Music Commons^™

Here Comes The Sun: A Diachronic Study Of The Role Of Music In The Amarna Period, Waleed Hawatky

Theses and Dissertations

Music has and continues to play a prominent role in the lives of individuals and in society, hardwired into the human experience and integral to our understanding of the world in both its tangible and intangible manifestations. This was no different in dynastic Egypt, where abundant iconographic and physical evidence from the Old Kingdom onward shows music performed in many diverse contexts at every social level.

Music appears not only to gain prominence during the reign of Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten (c. 1353–1335), also known as the Amarna Period, but also to develop innovations, including new kinds of instruments and musical ensembles, …

Historical Piccolo Concerti And Works By Women Composers, Repertoire Catalogue, And A New Concerto For Piccolo And Orchestra, Mikaela Storm

Doctoral Scholarly Projects & Capstones

The following document is an overview of historical piccolo concerti with an emphasis on works by women, a repertoire catalogue of the piccolo concerti, and an analysis/performance guide for my own Concerto for Piccolo and Orchestra: The Dreamer. The primary goal of this document and subsequent score is to provide a resource for future composers, music theorists, conductors, and performers. The piccolo has limited repertoire in comparison to many of the standard instruments in our modern Western musical canon, and the number of piccolo concertos (particularly by women) is even smaller. The concerto that I have written, subtitled “The Dreamer,” …

2026-2027 Master Class And Piano Recital - Daniel Shapiro (Piano), Daniel Shapiro, Xiaoyu Li, Christopher Linson

Master Classes

No abstract provided.

Idiosyncratic Serialists: The Guitar After Tonality, Alex Tripp

Soundboard Scholar

A review of A Twelve-Tone Repertory for Guitar: Julian Bream and the British Serialists, 1956–1983, by Oliver Chandler.

2026-2027 Performance Forum - October 23, 2026, Hanting Peng, Zion Pe Montebon, Paola Nava, Rodrigo Rodriguez, Taylor Shorey, Aj Meyer, Karen Trujillo, Ethan Thompson, Joseph Muhl, Nicholas Weathers

Performance Forum

No abstract provided.

The Life Of A Showgirl As A Cultural Artifact: What's Hidden By The Lipstick And Lace?, Crystal F. Haryanto

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This paper develops a collage-based framework to holistically assess Taylor Swift’s highly anticipated first release after the Eras Tour concluded. The Life of a Showgirl, with sparkling promotional materials leading up to its October 2025 drop and polarizing critical reception following it, represents an entertainer’s lifestyle while still concealing what was alluded to behind the Eras Tour curtain. Rather than engage in a direct response to Showgirl, I critically evaluate positive and negative commentary from listeners regarding the album, and I thematically analyze lyrical concepts throughout Swift’s discography to contextualize Showgirl within the arc of her work. I …

“I’M A Biracial Person Who Looks White In A Black Man’S Rap Game”: Exploring Expressions Of Multiracialized Masculine Vulnerability In Logic’S “Everybody”, Matthew Oware

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The field of Black vulnerability studies includes analyses of Black men rap artists’ sexual debut, romantic relationships, mental stress, self-medication, and suicidal thoughts. I expand this analysis to Black-white mixed-race men who express emotional vulnerability regarding their racial identities. Using a case study of the song “Everybody” by Logic—a Black and white, mixed-race man—I find that Logic expresses joy and pride in his Black and biracial identity. Similarly, I observe that he expresses anger and frustration toward those who question, dismiss, or degrade his Black and biracial identities, a pattern paralleled in research on multiracial individuals. By analyzing his radio …

2026-2027 Performance Forum - October 16, 2026, Rishi Gurnani, Sheng Yuan Kuan, Paola Nava, Hyunwoo Jeoung, Juanita Jaimes, Andrew Bures, Michael Shipps, Adam Weekes, Pual Brown

Performance Forum

No abstract provided.

The Female Voice: Hormones, Literature And Education, Meg Booker

Confluence: Emerging Voices in Music Research and Creativity

The female body experiences significant hormonal change throughout the stages of life, and these fluctuations can substantially impact the voice. Many female singers are aware that their voice changes during times such as menstruation, pregnancy, or menopause, but they are rarely taught the scientific reasons behind these changes. A review of pedagogical books and research studies reveals that many earlier sources either ignored or misunderstood the connection between hormones and the voice. Conversations with singers further highlight that, despite commonly experiencing these changes, many women receive little to no formal education on the topic. This paper explores how hormones affect …

Cultivating A Culturally Relevant And Inclusive Elementary Music Classroom, Elisabeth Virginia Marie Buzzell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

While programs such as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Act (DEI) and the practice of Culturally Responsive Education (CRE) existed for much of the last decade, representation of marginalized and intersectional identities in traditional music education is often limited to world culture units, rather than being consistently integrated throughout the curriculum. The social understanding of CRE and DEI often limits their purpose to racial diversity; however, these philosophies affirm people from any marginalized class, including those based on gender, disability, race, culture, community, orientation, socioeconomics, or simply bringing one’s lived experiences into a valued perspective. The lack of integration happens …

