Music Commons^™

Performing El Rap El ʿArabi 2005-2015: Feeling Politics Amid Neoliberal Incursions In Ramallah, Amman, And Beirut, Rayya S. El Zein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study is about politics in Arabic rap. Specifically, it is about affective dynamics and material negotiations during rap concerts in three cities in the Levant. I analyze Arab hip hop culture in the context of three different but related histories of cosmopolitan, middle class growth, and gentrification. Using an ethnomusicological framework rooted in participant observation and performance theory, I compare concert conditions, audience behavior, and accessibility of music production in Ramallah, Amman, and Beirut.

In Chapter One, I elaborate the discursive and theoretical frameworks that have pinned the political valences of Arab youth, Arab artists, and Arab rappers in …

Examining Relationships Between Basic Emotion Perception And Musical Training In The Prosodic, Facial, And Lexical Channels Of Communication And In Music, Jamie Twaite

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research has suggested that intensive musical training may result in transfer effects from musical to non-musical domains. There is considerable research on perceptual and cognitive transfer effects associated with music, but, comparatively, fewer studies examined relationships between musical training and emotion processing. Preliminary findings, though equivocal, suggested that musical training is associated with enhanced perception of emotional prosody, consistent with a growing body of research demonstrating relationships between music and speech. In addition, few studies directly examined the relationship between musical training and the perception of emotions expressed in music, and no studies directly evaluated this relationship in the facial …

The Fourth Movement Of György Ligeti's Piano Concerto: Investigating The Musical-Mathematical Connection, Cynthia L. Wong

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This interdisciplinary study explores musical-mathematical analogies in the fourth movement of Ligeti’s Piano Concerto. Its aim is to connect musical analysis with the piece’s mathematical inspiration. For this purpose, the dissertation is divided into two sections. Part I (Chapters 1-2) provides musical and mathematical context, including an explanation of ideas related to Ligeti’s mathematical inspiration. Part II (Chapters 3-5) delves into an analysis of the rhythm, form, melody / motive, and harmony. Appendix A is a reduced score of the entire movement, labeled according to my analysis.

Snapshots, Cynthia L. Wong

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For all instruments:

Linger slightly on the first note of a glissando in order to make the pitch distinguishable.

For the piano / celesta:

The piano / celesta is set up in an L-shape so that the celesta is in the front and the piano is to the left of the player. The right side of the piano keyboard can touch the left side of the celesta at or around the celesta's Ab below middle C (the lowest celesta note written in this piece). The L.H. invariably plays the piano, though the R.H. switches between the piano and celesta.

Duration: …

Art As Display, Frank M. Boardman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Art is essentially a type of display. As an activity, art is what we do when we display objects with certain intentions. As a set of objects, art is all of those things that are displayed for those purposes. The artworld is the social atmosphere that surrounds this particular activity of display. And a history of art is an evolving narrative of change in the practice of this sort of display.

Specifically, to focus for convenience on art as a set of objects, this is what we can call the “displayed-object thesis”:

x is a work of art iff: (a) …

Charles Ives On The Nature Of Experience: The Compositional Designs And Aesthetic Programs Of Three Orchestral Works, Ashleé Michele Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Charles Ives on the Nature of Experience: The Compositional Designs and Aesthetic Programs of Three Orchestral Works explores the hypothesis that Ives set in motion in many of his compositions a juxtaposition of temporal process (such as polyrhythm and polymeter) with the aim of exploiting a person’s innate abilities to entrain. Ives believed participants engaged in a juxtaposition of temporal processes are able to form personalized experiences by choosing which elements to attend to.

