Music Commons^™

A Survey Of The Sacred Choral–Orchestral Works Of Sir Henry Walford Davies (1869–1941), Martin C. Cook

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

In the closing years of the 19th Century, when Charles Villiers Stanford, Hubert Parry and Edward Elgar were at the height of their fame and influence in British musical society Henry Walford Davies emerged as one of the most promising talents of the day, receiving commissions from the provincial music festivals of Great Britain, which were a rite of passage for emerging composers.

Between 1904 and 1929 Davies produced eleven sacred choral-orchestral works for these festivals and one further work, which were received favorably in their day but are now almost forgotten. There are five large multi movement works: The …

"Spectacular Opacities": The Hyers Sisters' Performances Of Respectability And Resistance, Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

This essay analyzes the Hyers Sisters, a Reconstruction-era African American sister act, and their radical efforts to transcend social limits of gender, class, and race in their early concert careers and three major productions, Out of Bondage and Peculiar Sam, or The Underground Railroad, two slavery-to-freedom epics, and Urlina, the African Princess, the first known African American play set in Africa. At a time when serious, realistic roles and romantic plotlines featuring black actors were nearly nonexistent due to the country’s appetite for stereotypical caricatures, the Hyers Sisters used gender passing to perform opposite one another as heterosexual lovers in …

Popular Music As Popular Expression In North India And The Bhojpuri Region, From Cassette Culture To Vcd Culture, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

In the 1980s the Indian popular music scene was revolutionized by the advent of audio cassettes that dramatically decentralized production and precipitated the rise of syncretic folk-pop hybrids aimed at diverse regional audiences. In the years around 2000, the new medium of the VCD, or video compact disc, came to exert a similarly prodigious impact, enabling inexpensive popular music recordings marketed to diverse audiences to have visual as well as audio components. Song picturizations came to display a variety of approaches, from low-budget Bollywood imitations to new formats evolving in response to local sensibilities. This article outlines some of these …

The Trajectories Of Transplants: Singing Alha, Birha, And The Ramayan In The Indic Caribbean, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

Indo-Caribbean music culture includes a stratum of traditional genres derived from North India’s Bhojpuri region. This article discusses three such genres: Alhâ-singing, an archaic form of birhâ, and an antiphonal style of singing the Tulsidas Râmâyan. Despite the lack of supportive contact with the Bhojpuri region after 1917, these genres flourished until the 1960s, after which the decline of Bhojpuri as a spoken language in Trinidad and Guyana, together with the impact of modernity in general, undermined their vitality. A comparative perspective with North Indian counterparts reveals illuminating parallels and contrasts.

The Effect Of Music Therapy Versus General Classroom Instruction On The Social Skills Of A Preschooler On The Autism Spectrum In An Inclusive Setting, Rachel A. Crawford

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this case study was to examine the effects of music therapy on the development of the social skills of a preschooler on the autism spectrum in an inclusive setting. The study was performed in an inclusive preschool classroom at the Ben Samuels Children’s Center on the campus of Montclair State University. A literature review related to this topic included information on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), the etiology of the disorder and the use of music therapy in the inclusive school setting with students on the autism spectrum. The review also covered the effect music therapy has on …

Androgyny And Musical Identity: Glitz, Glamour, And Everything In Between, Tanya Yvette Flores

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Discourse of androgyny and how it functions and how it is constructed will be central to analyzing how it is utilized in popular music and how artists, particularly androgynous artists, use it to complicate their expression of identities. Androgyny is described as a mixing of both male and female genders, where there can be distinct lack of coherent gender identification. Androgyny has been revealed as an identity that neither men nor women are born with, but embody through time. It is important to illustrate a growing recognition of androgynous artists to offer us an opportunity to glimpse the spectacular evolvement …

Leonard Bernstein: Conductor, Educator, Jonathan Vogan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this paper is to delve into the life and work of Leonard Bernstein and his contributions to the world - more specifically - the world of music. The discussion will focus primarily on his contributions to the field of conducting as well as some of his educational endeavors. This will be achieved using biographical information and audio/visual recordings of his conducting and teaching.

