Music Commons^™

Exploring The Past, Present, And Future Of Romanticism: Analyses With Brief Biographies Of Works Performed In A Senior Recital, Jordan Langberg Hastings

Honors Theses and Capstones

A melodic and harmonic analysis of four instrumental works performed in a senior recital is presented in this thesis with brief biographical outlines of each composer. Three of the works, Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda's Morceau de Salon, Edmund Rubbra's Sonata in C, and Robert Schumann's Three Romances are written for oboe and piano. The remaining piece, Paul Hindemith's English Horn Sonata, is written for English horn and piano. The author provides a detailed and methodical approach for understanding the functionality of each piece.

Chopin Onscreen: Media Representations Of Frederic Chopin, Monika Cecilia Franaszczuk

Honors Papers

The purpose of this research project is to investigate the relationship between biographical films and the context in which they were produced through a focus on media representation of Frederic Chopin. Chopin’s life lends itself well to the “tortured romantic artist” trope, due to his estrangement from his home country, his romantic troubles with George Sand, and the illness that led to his untimely death. His dramatic story has yielded several fictionalized interpretations of his life. This project explores several of these adaptations, discussing the portrayal of Chopin’s character as well as his music, and how the cultural context of …

Musicians Necrology, 1991-2018, Nathan Eakin, Paul Hahn, University Libraries, Washington University In St. Louis

WashU Libraries Publications

Nathan Eakin (1932-2000) first began the Gaylord Music Library Necrology file as a card file in the mid-1980s. In 1991, the project moved to a word processing file and in 1995, became available as a web page. The column formerly published in the Music Library Association’s journal, Notes, called the Necrology Index, was extracted from this Necrology file. Library Assistant Paul Hahn continued to update the necrology on the Gaylord Music Library’s website through 2018.

Music In The Northern Woods: An Archaeological Exploration Of Musical Instrument Remains, Matthew Durocher

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Archaeological and historical literature neglects music and sound. The quantity and distribution of musical remains found during archaeological excavations at Coalwood, a Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company (CCI) logging camp active from 1901-1912 in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, addresses the importance of music to the people that lived there. Musical reed plates from harmonicas, concertinas, and accordions were recovered and examined. These musical remains have traditionally been ignored as a diagnostic artifact, but here, I use them as primary evidence to access the daily lives of people in the northern woods. To do this, I will present how CCI developed Coalwood …

Frank Zappa And His Conception Of Civilization Phaze Iii, Jeffrey Daniel Jones

Theses and Dissertations--Music

When Frank Zappa died in 1993, he left Civilization Phaze III as a last testament to both his musical and thematic purpose. The work received a handful of reviews in the popular music press, and has subsequently been ignored by both the popular press and, with few exceptions, academia.

Many are the composers whose careers have been thought describe a mid-period mastery, followed by later decline. This presumption seems to have fallen upon Frank Zappa, apparently due to his retirement from the concert stage, and final years writing music on the Synclavier. This thesis seeks to demonstrate that Zappa's compositional …

Music In The Midst Of Desolation: A Conductor’S Analysis Of Cyril Bradley Rootham’S For The Fallen, Opus 51, Cameron Lee Weatherford

Theses and Dissertations--Music

World War I (1914-1918) brought with it unimaginable disaster and destruction, reshaping the world and its culture forever. Out of the ashes of this unparalleled conflict came numerous triumphs of art, fueled by the surrounding conditions and personal expressions of their artists. English composer, Dr. Cyril Bradley Rootham (1875-1938) set a powerful and haunting poem from the poet Laurence Binyon (1869-1943) titled "For the Fallen” from a larger collection of his poetry called The Winnowing Fan. The poem was published in The Times on September 21, 1914, just seven weeks after the war began.

This monograph seeks to bring …

Guitar Arrangements Of Selected Danzas Of Juan F. Acosta, With New Considerations Of His Music And Musical Life, Hermelindo Ruiz Mestre

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Juan Francisco Acosta (1890-1968) was a prolific composer, band conductor, and educator from Puerto Rico who created 1,256 original compositions. Even though his activities and influence were integral to the musical life of Puerto Rico in the twentieth century, many details of his life and works remain unknown.

