketches. Therefore, when studying Mozart’s compositional process, it is more useful to rely on the second method in which one traces his stylistic development to key musical figures. From these major influences, one can …

Freedom's Disciple : The Life, Music, And Impact Of Hazel Dickens, Kelly Landers

Honors Theses

The work of Appalachian musician Hazel Dickens sheds light on many of the musical and cultural changes in our country. Dickens used her music as a voice for the disadvantaged, advocating for improvements in the lives of miners, working-class people, and women, and pushing for all to be treated equally. A wonderful songwriter, performer, and overall musician, Dickens saw her career, music, and beliefs as inextricably linked, and so this thesis will explore her leadership by analyzing her songs and her history.

Appropriation In Opera : Modern Performance Practice Of Racially Evocative Works, Katelin French

Honors Theses

The repertoire of a classically trained singer has developed over centuries of cultural influence. As singers prepare for recitals, they decide which pieces they will include and how to perform each one. Many factors are essential for these decisions. In the 21st century, our environments challenge us to explore these conditions of creating a recital program. In a post-civil rights era, factors of race and ethnicity should become more important to programming than they were before. The consideration is not whether minority populations are portrayed, but how they are evoked on stage. In the following exposition, I will consider how …

Portfolio Of Compositions, Heather Stebbins

Honors Theses

In this paper, I will describe the development of my compositional skills in relation to the progression of my overall musicality. I will also illustrate how each piece I composed played a role prompting these developments and in my overall growth as a musician. Finally, I will describe how performance opportunities, festival involvement, and masterclass experiences also affected my compositional development.

Leading The Octaves -An Evaluation Of A Collegiate A Cappella Group's Leadership, Matt Zemon

Honors Theses

Over the years collegiate a cappella music has taken off. Currently there are almost 400 groups licensed by CASA in America alone. This paper is going to look at different methods of leading these a cappella groups and reflect upon my four years as an a collegiate a cappella group's Business Manager.

Trying to gain a wide perspective before writing, I began this paper by looking at some general leadership situations in music groups, including a careful analysis of the leadership in the Detroit String Quartet. After learning of some of the peripheral issues, I focused on collegiate a cappella …

Poignant Quotations And The Thematic Structures In Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony, Edward D. Sturms

Honors Theses

A study of Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony cannot be begun without introduction. Too many extra musical experiences in Mahler's life need to be explored before a study of the music is undertaken. His life, especially the two years before his death, was like a whirlwind of problematic experiences. It is impossible to say exactly which of these experiences affected the Ninth but it is certain that many of them did. In tracing the line from birth to death one sees the inner turmoil that Mahler brought into this last completed Symphony. Deryck Cooke places Mahler with such men of vision …

Organ Chorale Forms Of The Baroque Era, Suzanne A. Utley

Honors Theses

The development of protestant chorales reflected the new goals which the reformation brought to the church service. Martin Luther, a primary leader of the Protestant Reformation, recognized that that goal of the service was to make his revelation of faith understandable to the people of Germany. The church service now became more than a sacramental act of obedience; it was a time for people to willingly proclaim the word of God. Through the singing of the chorale, the congregation took an active part in proclaiming the new faith found in the Reformation.

These sacred songs, composed by Luther and his …

Husa's Al Fresco: An Amazing Coherence, Stewart Blackwell White

Honors Theses

To date, no scholarly articles have been published concerning Karel Husa's Al Fresco for concert band (1975). This thesis will demonstrate how Husa has achieved coherence by strongly binding his structural and motivic material. His foundation for this binding are the intervals of the second and the third.

The Application Of The Kodaly Method To Instrumental Music Education, Sherry Black

Honors Theses

Music educator have constantly searched for more effective ways to teach their subject. In the past thirty years, several philosophies and methods of music education have had considerable influence on the music curricula in American schools. An examination of one one of these methods, the Kodaly method, will be the focus of this paper. Zoltan Kodaly, a Hungarian composer and educator, believed that the voice was nature's first instrument and that only though its correct utilization could a child develop correctly in all other aspects of music. The history, goals and techniques of Kodaly's method will be outlined in the …

The Development And Growth Of The Richmond Symphony, Elaine Susan Mccauley

Honors Theses

In this paper, I have attempted to explain the administrative and financial operations of the Richmond Symphony. The first two chapters are meant to serve as an introduction to the Richmond Symphony, and they help explain the circumstances leading the development of the present Symphony. Also, much emphasis has been placed on the expansion of the Symphony since 1957.

Since the purpose of this paper is to examine the financial status of the Richmond Symphony, I found it beneficial to compare the Richmond Symphony to other American orchestras with similar budgets. From this research, it is evident that the Richmond …

The Stylistic Characteristics Of Selected A Cappella Choral Works Of Ralph Vaughan Williams, James Bennighof

Honors Theses

Several factors were originally influential in my selection of this topic for study. First, I was interested in Ralph Vaughan Williams' music and his compositional style. Secondly, I had both an interest in and a certain degree of familiarity as a performer with the areas of choral music and folk music. Finally, Vaughan Williams' short a cappella choral works lent themselves well to investigation, because they had not received much study previously, and because they presented a homogeneous corpus of works which was appropriate for this type of survey.

