Music Commons^™

Uncovering The Emotional Line: An Analysis Of Three David Maslanka Wind Ensemble Works Using Formal Emotive Intensity Analysis, Michael John Kahle

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

David Maslanka (1943–2017) was a prolific American composer who wrote most frequently for the medium of concert band/wind ensemble. His music is frequently performed by ensembles around the world. Due to his more intuitive and idiosyncratic compositional style, Maslanka would center what he described as the “emotional line” of the work, certain aspects of his music are undetected by traditional analytical models. Formal Emotive Intensity Analysis bridges that gap to focus on the supposed emotional line within Maslanka’s work. Through a case study of three of Maslanka’s works for wind band, The Seeker, Concerto No. 3 for Piano and Wind …

Selected Piano Etudes From The Mid-20th To 21st Centuries: A Catalogue, Min Ji Baek

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Etudes, which initially appeared in the seventeenth century as small collections of exercises, have evolved into significant concert pieces, showcasing the development of virtuosity over time. This study compiles a selected catalog of piano etudes from the mid-20th century to the 21st century, accompanied by brief biographies of each composer. Beginning with a historical overview of piano etudes, this paper catalogs etudes by 50 composers, divided into two chapters that respectively present etudes from the 1940s–1980s and the 1980s–2020s, listed alphabetically by the composer's last name. The final chapter provides a concise summary of the catalogue’s contents, highlighting its potential …

When The Right Man Rings Them?, Alan Wayne Cline

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This research aims to outline the suitability of Vaughan Williams’s songs to a broader selection of performers, including singers in academic settings and professional musicians around the globe. The significance of Ralph Vaughan Williams's impact on the music world is difficult to question. Among his considerable accomplishments are the editing of the Anglican English hymnal, the advocation for traditional British folk songs as national works of art, the composition of the same number of symphonies as Beethoven and Dvořák, and, most notably for singers, the writing of song cycles and collections of songs. While these accomplishments are significant, his songs …

Choir Teacher Agency And Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, Kaitlyn Schramm

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) (Paris, 2012) is an educational framework that nurtures and sustains students’ cultural competencies and identities. Scholars have recognized the need for practices that sustain and nurture cultural identities and ways of knowing music in the music classroom (Abril, 2009; Bond, 2014; Good Perkins, 2018; Salvador & Culp, 2022; Shaw, 2016). Culturally sustaining teachers reimagine curriculum entirely and place students' cultural assets at the center “as targets of learning to be sustained” (Lee, 2017, p. 262), explored, honored, extended, and critically problematized (Lee, 2017; Paris, 2012; Samy Alim et al., 2020). In choral classrooms, this often involves …

Piano Wisdom From Two Great Masters: Heinrich Neuhaus And Walter Gieseking, Xiaohan Hu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation explores the pedagogical insights and piano techniques of Heinrich Neuhaus (1888-1964) and Walter Gieseking (1895-1956), two iconic figures in 20th-century piano performance and education. Through a detailed analysis of their writings and teaching methods, the research highlights their shared focus on the foundational principles of piano technique, as well as their unique contributions to interpretation and musical expression.

Neuhaus’s The Art of Piano Playing provides an in-depth discussion on the importance of artistic imagery, posture, sound production, and emotional depth in performance. Gieseking, along with his former teacher Karl Leimer, emphasizes ear training, mental visualization, and technical precision …

Using Students’ Interests In General Music (Part 3): Suggestions For Practice, Virginia Wayman Davis, Mara E. Culp

School of Music Faculty Publications

Music education in the United States aims to be for every child, yet many students become less interested in school music as they mature. Although previous research reveals activities that upper-elementary students may prefer, much of this research may not represent 21st-century students, the instruments and activities that have enhanced curricula in recent decades, or more diverse musical offerings from around the globe. To guide decision-making regarding the activities most appropriate for their students, teachers can gather information from students through both formal and informal means (e.g., conducting research). In this third article in our research-to-practice series, we use data …