Preparing A World Premiere: A Conductor's Analysis Of Ronaldo Cadeu's "Crime And Punishment: One Act Ballet", Raul Gomez Rojas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This paper is a conductor’s analysis of Ronaldo Cadeu’s recently completed orchestral score for his ballet Crime and Punishment, with a focus on its preparation for a first public performance. The research explores preparing a piece of music for its world premiere from several angles: the musical process in the form of score study, the extra-musical process involved in the production of the event and the culmination of both in rehearsals and performance with the orchestra. Detailed score analysis reveals that Crime and Punishment is a masterfully crafted piece of music that successfully conveys the essence of Dostoyevsky’s text. Cadeu’s …

Chinese Piano Music: An Approach To Performance, Xi Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since the piano was introduced in China, in the nineteenth century, many Chinese composers have composed specifically for it. As a result of greater communication and cultural exchange between East and West, Western pianists have begun including Chinese piano pieces in their repertoire. This paper will suggest approaches for the pianist to gain a greater understanding of Chinese piano music. These approaches will include a detailed analysis of each piece, addressing cultural aspects pertinent to an understanding of the music, as well as compositional background, harmony, texture, and piano technique. In addition, each piece will be provided with suggestions intended …

Dialogues, Dysfunctional Transitions, And Embodied Plot Schemas: (Re) Considering Form In Chopin's Sonatas And Ballades, Jonathan Edward Mitchell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Chopin’s four Ballades — perennial favorites of audiences and performers— have proven to be problematic for analysts. At the forefront of the numerous discussions regarding their organization is an ongoing debate about their relationship to the eighteenth-century sonata, particularly if they can be understood as variants of that form or as something altogether new. It is my view that these works have tended toward the enigmatic because no one has discovered an appropriate theoretical apparatus through which to process them. In this dissertation, I view Chopin’s Ballades through a multi-tiered analytical system that draws upon three sources: the Sonata Theory …

Two Sides Of The Ancient Vase: Eastern And Western Principles In The Works Of Keiko Abe, Christopher K. Hoefer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Keiko Abe is recognized as one of the leading marimba virtuosos of the Twentieth century. As a composer, she has been writing for solo marimba since the early 1960s and continues composing for the medium today. Her music became popular with Western percussionists after the publishing of Works for Marimba in 1987. This was her first compilation of works for the five-octave marimba. These pieces have become a constant source of repertoire for collegiate and professional performers. Despite Abe’s popularity and influence, little research has examined her compositions. This document features analysis and background of Abe and her music and …

The Role Of Music-Making In The Identity Construction Of Members Of An Adult Community Concert Band, Pamela G. Taylor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to ascertain how music-making and band membership contributed to the identities of members of the New Orleans Concert Band and how their identities influenced their behaviors. The musician role identity of members of the New Orleans Concert Band, an adult community band, was examined through the lens of identity theory using ethnographic methods. Findings were based upon interviews with 37 band members, observations of rehearsals and concerts, and an examination of the organization’s documents. Results indicated that members valued individual and group music-making, literature played by the band, and social aspects of …

Three Case Studies In Twentieth-Century Performance Practice, Tina Huettenrauch

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since the middle of the twentieth century, the study of performance practice has increasingly drawn the interest of musicologists; however, despite the extensive documentation pertaining to matters of performance, the twentieth century has largely been neglected. Twentieth-century composers often annotated their scores extensively with indications of tempi, dynamics, and phrasing or included explanatory notes with detailed instructions. Supplemental records, such as diaries, transcripts of coaching sessions, and composers’ commentaries on interpretative issues further shed light on their intentions. Yet a piece is not shaped just by the score and the comments of the composer; rather, it exists diachronically, evolving over …

A Performance Guide To Leonard Lehrman's A Light In The Darkness, Timothy Adam Holcomb

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Holcomb, Timothy Adam, B.M.E. Music Education, Wright State University, 2002 M.M. Music, Louisiana State University, 2006 Doctor of Musical Arts, Winter Commencement, 2012 Major: Vocal Performance; Minor: Vocal Pedagogy A Performance Guide to Leonard Lehrman’s A Light in the Darkness Dissertation directed by Professor Robert Grayson Pages in dissertation, 146. Words in abstract, 106. ABSTRACT Leonard Lehrman is primarily known as the leading expert on the works of Marc Blitzstein. He is a composer and conductor, and serves to provide a voice for Jewish poets and composers. This document presents Leonard Lehrman’s song cycle, A Light in the Darkness (White-Sailed …

