Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Combat Music, Usability, And Presence In Video Games, Jedidah Wong

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The interactive nature of video games offers players unique playthroughs of the same game. Choices made during gameplay, despite going through the same narrative story, create a journey that differs from other players. Music can help support a player's connection to the game's characters and narrative while also providing information to the player to guide their decisions. Ludomusicological studies in the past have shown how music can support a game's narrative, while also serving to inform players of changes in game states. The usability function of music, while crucial in this overall sonic experience, is not the sole purpose that …

Playing Music As A Nursing Intervention To Reduce Distress In Neonatal And Pediatric Acute Care Patients: A Literature Review, Seren E. Özoğlu

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Pediatric and neonatal patients are especially vulnerable to suffering from distress. This literature review identifies research which applies passive music listening to distressed neonatal and pediatric acute care patients. Databases searched to find relevant studies include CINAHL plus with full text, MEDLINE, Alt HealthWatch, APA PsycArticles, and APA PsycInfo from EBSCOhost. Six studies were identified to meet search criteria. The studies that supported music listening with the neonatal and pediatric populations had a positive effect in reducing distress levels. Additional research is warranted to further validate these findings. Music listening with neonatal and pediatric patients is a simple, cost-effective intervention …

Correlations In Acquiring Musician’S Dystonia Amongst Professional Musicians: Annotated Bibliography, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

Dystonia happens at a remarkable rate amongst musicians. The definition of acquired dystonia are types of dystonia that develop from other factors that cause damage or degenerate to the body the brain. Dystonia is a disease that is not fully understood by science and requires more research to uncover the disease’s abundance in professional musicians. Many medical studies have been done in regards to dystonia in the general population but there is still large questions about why dystonia is a crisis in the musical world. It is a topic misunderstood by most musicians and largely mysterious to the majority of …

Bollywood Production: Cultural Values And Studio Decisions: Annotated Bibliography, Tyler Thom

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

As India’s popular music, Bollywood has been used to discuss cultural representation and diffusion of ideas throughout India and the world. Musical, video, and pop culture analysis have widely been conducted but far less research has been done on the recording methods applied. Studio “magic” has been credited for the correction and production of modern music but editing decisions and mixing techniques are consciously chosen by an engineer and thus can be studied as an artistic endeavor. How are recording and mixing methods influenced and reflective of the cultural audience? While many techniques of music production originated in the West, …

Voiced Gender Signifiers Within ‘As One’ A Chamber Opera: Annotated Bibliography, Samuel Sherman

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

‘As One’, a popular modern chamber opera by composer Laura Kaminsky, presents the transition of transgender woman, Hannah. Hannah, however, is casted and composed as two separate voices, a baritone and mezzo-soprano, thus creating “Hannah before” and “Hannah after”. In doing so, a dichotomy of thought surrounding the attributes of a binary based practice of vocalization and character representation is created. Through the analysis of gender theory, voiced gender theory, and the ‘As One’ chamber opera, storytelling of complex gender-based characters may be solidified within biased gender compositional and musical tools. In discovering these repetitive actions through socially constructed stereotypes …

Narrative In Debussy’S Sonata For Flute, Viola And Harp: Annotated Bibliography, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

An annotated bibliography to a proposed paper on narrative in Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp.

Relationship Between Vocal Technique, Classification, And Appropriate Repertoire For The Tenor Voice, Joan Sebastian Marquez Unda

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

Within the training and career of a lyrical singer, it is necessary to approach a question: Why is it important to know the vocal classification and the technique for the correct assignment of the repertoire? Although the answer forces us to delve a little deeper into the history of the classification of voices by sex, we will also focus on characteristics that section lyrical voices by their tessitura, timbre and intensity, with a special emphasis on the tenor voice.

