Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Exploration Of Digital Synthesis, Angelo Indre

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

“An Exploration of Digital Synthesis” is a comprehensive investigation into the world of digital audio and music production. The paper explores the fundamental concepts of sound synthesis, including MIDI, virtual instruments (VSTs), and the JUCE framework. The central focus of the paper is the implementation of a custom synthesizer, which serves as a case study for the practical application of digital synthesis. The paper addresses the key question of how to create a functioning synthesizer from scratch, providing detailed insights into the programming and design process. Overall, the paper represents a significant contribution to the fields of digital audio and …

Liquid Tab, Nathan Hulet

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Guitar transcription is a complex task requiring significant time, skill, and musical knowledge to achieve accurate results. Since most music is recorded and processed digitally, it would seem like many tools to digitally analyze and transcribe the audio would be available. However, the problem of automatic transcription presents many more difficulties than are initially evident. There are multiple ways to play a guitar, many diverse styles of playing, and every guitar sounds different. These problems become even more difficult considering the varying qualities of recordings and levels of background noise.

Machine learning has proven itself to be a flexible tool …

Culturally Responsive Teaching And Music Education, Katie Johnson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The United States’ music culture is predominantly focused on the Western music tradition. Yet, the population in the United States is wildly diverse and continues to become even more so at a rapid rate. Because of this, culturally relevant teaching has become an increasingly discussed topic in music education. Why do some music educators feel out of place with music outside of the classical tradition? It can be traced backed to the Eurocentrism of music schools in the United States. Music schools focus primarily on the classical Western music realm, including topics such as music theory, socially accepted ensembles and …

Defining Music Of A Questionable Past: A College Musician’S Approach, Noah Whetstone

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In recent years, social movements have raised awareness on issues like whitewashing and the oppression of minority voices in fields such as music. These social movements have drawn attention to the cultural appropriation that sometimes occurs in music classrooms. Outcomes from recent legislation proposals and social conflicts across the United States threaten to limit educational opportunities. Although many people have understood these pieces of legislation to affect topics such as history and English, it may also affect music education. When choosing music to teach their students, music educators are often challenged as many songs have questionable pasts and make references …

The Effects Of Improvisation In Beginning Musical Instruction On Music Literacy, Brandon Tyson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Teaching is a skill that has many different techniques and strategies. Each instructional strategy is valid for giving the student the opportunity to learn. In the 1993 article “Improvisation is the Manifestation of Musical Thought,” Azzara states that improvisation is a spontaneous expression of musical concepts. Many have used improvisation to bring knowledge together and synthesize the content. Improvisation is a tool that can be utilized at any point in the educational process. Opportunities for improvisational play gives students personal experiences on leading to skill development in listening and performing of the skills. After a solid foundation of performance ability …

Furthering Cultural Understanding Through Music, Sophia Abukamail

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project explores the role that music plays in fostering cultural understanding and equity by discussing the sociopolitical implications of musical collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli musicians. In order to do this, the paper will dive into the history of the conflict between Palestine and Israel, detail instances of musical collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli musicians, show how music is helping to bridge the divide between these two cultures, and examine the intentions and consequences of such collaborations as they relate to music, politics, and society. The purpose of this project is to investigate the ways that music can affect …

Symphony Of Nature: "Fall", Davis Cooper

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This honors project is for an analysis paper based on one movement of an original music composition by the author in the realm of environmental sound art. The movement, entitled “Fall” from the Symphony of Nature, consists of hundreds of individual audio recordings of specific animals (such as an American Crow, Carolina Ground Cricket, and Gray Catbird), groups of animals (such as a choir of Ground Crickets, a murder of crows, and so forth), or geophonic sounds (such as a light rain on dry leaves, a several-miles-distant thunderstorm, or mid-to-high range audio spectrum wind). The analysis paper includes the rationale …

