Music Commons^™

‘Let’S Rock!’: Analyzing Music As A Literary Precursor To The Sublime In The Works Of Lynch, Jesus Ivan Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

David Lynch’s style of cinema is easily recognizable, it is eccentric, bizarre, and surreal. Fans and film scholars alike hail the ‘Lynchian’ aspects within his films, moments that showcase incongruous images that do not line up within our sense of reality. Within the cinema of Lynch there exists a signature space that is a pure manifestation of sublimity. Within this space, anything goes; it is typically a vile and reprehensible place that feeds off the suffering of the film’s characters.

In four of Lynch’s selected films, Eraserhead (1977), Blue Velvet (1986), Twin Peaks Fire Walk with Me (1992), …

Teaching Music Theory Through Covid-19, Donna Deloy

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

This thesis surveyed music theory instructors throughout the United States. Throughout the interviews, instructors shared their insights during COVID-19 as a college instructor. This thesis seeks to describe and inform college instructors of the changes made to the undergraduate curriculum and classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic; as a result, instructors found and created new ways to engage students in a classroom through an online format. While creating an online music theory course is challenging, instructors share their experiences navigating this temporary shift beginning in March 2020. A suggestion of implementing more technology into the music theory core could create a …

Echoes Of Home, Hanna Traynham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses her Master of Fine Arts exhibition, Echoes of Home, held at the Tipton Gallery in Johnson City, Tennessee on display March 15 through April 8, 2022. The author provides insight into concepts and influences relating to the creation of the exhibition with perspective on her intimate connection with place and memory.

The exhibit features five installations addressing home, elusive memory, and the change and continuity of cultural traditions over time. The works consist of a series of large-scale wild clay vessels, gestural clay bookends, a wall installation of cups with a line drawing, suspended porcelain slabs, …

A Performer’S Guide To Richard Danielpour’S Spirits In The Well: A Cycle Of Four Songs For Soprano And Piano With Lyrics By Toni Morrison, Christina Louise Chenes

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Richard Danielpour’s (b.1956) song cycle Spirits in the Well (1998) uses four poems penned by Toni Morrison (1931-2019), specifically for Danielpour’s musical setting. Spirits in the Well remains virtually unknown to the general public and artists, as it has never been professionally recorded, despite having been frequently performed by famed soprano Jessye Norman (1945-2019). This document introduces singers to Spirits in the Well by offering a performance guide to the song cycle; it presents information on the text, musical style, structure, form, technical vocal challenges, and dramatic demands that this work places on a singer. Brief background information is provided …

Jazz Sampling Hip Hop: A View Of The Expanded Rhythm Section And The Musical Interactions Between Musicians And Machines, Molly Kaylynn Redfield

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document presents a study on a musical fusion that I term “jazz/hip hop.” The study presents a historical overview of jazz/hip hop origins beginning with 1960s beat poets to jazz/hip hop artists emerging in the early 2000s. Modeled after Phillip Tagg’s and John Fiske’s semiotic methodology and William C. Banfield’s African American Cultural Theory and Heritage Model, the methodology defines the musical and cultural aesthetics of jazz/hip hop. Interviews from jazz/hip hop artists are presented; justifying the use of hip-hop aesthetics and countering the argument that commercial elements are added for mainstream recognition. I examine that samples musically interact …

The Decline Of Middle School Music Programs In Major U.S. Inner-City Schools, Kuronde Washington

Masters Theses

This study examines the correlation of music programs in inner-city schools to affluent schools. This thesis will view the impact of socioeconomic status, living environment, retention of teachers, high-accountability testing, and how these factors affect the reduction of secondary music programs in inner-city schools. This research is intended to aid music teachers as well as administrative supporters improve the quality of music education in inner-city schools.