Semantic Priming Of Familiar Songs, Sarah K. Johnson, Andrea R. Halpern

Faculty Journal Articles

We explored the functional organization of semantic memory for music by comparing priming across familiar songs both within modalities (Experiment 1, tune to tune; Experiment 3, category label to lyrics) and across modalities (Experiment 2, category label to tune; Experiment 4, tune to lyrics). Participants judged whether or not the target tune or lyrics were real (akin to lexical decision tasks). We found significant priming, analogous to linguistic associative-priming effects, in reaction times for related primes as compared to unrelated primes, but primarily for within-modality comparisons. Reaction times to tunes (e.g., "Silent Night") were faster following related tunes ("Deck the …

A Church Musician's Resource Guide To The Available Resources From The Choral Public Domain Library For The Liturgical Year A, Michael John Trotta

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL) represents a free resource to the church musician, and yet, as a user-edited database, has its limitations. This monograph provides a measure of quality control of the broad database presenting a usable resource guide for the church musician faced with the selection and presentation of liturgically suitable choral works every Sunday. Previous guides have been either so general that they make it difficult to locate music or so specific that they highlight individual publishers or composers. This document provides a methodology for selection and classification of freely reproducible choral literature appropriate for the various …

Applicability Of Periodization To Orchestral Audition Preparation On Trombone: A Case Study, Christopher Evan Green

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The process of auditioning can seem daunting because of the high standards of performance required to win. Brass players have a finite amount of time they can practice each day because of the small muscles of the embouchure. Despite the vast amount of information available on preparing for a brass orchestral audition, little has been written on how to organize a practice schedule leading up to the audition. An analysis of literature in the major brass journals confirm which strategies have been considered to be most important when preparing for an audition, but an important component from the world for …

Graduate Recital In Viola, Mariia Bogodist

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Mariia Bogodist performed a Master of Music viola recital at eight o'clock in the evening on Thursday, March 22, 2012, in the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center's Davis Hall. Pianist Elena Lyalina, flautist Bridget Hill, and harpist Acacia Scott collaborated with Ms. Bogodist to present selected works by various composers. The program opened with the viola arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach's Suite for Unaccompanied Cello No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008, followed by Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 14 7 by Dmitry Shostakovich. The second half opened with Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp, L. 13 7 by Claude …

A Study Of Children's Musical Play At The Little Gym, Alison Elaine Alexander

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the ways music is used in classes at the Little Gym. It also attempted to uncover the benefits of the use of music in the classes as identified by the participants. This investigation of music at the Little Gym required the use of standard qualitative data collection strategies performed over the course of four months of fieldwork. Approximately sixty hours of observations were completed, both as an observer and a participant observer, and twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents and teachers. Data analysis entailed transcribing and coding interviews, examining observations field …

A Permutational Triadic Approach To Jazz Harmony And The Chord/Scale Relationship, John Bishop

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study provides an original triadic theory that combines existing jazz theory, in particular the chord/scale relationship, and mathematical permutation group theory to analyze repertoire, act as a pedagogical tool, and provide a system to create new music. Permutations are defined as group actions on sets, and the sets used here are the constituent consonant triads derived from certain scales. Group structures provide a model by which to understand the relationships held between the triadic set elements as defined by the generating functions. The findings are both descriptive and prescriptive, as triadic permutations offer new insights into existing repertoire. Further, …

Direction Of Mistuning, Magnitude Of Cent Deviation, And Timbre As Factors In Musicians' Pitch Discrimination In Simultaneous And Sequential Listening Conditions, Norman Alan Clark

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The main purpose of this study was to investigate high school and college wind instrumentalists’ pitch discrimination when judging pitch pairs separated by 0, 5, 7.5, and 10 cents. Participants listened via headphones to a pre-recorded two section perception test; each section (one sequential and one simultaneous) containing 56 tone pairs. Each pair consisted of an in-tune reference tone followed by a test tone of the same pitch (B-flat4 or E4), which was either identical in tuning or altered to one of six mistunings. Tones also varied in timbre (square or sawtooth wave) with the reference and test tones being …

