Music Commons^™

A Salience-Based Analytic Method Applied To André Jolivet’S Concertino For Trumpet, String Orchestra, And Piano, Martin G. Bolt

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

A SALIENCE-BASED ANALYTIC METHOD APPLIED TO ANDRÉ JOLIVET’S CONCERTINO FOR TRUMPET, STRING ORCHESTRA, AND PIANO

Martin G. Bolt, M.M.

University of Nebraska, 2010

Adviser: Stanley V. Kleppinger

André Jolivet’s music is eclectic, and his compositional process is often enigmatic. Broadly speaking, Jolivet’s music falls into that category of twentieth-century repertoire described as post-tonal and pitch-centric.

This thesis will provide an analysis of Jolivet’s Concertino for Trumpet, String Orchestra, and Piano. It thus serves as a model of an analytic approach for post-tonal pitch-centric music of the twentieth century. My analytical method is based on the theories of Fred Lerdahl posited …

The Sacred Choral Music Of Seth Daniels Bingham (1882–1972), With Special Focus On "The Canticle Of The Sun" Op. 52, James E. Wilson

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

Seth Daniels Bingham (1882-1972) holds a unique place within the pantheon of American composers. He was one of many composers to travel to France for lessons in composition during the first decades of the Twentieth Century. From 1906 until 1907 he studied organ with Alexander Guilmant and composition with Charles Marie Widor and Vincent d’Indy. Through his absorption of the French musical aesthetic, Bingham learned to improvise and compose in the French style, to voice textures according to a French system of registration, and to combine modernity with tradition. It is true that Bingham was not the only American composer …

Dmitry Shostakovich's Twenty-Four Preludes And Fugues Op. 87: An Analysis And Critical Evaluation Of The Printed Edition Based On The Composer's Recorded Performance, Denis V. Plutalov

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

This particular research is a tribute to Dmitry Shostakovich, who was not only a great composer, but also a great pianist and interpreter of his own works. Shostakovich is famous for the most part as a great symphonic and chamber composer. His piano works did not gain as much popularity as his large scale works. In fact they attracted very little attention from the modern generation of pianists. Shostakovich's Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues op. 87 stand out among his piano works as a unique cycle, equaling Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier in its concept.

Chapter One provides an introduction to the subject …

A Performer’S Guide To The Original Works For Solo Horn, Horn And Piano, Two Horns, And Two Horns And Piano By Paul Basler, Nicholas A. Kenney

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

The horn music of Paul Basler, while extremely popular and widely recognized, is relatively unexplored in academia. Basler’s experiences have led him all over the world from Wisconsin, Florida, and New York to Kenya and the Dominican Republic. Because of Basler’s variety of experiences, his music encompasses many styles and media. This document focuses on the life and influences of Paul Basler as a composer for the horn as the featured instrument. It provides a historical context for each of his original pieces for solo horn, horn and piano, two horns, and two horns and piano. Also present is a …

Selected Works For Violin And Piano By Chen Yi: Western Influences On The Development Of Her Compositional Style, Xiang He

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

This document is a study of the violin and piano pieces, Fisherman’s Song (1979) and Romance of Hsiao and Ch’in (1998), by the leading Chinese-born American composer, Chen Yi (b.1953). The two pieces are representative works of Chen Yi’s Chinese (college) period and American period respectively. Through detailed analysis, comparisons, and consultation with Dr. Chen Yi, the document attempts to reveal Chen Yi’s stylistic changes caused by the Western influences.

