Music Commons^™

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 …

History Of The Performance Practice Of Mozart’S Fantasie And Sonata K. 475/457, Mikako Ogata

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The pieces chosen for the discussion, the Fantasie and Sonata in C minor, K. 475/457, are especially well documented in terms of their sources: in addition to the composing autographs and the first edition, there is the so-called dedication copy, a manuscript written by a copyist that was given to Maria von Trattner, to whom the Sonata was dedicated. The discussion will include a close examination of these three primary sources, several editions published during the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries (including that edited by Johann Anton André, who owned the autographs at the time), and representative recorded performances …

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.

Quantz And Frederick The Great: Masters And Monarchs Of The Flute, Betsy Anne Groat

Honors Program Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the significant contributions that Quantz made as a flutist, composer, and pedagogue to the music world and in particular, to research the impact that Quantz had in the development of Frederick the Great as a virtuoso musician. The hope is to also illustrate the resulting significance of Frederick the Great as an important composer and flutist. This thesis is also intended to establish a case for the enduring significance of Frederick the Great and Quantz as significant flutists and composers and to encourage the acceptance of their compositions in the generally performed …

Making A Way: Music In An African American Congregation, Emily Miller-Todd

Honors Program Theses

When I began brainstorming ideas for my research, I was initially drawn towards a general study of music's role in church settings. As a music major and religion minor, this topic appeared to be the most obvious way I could combine my interests and apply them to a research project. Broadly speaking, I was interested in describing the role of music in a worship setting and the meaning members of the congregation found in music. In addition, I wanted to develop a research project that allowed me a more thoroughly experiential understanding of music in a congregation through personal participation …

Three Stravinsky Analyses: Petrushka, Scene 1 (To Rehearsal No. 8); The Rake’S Progress, Act Iii, Scene 3 (“In A Foolish Dream”); Requiem Canticles, “Exaudi”, Joseph N. Straus

Publications and Research

Most published work in our field privileges theory over analysis, with analysis acting as a subordinate testing ground and exemplification for a theory. Reversing that customary polarity, this article analyzes three works by Stravinsky (Petrushka, The Rake’s Progress, Requiem Canticles) with a relative minimum of theoretical preconceptions and with the simple aim, in David Lewin’s words, of “hearing the piece[s] better.”

The Social Life Of Musical Instruments, Eliot Bates

Publications and Research

Accordion Crimes, a novel by E. Annie Proulx, traces the life of and routes travelled by a green diatonic button accordion: its birth in Sicily in the workshop of “The Accordion Maker,” its numerous changes of ownership in the Americas during encounters between various immigrant communities, and its death when it finally falls into disrepair in the town of Old Glory, Minnesota. There are other accordions in the book, and many temporary human owners, but it is one particular green accordion that is the book’s protagonist. We meet and experience other characters largely through their interactions with the green accordion, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

"You Understand Me Now": Sampling Nina Simone In Hip Hop, Amanda Renae Modell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The overarching goal of this research is to explicate the implications of hip hop artists sampling Nina Simone's music in their work. By regarding Simone as a critical social theorist in her own right, one can hear the ways that hip hop artists are mobilizing her tradition of socially active self-definition from the Civil Rights/Black Power era(s) in the post-2000 United States. By examining both the lyrics and the instrumental compositions of Lil Wayne, Juelz Santana, Common, Tony Moon, Talib Kweli, Mary J. Blige and Will.I.Am, G-Unit and Timbaland, and bearing in mind the intersecting oppressions of race, class, gender, …

Musical Rhetoric And Sonic Composing Processes, Kyle D. Stedman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project is a study of musical rhetoric and music composition processes. It asks the questions, "How does the nature of music as sound-in-time affect its rhetorical functions, production, and delivery?" and "How do composers approach the task of communicating with audiences through instrumental music?" I answer these questions by turning to the history of musical rhetoric as practiced in the field of musicology and by interviewing composers themselves about their composition practices--approaches that are both underused in the rhetoric and composition community.