Developing Right-Hand Finger Flexibility In Young Violinists: Teaching Colle, Martele, Spiccato, And Sautille Through The Suzuki Literature, Monica Yardley Thiriot

Masters Theses

Much is written in violin method books about developing pitch, rhythm, and posture for young violinists. It is difficult to find examples of when to teach right-hand flexibility with bow techniques such as collé, martelé, spiccato, and sautillé. Although many violin teachers throughout the country use Suzuki literature to instruct their students, there are few written instructions concerning these advanced bow techniques in the literature. Instead, Shinichi Suzuki focused his studies on philosophy and the importance of a positive teaching environment, creating a beautiful tone by playing from the heart, ear training, and helping the youngest violin students reach their …

Strategies To Encourage Continued Choral Participation Among Adolescent Male Students, Joseph Michael Lewis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This project overviewed a mixed methods research study, which examined the ways in which choral participation among adolescent male students could be encouraged by choral directors. The paper examined the history of male choral participation, common theories regarding male voice classification, as well as how choral participation among adolescent male students could be encouraged by the education of a voice change process. A vocal study of one hundred and seventeen biological male singers at Westside Middle School Academy in Danbury, Connecticut was used to study the validity of numerous male voice change theories. This study documented the transformation of the …

Adapting A Suzuki And Bornoff Method Curriculum In A Beginning Public School Strings Class With A Class Of Mixed String Instruments, Monica Jane Holy

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Perspectives on the combination of the Suzuki Method and the Bornoff Method, and the struggles a string teacher has starting a beginning orchestra program, have emerged as themes through exploration of a small body of existing literature. This study aims to support struggling or first-year string teachers starting a beginning orchestra program in a public-school setting by combining the Suzuki and Bornoff method. Despite a plethora of research that has been written over the Suzuki method and the Bornoff method separately, there is a lack of research on combining the two approaches, particularly within a beginning string class setting. The …

The Role Of The Clinical Educator In Mentoring Of Preservice Band Directors' Conducting Technique, Brian Patrick Timmons

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Despite the inclusion of undergraduate conducting coursework in music teacher preparation programs in the United States, the performance of novice conductors may require further development during their field experiences. The clinical music educator fills a critical role in facilitating conductor skill development, yet no comprehensive framework supports this coaching. This explanatory sequential mixed methods design study identifies effective strategies in the mentoring of preservice music educators toward refining their instrumental conducting skills by classifying perspectives of clinical and preservice educators and their perceived roles in developing preservice music educators' conducting skills. A broad base of participants (N = 73) was …

Impact Of A Comprehensive Musicianship Through Performance Program On An International School Band During Covid-19, Anna Lee Siew Hui

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The threats of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020 resulted in schools moving to online learning and impacted programs with cocurricular activities, especially band programs. Student retention, low enrollment, loss of interest, and lower motivation became liabilities for band programs during the pandemic. Therefore, having an engaging online band program is crucial to continue effective music learning and maintain a high standard of band instruction. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of a Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP) program on an international school band during COVID-19. Forty-six participants ages 13-16 were recruited from the senior band …

The Conservation Of Resources Theory In Relation To Teacher Stress In Mainstreaming Students With Multiple Disabilities, Rose Geoffroy

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine two previous studies, which concluded that music educators felt stressed about mainstreaming students with disabilities. Using applied research method, a twenty-five-item questionnaire, created by the current researcher, was conducted, and six general music educators participated answering twenty-five categorized questions. The questions were divided into three sections: background, teaching context, and stress. The study examined current resources for music educators’ while working in a mainstreaming setting with students with disabilities. The scores indicated a moderate to high stress level in the classroom due to the lack of resources provided. A mean was found …

A Music Composition Through The Use Of Animal Sounds, Andy Nguy

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The knowledge on animals has been studied over many years by researching and understanding animal behavior and creativity with music. Bioacoustics shows a great deal when it comes to collecting sounds through many principles for sound data collection. With saved recording of animals, music, speeches, and so much more, it has impacted the way music is created through technology. Music production has been advancing in many creative ways. The foundation of sound manipulation is musique concrète. The project uses these concepts of audio recording and digital sounds to produce a composition that includes animal sounds.