Their Country: Black Women, Three Chords, And The Truth, Dmetri J. Smith

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Country music has long overlooked and at times outright erased the contributions of people of African descent. The past and present contributions of Black women are particularly ignored. Country music— a racially contested space centered in Nashville, Tennessee— is imbued with themes referencing the “good ole days” that were dangerous times for anyone who was not White, male, cisgender, and heterosexual. The genre has only become slightly more welcoming to those who are not part of the dominant class. And yet, there are Black women who feel called to use country music as their storytelling medium. My research shows …

V.1 Winter 2024, Center For Arts & Language, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

v.1 is a publishing platform for the ongoing work, ideas, discussions, debates, and aspirations of students at the Rhode Island School of Design. The Winter 2024 issue is formatted as a calendar featuring images of current RISD students recreating scenes from historical photos taken at RISD.

Chamber Tone Poems At The Turn Of The Twentieth Century: How The Harp Contributed To Their Development, Abigail Hughes Stoner

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Unlike other instruments, the harp was not used in chamber ensembles before the twentieth century. When it did start appearing in chamber ensembles, it was usually within programmatic works, non-traditional forms, unconventional instrument combinations, and mostly in France. At the same time, the harp began emerging as a chamber ensemble instrument, and a new genre of chamber music appeared: the chamber tone poem. There is a significant lack of scholarly research and literature as to why the harp appeared alongside chamber tone poems in these unusual chamber ensembles specifically at this time and especially in France. This paper will seek …

Nkoda, Ginger Williams

Library Faculty Publications

nkoda is a robust digital sheet music library and sophisticated user interface for interacting with scores. The resource will be beneficial to students to professional artists, creating efficiencies in ensembles, studios, and personal practice. The vast content library sets nkoda apart from other digital score apps, as does the ability to engage an institutional license.

Song Analysis - Final Project For The American Musical Experience, Agustina Checa

Open Educational Resources

Assignment designed as a final project for the undergraduate course MSH245: The American Musical Experience at Lehman College. This course surveys different musical expressions that emerged in the United States as well as the historical, social and technological contexts framing their popularization.This assignment asks students to analyze a song of their choosing performed by an American artist and to follow specific requirements in their study of this piece which include: historical and social contextualization, analysis of style, influences and lyrics, as well as the elaboration of a "listening guide" to fully appreciate the composition. Students are given the …

Religious Musical Art Of Ukraine In The Conditions Of Cultural Transformations, Maksym Melnychuk, Oleh Sokolovskyi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article explores Ukrainian religious musical art and highlights the transformative aspects of the development of Ukraine's spiritual music against the backdrop of cultural and historical changes. This phenomenon is analyzed as both a manifestation of the religiosity of the Ukrainian nation and its spiritual essence, as well as the result of the creative pursuits of composers--their doubts and efforts to infuse musical harmony with religious meaning and envelop their works with profound Christian significance. Spiritual music manifests and functions in various spheres of social existence but most naturally, fully, and effectively demonstrates its “life parameters” within temple and church …

Utilizing The Theory Of Planned Behavior And Self-Efficacy Theory To Investigate The Retention Of Band Students In A Rural School District, Jerry Junior Robinson

Doctor of Education Dissertations

Recruitment and retention play a significant role in the success of high school band programs. The purpose of this study was to examine what impacted post high school graduates’ and focus group participants' final decisions about participating in their high school band program. It utilized Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior and Bandura’s (1977) Self-Efficacy Theory. The participants were asked to answer and discuss questions based on their mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social/verbal experiences, physiological experiences, self-perception, and other influential factors to determine their future participation. The study was purposefully conducted at two different schools in two different geographical locations …

Lost In Time, Keefus Flax

Writing Beyond the Prison Living Archive

Poem on Prison life; Despair; Popular culture (music)

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Music Therapy Services, Joy Allen, Brian Jantz

Music and Health Research Briefs

Music therapy in neonatal intensive care is based on over 25 years of music therapy research and clinical practice as well as cumulative knowledge of premature and newborn infant development and human responsiveness to music.

