Music Commons^™

"The Notation Is Not The Music: Reflections On Early Music Practice And Performance" By Barthold Kuijken, Colin Lawson

Performance Practice Review

Colin Lawson discusses and reviews Kuijken's 2013 work.

Kuijken, Barthold. The Notation Is Not the Music: Reflections on Early Music Practice and Performance. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2013.

ISBN: 978-0-253-01060-5

"Off The Record: Performing Practices In Romantic Piano Playing" By Neal Peres Da Costa, William Kinderman

Performance Practice Review

William Kinderman discusses and reviews Peres Da Costa's 2012 work.

Peres Da Costa, Neal. Off the Record: Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

ISBN: 978-0-19-538691-2

Improvisation In Vocal Contrapuntal Pedagogy: An Appraisal Of Italian Theoretical Treatises Of The Sixteenth And Early Seventeenth Centuries, Valerio Morucci

Performance Practice Review

The extemporaneous application of pre-assimilated compositional paradigms into musical performance retained a central position in the training of Medieval and Renaissance musicians, specifically within the context of Western polyphonic practice. Recent scholarship has shown the significance of memorization in the oral transmission of plainchant and early polyphony. Attention has been particularly directed to aspects of orality and literacy in relation to “composition” (the term here applies to both written and oral), and, at the same time, studies correlated to fifteenth and sixteenth century contrapuntal theory, have mainly focused on the works of single theorists. The information we possess regarding improvised …

The Genre Formerly Known As Punk: A Queer Person Of Color's Perspective On The Scene, Shane M. Zackery

Scripps Senior Theses

This video is a visual representation of the frustrations that I suffered from when I, a queer, gender non-conforming, person of color, went to “pasty normals” (a term defined by Jose Esteban Munoz to describe normative, non-exotic individuals) to get a definition of what Punk meant and where I fit into it. In this video, I personify the Punk music movement. Through my actions, I depart from the grainy, low-quality, amateur aesthetics of the Punk film and music genres and create a new world where the Queer Person of Color defines Punk. In the piece, Punk definitively says, “Don’t try …

Musical Missteps: The Severity Of The Sophomore Slump In The Music Industry, Shane M. Zackery

Scripps Senior Theses

This study looks at alternative models of follow-up album success in order to determine if there is a relationship between the decrease in Metascore ratings (assigned by Metacritic.com) between the first and second album for a musician or band and the 1) music genre or 2) the number of years between the first and second album release. The results support the dominant thought, which suggests that neither belonging to a certain genre of music nor waiting more or less time to drop the second album makes an artist more susceptible to the Sophomore Slump. This finding is important because it …

Sound Exploration: Text To Music, Raisa Park, Annalisa Swank

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This sound exploration repurposes the familiar – written text – and literally translates it into music giving text a new form.

Musings From A Year Of Ste[A]M...How It Looks Walking Down The Path, Ruth Catchen

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This is a follow up article to one in the inaugural issue which describes the beginnings of implementing a STE[a]M curriculum in a school with a high at-risk student population. This article discusses the outcomes and the future after a year of STE[a]M.

An Introduction To Fourier Analysis With Applications To Music, Nathan Lenssen, Deanna Needell

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In our modern world, we are often faced with problems in which a traditionally analog signal is discretized to enable computer analysis. A fundamental tool used by mathematicians, engineers, and scientists in this context is the discrete Fourier transform (DFT), which allows us to analyze individual frequency components of digital signals. In this paper we develop the discrete Fourier transform from basic calculus, providing the reader with the setup to understand how the DFT can be used to analyze a musical signal for chord structure. By investigating the DFT alongside an application in music processing, we gain an appreciation for …

Disidentified Masculinities, Jacqueline Hope Freedman

Scripps Senior Theses

My capstone is a conversation of the Millennial Generation’s views of individual identity and masculinity, with the hopes of deconstructing the socially constructed and exclusive notions of masculinity by defining a generation’s “common sense.”

My piece is inspired by the portraiture of Chad States in Masculinities (2011) as well as Loren Cameron’s work in Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits (1996). The theoretical basis of my project relies heavily on Antonio Gramsci’s concept of “common sense” as well as José Esteban Muñoz’s disidentification. Common sense refers to an instinctual, “uncritical and largely unconscious way of perceiving and understanding.” It “is a collective …

The Artist's Dilemma; A Philosophical Analysis Of “Selling Out” And Its Impacts On Well-Being In The Music Industry, Jenson R. Tuomi