Sixth-Grade Inclusive Chorus Curriculum, Lauren Rancourt Eubanks

Masters Theses

This curriculum is an eighteen week block plan for sixth-grade inclusive chorus. Emphasizing adaptive activities and specific strategies for students with disabilities, this curriculum can be used with any middle school repertoire concert plan. Through visual aids and color coding, students with disabilities can participate effectively in the performance of melodic contour, rhythm, and repertoire. This curriculum is for a sixth-grade chorus that is preparing for a concert, in which students rehearse two to three times weekly. Drawing from the Orff approach and Dalcroze techniques, this curriculum has adaptions to activities in which students can demonstrate their understanding of musical …

Review Of Re-Reading The Beethoven Violin Sonatas By Daniel Tong, Katharina Uhde

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Marriage Letters Of Joseph Deym And Josephine Brunsvik-Deym By Rita Steblin, Jos Van Der Zanden

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Composer Embalmed By Abigail Fine, Joe Davies

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

"The Effect Was The Same, But Not For The Eye." From Playability To Augenmusik In Beethoven’S Arrangement Of His Grande Fugue Op. 133/134, Elisa Novara

The Beethoven Journal

Beethoven’s four-hands piano transcription of the Grande Fugue Op. 134 is different from any other arrangement he ever made: firstly, it is given an opus number, which is something that conventional Klavierauszüge usually do not have; secondly, it has a dedication, namely to Beethoven’s patron and pupil the Archduke Rudolf. Third, it is notoriously so difficult to play that it barely fulfils the primary function of four-hands piano transcriptions in the 19th century, i.e. a more easily accessible performance medium, which would have resulted in a better circulation of the work.

A more conventional transcription of Op. 133 might have …

Beethoven’S Piccolo Apprenticeship: Eighteen Years Of Experimentation Before The Fifth Symphony, Rikki A. Wolpowitz

The Beethoven Journal

Beethoven is routinely credited as the "father of the orchestral piccolo," a claim resting primarily on his deployment of the instrument in the Fifth Symphony (1808). Yet this paternity metaphor obscures a crucial fact: Beethoven composed for the piccolo for nearly eighteen years before that symphonic premiere, producing works for court entertainment, public dances, and military bands that systematically explored the instrument’s capabilities. This article examines Beethoven’s complete piccolo output—nineteen works comprising thirty-two individual pieces—through a three-function analytical framework: the piccolo as range-extender, as vehicle for programmatic effect, and as independent voice. Beginning with the Musik zu einem Ritterballett (1790) …

"Wondrous Emanations Of A Transcendently Transfigured Sublimity And Profundity": The Reception Of Beethoven's Last Three Piano Sonatas In The Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Centuries, Nicholas S. Kennedy

The Beethoven Journal

Ludwig van Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas, Opp. 109, 110, and 111, have captured the imaginations of critics from the nineteenth century to the present. As “late” works penned towards the end of the composer’s life, these sonatas have often been read as infused with existential or transcendental meaning, frequently aligned with Beethoven’s own experiences. Reception studies have identified broader tropes of autobiographical explanation and poetic analogy as applied to these works by early critics; however, these studies frequently stop short of identifying more specific patterns in the images employed to describe the sonatas. Focusing on mainly German literature from …

The Small Reveal: The Identity Of Beethoven’S Brutus Bust, Scott Messing

The Beethoven Journal

Currently displayed in the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn is a bust labeled “Luc. Brutus,” referring to Lucius Junius Brutus, the Roman republic’s first consul. Beethoven’s purported ownership of this porcelain figure is not beyond question, following its first mention by Anton Schindler in the third edition (1860) of his Beethoven biography. Its prior history, however, is unknown. Even so, scholars have invoked it, owing to this ancient official’s extreme means to preserve the republic: he condemned his two sons to death for conspiring to overthrow the regime. Writers have linked this remarkable act of rescuing the state from the threat of …

Beethoven, Caspar Peucer’S Commentarius, And Enchanted Nature, Nicholas Chong

The Beethoven Journal

The posthumous inventory of Beethoven’s library includes a late Renaissance treatise by Caspar Peucer (1525–1602) entitled Commentarius de præcipuis generibus divinationum (Commentary on the main types of divination). Peucer’s text is concerned mainly with methods of predicting the future through such practices as magic, astrology, and the reading of oracles. Neither Peucer nor his treatise is mentioned in any other source associated with Beethoven. The composer also had a limited knowledge of Latin and his copy of Peucer’s text was more than two centuries old.