Operatic Mysticisms: Mountains, Deserts, Waterscapes, Andrew Demczuk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Operatic Mysticisms: Mountains, Deserts, Waterscapes examines the ways we encounter environments as readers/viewers of operas, literature, film, and sound recordings, and how each medium requires different detail-gathering techniques. Respective to the previously mentioned mediums, Sun & Sea (2017), Mount Analogue (1952), El Mar La Mar (2017), and Energy Field (2010) are analyzed by engaging with environmental media studies and invention. Reflecting the nature of each landscape—summits of mountains, aporias of deserts, and mysteries of waterscapes—an elemental approach is taken in investigating how these spaces may be noticed, internalized, recorded, and traversed by both the artist and viewer. …

Developing Vocal Agility Of Light Lyric Coloratura Soprano Voices Through The Neglected Repertoire Of French Opéra Comique, Valentine Baron

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document explores light lyric coloratura soprano roles in the French opéra comique genre through an analysis of seven arias and their impact on the development of vocal agility. The opéra comique genre was popular at the beginning of the eighteenth century, but declined to disappear from the stage at the end of the nineteenth century. Despite the opéra comique’s influence on many other vocal genres, the genre is today neglected. Opportunities for singers to improve and practice challenging coloratura in this repertoire are limited. The two most famous arias from the genre which are the Doll Aria and Juliette’s …

The Influence Of Volga Tatar Folk Music And Soviet Cultural Policies On The Orchestral Composers Of Kazan, Jane Katherine Brown

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

After a brief historical overview of Volga Tatar history and Soviet political and historical contexts, this document begins with a detailed description of Volga-Tatar folk musical characteristics, including probable influences as described, analyzed, and transcribed by twentieth and twenty-first century Volga Tatar scholars. In this description, the author attempts to give the preferential voice to Tatar perspectives, such as the early ethnographers and Tatar ethnomusicologists from Kazan State Conservatory, the officials from the Union of Composers of the Republic of Tatarstan, and of course, the composers themselves. The author’s detailed discussion of folk music elements and genres is then followed …

Yusef Lateef, Autophysiopsychic Music And Oboe Performance, Ellen Hummel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document intends to explore Yusef Lateef`s expressiveness applied to oboe performance in order to contribute to the expansion of the language of oboe playing and oboe teaching. A thorough review of the literature suggests a lack of studies about the oboe as a principal instrument in genres other than classical music; particularly jazz, blues and popular music. We live in a time that questions the boundaries of all genres. Because improvisation is at the heart of genres like jazz and blues, educators are beginning to stress the importance of teaching improvisation to all musicians. Yusef Lateef’s concept and method …

Tracing The Shadows Of Gothic Bach: An Overview Of J.S. Bach’S Keyboard Music In American Horror Films, Siyu Yang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565, and the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, have been by far the most prominent of J.S. Bach’s works to evoke evil and horror on screen. This “Horror Bach” association remains exclusively a subculture phenomenon in pop culture (almost universally outside of the classical music world). A historical overview of this cultural phenomenon suggests three factors that made these pieces become horror film music: 1) the popularity of the pieces, 2) the choice of instrumentation, and 3) popular cultural factors. This doctoral document also introduces this pop culture phenomenon of Bach to classical …

A Performance Guide For Four Songs By Francisco Mignone, Amanda Mara Rizzotto Vidal Pessoa

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The scope of this document is to demonstrate the richness and diversity to be found in the art song genre from countries outside of the standard repertoire, specifically focusing on the Brazilian composer Francisco Mignone. The purpose of this document is to provide performance practice guidelines for four selected pieces by Francisco Mignone: No Meio do Caminho (1938), Pregão (1947), Si eu sei o que é saudade (1976), and Valsa-Vocalise (1972). They exemplify expressions of Brazilian national identity through the music selected. Furthermore, it provides a brief background on the composer and his compositional style phases, and context for the …

Don't Lose Your Keys: Exploring The Transition From Harpsichord To Piano, Justice Post

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper explores keyboard technology in music from the Baroque era to today. Central focus is on the initial dominance of the harpsichord in Western music and how this shifted to the piano. Using this context of evolving instrumentation, the paper considers how this coincided with changing styles of music composition. Finally, the paper considers the question of how a keyboardist of today should handle music written in eras before the piano existed, and whether it is appropriate to perform harpsichord music using a modern piano.