CMC Senior Theses

Beginning with a discussion of a concept referred to as “The Artist’s Dilemma,” my thesis discusses the common criticism of artists in the music industry that they can “sell out” by changing their sound, appearance, and jeopardizing their artistic integrity in exchange for financial or celebrity gain. Furthermore, it attempts to search for a universal guide by which artists in the music industry could circumnavigate this “artist’s dilemma” in order to ensure a meaningful career without over-playing their role as a celebrity, nor under-playing their role as a musician. In order to evaluate this topic, I consider multiple “real world” …

Bidi Bidi Bom Bom: The Audiotopias Of Selena Across The Americas, Janet Muniz

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Using Josh Kun’s Audiotopia as a framework, this paper will explore the role of Selena’s music as audiotopias, the concept that music functions like a possible utopia for immigrant communities on both sides of the United States and Mexico border in imagining an ideal borderless America. Music serves as a disruption to the oppressive reality of immigrant communities and makes the struggles of marginalized communities audible for those who have been traditionally silenced. This paper will fill in gaps in existing literature of Selena's remembrance by applying Kun’s audiotopia theory for an understanding of the places her music takes …

Rebel Girls: Feminist Punk For A New Generation, Rachel L. Bodansky

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the Riot Grrrl bands of the 1990s, as well as Amanda Palmer today, as examples of feminist punk artists. Rather than focusing on Riot Grrrl as a unique musical episode, this thesis argues that all punk is activist in nature, and that Riot Grrrl was building on this activist tradition while challenging the misogyny implicit in punk culture. Likewise, Amanda Palmer uses similar punk strategies (such as a DIY approach to music production, and direct interaction with fans) to create political music.

Commonality And Diversity In Recordings Of Beethoven’S Middle-Period String Quartets, Nancy November

Performance Practice Review

A widespread opinion in recent research about the performance of Beethoven’s works is that artists need to restore a connection to "tradition," and that recordings from the early twentieth century can help with this. However, these early recordings tell us most about the aesthetics and performance ideals of their day, and hence how Beethoven and his string quartets were received by early twentieth-century audiences. Case studies of early recordings of Beethoven middle-period quartets reveal ways in which these these performances differed, sometimes radically, from the kinds of performances Beethoven would have expected to hear, especially with regard to the use …

Unearthing Forgotten Treasures: Anonymous Arias With Obbligato Violoncello At The Estense Library, Modena, Alessandro Sanguineti

Performance Practice Review

Recent studies regarding the first steps of the violoncello in North Italy at the end of the seventeenth century have been concentrating on the vast musical output collected by Francesco II, Duke of Modena, now held at the Biblioteca Estense Universitaria. Nonetheless, there is still a conspicuous number of anonymous manuscripts copied in Modena at the end of the seventeenth century containing opera arias which include several examples with obbligato violoncello. A connection has been made with one of these collections and a particular performance of L’Ercole Trionfante in Piacenza in 1688 with music by the composer and organist Bernardo …

Reflections ~ How Stem Becomes Steam, Ruth Catchen

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Reflections from designing a STEAM class for high-risk students.

The Synthesizer: Modernist And Technological Transformations In Film Sound And Contemporary Music, Dusin J. Green

CMC Senior Theses

The invention of the synthesizer meant the possibility of achieving virtually any sound in one mechanism, a superbly convenient device for musical creativity. Perhaps the perfect space for this approval of sound creativity was in the modern electronic film score. The synthesizer also flourished in popular music immediately following its emergence, but a common form began to solidify itself among synthesizer music. Shortly after, improvements in electronic instrument technology led to the democratization of electronic music and equipment, ultimately leading to electronic music as the new mainstream.

"Stradivari" By Stewart Pollens, Peter Walls

Performance Practice Review

Peter Walls discusses and reviews Pollens 2010 work.

Pollens, Stewart. Stradivari. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

ISBN 978-0-52187-304-8

"The Performance Of 16th-Century Music: Learning From The Theorists" By Anne Smith, Kenneth Kreitner

Performance Practice Review

Kenneth Kreitner discusses and reviews Smith's 2011 work.

Smith, Anne. The Performance of 16th-Century Music: Learning from the Theo­rists. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

ISBN 978-0-19974261-5.

By Word Of Mouth: Historical Performance Comes Of Age, Ingrid E. Pearson

Performance Practice Review

Since Clive Brown’s 1991 accusation that many twentieth-century manifestations of historical performance lacked an appropriate degree of musical sensitivity, the historical performance movement has truly come of age. In the arena of Western Art music, historical performance is now an essential component of musical training and education. Successful performers must be able to seamlessly function across the widest possible range of musical styles, accommodating an equally wide gamut of tastes, both individually and collectively.