Chapter One provides a brief summary of the changes of compositional style throughout five generations of Chinese composers (from 1920s to present), which resulted from Western influences. Chapter Two examines …

An American Abroad: The Life And Career Of Robert Owens, Jamie M. Reimer

Glenn Korff School of Music: Faculty Publications

The life and career of African-American composer Robert Owens are a result of perseverance, creativity, and accidental opportunity. From his roots in Texas to his travels in France and his eventual settlement in Germany, Owens proves that if one believes in himself and his abilities, nearly any obstacle can be overcome. ... Owens' accomplishments as a composer have gained considerable recognition in the last five years, including the "Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, Rosa Parks Visiting Professorship" at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2004) and The International Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Negro Musicians (2008). …

The Logic Of Objects, David B. Eichelberger

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

The human mind assimilates information and experiences quickly and constantly, and is aided by mental systems that we rely on to function. We classify the input of our lives with extreme efficiency. Our notions about the things we encounter in the world are learned from past experiences, and these expectations help us file the data of our lives. My work is composed to create pause. I am interested in slowing down the processes of assimilation by manipulating our expectations, and extending events measured in microseconds into saturated and engaging experiences. Functional qualities, visual rhythms, and exaggerated proportions are some of …

Understanding Folk Dance And Gypsy Style In Selected Pieces For Clarinet And Piano By 20th Century Hungarian Composers: An Interpretive Guide, Jessica Vansteenburg

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

Hungary has a long and rich history of folk music and dance. The clarinet has played a part in this history and remains a popular instrument in the country. Clarinet is most often associated with the verbunkos and is a regular member of the Gypsy band. The desire for composers of art music to compose in the folk tradition grew out of Hungarian nationalism in the 19th century and continued into the 20th century partly due to political pressures and the value of tradition in Hungarian music education.
Following a historical overview of the folk music and dance tradition in …

Missa Prolationem, Kurt Knecht

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

Missa Prolationem is a setting of the traditional Latin Ordinary mass text that seeks to explore counterpoint in the context of metric problems. Though Ockeghem’s specific contrapuntal techniques were not utilized, his Missa Prolationem served as the original inspiration for this setting of the mass. Each movement attempts to explore a specific problem created by the interaction of the counterpoint and meter. In the Kyrie, contrapuntal passages in multiple meters are both superimposed and juxtaposed. The Gloria includes a triple fugue in which each subject is in a different time signature. The Credo is a series of canons at descending …

The Romantic Heritage: Dohnanyi's Compositional Language In His Six Concert Etudes, Op. 28, Michael A. Yenny

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

Even though Ernst von Dohnányi (1877-1960) straddles the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, his Romantic compositional language remains unaffected by his twentieth century contemporaries. The present study will establish Dohnányi’s Romantic heritage by examining his Six Concert Etudes, Op. 28 according to Romantic Style musical parameter characteristics. This study is relevant because these characteristics in conjunction with these etudes have yet to be examined. This demonstration of the Romantic Style musical parameter characteristics in conjunction with these etudes offers a new contribution to the body of scholarly writing.

The document is divided into three chapters and a bibliography. Chapter 1 consists …

The Contributions Of Axel Jørgensen To The Solo Trombone Repertoire Of Denmark In The Twentieth Century, Andrew H. Converse

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

Axel Jørgensen is one of a few Danish composers who has contributed compositions to the solo trombone repertoire that gained an international and lasting reputation in the twentieth century. Jørgensen, like many Danish composers from the first part of the twentieth century, is often overlooked due to the imposing figure of Carl Nielsen. Jørgensen’s compositions, while not overly patriotic, give the trombonist a sense of the Danish Nationalistic Romantic style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Jørgensen was one of the first composers to write for the emerging slide trombone idiom in Denmark at the beginning of the …

Review Of To Live's To Fly: The Ballad Of The Late, Great Townes Van Zandt. By John Kruth A Deeper Blue: The Life And Music Of Townes Van Zandt By Robert Earl Hardy, Chuck Vollan

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Townes Van Zandt was a founding member of the modern Texas singer-songwriter tradition and influenced or played with everyone from Bob Dylan to Norah Jones. His spare, evocative lyrics, coupled with his beautiful, articulate guitar playing, developed a particularly loyal and eclectic fan base. His songs have been covered most famously by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Emmylou Harris, but also by a host of great and lesser-known performers. He was a major influence on the "Outlaw" Country movement.