An Exploration Of Architectural Acoustics And Design In Commercial Recording Studios, Mariana Henke

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Recording studios depend largely on architectural design to determine the sound characteristics of their space. Developing a series of industry standards and best practices will facilitate the design, construction, and material selection for commercial recording studios. Every aspect of a studio's construction will contribute to the space's acoustical characteristics: noise pollution, floors, ceilings, walls, HVAC systems, and acoustic treatment. In combining best practices from each, studio designers can establish ideal sound conditions within a recording studio environment. These established industry standards and best practices will be applied to a proposed recording studio design in order to further demonstrate an understanding …

Parent Perceptions Of Elementary General Music Instruction, Hali Shepard

Music Education Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore parent perceptions of elementary general music instruction. This was a qualitative, multiple case study (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2009) in which the perceptions of elementary general music were gathered from a parent from each of the three geographical areas (rural, urban, and suburban) within Western New York. This study sought to determine how parents perceive elementary general music, as well as what types of perceptions of elementary general music exist in all geographical areas (i.e., rural, urban, and suburban districts).

Piano Majors Showcase

Printed Performance Programs (PDF Format)

No abstract provided.

Vocal Jazz Ensemble, Chapman Vocal Jazz Ensemble

Printed Performance Programs (PDF Format)

No abstract provided.

Reflections In The Musical Mirror, Todd Van Kekerix, Piano, September 30, 2022 [Program], University Of Northern Iowa. School Of Music.

Music Recital Programs

Program of a music recital given by faculty, students, or guest artists from the School of Music at the University of Northern Iowa.

Roar Of The Dragon: An Explorative Precursor In Film Scoring, Hyrum Kohler

Student Works

Roar of the Dragon (1932) was an important work in film composer Max Steiner’s transitional period before King Kong’s success. While other substantial films of this period have been analyzed and treated in regard in the film community, Roar of the Dragon is a relatively overlooked entry that shares many similarities with King Kong and Steiner’s other early lengthy scores. Because the original score of Roar of the Dragon has been lost, the work I did in 2020 as a research assistant in the Harold B. Library’s department of cataloging and metadata to recreate the score through ear transcription allowed …

Exploring The Regional Traditions Of Fiddling, Anna N. Eyink

Student Theses

During the 1600s, the modern violin traveled from Italy to the British Isles and North America. The instrument became a vital piece of each region's musical culture, and distinct fiddling traditions became established in Ireland, Scotland, Cape Breton, and America. This thesis explores the history of the Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, Appalachian, and bluegrass fiddling traditions. Additionally, the performance practices of each style are discussed in depth and are related back to the traditional tunes recorded as a part of this project.

The Modern Jazz Guitarist's Approach To Standard Repertoire, Stephan T. Wieder

Recital Papers

This paper examines Gilad Hekselman, Jonathan Kreisberg, Julian Lage, Lage Lund, Mike Moreno, and Kurt Rosenwinkel through the lens of written transcription. All six musicians are analyzed using standards such as; "Stella By Starlight", "Stablemates", "I'll Be Seeing You", "Sandu", and many more. The study of their transcriptions combined with details about their technique and musical equipment, will reveal a clearer understanding of their methods and style. The analysis of these transcriptions focuses on four main elements: phrasing, rhythmic choices, melodic choices, and overall thematic development.

Creative Practice For Classical String Players With Live Looping, Caleb Yang

Student Theses

In recent years, string pedagogy discussions have highlighted the greater need for creative practice as classical string players. Since the second half of the nineteenth century, string methods have shifted towards a limited scope of improvisatory techniques, parallelling the decline of improvisation in Western classical music performance practices. This thesis explores live looping as a practice tool to facilitate learning concepts and help string players develop musicianship skills including improvisation, participate in non-classical genres, and explore their creative voices. Examining the results of string educators that incorporate live looping into their own teaching reveals the tool’s effectiveness in bridging curricula …

Women Writing Music: Poets And Composers From Latin America, Kimberly Grez

Recital Papers

The topic of Latin American women poets and composers is not commonly taught in the standard song literature in universities as they are not considered a part of the Western classical music canon. Instead, male poets and composers of German, Italian, French, and British descent are the focus in standard song literature. Although many of these composers have undoubtedly had an impact in music history, the Western classical music canon has neglected entire ethnic and racial groups. Thus, what is left is a predominantly-male European music history that lacks the diversity and richness of other cultures. Considering that we currently …