Music Cognition And Cultural Meaning, Mikayla Kreider

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project will analyze the new trend in musicology of understanding music as cultural metaphor in terms of cognitive theories on how musical meaning is created, specifically through the work of Candace Brower. Brower's theory states that meaning in music is created through bodily metaphor; "image schemas" of basic human experiences like walking and perceiving space are mapped onto music, which allows meaning to develop. This theory will be applied to the larger-scale cultural metaphors of "New Musicology," which approaches music through the lens of how it interacts with and reflects different cultural ideas and values. The project will attempt …

Theoretical And Compositional Analysis Of Select Metal Works, Jacob Bird

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper is a comprehensive essay on the history, form, and compositional techniques of Extreme Metal music. Within Extreme Metal this paper will cover three sub-genres using compositions by Burzum, Death, and Gojira. This paper is meant to show a link between the compositional techniques used in Western Classical music and Extreme Metal through analysis of form, harmony, and tonality/modality. The scope of this paper primarily focuses on the popular music form verse/chorus which is compared to a variety of Western Classical music forms. The goal is to promote future research into the Extreme Metal style and other popular music …

A Study Of The Steel Pan: A Guide To Two Tenor Pan Etudes, Lilith Manes

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project will be a presentation of the research, processes, and results of composing two etudes for the tenor steelpan. The difficulty and applications of the accompanying etudes vary, but they are primarily intended for high school students or intermediate pannists. The purpose of this research project is twofold: to provide a brief description of the history of the steelpan and its integration into the United States education system in order to illustrate the need for original compositions and to serve as a guide to the teaching process of each composition provided. This paper will also give a detailed explanation …

Vocal Pedagogy And Using Healthy Technique To Sing, David Kovalsky

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Systematic singing has been in existence since around the time of the ancient Greeks. In the Western tradition, a healthy, systematic, and beautiful approach to singing called bel canto developed around the 16th century and has been taught through time until today. In this work, the history of singing and the development of classical vocal pedagogy will be explored and compared briefly to modern contemporary commercial music (CCM) techniques. Specifically the belting technique will be touched upon briefly and the fundamentals of healthy singing technique will be mentioned. The work will be closed with a discussion of how modern voice …

Around The World In 18 Songs, Elizabeth Rickel

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For my research project, I will be creating a concert of 18 songs in 18 different languages. The questions I will attempt to answer through my research are "What makes art and folk songs so important to their respective cultures?", "How are they similar to each other?", "How are they different?" "What is is about this kind of music that is enjoyed by many, no matter the origin of the person or piece?" The motivation for this project is to shine light on some lesser-known folk pieces, build upon my two passions (Music and Languages), and to illustrate the power …

Brothers, Sing On: The Story Of Nuance, Kyle Reynolds

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For this project, I have elected to create a documentary detailing the chronological history of the University of Akron’s all-male contemporary pop a Cappella group, Nuance. The Documentary is titled: “Brothers, Sing On: the Story of Nuance” as a reference to the song “Brothers, Sing On!” by Edvard Grieg, and was named such because of the theme of brotherhood I have showcased in the documentary. I have been a member of Nuance since the Spring Semester of 2018 and have served as the president of the group since Spring Semester 2019. Nuance was founded in 2004, making it one of …

"A Performing Artist's Journey...Begins" (Senior Showcase), Jennifer Boswell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

As a Theatre major, my sponsor and I decided that my Honors Research Project would be a one-person, twenty-minute performance. Originally, this showcase was going to be a live theatre event. Due to coronavirus and social distancing, I had to adjust and adapt as I transformed my piece into a virtual performance.

In choosing the content that would be performed, I carefully selected pieces that represented my journey as a performing artist the past four years. I wanted to showcase my growth and range as a performer. I chose one monologue from each of the six MainStage Theatre productions I …

Embouchure Theory In Practice, Alden Smith

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In the instrumental band world, the horn, euphonium, and tuba are considered “switch-over” instruments. They are put in this category because students usually switch to these instruments from their starting instrument. Though they may not be offered to students as a starting instrument, their tones create a balanced and mature band sound. However, it is difficult to properly teach these instruments due to logistical complications; the music educator is responsible for simultaneously teaching the switch-over students a new instrument, while continuing the education of students who did not switch over.