I present three analyses to explore the potential for multiple entrainment experiences in three works by Ives: The Unanswered Question, Central Park in the Dark, and …

Die Meistersinger, New York City, And The Metropolitan Opera: The Intersection Of Art And Politics During Two World Wars, Gwen L. D'Amico

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In 1945, after a five-year hiatus, the Metropolitan Opera returned Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg to its stage. It had been the only one of Wagner’s operas that had been banned during World War II, ostensibly because of its German nationalism and association with the Third Reich. But was it the German nationalism or Wagner’s own anti-Semitism that caused the unease? What resounded with the audiences? World War II stands at an historic cross roads in the reception of Die Meistersinger in America. This is where the present day “problem” with this work begins. The Metropolitan Opera’s decision created …

Searching For Sounds: Instrumental Agency And Modularity In Electroacoustic Improvisation, Stephen (Red) Wierenga

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In their radical departure from conventional instrumental technique and standardized instruments themselves, the practices of electroacoustic improvisation present a particular challenge to prevalent Western concepts of musical instruments. These concepts—which generally treat instruments as fixed objects—are ill-equipped to account for the ways in which electroacoustic improvisers foreground the agency of their instruments and abandon the quest for “mastery” typical especially of classical attitudes. Additionally, electroacoustic improvisers often approach instruments not as singular, self-contained, and static in their materiality, but rather as modular instrumentaria capable of myriad states and ever in flux, similarly problematizing conventional conceptions that view the physical constitutions …

The Motivic Economy In Nikolai Medtner's Sonata Romantica, Nellie S. Seng-Quinn

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation focuses on the motivic aspect of Medtner’s Sonata Romantica Op. 53, No. 1. Medtner, in his book, The Muse and the Fashion, has stressed through numerous statements why the initial theme is of utmost importance to him and how the entire work should be derived from the theme. The goal is to trace the journey of Medtner’s themes through the course of the sonata. Using various methods of musical analysis, I will determine whether the theme is indeed the source of latter material found within the sonata.

Le Pianiste: Parisian Music Journalism And The Politics Of The Piano, 1833–35, Shaena B. Weitz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the French music journal entitled Le Pianiste, published in Paris from 1833 to 1835. Through an analysis of the journal’s contents, it reconsiders the nature of music journalism and musical life in Paris at the time it was in print, focusing in particular on canon formation and the power of the press. Le Pianiste’s remarkably detailed descriptions and analysis of the French music world challenge long-held perceptions of the era about taste and reception history, yet it remains an unstudied document. While past work on the music press has focused on criticism and reception, this …

Speaking Of Consequences: Contemporary Music For Political Discourse, Elizabeth Adams

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation reads politically works by Georges Aperghis, Rick Burkhardt, Mark Enslin, and Elizabeth Hoffman. Chapter 1 argues that suspending intelligibility stimulates the audience to imagine alternative meanings and ways the music might go, in an orientation that is politically desirable. Synthesizing theorizations by Herbert Brün, Joseph Dubiel, Shoshana Felman, and Enslin, it catalogues four techniques for suspending intelligibility, and analyses Enslin’s Sonata Quijada. Chapter 2 suggests that we read politically metaphors of agency and power sharing in chamber textures, and translate those metaphors into our social and political lives. It draws on Elisabeth Le Guin’s reading of Boccherini, …

Issues Of Rhythm, Symmetry, And Style In Alfred Schnittke's Concerto For Piano And Strings, Ilya Mayzus

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation takes as its subject of study Schnittke’s Concerto for Piano and Strings and seeks to examine several interconnected issues in Schnittke’s music: the problem of unification of disparate and conflicting forces that generally describe his style; the wave-like shape of intensification followed by a pullback that can be seen as acting on different temporal levels; and one of narrative meaning. Particular attention is given to symmetry in various manifestations, which the composer considered a necessary ingredient, comparing rhythmic regularity to periodicity found in nature, while at the same time undermining it through the use of asymmetries in order …

"Luis Portorreal Días." Dictionary Of Caribbean And Afro-Latin American Biography, Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. And Franklin K. Knight. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016., Nelson Santana

Publications and Research

This work provides an abridged biographical sketch of one of the most prolific Dominican artists from the Dominican Republic, Luis Días.

"Antony Santos." Dictionary Of Caribbean And Afro-Latin American Biography, Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. And Franklin K. Knight. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016., Nelson Santana

Publications and Research

This work provides an abridged biographical sketch of one of the most prolific Dominican artists from the Dominican Republic, bachata legend Antony Santos.