This project centers on Acosta’s contribution to the Puerto Rican tradition of the danza—a dance-based genre originating in the nineteenth century—through the study and arrangement of five of Acosta's danzas. Although Acosta composed most danzas for piano, he adapted them for performances by the municipal bands that he led …

A Critical And Performance Edition Of Agustin Barrios’S Cueca: Comparative Analysis Of Form, Notation, And Performance Practice Of Barrios’S Work To Traditional Chilean Cuecas From The Beginning Of The Twentieth-Century, Enrique Sandoval-Cisternas

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Agustin Barrios's guitar music has become increasingly popular over the last forty years. After his death, a revival of interest in his compositions began in the 1970s, motivated by a series of publications and recordings of his music by important guitar performers at that time. The most important of these recordings came from the Australian guitar performer John Williams, who was interviewed in 1976 by ABC Television Australia for a film about the Paraguayan composer. The next year, Williams recorded a collection of fifteen works in his album John Williams-Barrios: John Williams Plays the Music of Agustín Barrios Mangoré. …

Max Neuhaus, R. Murray Schafer, And The Challenges Of Noise, Megan Elizabeth Murph

Theses and Dissertations--Music

In this dissertation, I analyzed Max Neuhaus’s (1939-2009) and R. Murray Schafer’s (b. 1932) commentary and work regarding noise, its control, and its relationship with the environment from the 1960 to the 1980s. Both Neuhaus and Schafer as well as those more directly involved with noise abatement research and policy were responding to the challenges and possibilities that noise posed in the latter twentieth century. In this project, I delved into these substantial links and argued that responding to and engaging with noise abatement policies was a key impetus to much of their work, which scholarship has yet to critically …

John Williams: An Evaluation Of His Impact Upon The Culture Of The Classical Guitar, Michael O'Toole

Doctoral

This thesis examines the career of the Australian guitarist John Williams and his impact upon the culture of the classical guitar. Williams has been a celebrated guitarist for more than six decades and has performed and recorded extensively during that period. He has made a remarkably varied contribution to guitar culture, performing in a wide variety of different styles, highlighting the guitar’s unique strength as a versatile and adaptable instrument. Williams’ career is in marked contrast to that of many of his contemporaries, including his mentor Andrés Segovia. Segovia believed the classical guitar must assert its individuality in order to …

A Performance Guide: An Analysis Of Richard Faith’S Settings Of Mother Goose, David B. Baker

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This study provides a performance guide to the nine song settings of Mother Goose Lyrics and Mother Goose Lyrics II by American composer Richard Faith (b. 1926). Included is a biography of the composer. The primary purpose is to provide analysis that shows that these nine songs are accessible to undergraduate singers and that these are arguably Faith’s most approachable songs for the young singer. As is pertinent to each individual song the discussion may include information on the poetry, musical form, textual support, pedagogical issues, harmonic progressions, melodic ideas, rhythmic devices, character analysis, as well as information on text …

Mbalax: Traces Of Tradition In Senegalese Hip-Hop, Mikayla Simeral

Masters Theses

What is mbalax and how is it adaptively transforming the modern-day culture of Dakar, Senegal? Throughout This this study, willI plan to provide a glimpse into the current hip-hop culture of Dakar, ultimately revealing how up-and-coming artists are implementing mbalax. The research for this study took place I was in Dakar, Senegal from January 26th - February 16th, and was completed my field research in both Washington D.C. and New York City from February 22nd-26th. During this time m, I was able to connect with multiple hip-hop artists, political activists/rappers, drummers, and sabar dancers were consulted. More knowledge was obtained …

The Soul Of Black Opera: W.E.B. Du Bois’S Veil And Double Consciousness In William Grant Still’S Blue Steel, Toiya Lister

Graduate Thesis Collection

In The Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Du Bois theorized that black peoples were viewed behind a metaphorical “veil” that consisted of three interrelated aspects: the skin as an indication of African Americans’ difference from their white counterparts, white people’s lack of capacity to see African Americans as Americans, and African Americans’ lack of capacity to see themselves outside of the labels white America has given them. This, according to Du Bois, resulted in the gift and curse of “double consciousness,” the feeling that one’s identity is divided. As African Americans fought for socio-political equality, the reconciliation of these …

The Guitarist Behind La Guitaromanie : Charles De Marescot, Damián Martín-Gil

Soundboard Scholar

The guitarist Charles de Marescot is a figure often cited when referring to the guitar mania that arose in France during the first decades of the nineteenth century. Yet very little is known about his life and musical production, which was dedicated almost entirely to the guitar. Drawing on several newly discovered documents, this article aims to understand the role of this polemical figure in the vogue for the guitar by reconstructing his whereabouts. Particular attention is given to his relationship with Hector Berlioz, with whom he conducted some minor business.