The Jingwei Bird Sings Performative Resistance: Music And Arts Programming As Catharsis, Acculturation, And Cultural Remembrance For Refugees In U.S. Immigration Detention Centers, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

Scholarship on immigration detention centers as sites for musical exchange and identity formation remain largely unresearched. Adelaida Reyes in her groundbreaking work, Songs of the Caged, Songs of the Free, offers insight into the “heterogeneity” of resettlement camps and their ambiguous sovereignty. Her work, however, does not examine the musical environments and ecologies of modern large-scale immigrant detention centers, nor these center’s specific musical identities. Significant analyses of music programming in detention centers include musicologists Donna Weston and Caroline Lenette’s article, “Performing Freedom: The Role of Music-Making in Creating a Community in Asylum Seeker Detention Centres” and ethnomusicologist Julia Morris’s …

Annotated Bibliography, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

An Annotated Bibliography discussing how the music education forum could further diversify.

Exploring Maximalism In Music, Comparing The Selected Works Of Richard Strauss And Kanye West: Annotated Bibliography, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

In the realm of music theory, many terms are used to simplify characteristics of musical compositions. Many of these terms become “ism’s” as a way to easily group many characteristics or techniques that composers implement. A well known ‘ism’ that is taught often in American music theory/history courses is minimalism, where composers made music with techniques like repetition, simplification, etc. This paper seeks to define another emerging ‘ism’ in music theory, Maximalism. This term broadly refers to the over exaggeration of compositional techniques in music, and their effects. I propose that in many ways the composers Richard Strauss and Kanye …

Annotated Bibliography, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

This is a twelve source annotated bibliography with sources regarding the clarinet pedagogy of professors Yehuda Gilad and Howard Klug. It features dictionary articles, dissertations, journal articles, musical scores, and video and audio sources.

Fear And Death In Schubert’S Lieder: Annotated Bibliography, Michaela Hertrich

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

The themes of death are common throughout the genre of German Lied. However, fear is a much more subjective emotion that is often overlooked in textual and musical analysis of death. Schubert’s works “Erlkönig” and “Der Tod und das Mӓdchen” both illustrate situations of death, but they also include a deep permeation of fear. However, fear is dealt with differently between these two works, both in terms of historical context and importance as well as in general harmonic setting. This annotated bibliography includes sources that describe in detail Schubert’s compositional style, his approach to both the text and musical setting …

Einstein On The Beat: Transcribing Electronic Dance Music Using Methods Of Minimalist Analysis, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

This paper focuses on the transcription and methods of analysis for the modern musical genre of EDM, or electronic dance music. It takes a historical look at the origins of EDM in the early 1970s and explores how the compositional techniques of 21st century EDM producers are in fact similar to those of minimalist composers from the 1960s and 70s. By first establishing a common vocabulary to discuss the two genres, the paper will then examine compositions from both genres and attempt to provide a useful framework that can be used to analyze future catalogues of EDM.

How Have Classical Composers Written For And Adjusted Their View Of Viola Over Time? Annotated Bibliography, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

An annotated bibliography of a future research paper for MUAC 4000.

An Annotated Bibliography For Debating The ‘Authentic’ Use Of Vibrato In Early Bowed String Performance Practice, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

Musicians debate daily the authentic execution of pretty much any music, especially historical styles, even among non-specialist performers. To be considered authentic, there is little consensus among musicians deciding upon a unified vision of accuracy. Maybe the idea of a strict authenticity threatens a musician’s fundamental understanding of musical expression. That discussion, alone, can become very personal in nature. For decades, semantic and philosophical discourses have driven the impetus to debate of what ‘authentic’ music is, and the answer is (mostly) clarified when you start to investigate minute and critical musical details.

Especially among period performance specialists, there tends to …

Same Old Song: An Analysis Of Adaptation And The Orpheus Myth In Musical Theatre, Aaron J. Wulf

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

This bibliography is a brief examination of various adaptations of the myth of Orpheus and Euridice throughout the history of musical theatre and opera, specifically through comparative textual analysis of the scripts and libretti. In this examination, additions to or retractions from the original story, whether common to several adaptations or unique to a single source, will be analyzed. From these findings it will be possible to speculate on historical and contextual reasons for the unique shape taken by each adaptation, and to add to the conversation about the nature and purpose of adaptation in general as well as the …

Golan V Holder’S Impact On Orchestra Performance Programming: Annotated Bibliography, Craig M. Winston

