Music Commons^™

A Rhythmic Analysis Of Michael Torke: Three Colors And Primary, Secondary, Tertiary: An Original Work For Symphonic Band, Aaron Fast

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes three early Michael Torke “color” pieces, Ecstatic Orange, Bright Blue Music, and The Yellow Pages. This analysis provides insight into the compositional process of his early works, which continues to define his style today. Torke’s techniques include rhythmic motives and their variations, rhythmic canon, sectioning as the basis of form, and stratification. This thesis also provides an analytical notational device when defining a Rhythmic Canon Sequence or a Rhythmic Entrance Series. Through this analysis I demonstrate that all three pieces share these compositional techniques but are displayed in three very different pieces. I also explore …

"When I Wore A Younger Man's Clothes": The Nostalgia Topic In The Music Of Billy Joel, Kendall Waters

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

My father and I often listened to Billy Joel together as I grew up, and I eventually formed nostalgic connections to Joel’s music. While music is well known as a conductor of nostalgia, this paper explores the idea that the nostalgia I feel while listening to specific songs in Joel’s catalog is not simply a result of the indexical connections I have built with these tracks. Rather, it is a result of a “nostalgia topic” in Joel’s work. This paper compares the soundtrack and select works from Joel’s catalog to reveal that there is no one gesture, melody, or harmonic …

The Elements, Soren Andrew Allen

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

The Elements is a five-movement composition for wind ensemble inspired by the five classical elements: earth, water, fire, air, and aether. These elements were once thought by Plato to be made of small, indivisible solids which were later named the Platonic Solids: the cube, the icosahedron, the tetrahedron, the octahedron, and the dodecahedron, respectively. I utilized compositional techniques developed in the twentieth century to explore these elements and their connections to their solids.

Pandemic Pandemonium Project (Final Collaborative Composition Project), Brian Ciach

All Assignment Prompts

No abstract provided.

A Concept Ost, Samantha Taylor

Honors 499 Theses and Creative Projects

A Concept OST was developed during my final year at the University of Maine at Farmington. This collection of original music represents the skills I have learned while studying composition and music theory.

Some of the inspirations that helped me shape the sonic world I created include Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy), Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts), Junichi Masuda (Pokemon) Jake Kaufman (Shovel Knight), and Toby Fox (Undertale). These composers are known for their narrative-driven compositional work for video games that fit into the Role-Playing-Game playstyle. My primary mode of research was listening to these game tracks and playing the video games …

Red Note New Music Festival Composition Workshop Announcement, 2021, Carl Schimmel, Roger Zare

Red Note New Music Festival

The RED NOTE New Music Festival at Illinois State University is a week-long event which features outstanding performances of contemporary concert music.

Red Note New Music Festival Composition Competition Announcement, 2021, Carl Schimmel, Roger Zare,

Red Note New Music Festival

The RED NOTE New Music Festival at Illinois State University is a week-long event which features outstanding performances of contemporary concert music.

Pandemic Pandemonium Composition, Thomas Langan

All Assignment Prompts

No abstract provided.

El Bell I El Sublim De La Mà De Benet Casablancas, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Fa molts d’anys, a l’institut de secundària, vaig tenir un professor d’història de l’art que era un autèntic excèntric. Ens obligava a parlar en castellà (res estrany, aquí); i s’expressava ell també en un castellà rudimentari, après amb unes monges de Ses Salines, a Mallorca. Havia ideat també un peculiaríssim sistema de puntuació d’exàmens que als seus ulls era axiomàtic i inqüestionable. El deu —la qualificació més alta— era per a Déu, segons deia ell; el nou, per a Franco, a qui admirava incondicionalment; el vuit, inexplicablement, per a ell mateix; i del set per avall, per als alumnes.

What Is "Around Me" In 2020?, Hannah Heaton

Undergraduate Research Conference

The title of my composition that I am using for this performance presentation is "Around Me." It is a solo violin work performed by Dr. Serena Scibelli, a music professor from the University of North Georgia, and composed by me, Hannah Heaton. Serena Scibelli requested if I could write a solo violin work for her upcoming album that would be a reminder of reflection through music during the 2020 Pandemic. I intend to take this work and show any listener how they can relate with my piece, “Around Me.”

"Around Me" is a relatively short work, but through use of …

Advanced Technologies In Music Production And Collaboration, David Besonen

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

My Honors Senior Creative Project was to compose and produce a short album of original music alongside talented musicians here at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) as well as around the world.