Moonlight Shadows And Night Thoughts (Symphony No. 1) And An Analysis Of Qigang Chen's Extase Ii, Wennan Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation is divided into two parts. Part One is an original composition: Moonlight Shadows and Night Thoughts (Symphony No.1). The symphony is composed of two movements. This work employs elements of two diverse cultures: (a) Chinese folk music and (b) contemporary Impressionist music by Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Toru Takemitsu most prominently. The musical imageries of the piece come from two Chinese poems, one written by Zhang Ji and the other written by Li Po. The beautiful sceneries in both Poems are associated with the word “moonlight.” The processing of time and the timbres is the focus of …

Hidden Music: Vowel Formant Theory And The Languages Of Verdi's Don Carolos, Justin Andrew Owen

LSU Master's Theses

Don Carlos, Giuseppe Verdi’s third French opera, was first performed at the Paris Opéra in 1867; today, it is commonly performed in its Italian translation. This translation is problematic, however, because it departs from the original French in more than language: as a translation to be sung, it often conveys a different meaning, places key words on different sections of the melody, and consists of a different sound. This latter aspect and its relationship to notated melody is the focus of this study. For the purpose of this study, the sound of a language is defined by the overtones of …

The Unaccompanied Choral Works Of Vytautas Miškinis With Texts By Rabindranoth Tagore: A Resource Guide, Nicholaus B. Cummins

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This document serves as a resource guide for the unaccompanied choral works of Vytautas Miškinis, with texts by Rabindranoth Tagore, including pertinent background information, structural information, and accessibility considerations for the conductor. Additionally, there is a study of Miškinis’s compositional style according to the works in this guide that includes biographical information. Vytautas Miškinis (born 1954) is a Lithuanian conductor and composer currently published by several international music publishing houses. He is also a member of several juries for international choral competitions in addition to his duties as a professor of conducting at the Lithuanian Academy of Arts in Vilnius. …

The Solo String Works Of J. S. Bach: The Relationship Between Dance And Musical Elements, Chung-Hui Hsu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In 1685, the Doge of Genoa made a visit to the French court and asked Louis XIV to host a ball. Louis XIV responded affirmatively and arranged a magnificent dance in his private apartment. The type of dance that took place was a kind of social dancing which later became the standard included Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue, Minuet, Gavotte, Bourée, Loure and Chaconne. These dances were called theatrical dances when they were used in theatrical production by professional dancers. During this period, the relationship between composer and choreographer was sometimes inseparable. Maestro Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) and his well-known choreographer Pierre …

Grunt Work For The Avant-Garde, Andrea A. La Rose

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

grunt work for the avant-garde is an original, four-movement composition for solo trombone, clarinet, violin, cello, and accordion.

Aspects Of Adaptation In The Egyptian Singing Film, Margaret Jean Farrell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores aspects of adaptation in the Egyptian singing film in the period from 1932 to 1962. The primary types of adaptation examined are those that are evident in the stories the films told, the ways in which the songs functioned within the stories, and the music for which these films formed the setting. Research was conducted through the viewing of over sixty Egyptian films as well as time spent in Cairo to study Arabic language and music, and to collect primary sources in the form of films, press books, books, and periodicals.

The goal of this study is …

Politics, Improvisation, And Musicking In Frederic Rzewski's "Which Side Are You On?" From North American Ballads, Andrea A. La Rose

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Discussions of the role of politics in Frederic Rzewski's music generally stop at surface elements: the title of the work, the use of a particular song, and guesses as to what left-leaning audience the piece is directed at. Similarly, discussion of the role of improvisation in Rzewski's work begins and ends simply at the mention of its existence. Using transcription and analysis of improvisations from recordings of "Which Side Are You On?" from North American Ballads combined with ideas about modeling from Christian Asplund, musicking from Christopher Small, dialogue from David Bohm, and Rzewski's own writings about music, I demonstrate …

Introduction To Special Issue: Dementia And Music, Andrea R. Halpern, Isabelle Peretz, Lola L. Cuddy

Faculty Journal Articles

This special issue follows two previous special issues on music and neurological disorders (April 2008, Volume 23/Issue 4 and April 2010, Volume 25/Issue 4). Like its predecessors, the issue presents studies employing a patient-based approach to music perception, cognition, and emotion. Whereas the earlier issues dealt with acquired and congenital disorders and impairments, the present issue focuses on dementia, primarily on its most common form, Alzheimer's disease (AD).