Previous scholarship has not explored Beethoven’s ownership of this book in any detail, except to …

The Performer As Stylistic Free Agent: A Historically Inspired Approach To Interpreting Manuel De Falla’S Homenaje, Yiannis Efstathopoulos, Maarten Stragier, Kristin Van Den Buys

Soundboard Scholar

Manuel de Falla’s Homenaje pour “Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy” presents a complex identity knot that reflects Debussyan Alhambrism back onto its inspiration, drawing from both classical and folk traditions. This is the first research project to approach that knot from the perspective of historically inspired performance. It identifies a fascinating counterpart to its complexity in the stylistically hybrid guitar practices that were common at the time Falla composed his miniature masterpiece. The authors therefore propose that a historically inspired performer of Homenaje can act as a stylistic free agent, traversing the continuum of styles that gave birth to Falla’s …

2026-2027 Master Class - Michelle Cann (Piano), Michelle Cann, Aidan Quintana, Ziling Wang, Ian Lewis

Master Classes

No abstract provided.

2026-2027 Performance Forum - October 9, 2026, Xiomara Ingryd Herrera, Nara Avetisyan, Joseph Gould, Rebeca Sierra, Isabella Swalm, Sheng Yuan Kuan, Omar Mata, Santiago Moreno, Michael Hunt, Jackson Tyler Wolf, Luke Guelcher, Kade Gordon

Performance Forum

No abstract provided.

The Verney Family And Their Guitars In France And England, 1643–53, Christopher Page

Soundboard Scholar

The five-course guitar was a fundamental resource for the Verney family from 1643 to 1653 as they sheltered in France, avoiding their creditors and escaping the state of civil war at home in England. Their papers from that period, comprising many thousands of letters and financial accounts, show them hiring a guitar-master, ordering new guitars in Paris and debating the relative benefits of lessons for their eldest son on the guitar as opposed to the lute. This article reproduces the key documents and considers the music that the Verneys may have played. The papers particularly show how an instrument often …

Recovering Hidden Histories: Christopher Page On The Guitar In Victorian England, Jenny Nex

Soundboard Scholar

A review of The Guitar in Victorian England: A Social and Musical History, by Christopher Page (Cambridge University Press, 2025)

2026-2027 Performance Forum - October 2, 2026, Christopher Linson, Nara Avetisyan, Emma Joyce, Sheng Yuan Kuan, Zeek Mckinley, Rodrigo Rodriguez, Maria Savelyeva, Rebeca Sierra

Performance Forum

No abstract provided.

Darlene Love: I Know Where I’Ve Been, Ken Derry

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been (2026), directed by Barry Avrich.

Piercing The Veil In Sinners: Theological Insights From The Juke Joint, Antonio D. Sison Cpps

Journal of Religion & Film

Celebrated as a critical and commercial success, Ryan Coogler’s genre-defying opus Sinners has also been considered as one of the most culturally significant films of 2025. It also promises to be one of the most theologically resonant films of the year. This is evinced not only in its thematic and literary bases but, importantly, in its very audiovisual language and grammar, its stylistic strategies qua film. As reasoned in this essay, Coogler’s film is a rich locus theologicus, a nexus for theological discovery and insight.Sinners kindles the hermeneutical impulse to dialogue with African American/Pan-Africa theologies exemplified by the …

Ungrammaticalities And Film Music, Jonathan Rhodes Lee

Music Faculty Research

This essay advocates Michael Riffaterre’s concept of “ungrammaticality”—a moment within a text that appears illogical or confusing according to its own internal grammar— as a useful heuristic for analyzing film music. While intertextuality has long underpinned film music studies, scholars have yet to fully engage with Riffaterre’s model, which emphasizes how such disruptions compel interpretive work by sending audiences outside the text to make meaning.

In cinema, music often functions precisely this way: moments like the entrance of nondiegetic underscoring or abrupt changes in sonic logic interrupt the coherence of the diegetic world and thereby activate the viewer’s intertextual competence. …

Approaching Chinese Art Songs: A Mandarin Diction Guide For English-Speaking Singers, Tianming Qi

Doctoral Scholarly Projects & Capstones

This article presents a graded Mandarin diction guide for English-speaking singers studying Chinese art song. Responding to the limited availability of Mandarin diction resources organized by level, it examines Qing Zhu’s “The Great River Goes East,” Yuanren Zhao’s “How Can I Not Think of Him?,” and Yong Chen’s “Love of the Sea” as beginning, intermediate, and advanced case studies. The analysis considers initials, finals, lexical tones, tone-sandhi, syllable structure, text density, and their coordination with rhythm, legato, and melodic phrasing. The study shows that diction difficulty arises not from isolated sounds but from the concentration and interaction of these features …

"Heil, O Sonne, Heil!": Schemata And Semiotics In Haydn's Oratorio Sunrises, Michael D. Slattery

HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America

Both of Haydn’s late oratorios, The Creation and The Seasons, contain depictions of sunrises, a subject matter that Sisman (2013) has characterized as “Emergent Light,” in contrast with the famous “absolute” creation of light at the opening of The Creation. In addition to their shared object of representation, the four sunrise passages I identify in these two works all use a phrase-level schema Gjerdingen (2007) has christened the Do-Re-Mi. In this paper, I enrich our cultural understanding of Haydn’s sunrises by attending to nuanced semantic implications of the Do-Re-Mi, illustrating how phrase-level schemata can construct extramusical meaning.

Work on phrase-level …