Marshall University School Of Music Presents The Twelfth Annual Festival Of New Music, Mark Zanter

Festival/Concert Programs

Anthony Almendaréz, Alumni composer

Shelby Ard, Alumni composer

Dalton Carney, MU student composer

Alli Feamster, MU student composer

Jarohn Grandstaff, Alumni composer

Esin Gündüz, Alumni composer

Mark Haas, Alumi composer

Lily Lauffer, MU student composer

Zack Merritt, Alumni composer

Sean Price, Alumni composer

Rodrigo Teodoro, MU student composer

John Shuff, MU student composer

James Stamm, Alumni composer

Eli Wisen, MU student composer

Mark Zanter, Festival Host, Marshall University

Getting Started With Electronic Music: An Open Course In Music Technology, Robert Willey

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

The curriculum for a music technology course is presented that is divided into four areas: digital audio sound manipulation, MIDI arranging and sequencing, online notation, and music videos. The course material is open to the public online and the skills that are developed while working through it can be of use to most music majors and to many of their professors in their work making music and teaching.

The class is activity-based and taught in a flipped classroom with minimal lecturing. Students study the online material and come to class prepared to work through the tutorials during supervised lab sessions. …

Easter Vigil, Anthony Elia

Bridwell Library Research

Written for organ and church choir (SATB), specifically for the congregation of the Episcopal Church of the Annunciation in honor of the composer's mother on her birthday.

Princess Maleine, Whitney E. George

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Act I Full Score. Chamber opera in two acts, based on a story by the Brothers Grimm and the play by Maurice Maeterlinck. Commissioned and first produced by dell’Arte Opera Ensemble. Premiered at LaMaMa Experimental Theater, New York August 2019 with The Curiosity Cabinet, conducted by Whitney George.

For The Love Of Inner Voices: Miriam Gideon, Orchestration, And Fortunato, Whitney E. George

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Post-tonal American opera composer Miriam Gideon (1906-1996) completed a chamber opera, perhaps intended for television, titled Fortunato, based on a dark comic tragedy set in turn-of-the-20th-century, economically-ravaged Madrid. The expressive staged work follows the life of the unfortunate title character Fortunato in three operatic vignettes, each one becoming more desperate and moribund by the scene. A curious piece in Gideon’s oeuvre, the work remained unfinished, with a piano score for the complete work, but only a sample of her orchestration for Scene 1. This study examines the orchestration of Scene 1 as a template for creating an orchestration similar in …

Amour Symphony Thesis, Vanessa C. Williams

LSU Master's Theses

The word Amour means love. Amour Symphony represents God's love to me. Each movement represents growing up as a Christian under the Love of God. Amour Symphony is a four movement symphony for full orchestra. Each movement follows the traditional movements of a symphony. Movement I is Sonata Form. Movement II is Theme and Variation Form. Movement III is Minuet and Trio Form. Movement IV is Sonata Form.

Metamorphosis, Microtones And Modes: Composition Portfolio With Commentary, Daragh Black Hynes

Research Theses

This research project consists of a portfolio of eight works accompanied by a thesis, which offers analytical commentaries on all of the works and the composition processes therein. The title of the thesis, ‘Metamorphosis, Microtones and Modes’, alludes to the primary factors involved in the composition processes, from a research perspective, across the course of the project. The concept of metamorphosis was approached in the context of attempting to musically interpret the visual ideas of M.C. Escher, and was subsequently explored extensively throughout the portfolio works in the parameters of pitch material, rhythm, form and structure, texture, timbre, and also …

01 Traditional Songs Introduction, William Donner

Sikaiana Traditional Songs

This is an introduction to Sikaiana songs. It includes a discussion of the social cultural context of song composition and singing. There is a discussion of the different features of song production and a list of different song genres. Most of the discussion is concerned with traditional song expression that are part of derived form changes associated with colonialism and modernization.

2020-2021 New Music Festival "A Global Harvest", Lisa Leonard, Lynn University Conservatory Of Music

New Music Festival

Introduction from Professor Lisa Leonard, the festival director

Welcome to the 15th Annual New Music Festival at the Lynn University Conservatory of Music! For 14 seasons, we have been welcoming renowned composers to take residency at the Conservatory to directly work with our students preparing three main events: a concert of emerging composers featuring student composers and performers, a master class/lecture focused on the creative and practical issues of contemporary music, and a full program solely featuring the works of the guest composer, including the premiere of the annual commissioned work.