Sound on the horn, euphonium, and tuba is produced by …

An Approach To Jazz Improvisation For Intermediate Saxophonists, Justin Evangelist

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project is an organization of the author’s thoughts on teaching jazz improvisational concepts to saxophonists at a beginning to intermediate level of playing ability. Firstly, it discusses the skills students should acquire before studying jazz improvisation. It will focus primarily on building good practice habits through the development of desirable jazz tone and technique. Additionally, this project will offer explanations for understanding how jazz standards are constructed in terms of form and how they are performed. Lastly, this project will introduce several basic concepts the student can use to construct improvised melodies, such as modal scales, blues scales, seventh …

A Pedagogical Analysis Of Select Etudes From Jakob Dont’S 24 Etudes And Caprices, Op. 35, Daniella Greene

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The study of etudes is essential for all musicians to learn and practice the technical challenges of their instrument in a practical way. There is a large selection of etudes for the violin, created and collected by numerous composers targeted for all levels of playing. This document will focus on a select number of etudes from the first half of “24 Etudes and Caprices, Opus 35,” by Jakob Dont. The analysis of the etudes will include descriptions of the technical challenges in the left and right hands, recommended practice sequences, and variations on the etude to further challenge the student …

The Touch Of Arvo Pärt, Gabriel Lane

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Honors Project Abstract

My project is on the modern Estonian composer, Arvo Pärt and his work Spiegel im Spiegel. Of all the pieces written by Pärt, this is one of his most popular and revered works. It has a major emotional impact on many people who listen to it, but also on me. Through my research, I have discovered compositional techniques which help the work achieve such a profound effect on a listener.

To help show these techniques to the reader, I include handwritten excerpts in my paper. This is also to avoid copyright issues. In each image presented, …

Ua Feature Twirler For A Day, Amy Mellinger

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This analysis includes a description of the first UA Twirler for a Day Event, the preliminary research done on the best practices for planning events such as this, and the process that took place to plan the event. It then goes into an analysis of the planning process, communication, registration, and execution of the event, as well as suggestions for planning similar events.

Clarinet Pedagogy: Common Challenges And Solutions, Robyn King

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

There is no one “perfect” clarinet or clarinetist in the world. There have been masters, yes, however, masters still have to practice and refine their artistry to improve. Professional clarinetists still squeak, and have done so on live recordings or in major concerts. So, if these professionals still have trouble, how can we expect young students to produce characteristic tone on this tube of wood, with a mouthpiece, and a vibrating piece of cane? Students are also faced with the trials of putting down the right fingers and doing so correctly. Yet the clarinet requires cross fingerings and pinky work …

Notes Of Hope: Experiential Learning In Music Education, Eden A. Dunning, Jordan Wessel

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The arts unite vision, hearing, touch, movement, speech, and emotion. Music strengthens spatial and conditional reasoning, problem solving, and creative thinking. For students, it can positively affect academic areas such as mathematics and creative scientific processes. Benefiting urban students in new ways, this project, a two semester after-school music program in inner-city Cleveland, was completed as part of our Honors degrees. Our purpose was to provide students with musical experiences, developing a foundation of basic musical skills that would allow them to be “tuneful, beatful, and artful” throughout their lives. Each weekly class gave students the opportunity to make music …

Louden Hugely: The Piano Music Of Percy Grainger, Jackson Carruthers

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961) was an Australian pianist and composer. While highly esteemed during his lifetime, Grainger's music has largely fallen into neglect outside the world of the wind band. However, Grainger left a vast quantity of highly idiomatic and meritorious piano music which deserves greater acceptance. To this end, this paper makes a survey of Grainger's output for piano, to show the merit of his music and prove that it remains relevant even today.