A Checklist Of Works Attributed To Charles De Marescot, Damián Martín-Gil

Soundboard Scholar

The musical output of Charles de Marescot (1790–1842) has never been subjected to close examination. Only a few of his compositions are featured in guitar scholarship, notably his Méthode de guitare, op. 15, and the collection of pieces entitled La Guitaromanie, op. 46. And yet Marescot was rather prolific in his time. This checklist offers, for the first time, a catalogue—albeit incomplete—of all his guitar music published in France and England, offering, if possible, locations and dates for each work.

Rethinking Interaction: Identity And Agency In The Performance Of “Interactive” Electronic Music, Jacob A. Kopcienski

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This document investigates interaction between human performers and various interactive technologies in the performance of interactive electronic and computer music. Specifically, it observes how the identity and agency of the interactive technology is experienced and perceived by the human performer. First, a close examination of George Lewis’ creation of and performance with his own historic interactive electronic and computer works reveals his disposition of interaction as improvisation. This disposition is contextualized within then contemporary social and political issues related to African American experimental musicians as well as an emerging culture of electronic and computer musicians concerned with interactivity. Second, an …

Salvaging The Style Of Frei Aber Einsam In The Music Of Brahms: Proposing A Historically Informed Performance Practice For The Three Sonatas For Violin And Piano Of Johannes Brahms, Opp. 78, 100, And 108, Phillip Alexander Ducreay

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis explores scholarship relevant to assembling a historically informed performance practice of Brahms’s three Violin Sonatas, Opp. 78, 100, and 108 in the nineteenth-century Germanic violin tradition of which, Joseph Joachim was its greatest proponent. This inquiry, which primarily examines surviving evidence of Joachim, his pedagogical ilk, and the circle of Brahms, engages with a variety of 19th and early 20th century Germanic musical and textual evidence, including nineteenth-century musical editions, correspondence and other archival materials, and early recorded performances to propose a historically informed style. In presenting this historiography of materials relevant to forming a historically informed interpretation …

Eighteenth And Nineteenth Century Bassoon Tutors And Their Published Contributions To Bassoon Pedagogy, Gina Michelle Moore

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This research project is a survey of eighteenth and nineteenth century bassoon tutors and their contributions to bassoon pedagogy. Tutors for this project were chosen from the two main schools of bassoon playing and pedagogy during the time centered in France and Germany. Bassoon teachers surveyed will include: Joseph Frölich, Karl Almenräder, Christian Julius Weissenborn, Ludwig Milde, Etienne Ozi, Eugène Jancourt, and Eugène Bourdeau.

Guitar Music Manuscripts In The Senate Library Of Madrid: The CancióN PatrióTica De La Alianza And Its Experimental Notation, Ricardo Aleixo

Soundboard Scholar

The modest collection of manuscripts of guitar music preserved in the Senate Library of Madrid seems to provide a representative sampling of the types of guitar repertoire circulating in Spain in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Despite its small size, this corpus contains the most typical genres of the period— namely, two chamber music works for guitar with bowed string instruments, by Federico Moretti and Antonio Ximénez, a guitar duet by Pierre-Jean Porro, a solo guitar work by the mysterious señor D. G. G. M. A., and two songs with guitar accompaniment, one by Francisco Xavier Moreno and …

Connection Between Visual Arts And Music: The Painting And Music Of I-Uen Wang Hwang, Yining Jenny Jiang

Dissertations, 2014-2019

This document explores the connection between the visual arts and music, particularly focusing on the similarity between visual and aural artistic expression by analyzing two sets of piano pieces composed by I-Uen Wang Hwang, a contemporary Taiwanese-American composer and artist. The piano pieces are Dream Garden, Series I and II (2000-2004) and Preludes for Piano (2016). Series I of Dream Garden contains two piano solo compositions based on a series of Hwang’s own watercolor works. Each composition has an analogous painting: “The Horn of the Plenty” and “Butterfly Orchid”. Series II includes two compositions written for two pianos: “Red and …

Soundboard Scholar No. 3: Editor's Letter, Thomas Heck

Soundboard Scholar

An introduction to the contents of this issue.