Van Zandt wrestled with inner demons. His eccentricities, mental illness, and the resulting heavy substance abuse, combined with often poorly produced …

The History Of Choral Music Activity At The University Of Nebraska–Lincoln 1885–1978, Rebecca C. Gruber

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

This is a history of the choral music program at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln (founded 1869). Resources from the Nebraska State Historical Society, the Archives and Special Collections of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, scrapbooks and files from the University of Nebraska School of Music, and its precursor, the University School of Music, have been examined to create a narrative of choral music activity and a list of choral music repertoire. The early years are studied, before the choral ensembles were a formal part of the curriculum, when choral/orchestral performances were a result of collaboration with the city of Lincoln. …

Performance Practices In Four Puccini Arias: Tempo Choices And Choosers, Joshua O. Neumann

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

PERFORMANCE PRACTICES IN FOUR PUCCINI ARIAS TEMPO CHOICES AND CHOOSERS

Joshua O. Neumann, M.M. University of Nebraska, 2008 Advisor: Peter M. Lefferts

Opera is notorious for having a wide spectrum of performance practices. Among the most notable opportunities for performer liberty is that granted by the heightened emotionalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Italian operas. Giacomo Puccini is the most prominent Italian composer of the turn of the twentieth century. His operas are among the most popular and most often performed in the genre. Puccini’s best-known operas (La Bohéme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Gianni Schicchi) have been …

Fields Of Wonder: Exploring The Langston Hughes Song Cycles Of Robert Owens, Jamie Reimer

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

Tearless, Op. 9
Silver Rain, Op. 11
Desire, Op. 13
Heart On The Wall, Op. 14
Border Line, Op .24
Mortal Storm, Op. 29

Composer Robert Owens (b. 1925) is relatively unknown in the realm of American art song. Though a few of Owens’ songs have been published in two anthologies of songs by African-American composers, the majority of the Langston Hughes songs by Robert Owens are undiscovered gems in the art song repertory. It is the author’s hope that through the presentation of this research, singers and teachers are inspired to explore Owens’ catalog of works and to find …

Gustav Jenner’S Clarinet Sonata In G Major, Opus 5: An Analysis And Performance Guide With Stylistic Comparison To The Clarinet Sonatas, Opus 120 Of His Teacher, Johannes Brahms, Elizabeth R. Aleksander

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

Gustav Jenner was Johannes Brahms’ only composition student, but his works have not received the same attention that Brahms’ have. Jenner’s output includes chamber music, piano compositions, choral works, and over 200 Lieder. He wrote two pieces for clarinet, the Sonata in G Major, op. 5 for clarinet and piano and the Trio in E-flat Major for clarinet, horn, and piano. Relatively little has been written about Jenner, especially in English, and this document begins by detailing Jenner’s life and musical training, emphasizing his studies with Brahms, who was widely known as a demanding teacher. The first chapter continues with …

Roberto Sierra’S Compositions For Solo Clarinet, Alejandro L. Lozada

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

The present project focuses on the two compositions for solo clarinet by Roberto Sierra: Cinco Bocetos and Ritmorroto. Many composers throughout history have often written music for a particular performer. Sierra is no exception. These two clarinet works involve collaboration with some of today’s finest clarinet players in varying combinations of commissioning, premiering, and/or recording. Further insight into these works is provided by interviews with the composer and with the prominent clarinetists associated with these works.

The first chapter of this document provides biographical information about Roberto Sierra, his compositional style, and his compositional output involving the clarinet. Chapter two …

Soliloquies And Dances: An Analytical Introduction To The Solo Saxophone Repertoire Of American Composer Elliot Del Borgo, Christopher Barrick

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

The purpose of this document is to provide an introduction to the solo saxophone repertoire of American composer Elliot Del Borgo (b. 1938). By examining Del Borgo’s relatively unexplored body of works for saxophone, this research aims to encourage further research and performance of this music.