Flamenco Jazz: An Analytical Study, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Afroreggae And Grupo Cultural Afro Reggae: A Study Of The Early Years, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

The following study of AfroReggae and Grupo Cultural Afro Reggae (GCAR) calls attention to Brazilian presence and community organizing in the field of Hip Hop studies with a long memory framework: placing AfroReggae and GCAR in a long history of Africana resistance through music in Latin America. !990s GCAR group arises when reggae and Hip Hop music had become new global forms of solidarity among urban marginalized youths worldwide, making use of old and new strategies of social healing (Fernandes 2011). A close look at lyrics from the Hip Hop fusion band and the associated nonprofit organization shape the concepts …

Report Of The Cmc Bibframe Task Force To The Board Of The Music Library Association, Kimmy Szeto, Anne D. Adams, Kirk-Evan Billet, Catherine Busselen, Kevin S. Kishimoto, Anna A. Loprete, Lisa Mcfall, Sophie Rondeau, Tracey L. Snyder, James L. Soe Nyun, William R. Vanden Dries, Hermine Vermeij

Publications and Research

The BIBFRAME Task Force was established by the MLA Board of Directors in October 2014 for a two­-year period with the following charge:

● Provide a voice for the music library community in the formation and testing of the Bibliographic Framework Initiative (BIBFRAME)
● Test the BIBFRAME schema and the LC MARC­to­BIBFRAME converter with regards to how they handle music materials, including scores and sound recordings
● Provide feedback to LC and Zepheira on particular areas of interest for music, such as medium of performance, genre, preferred titles and name­title authorities
● Identify a means for continually monitoring, evaluating and …

The Fandango Complex In The Spanish Atlantic: A Panoramic View, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

While the Andalusian and best-known forms of fandango share certain distinctive musical features, these same features can be seen to link these subgenres, historically and structurally, to much broader sets of transatlantic musical families, older genres like the zarabanda and chacona, a wide family of Caribbean-Basin ternary forms, as well as Andean and South American relatives. At the same time, clear distinctions can be made between genres related to this fandango complex and other major musical families in the Spanish Atlantic.

The Evolution Of Modern Thumri, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

This essay outlines the evolution of thumri, tracing its development from pre-modern references through the bandish thumri of the mid-nineteenth century Lucknow, and the bol banao thumri of the courtesan era to its modern status as a light closing itme in classical concerts.

El Murciano's "Rondeña" And Early Flamenco Guitar Music: New Findings And Perspectives, Mª Luisa Martínez Martínez, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

The "Rondeña" of guitarist Francisco Rodríguez Murciano (El Murciano, 1795-1848) of Granada--as documented in a notation made by his son--has been a subject of considerable interest among scholars interested in the evolution of flamenco guitar playing (toque). Such authors as Eusebio Rioja (2008, 2013), Javier Suárez Pajares (2003), Guillermo Castro Buendía (2014), and Norberto Torres Cortés (2010) have recognized the importance of this piece in the attempted reconstruction, however hypothetical, of the development of the art of flamenco guitar. These authors have raised various questions about the piece, involving the date and circumstances of its preparation and the …

Music Composition, Spencer Snyder

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Teaching Music History With Your Mouth Shut, Anne Stone

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Aquell Estiu Del 66. L'Actuació De Merce Cunnigham A Sitges, Ara Fa 50 Anys, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

El desembarcament a Sitges de la MCDC ara fa cinquanta anys exactes, es considera un punt crucial en la cultura catalana i espanyola tant en art com en música. Carles Santos ha titllat aquella actuació de «traumàtica» pel que va suposar per a la música espanyola. I a més a més, molts estudis erudits recents sobre l’art conceptual, la música electrònica i la dansa experimental consideren l’actuació a Sitges com un dels inicis de tots aquests moviments a l’estat espanyol. Al final, Clive Barnes va acabar per tenir raó: al Departament d’Estat l’havia subvencionat un pintor europeu, almenys la gira …