The Way We Were: A Review Of Early Efforts To Find Classical Guitar Music In Collections, Ellwood Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

This article was originally copublished online with the author's article, "Guitar Music in Collections: A New Web-Based Index Is Launched," Soundboard Scholar, no. 3 (2017), https://digitalcommons.du.edu/sbs/vol3/iss1/6.

Soundboard Scholar No. 3: Cover

Soundboard Scholar

The color portrait of Fernando Sor which appears on the cover of this issue, not previously published as far as we know, is a hand-colored version of a printed (b&w) copy of a painting—an original portrait (now lost) of Sor—by one Innocent Louis Goubeau. Before it disappeared it was copied, in the mid-1820s, by both a lithographer and an engraver, probably in response to public demand. The lithograph, according to the British Museum exemplar now online and well documented (No. 1893,0123.45), bears the attribution “Goubeau pinxit / Lith de Engelmann / Lithod par Bordes,” which means that the original painter …

Soundboard Scholar No. 3 (Complete)

Soundboard Scholar

No abstract provided.

Springsteen: In The American Tradition, Alex Mcdonough

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

Springsteen’s music serves as a platform for not only the working poor, but also the pariahs of American society. Like other classic American singer-songwriters, Springsteen uses his music to explore tragedy in the American life, imbuing each song with a quiet, sometimes darkly humorous humanity. Through his songs, Springsteen has defined an altogether different type of American story, one that weaves tragedy, comedy, and the tedious minutiae of daily life. Springsteen considers each element of every story he tells to be distinct and important in its own way, creating a sense of purpose for even the lowest of the low.

Villa-Lobos's Compositional Techniques And Treatment Of Folk Melodies In Cirandas For Piano, Gustavo Schafaschek

Dissertations

Despite his significance as the most important Latin American composer of the twentieth century, serious analytical studies on the music of the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos are still few and far between. Recent scholarship has started to demystify the figure of Villa-Lobos as an intuitive composer with no technique, revealing an artist that strove to develop an idiosyncratic musical language. The present document aims to contribute to this new trend in Villa-Lobos’s scholarship by analyzing pieces from the piano cycle Cirandas, W220, considered one of the most important works from the composer’s mature style. Each of the sixteen pieces …

Closing The Gap: An Analysis Of The Musical Elements Contributing To Hip-Hop’S Emergence Into Popular Culture, Grant Knox

Scholars Week

This paper explores the musical evolution of hip-hop and the techniques that have influenced such growth. Hip-hop music’s pioneers established a genre that would not only prove to be self-sustaining, but allow for a diverse array of influences to contribute to its growth. An art form that was once preserved for minorities and often considered a lower form of intellectual art is growing closer to mainstream music. Topics such as the orchestration and production of music, influence of other genres, harmonic analysis, and the diversity within the genre itself are discussed with an emphasis on hip-hop artists of the previous …

Towards The Recovery Of Authentic Organ Continuo Practice In Haydn's Concerted Sacred Music, Tom Mueller

HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America

During the classical era, full-size church organs were used in the performance of concerted sacred music. Historical evidence such as treatises and surviving organs offer useful information that can be used to reconstruct organ continuo performance practices. In spite of this evidence, modern performances and recordings of this repertoire often make use of small positive organs that cannot match the capabilities, timbre, and dynamics of larger instrument. Furthermore, the continuo realizations published in modern performance editions rarely reflect the style and techniques of historic practice.

This article explores issues in the performance practice of continuo playing on large church organs …

About This Issue, Michael E. Ruhling

HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America

No abstract provided.

A Model For Patron-Driven Acquisition Of Print Music Scores: From Conception To Reality, Alan Asher, Trey Shelton, Jason Heckathorn, Aimee Barrett

Charleston Library Conference

This paper and presentation will explore the process of developing a unique patron-driven acquisition program for print music scores and monographs from concept to reality at an American Association of Research Libraries institution. Areas to be discussed include collection development considerations, information technology infrastructure needs, acquisitions workflows, and plan evaluation. The paper and the presentation will examine how partnering with a vendor to implement an innovative collection development plan can support the needs of the library users and the goals of library collection development officers and increase access to music scores and monographs in a fiscally responsible way. Readers can …