Since its invention in the 1840s, saxophonists have gone to great lengths to expand the instrument’s repertoire. Most of these efforts have been focused in one of two areas: the transcription and adaptation of existing music and the commissioning of composers to write new works for the saxophone. A subset of this latter method …

Review Of Peter Wright, Ed., Fifteenth-Century Liturgical Music, V: Settings Of The Sanctus And Agnus Dei., Peter M. Lefferts

Glenn Korff School of Music: Faculty Publications

Peter Wright's edition of English settings of the Sanctus and Agnus from the second quarter of the fifteenth century is the latest addition to the Fifteenth-Century Liturgical Music subseries of Early English Church Music, and the second to adopt a new format for notation and editorial apparatus. ... A generous critical apparatus for each work is clearly laid out, with highly valuable commentary in the General Remarks for many items. The editor's introduction discusses the policy of selection of repertory, the styles of the works edited, their age, sources, and composer attributions, the kinds of distortions in transmission that these …

An Analysis For Performance Of Selected Unaccompanied Works For Trumpet By Robert Henderson, Hans Werner Henze And Verne Reynolds, Brendan Mcglynn

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

Unaccompanied literature has been gaining a world-wide reputation and importance in the trumpet performance repertoire. This study examined how analysis of these pieces contributed not only to the knowledge of the performer, but to the performance itself. Three compositions were analyzed in this document: Variation Movements (1967) by Robert Henderson (b. 1948), Sonatina (1974) by Hans Werner Henze (b. 1926) and Calls and Echoes (unpublished) by Verne Reynolds (b. 1926).

These composers used a variety of compositional devices that were discussed in detail and showed how knowledge of these techniques benefited the performer. Variation Movements was derived from a nine-note …

Max Reger’S Telemann Variations, Op.134: Analysis And Critical Evaluation Of Editions, Including An Examination Of Reger’S Performance Style Based On Concert Reviews, Christian Peter Bohnenstengel

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

Max Reger’s music is not widely known and performed. His music is often thought of as dense, highly chromatic, and hard to digest. The Telemann Variations offer a different view of this highly prolific composer, who was regarded as the most important composer next to Richard Strauss in early twentieth-century Germany. The theme, a minuet in binary form, is taken from Telemann’s Tafelmusik in B-flat Major. The variations exhibit a transparent texture, regular phrases, and formal balance.

There is a fair amount of literature about the life and music of Reger, much of it written in German. However, the Telemann …

Music Circulating Libraries In France: An Overview And A Preliminary List, Anita Breckbill, Carole Goebes

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

The year is 1867 in Paris during the Second Empire. A musician sets off one day from his flat in a building several centuries old situated on the north side of the city. He is mulling over finances, and he feels lucky to have the place. Though the building is six floors tall with a narrow spiral staircase, the ground floor apartment was available when he was looking, and the piano movers were just able to shoehorn in his forty-year- old Erard piano.

He has a package under his arm, and he is on a mission, but he pauses upon …

Visions Fugitives: Insights Into Prokofiev's Compositional Vision, Steven Edward Moellering

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

In his autobiographical notes, Sergei Prokofiev detailed “five lines” along which his early work had developed. This analysis concerned works composed until his graduation from the St. Petersburg Conservatoire in 1914. The five lines are termed: classical, modern, toccata, lyrical and grotesque. The analysis portion of this document will incorporate these five lines. Furthermore, I will concurrently analyze the Visions Fugitives using my own list of 10 characteristics as a foundation. The 10 characteristics are: (1) dissipating endings - or, endings that do not end emphatically, (2) sharp dynamic contrasts, (3) disjunct melody, (4) chromatic melody and free counterpoint, (5) …

Septets, Octets, Nonets: Romantic Chamber Music In Its Cultural Contexts, Andrew L. De Alvaré

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

In 1800, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his Septet, Op. 20 for a chamber ensemble of strings and winds that included the double bass. This piece, an enormous popular success, became a direct compositional model for Franz Schubert in his Octet, D. 803. A great deal of scholarship exists connecting these two works, but does not extend to the many other chamber works of the Romantic period written for similar ensembles. To varying degrees, the compositions for large chamber ensembles written by Louis Spohr, Franz Lachner, Georges Onslow, Adolphe Blanc, and Louise Farrenc also take Beethoven’s Septet as a model. It …

A Riddle And A Song: Playing With Signs In A Fourteenth-Century Ballade, Peter M. Lefferts