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

This project will examine how changes in copyright law enacted with the Supreme Court’s 2012 decision on Golan v Holder affect the performance programming of American symphony orchestras. The court’s decision brought many previously public-domain, foreign works under copyright protections in accordance with the Uruguay Rounds Agreement Act; among the musical works were frequently performed pieces by composers such as Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, and Stravinsky. The result is that previously free or low-cost works would now have to be licensed or rented for performance at great expense to the performing group. I will seek to test a hypothesis proposed by legal …

Modelling Acoustics In Ancient Maya Cities: Moving Towards A Synesthetic Experience Using Gis & 3d Simulation, Graham Goodwin, Heather Richards-Rissetto

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Archaeological analyses have successfully employed 2D and 3D tools to measure vision and movement within cityscapes; however, built environments are often designed to invoke synesthetic experiences. GIS and Virtual Reality (VR) now enable archaeologists to also measure the acoustics of ancient spaces. To move toward an understanding of synesthetic experience in ancient Maya cities, we employ GIS and 3D modelling to measure sound propagation and reverberation using the main civic-ceremonial complex in ancient Copán as a case study. For the ancient Maya, sight and sound worked in concert to create ritually-charged atmospheres and architecture served to shape these experiences. Together …

Entropy In Music: An Analysis Of Shape Note Music In Terms Of Information Entropy, Kyle Major

Honors Program Theses

This paper will be centered on a case study designed to probe a possible objective method for analyzing music that has already proven itself in the analysis computational systems: information theory. More specifically, this study has been conducted through the collection of data on information entropy in the genre of shape note music. The genre of shape note music has been chosen for its relative simplicity compared to other genres such as the classical symphony, which will render it significantly easier to analyze objectively. Information entropy as proposed by Claude Shannon, makes an excellent method for objective analysis because it …

Counterpoint: Music And Art Education, Eileen Kosasih

MA Projects

Music education programming is generally not as accessible or available as museum education programming. General music illiteracy and the elitism of music education perpetuate a cycle of inaccessibility and lack of understanding of the value of music education. Meanwhile, the auditory art form is a fundamental component of culture, society, and history. Music’s language and history should be understood and appreciated widely. Art museum education programmers can work with music educators, music historians, and classical music programmers to incorporate music education into museum education programming. This project consists of three parts. The first section advocates the inclusion of music education …

Enneasongs, Colton Whitted

West Chester University Master’s Theses

“Enneasongs” is a collection of nine original songs composed, performed, recorded, mixed, and mastered by myself, based off of the nine personality types within the psychological personality structure known as the Enneagram. The Enneagram is a nine-sided symbol that expresses the full range of basic human core fears, desires, weaknesses, and longings. Each of the nine personality ego structures (named, accordingly, “One,” “Two,” Three,” etc.) functions primarily from either the head, the heart, or the body. The nine songs each accompany a different personality type through the journey from living out of disintegrated coping mechanisms to living wholeheartedly and authentically, …

Exodus, Klaudellsh Larieux

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Exodus is a piece that highlights different events from the Book of Exodus to the Book of Joshua. The first movement, “The Great Escape,” characterizes the moment where Pharoah decides to listen to Moses, in letting the Israelites go. God uses Moses to perform the miracle of splitting the Red Sea, which secures the safety of the Israelites. This is displayed by the harmonic tension within the brass and the energetic rhythms of the percussion and strings. It all comes to a halt, signified by the timpani, in a reassuring yet anxious manner.

In the second movement, “Wilderness of Despair,” …

Something Old, Something New: Forecasting Willing Buyer/Willing Seller’S Impact On Songwriter Royalties, Daniel Abowd

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Mechanical royalties payable to songwriters for digital reproductions of their works on services such as Spotify and Apple Music are determined through a convoluted quasi-trial in front of an administrative body called the Copyright Royalty Board (“CRB”). The CRB is itself governed by statutory rate standards that constrain the types of evidence and analyses it may consider when setting royalty rates.