Parody And Transcription In The B-Minor Mass, David Woolard

Honors Theses

Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B Minor is not entirely an original work. Eleven of the twenty-five moments were either borrowed from Bach's earlier cantatas or were transcribed from the Mass into later choral works. In the process of borrowing, Bach often made significant changes in the original composition. In the preparation of this paper, each parody movement in the Mass was compared with the work from which it was drawn or, in four cases, the work drawn from it. Variants between the model and the parody were written down and classified. The resulting categories suggest insights into Bach's reasons …

Philosophy And Explication Of An Honors Organ Recital, Bruce B. Stevens

Honors Theses

Franz Liszt is credited with the first application of the term "recital" to a performance of solo music: in 1840 he advertised a program of "recitals" of the piano of a number of pieces. Afterwards the word was appropriated for designation of the performance of a whole program, as opposed to the performance of an individual work. This is how it is used today --- the performance by one or two performers of a group of solo pieces

In forming and executing a recital the performer has the responsibility of planning intelligently as well as performing the music in the …

The French Organ And Organ Music Of The Late Seventeenth Century, And The Registration Practices Relating Them To Each Other, Bruce Borden Stevens

Honors Theses

An understanding of the great body of French organ music written in the second half of the seventeenth century requires an acquaintance both with the organs for which the compositions were written and with the registration practices current at the time. Standardization extended into the area of registration, for the organ composers gave numerous registration directions that reveal remarkable uniformity. This was a development not found in the equivalent, contemporary practice of other countries. It was made possible in France by the considerable stylistic similarities among the organ compositions of all the composers.

A Senior Honors Recital, Lynn Hoffman

Honors Theses

This paper is an examination of the pieces performed in a senior recital. A good performance cannot be given without a thorough understanding of the works being performed. Behind a finished recital lies not only hours of practice, but also hours of research and analysis.

In analyzing the Scarlatti sonata, I have used Kirkpatrick's terminology in referring to the form of the pieces. William S. Newman, author of The Sonata in the Baroque Era and The Sonata in the Classical Era also refers to Kirkpatrick's terminology.

In referring to specific measures and beats in a piece, I have used two …

John Calvin And Music: The Rise Of Protestant Psalters In The Sixteenth Century, Tim Montgomery

Honors Theses

John Calvin, born July 10, 1509 in the small town, Noyon, France, was the son of Gerard Calvin, who was the Apostolic Notary of the ecclesiastical court and the secretary of Bishop de Hangest. Calvin's mother, who died when he was young, was noted for her beauty and piety. As a child he went with her on her pilgrimages to view relics and kiss the bleeding wounds of statues. At the age of twelve he received the tonsure and became a chaplain in the Church.

Because the bishop saw that he had a brilliant mind, he arranged for John to …

The Chant-Based Polyphonic Magnificat Of Orlando Di Lasso, Lindsey Peters

Honors Theses

The polyphonic magnificat, according to Gustave Reese¹ one of the most widely used forms of composition during the Renaissance, has received relatively little attention from music scholars. Examples of this genre can be found among the works of nearly every leading composer of the Renaissance. Certain practices are characteristic of the genre. Some are the result of the nature of the chant structure. Others stem from the traditional practices in magnificat composition. I shall discuss several of these characteristics as demonstrated in the works of Orlando di Lasso.

Use Of The Simultaneous Cross-Relation By Sixteenth Century English And Continental Composers, Tim Montgomery

Honors Theses

The principle of the simultaneous cross-relation in vocal music has generally and commonly been associated with the English composers of the sixteenth century. This assumption has been more specifically connected with secular music, namely the English madrigal. To find the validity of this assumption in relation to both secular and sacred music I have compared the available vocal music of three English composers, two major and one minor: Thomas Tallis (1505-1585), William Byrd (1543-1623), and Thomas Whythorne (1528-1596). In deciding whether the simultaneous cross-relation was an aspect of English music exclusively, I examined vocal music of three composers of the …

Erik Satie And His Influence On Music In France In The Twentieth Century, Lindsey Peters

Honors Theses

In nearly every period in musical history that is marked by dramatic change in thought and composition, there emerge figures whose contribution lies more in the philosophical and aesthetic influence than in the actual music they produced. It was true of the Florentine Camerata, whose influence did not reach musical fruition until Monteverdi. In late nineteenth and early twentieth century France, Erik Satie was a harbinger of directions French music was to take in the next fifty years. Although his music exhibits many advanced techniques, ideas revealed in Satie’s writings and conversations with artists of all media were influential in …

Luther The Musician, Charles L. Hill

Honors Theses

The chief contributions of Martin Luther to Western civilization are in the fields of theology and religious reform; but his influence upon, and even his direct contributions to, the development of music also are of considerable importance. Luther has established a place for himself in history as "the great German religious reformer who began the Protestant Reformation" (Brit., 436), but his abilities as a musician are often overlooked. That Luther had a great love for music is clear from a letter which he sent to Ludwig Senfl, the court musician at Munich, on October 4, 1530, in which he says: …

Some General Observations On Mass Composition In The Renaissance, Charles Lathan Hill

Honors Theses

As seen in the six Masses studied in this paper, the composition of a Mass presented a Renaissance composer with both problems and opportunities. Some of the problems encountered, as we have seen, were the clear declamation of the text, effective word-setting, the achievement of contrast and variety throught hte use of many devices, and an efffective means of unifying the work as a whole. The Mass cycle, in addition to enjoying veneration as a tradition, and depsite the problems which it held for a composer, offered him the chance to express himself and demonstrate his mastery of musical skills …

An Introduction To John Dowland's Lute Songs, Anne Laverne Morrow

Honors Theses

Even a brief glance at the context of John Dowland's life can be helpful in arranging insights into an introductory understanding of his life and music. Dr. Edmud Fellowes, one of the great scholars of this period of music history, said that the English have always appeared to prefer vocal music over instrumental music. And one of the eras when England "stood first in music", he said was during the Elizabethan days and up to the close of the Tudor period.

Before the great flourishing of the madrigals and lute songs in England there were English secular songs, but little …