Teaching Tuba Students To Be Complete Musicians, Brandon E. Cummings

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of music educators is to develop complete musicians who successfully learn and perform all musical concepts. One of the limitations of the band classroom is that performers are required to play a part that is specifically written with the needs of the ensemble in mind, and not the needs of the developing musician. These limitations can be seen in the bass instruments of a band which typically play the harmony or bass-line. While the bass-line and harmony are integral portions of the music, they do not often progress as far as other instrumental parts with respect to the …

On Unaccompanied Horn Music, Jason D. Klinect

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Unaccompanied music provides a host of challenges for solo musicians, and especially for wind players. The performer cannot rely on accompaniment for embouchure rest or for realization of the harmonic content, due to only being able to play one pitch at a time. An unaccompanied musician has to breathe life into the music by themselves, requiring an intimate knowledge of the music, even moreso than is already required. The pacing of the music, the dynamics, phrasing, and articulation need to be clearly conveyed to the audience by the performer alone. Likely due to the horn not having valves until the …

The Effect Of Music Listening On Anxiety And Agitation In Adult Mechanically Ventilated Patients: A Systematic Review, Kristen M. Trowbridge, Hailee N. Horstman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Mechanical ventilation causes anxiety and agitation in patients in intensive care units, which increases risk for complications and prolonged hospital stays. Since pharmacological interventions have adverse effects and are not always effective at reducing anxiety and agitation, nonpharmacological interventions, such as music listening, could be considered. The purpose of this systematic review is to identify, review, and critically appraise the evidence from studies that examined the effect of music listening, compared with standard care, on anxiety and agitation in mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). Using search engines, data bases, key words, and criteria, twenty studies are …

Sketches Of A Life, Alexander D. Morris

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Sketches of a Life is a work for a small chamber ensemble and depicts small sections of an unidentified person's life. It is scored for 13 instruments and runs eight minutes in length. The piece itself is supplementary to this project, which is largely a descriptive and theoretical analysis of the work. The analysis and score are submitted as PDFs. A link to the recording is included in the appendix.

Using Mathematical Research Methods To Solve A Problem In Music Theory Instruction, Specifically, The Teaching Of Secondary Dominant Chords, Angela Ulrich

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The mathematical method for research is used to find a solution to a problem in music theory: understanding and identifying secondary dominant chords. By reviewing and assessing the teaching methods of university professors and theory textbooks, and comparing those findings with student reviews, a new method for teaching the concept is developed. The proposed system incorporates aural, visual, and kinetic exercises to serve every learner. The literature review and sample unit plan are followed by a possible procedure for testing the effectiveness of the new method.

Beginning Flute Pedagogy, Sabrina Simone

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper explores materials from four published and recommended books, experienced flute educators, and reputable music collections to create a basic guideline for the private flute lesson teacher. The topics and materials presented will be the outline for guiding a beginning flute player to success as they increase in ability through secondary education. This includes instructions on playing position, tone production, and techniques for helping develop a proficient player. Common problems with solutions will also be suggested along with teaching materials. The focus will be mainly on beginning instruction because creating a solid foundation is imperative for success. An important …

The Art And Science Of Becoming A Successful Studio Teacher, Teresa A. Bellamy

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For most professional musicians, it is important to possess the skills necessary to be a studio teacher. While it is crucial to be confident in the actual pedagogical technique required of an instrumental teacher, it is imperative that music teachers also have a thorough knowledge of proper business and marketing tools. In this project, a close examination of the methods used to acquire and use such skills has been made. The research for this project was done in the form of interviews. Four professional music teachers were interviewed on the above topics.

Challenges In Beginning Trombone Pedagogy, Robert Sobnosky

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The development of strong fundamental skills is essential for success on any instrument. Beginning wind players must be carefully monitored so they can develop the good playing habits and basic skills that form the foundations of strong musicianship. Each instrument presents its own unique challenges. The trombone could be considered the most unique of the beginning band instruments due to size, slide, and technique. These challenges can lead to a number of problems that music educators must be able to recognize and correct. For this project, six music educators with experience teaching beginning trombone students were interviewed about common problems …