Glenn Korff School of Music: Faculty Publications

In a rich and learned article, Lawrence Gushee explored the tabula monochordi of Magister Nicolaus de Luduno. The tabula, which was copied into a music theory manuscript of c. 1400 of southern Italian provenance (Rome/St. Paul), consists of three associated parts. The first and third I shall call, following Gushee, the tabula figurarum (an elaborate musical example) and the tabula numerorum (an extremely elaborate table of corresponding information). Between them lies the enigmatic text of a six-stanza musical puzzle poem, 'Ut pateat evidenter', with which Gushee wrestled inconclusively. A concordance to the poem unknown to Gushee in an English …

Théodore Nisard’S Accompagnement Du Plain-Chant From Dictionnaire Liturgique, Historique Et Théorique De Plain-Chant Et De Musique D’Église Au Moyen Age Dans Les Temps Modernes (1854): An English Translation, Gerald W. Holbrook

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

Joseph Louis d’Ortigue (1802-1866), a music critic in Paris beginning in 1829, succeeded Hector Berlioz as a writer for the Journal des dèbats. He first published writings on opera, but after 1840 because of a fascination with religious music, especially chant, he devoted himself to the study of this genre, eventually undertaking his Dictionnaire Liturgique, Historique et Théorique de Plain-Chant et de Musique d’église au moyen age et dans les temps modernes (1854). For this work he commissioned Théodore Nisard, also known as Abbé Théodule Elzéar Xavier Normand, a Belgian organist and editor, to write a treatise on organ accompaniment …

Mark Adamo: The Solo Vocal Works Through 2006, Scott D. Miller

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

American composer Mark Adamo enjoyed tremendous success with his first two full-scale operatic works, Little Women, and Lysistrata. For both of these works, Adamo served not only as composer, but also as his own librettist. Originally eager to pursue a career as a composer of the Broadway musical, his background and training in playwriting, acting, and musical composition provide him with a unique and well informed perspective on the fundamentals of dramatic and musical form and function which is both simple and ingenious. His gift for setting language to music is extraordinary, and his knowledge of the human …

Music At The Fair! The Trans-Mississippi And International Exposition, An Interactive Website, Grace Carey

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

“Music at the Fair!” gives the daily musical programs for The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, held in Omaha, Nebraska, June 1 through October 31, 1898.

The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition brought an unprecedented array of local, national, and international musical acts to Omaha, NE in 1898. This served to designate Omaha, "the gateway to the west" as a musical hub, as well as to incite musical excitement in the region. Some of the more popular acts featured were the Theodore Thomas Orchestra, the U.S. Marine Band, and the Apollo Club of Chicago. Many more groups and their musical programs can …

Bach-Busoni Chaconne: A Piano Transcription Analysis, Marina Fabrikant

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

In 1893 Ferruccio Busoni transcribed, for the piano, the famous Bach Chaconne for violin solo from the Partita No.2 in D minor. Numerous transcriptions of this piece for different various instruments exist; however Busoni's transcription stands above all others. The purpose of this study was to analyze what the famous, twentieth-century pianist did when he transcribed Bach's Chaconne. What information exists on the topic comes primarily from pianists who dared to learn this exceptionally difficult, beautiful composition. Busoni's accomplishments lie in the new concept, a conceptual transcription, which has two roots: understanding how, historically, we are connected to the music, …

Performance Practice Issues In The Short Solo Works Of Serge Koussevitzky, Maurice Kelley

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

This document deals with performance practice issues in the four original short solo double bass compositions of Serge Koussevitzky. There has been minimal literature published concerning performance practice issues for the double bass as a solo instrument. By analyzing the 1929 recording Koussevitzky made of two of his pieces for double bass and the 1988 recordings modern bass virtuoso Gary Karr made of Koussevitzky’s four short pieces a direct comparison of performance practice issues can be made. The four short pieces, Andante, Valse Miniature, Chanson Triste, and Humoresque were written by Koussevitzky around 1900. His recording of Chanson Triste and …