Factororacle: An Extensible Max External For Investigating Applications Of The Factor Oracle Automaton In Real-Time Music Improvisation, Adam James Wilson

Publications and Research

There are several extant software systems designed to generate music in real-time using a factor oracle automaton constructed from the musical input of a human improvisor. The impetus for the design of the factorOracle external is neither a desire to supersede these systems nor introduce novel algorithms for traversing the oracle, but rather to provide a fast, canonical interface for the automaton in Cycling74’s Max and, in future iterations, the Pure Data programming environment. Technical features of the factorOracle software are introduced here.

#Sociallyconnected: The Now And Then Era Of The Fangirl, Tionah Y. Lee

Capstones

Exploring the increased feeling of connection between fans and their favorite male musicians through social media.

In The Race To Reach New Wine Drinkers Old World Taste Is Losing Out, Lillian Knoepp

Capstones

But this old world is losing its grip on the wine industry. French wine production and consumption are falling while the New World of wine is gaining ground in both areas. Experts say that new wine making techniques and higher consumption in New World markets like the United States have changed the French wine industry.

For the French, more than just their wine industry is at stake. For many, the loss of French wine is a loss of French identity.

“They can't choose between the two. Because French people - we are wine and cheese - we are everything,” said …

Reshaping The Event Horizon‑ Marketing Utopia At Music Festivals, Justin D. Joffe

Capstones

Imagine a world where every leisure activity is tracked, recorded, and then analyzed as market research according to your age and gender demographic. Imagine the next phase after smartphone payments, when a chip linking your finances isn’t in your phone, but on your wrist. Imagine a vast field of fellow fun-­‐seekers, eating, drinking and dancing in hedonistic, chemically enhanced utopia. Such a scene certainly requires some open-­‐ mindedness and improvisation, sure, a willingness to submit oneself to a vulnerable environment of whimsy. Now imagine being subtly exposed to advertisements in such a mindset. It’s no Orwellian controlled dystopia, really. You’ve …

Archival Enactment, Retelling 'The Big Book': Alison Knowles, Something Else Press And Fluxus, Meghan A. Dellacrosse

Theses and Dissertations

"Archival Enactment, Retelling 'The Big Book': Alison Knowles, Something Else Press and Fluxus," positions Knowles’ Big Book (1966) as a case study of historical methodology and interdisciplinary artistic practice in the post-war period. This comprehensive analysis of Big Book, a work of art no longer extant, contextualizes its publisher, Something Else Press through Dick Higgins’ concept of “intermedia,” and important lesser-known junctures relevant to Fluxus and the group’s leader George Maciunas are illuminated. Knowles' early and lesser-known silkscreen paintings are also examined.

Transgender And Black, Looking For An Audience, Brian C. Josephs

Capstones

Commodore Barry Park is an unappealing mid- sized space on most days. It sits next to Farragut Projects, tucked a few blocks away from Fort Greene Park andits neighboring brownstones. But today is Aug. 22, Day 1 of the Afropunk Music Festival. It’s 5 p.m — the hundreds of attendees gathered under the hot sun press against the barricade separating them from the empty main stage. No one wants to miss a moment of Ms. Lauryn Hill, who’s scheduled as the next performer. But Ms. Lauryn Hill isn’t the performer who gets on stage next. Transgender activist Cherno Biko leads …

Counter Culture: A Brief Oral/Visual History Of Independent Record Shops, Lee Ann Fullington

Publications and Research

Independent record shops have long been focal points of local music communities. As online music becomes the new normal, the role of these shops is changing. Though many shops have disappeared, others continue to flourish as they have evolved to meet the tastes and demands of collectors, crate diggers, producers, and fans who prefer LPs to MP3s.

Drawing on original ethnographic research conducted in the early 2000s in the US and the UK, this presentation discusses the role and significance of independent record shops in various music scenes. Based on interviews with owners, staff, and customers, this talk is a …