We were thrilled when John Harbison agreed to serve …

Günther Anders’S Epitaph For Aikichi Kuboyama, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

Günther Anders’s poem Du kleiner Fischerman is read here as a text contribution to the irruption that is violence and its enduring (omnipresent) aftermath. The essay includes a discussion of transmedial expression, including dramatization, or television and social media, text and subtext, as well as the inspiration of Anders’s poem as a work of art continuing in our times: the ongoing exclusion(s) of certain names and certain thinkers as of certain musical modes, including electronic musical works, as of voices and of collective memory, or oblivion. Reading Raymond Williams along with Anders and Adorno on television updated in today’s era …

The Unfaithful Bride: A Musical Exploration Of The Jewish Prayer Modes And Comparable Modern Instrumentation, Claire Smith

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The Unfaithful Bride is a piece of Western art music written with the intent of acclimating westernized ears to the sonic landscape of Judaism, while simultaneously exploring a difficult and allegorical passage of Scripture that intersects with the composer’s religious traditions. The primary objective, however, was to create a beautiful work of art. To create this work, research on Jewish music (specifically on the ancient liturgical modes) was utilized to both inform and inspire.

Once the text was selected and analyzed, composition began, and rhythmic values and a prayer mode were assigned to each movement. Melodic materials were written at …

“I Shan't Ever Play Down These Influences”: Poulenc’S Neoclassicism As Musical Legacy, Juliet E. Levy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Leaving behind an abundance of primary documents, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) reveals himself to be a colorful, opinionated composer, with an intriguing mindset regarding the role of twentieth-century composers. Poulenc’s writings place importance on the idea of musical legacy, where engaging with the music of past composers can only enrich compositions of the present, as opposed to the idea that such inspiration makes one’s work less “original.” This idea of compositional heritage stems from Poulenc’s musical education, which was informal, and mainly the product of his robust social network of important musical and artistic figures. Poulenc’s ideology adds a new perspective …

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,” …

On Five Degrees: For Voice, Flute, Cello, Vibraphone And Piano, David Patterson, Tenbroeck Davison

Compositions of David Patterson

On Five Degrees (do si la sol fa - fa sol la si do) musically develops TenBroeck Davison's poem, The Five Degrees. Her song, Melancholy Nights, is an inlay at the composition's center.

The Five Degrees

The glance, the look.
The arms that open wide
to hold the moment - Melancholy Nights - and the kiss
in time. And then beyond. 
To glance, to look. Again.

Melancholy Nights

City lights they all astound me, 
and the noises still confound me 
since you've gone, it's been so long 
I can't recall a single song to take— 
nights that always …

Exploring A Compositional Practice Through The Lens Of The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, Jie Hong Yang

Theses : Honours

Asian music was an important influence upon some Western composers such as Claude Debussy, Giacomo Puccini, Maurice Ravel, Henry Cowell, Oliver Messiaen, John Cage and Lou Harrison. Since the 1960s, Australian composers such as Peter Sculthorpe, Anne Boyd, Richard Meale, and Julian Yu have similarly been influenced by music of Asia. In 2007, Chou Wen-chung wrote about today’s commercially oriented ‘world music’ environment, and addressed the need for Chinese composers to provide more meaningful contribution to the musical culture by writing music informed by knowledge drawn from their cultural heritage. As an Australian born Chinese composer, this exegesis was an …

Opera | Saint Mary Of Egypt (Original Version, 2021), John Craton

Craton Scores Collection

This is the original version of Craton's Saint Mary of Egypt; the opera was revised in 2026, and the revised version is also available in this collection.

Pity The Nation, Kameron Zebadiah Mechling

Graduate Thesis Collection

In light of the unprecedented events of social unrest that took place in the year of 2020, this piece takes inspiration from the timeless poem “Pity the Nation” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Just as the text and themes relate to the United States during this time, they continue to resonate beyond multiple areas and eras.

When recalling the events of 2020, some remember fear, uncertainty, pain, anger, disgust, and loss. Pity the Nation depicts these emotions. The alto and tenor voices follow each line of text in the poem, interpreting the themes musically as they are given. The fear of the …

Circuition: Concerto For Jazz Guitar And Orchestra, Richard Alan Robinson

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Circuition: Concerto for Jazz Guitar and Orchestra is a programmatic musical composition which tells the story of the life cycle. Each part is designed to represent a particular time in life through age or set of events that relate to all people regardless of the specifics in one’s life. Although I disclose how the program of relates to specifics within my own life, the goal is that a listener will find resonance with their own. In this document I examine how the elements of form, harmony, melody, and rhythm shape the composition and inform its programmatic nature.

Topics are divided …