In 1982, nine years earlier, Walter Ong’s Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word explored differences between oral and literate cultures. Of particular interest to …

From Profane To Divine: The Hegemonic Appropriation Of Pagan Imagery Into Eastern Christian Hymnody, Jordan Lippert

Scripps Senior Theses

Spanning the first seven centuries of Christianity, this paper explores how Eastern Christian and Byzantine hymn chant was developed alongside pagan and Jewish worship traditions around the Near East. Comparison of hymns by Christian composers such as St. Romanos the Melodist and pagan poetry reveals many similarities in the types of metaphorical imagery used in both religious expressions. Common in Christian hymn texts, well-known metaphors, like the “Light of God,” are juxtaposed with pagan mythological gods, such as Apollo and Helios. This paper attempts to explain how and why Christians appropriated and adopted ancient pagan imagery into the burgeoning musical …

Numbers And Tempo: 1630-1800, Beverly Jerold

Performance Practice Review

After discussing the role of technology in achieving modern performance standards, this article examines sources that have been cited in support of extremely rapid tempos for the time frame 1630-1800. It summarizes recent findings about the French time devices in which a new source ‒ the Paris dancing master Raoul Auger Feuillet’s reasonable pendulum tempo numbers for dance forms ‒ provides the most accurate information to date for tempo around 1700. Continuing then with other sources cited for rapid tempos, the present article discusses the conflicting statements in Marin Mersenne’s Harmonie universelle and his inaccurate pendulum measurements. It considers the …

Consonance And Dissonance In Visual Music, Bill Alves

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

The concepts of consonance and dissonance broadly understood can provide structural models for creators of visual music. The application of words such as 'harmony' across both music and visual arts indicated potential correspondences not just between sensory elements such as pitch and colour but also with the manipulation of tension and resolution, anticipation and stability in visual music. Concepts of harmony have a long history in proportions of space, colour and motion as well as music that artists can now exploit with new technologies. I will offer examples from my own work as well as techniques from artists such as …

Electromyography (Emg) Biofeedback Training In Music Performance: Preventing And Reducing Musculoskeletal Pain In Musicians, Carolyn Yarbrough

Scripps Senior Theses

Musicians are a high-risk occupational group for musculoskeletal disorders. Often manifesting in muscle tension, pain and paresthesia, musculoskeletal disorders can drastically affect comfort, mentality and endurance while performing. This study sought to examine the effects of electromyography (EMG) biofeedback training in reducing musculoskeletal symptoms in music performance. The subjects were university-level violinists and cellists. Over a period of 2-4 weeks, all participants underwent EMG biofeedback training while performing their instrument using audio feedback. No significant results were found, but patterns of decreased muscle tension and increased performance comfort and endurance were observed.

"Performing Messiaen’S Organ Music: 66 Masterclasses" By Jon Gillock, Vincent P. Benitez

Performance Practice Review

Benitez reviews Gillock's 2010 work.

Gillock, Jon. Performing Messiaen’s Organ Music: 66 Masterclasses. Bloomington, IN:Indiana University Press, 2010.

ISBN 978-0-253-35373-3.

"The Bartered Bride-Prodaná Nevěsta: Performance Guide With Translations And Pronunciation" By Timothy Cheek, John Tyrrell

Performance Practice Review

John Tyrrell discuss and reviews Timothy Cheek's 2010 work.

The Bartered Bride-Prodaná nevěsta: Performance Guide with Translations and Pronunciation. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2010.

ISBN 978-0-810-87260-8.

Correspondence: June 23, 2010, Roland Jackson

Performance Practice Review

The recent article by Dorottya Fabian and Eitan Ornoy, “Identity in Violin Playing on Records: Interpretation Profiles in Recordings of Solo Bach” (PPR 2009)—which considers mainly the twentieth-century violinists Heifetz and Milstein (with reference as well to Szigeti, Menuhin, and others)—is unusual in that it generally avoids any discussion of Bach’s original performance practice. As the authors state at the outset, “when studying the performances, we are not concerned primarily with how they may relate to historically-informed performance and Bach’s intentions or presumed intentions.” In this they depart from all the studies that have appeared thus far in PPR from …

Correspondence: February 16, 2009, Ross W. Duffin

Performance Practice Review

Duffin responds to Rasch's review of his 2006 book.

"After The Golden Age: Romantic Pianism And Modern Performance" By Kenneth Hamilton, Robert Winter

Performance Practice Review

Winter reviews and critiques Hamilton's work.

"Interpreting Mozart: The Performance Practice Of His Piano Pieces And Other Compositions" By Eva Badura-Skoda And Paul Badura-Skoda, Andrew Willis

Performance Practice Review

Willis reviews and critiques Eva and Paul Badura-Skoda's 2009.

"Trills In The Bach Cello Suites" By Jerome Carrington, Marc Vanscheeuwijck

Performance Practice Review

Vanscheeuwijck reviews and critiques Carrington's work.