I frame my research participants' responses with a discussion of the different degrees to which composers try …

Listening In Action: Students' Mobile Music Experiences In The Digital Age, Rebecca Marie Rinsema

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the introduction of the iPod in 2001, portable music listening devices that play or stream compressed music files have steadily become the standard devices used to listen to music. Despite this, few music education researchers have investigated the role that such devices have in shaping students' music listening experiences. This dissertation is meant to fill that gap in the literature and contribute to the existing sociological and psychological literature on music listening in everyday life.

Phenomenology served as the theoretical framework for the design of the study. 10 college students from three institutions underwent iterative interviews and were asked …

Improvisational Music Performance: On-Stage Communication Of Power Relationships, David A. Steinweg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project explores how musical improvisational processes come into being through interacting discursive power relationships that are embodied and enacted through performance. By utilizing the concepts of framing and performativity I am able to show how discursive power constitutes the performance of improvisational music. To exemplify this theory, the project presents a case study examining a Grateful Dead cover band named Uncle John's Band that performs at Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa, FL. Using an ethnographic methodology, the project articulates the dominant discursive power relationships that constitute Uncle John's Band's improvisational performances. The dominant discursive power relationships revolve around the lived …

A Master Of Music Recital In Violin, Michaela Lauren Gansen

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Michaela Lauren Gansen presented a graduate violin recital on Monday March 5, 2012 at eight o'clock in the evening in Davis Hall of the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. This recital was given in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master of Music degree with an emphasis in violin performance. Ms. Gansen was assisted by pianist Serena Hou. The program opened with J.S. Bach's Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, BWV 1001 for unaccompanied violin, followed by Sergey Prokofiev's Five Melodies for Violin and Piano, op. 35 bis. The recital concluded with the Second Violin Sonata for violin and piano …

A Graduate Recital In Voice, Lauren Elizabeth Hartman

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In our human experience, love seems to be the emotion to which we all relate in some way, making it a universally understood subject well-suited for artistic interpretation. Though it may seem redundant to continue exploring a feeling that has captivated writers, artists, and painters for centuries, the many faces of love never cease to bring wonderment, despair, or bliss to each human being who experiences them afresh. In this recital, myriad aspects of love are presented as interpreted by numerous composers, each one expressing a unique experience.

Graduate Jazz Pedagogy Recital, Cory Healey

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The author presented his graduate jazz pedagogy recital on February 29th 2012 at 6:00 pm in Bengtson Auditorium, Russell Hall, at The University of Northern Iowa. The recital was given in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Masters of Music degree in jazz pedagogy and covered a wide range of repertoire that demonstrated the author's composition and arranging skills as well as his performance skills on drum set, piano, electric bass, and vibraphone. The musicians who assisted the author were New York City-based Tony Barba and Dave Miller and University of Northern Iowa musicians Jon Snell, Riley Scheetz, Sam …

A Master’S Recital In Voice, Kaethe Blue Henning

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Kaethe Blue Henning, soprano, presented her graduate voice recital on Friday, March 2, 2012 at 8:00 in the evening in Davis Hall of the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center on the University of Northern Iowa campus. The program consisted of four sets of music including works by A. Scarlatti, Handel, Liszt, Sibelius, Stenhammar, and Grieg, in collaboration with Korey Barrett, harpsichord; Liudmila Lebedeva, cello; Randy Grabowski, trumpet; Abigail Coffer, flute;· Andrey Lopatin, viol.in; and Robin Guy, piano. This abstract presents musical and historical features of the recital pieces

John Holloway In Recital, John K. Holloway

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Schubert's Piano Sonata in C minor, D.958, is one of the last three sonatas by the Viennese composer. The last three sonatas are recognized by many music historians as autobiographical.¹ They also represent a different style of composition than Schubert's earlier works. The mature style found in these sonatas differs from his earlier style as evidenced by the use of vivid expression, greater length, and prolonged development of thematic material. The last three sonatas include D.958 in C minor, D.959 in A major, and D.960 in B-flat major. While all three sonatas are performed often, D.960 is the most …