In 2018, Congress passed a much-heralded, consensus piece of music legislation called the Music Modernization Act (“MMA”). The MMA attacked a broad swath of issues across the music industry, including, most visibly, establishing a blanket license for digital mechanical …

Convolutional Audio Source Separation Applied To Drum Signal Separation, Marius Orehovschi

Honors Theses

This study examined the task of drum signal separation from full music mixes via both classical methods (Independent Component Analysis) and a combination of Time-Frequency Binary Masking and Convolutional Neural Networks. The results indicate that classical methods relying on predefined computations do not achieve any meaningful results, while convolutional neural networks can achieve imperfect but musically useful results. Furthermore, neural network performance can be improved by data augmentation via transposition – a technique that can only be applied in the context of drum signal separation.

Concert Recording 2021-11-13, Christopher Adkins, Jonathan Tsay

Concert Recordings & Programs

[00:00]. Pastorale, BWV 590 / J.S. Bach -- [05:03]. Suite no. 3 in C major for cello solo, BWV 1009. Prelude ; Allemande ; Courante ; Sarabande ; Boureé I & II ; Gigue / Bach -- [24:31]. Pezzo capriccioso, op. 62 / Pyotr Tchaikovsky -- [31:45]. When you wish upon a star -- [34:03]. Mother goose suite. Pavane de la belle au bois dormant / Maurice Ravel -- Songs my mother taught me / Antonin Dvorák/Kreisler -- [42:24]. Hansel and Gretel. Evening prayer / Engelbert Humperdinck -- [45:18]. Cendrillon. Cinderella’s stepsisters / Jules Massenet -- [55:40]. A frog he …

Concert Recording 2021-11-10b, Emily Sink, Sophie Lopez, Carla Summers

Concert Recordings & Programs

[00:00]. Se pietà di me non senti, giusto ciel / George Frideric Handel -- [07:26]. Saper vorreste / Guiseppe Verdi -- [09:19]. 8 Gedichte aus 'Letzte Blätter, op. 10. No. 1. Zueignung ; [11:12]. No. 3. Die Nacht / Richard Strauss -- [14:02]. Der Hölle Rache / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart -- [16:57]. Deux poèmes. C ; Fêtes galantes / Francis Poulenc -- [20:25]. Les chemins del'amour / Poulenc.

Concert Recording 2021-04-29, Austin Mcfarland

Concert Recordings & Programs

[00:00]. Phoenix rising. I. Dying in embers ; II. Reborn in flames / Stacy Garrop -- [11:08]. Quatour pour la fin du temps. III. Abîme des oiseaux / Olivier Messiaen -- [17:05]. As small birds play / Corrina Bonshek -- [23:26]. Monólogo en Tiempo de Joropo. I. La vaqueria ; II. Registro ; III. Pajarillo / Carlos Gonzalo Guzman-Muñoz.

Creating The Role Of Crissy In Hair, Yu Miao

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This document is a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Master of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre. It is a detailed account of author Yu Miao’s artistic process in creating the role of Crissy in the Minnesota State University, Mankato’s production of Hair in the Fall of 2020. The thesis follows the actor’s process beginning with the early production analysis in chapter one. The actor then researched its historical background followed by a detailed journal of the rehearsal process in chapters two and three. Chapter four is the post-production analysis, and the fifth chapter gives an overall review …

What Is Jazz?: Exploring The Question, Dominick Tancredi

Open Educational Resources

This writing assignment begins a semester-long exploration addressing the question “What Is Jazz?” Being introduced by film to two New Orleans jazz musicians, George “Kid Sheik” Colar (1908-1996) and Emanuel “Manny” Sayles (1907-1986), students will get a firsthand perspective of the various levels of commitment to the music these two individuals maintained as working musicians. They dedicated themselves professionally, personally, emotionally, and spiritually. They took inspiration from their life experiences. The films convey the message that jazz goes beyond the notes we hear.

Alceste: Tragédia-Opéra En Trois Actes, A Revisitation, Randall Snyder

Glenn Korff School of Music: Faculty Publications

The history of opera constantly swings from emphasis on drama to that of music. In developing opera based on their interpretation of Greek drama, the Florentine Camarata stressed the dramatic element. The idea that words must have dramatic purpose and clearly understood were impulses moving music away from the polyphony of the late Renaissance to the monodic writing of the early Baroque. During the subsequent century the theatrical and virtuosic elements were emphasized at the expense of their dramatic relevance. . With Gluck’s reform operas the focus once more shifts to the dramatic.

The opera Alceste, with music by …