Master's Recital In Piano, Hsueh-Ling Huang

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Hsueh-Ling Huang presented a graduate piano recital at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 in Davis Hall of the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center at the University of Northern Iowa School of Music. This recital was presented in partial fulfillment of the Master of Music Degree requirements in Piano Performance. This recital program consisted of works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Alexander Scriabin, Claude Debussy, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

A Master Of Music Recital In Flute, Abi Coffer

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Abi Coffer performed a Master of Music Flute Recital at six o'clock in the evening on Friday, February 24, 2012 in Davis Hall, Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. Ms. Coffer opened the recital with a work from the Baroque era, the melancholy Fantasie no. 12 in g minor for solo flute by Georg Philipp Telemann. For the next piece, Ms. Coffer was joined by faculty pianist Polina Khatsko in a performance of a twentieth-century, three movement Sonata by Jindrich Feld. After a brief intermission, Ms. Coffer resumed the program with an Andalusian folk inspired piece by Cristobal Halffter for solo …

The Evolution Of Notational Innovations From The Mobile Score To The Screen Score, Lindsay Vickery

Research outputs 2012

This article examines the evolution of music notational practices from avant-garde-era experiments in ‘mobility’ to the advent of the digital ‘screen score’. It considers the varied goals of the composers who initiated these developments and the dissonance between these goals and the practical possibilities actually afforded by the paper score. The advent of graphical computing is charted along with the consequent expansion of possibilities afforded by screening the score from a platform that also provides the potential for performer coordination, sound synthesis and transformation. The performative, interactive and formal implications of these possibilities are considered.

From Autonomous To Performative Control Of Timbral Spatialisation, Stuart James

Research outputs 2012

Timbral spatialisation is one such process that requires the independent control of potentially thousands of parameters (Torchia, et al., 2003). Current research on controlling timbral spatialisation has focussed either on automated generative systems, or suggested that to design trajectories in software is to write every movement line by line (Normandeau, 2009). This research proposes that Wave Terrain Synthesis may be used as an effective bridging control structure for timbral spatialisation, enabling the performative control of large numbers of parameter sets associated with software. This methodology also allows for compact interactive mapping possibilities for a physical controller, and may also be …

Adapting John Cage's Radio Music For A Digital Score Player, Lindsay Vickery

Research outputs 2012

This paper discusses the creation of a digital score reader and installation version of John Cage’s Radio Music. The context surrounding the work’s composition is explored as well as the changing context of the work in light of the evolution of radio broadcasting since the 1950s. The score for the work is explored in detail particularly in regard to the issues its determinate and indeterminate aspects, and their implications upon the performance of the work. The concept of “available indeterminacy” is introduced to describe the real-world limitations that exist as a result of Cage’s specifications for the work. The presence …

New Digital Interactions With John Cage's Variations Iv, V And Vi, Catherine Hope, Stuart James, Lindsay Vickery

Research outputs 2012

To celebrate the centenary of John Cage’s birth in 1912, Western Australian new music ensemble Decibel undertook the realization of the American composer John Cage’s (1912 – 1992) complete Variations I – VIII. The works offer a unique insight into the development of Cage’s approach to composition practice, aleatoric approaches, spatial arrangements and the use of electronics. Entitled the “John Cage Complete Variations Project”, Decibel created a performance of the eight pieces in around an hour. The preparation and reading of the scores that make use of transparent sheets (Variations I, II, III, IV and VI) has been adapted using …

Digital Adaptions Of The Scores For Cage Variations I, Ii And Iii, Lindsay Vickery, Catherine Hope, Stuart James

Research outputs 2012

Western Australian new music ensemble Decibel have devised a software-based tool for creating realisations of the score for John Cage's Variations I and II. In these works Cage had used multiple transparent plastic sheets with various forms of graphical notation, that were capable of independent positioning in respect to one another, to create specifications for the multiple unique instantiation of these works. The digital versions allow for real-time generation of the specifications of each work, quasi-infinite exploration of diverse realisations of the works and transcription of the data created using Cage's methodologies into proportionally notated scrolling graphical scores.

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 …