Choral Students’ Perception Of Kinesthetic Pedagogy In The High School Choral Classroom, Molly Bolewski

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the incorporation of kinesthetic pedagogy in secondary choral rehearsals and its impact on student engagement and learning. Three experienced high school choral teachers and their students from Northern California participated in the study. Each teacher conducted four consecutive rehearsal sessions, recording themselves instructing on two pieces of music using teacher-modeled and student-imitated kinesthetic gestures. Students completed daily surveys assessing their enjoyment and engagement levels, and teachers provided a final reflection on their usual kinesthetic practices. Video footage of twelve rehearsals and teachers’ final reflections were analyzed to identify patterns in kinesthetic usage, revealing that these teachers’ kinesthetic …

Performing A Comeback: Assessing The Biography Of Alma Mahler Via Youtube Performances, Rachel E. Scott

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

The life and work of many nineteenth-century women composers cannot be satisfactorily studied or understood due to a lack of documentary evidence. In the case of Alma Mahler, however, it is not a lack of manuscript materials or biographical accounts that preclude the appraisal of her legacy, but rather the sheer volume and often contradictory nature of accounts. Although her early life writing emphasized the importance of music, she later downplayed her identity as a composer and emphasized her role of patron of the arts and muse to “great men.” I would argue, however, that if biography is a tool …

Elevato-Cdr: Speech Enhancement In Large Delay And Reverberant Assisted Living Scenarios, Swarnadeep Bagchi, Ruairí De Fréin

Conference papers

Speech enhancement algorithms are needed for Assisted Living (AL) environments, which are characterized by large inter-microphone spacings, significant phase-wraparound, and high reverberation times (T60). We contribute Elevato- CDR, which addresses the task of enhancing speech given the large relative delays and high levels of reverberation, which are characteristic of AL scenarios. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate Elevato-CDR’s performance and compare it with benchmark reverberation schemes, using speech mixtures which experience reverberation and background noise. Our findings indicate that Elevato-CDR successfully outperforms classical dereverberation algorithms in terms of subjective (MARS, PESQ) and objective (SDR, SRR) performance measures in …

Voices Of The Feis Ceoil: An Exploration Of The Association’S Operational And Choral Networks, 1897–1932, Helen Doyle

Doctoral

The Feis Ceoil or ‘festival of music’ is a large-scale annual competitive music event. It has provided huge stimulus to all facets of Irish musical life in its almost 130-year lifespan. This study examines the first four decades of the festival which was inaugurated during the Gaelic Revival, a period of cultural nationalism that saw the development and celebration of Irish art, literature, language, and music. As this is the first sustained project centred upon the Feis Ceoil archival collection, detailed excavation of which has not been undertaken before now, it draws on a large amount of previously unexplored primary …

Tracing The Contributions Of Django Reinhardt And Charlie Christian In The Evolution Of The Guitar In Jazz, Darach O'Laoire

Doctoral

The objective of this project is to examine the music of Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian with a view to analysing the origins and development of innovative harmonic and melodic material within their work. Having established the musical context in Europe and the United States from which both musicians developed, their musical styles are traced and analysed. The analytic framework used is one based on the organising principles underpinning the jazz solo of the time (circa 1920 to 1940). In examining Reinhardt’s and Christian’s musical outputs, the emphasis is put on identifying musical material which is anomalous to, or existing …

Adult Music Education: Negotiating New Musical Learning Identities In Adulthood, Marian Mcrory

Doctoral

This study presented an investigation into the field of adult music education. The inspiration for this research stemmed from a perceived need for a uniquely adult learning programme which evolved into two programmes, Allegro for Adults I and Allegro for Adults II. The concept of this programme also involved the adult learning environment which was based in a music conservatoire in a university. Diversity in the curricular content was an important consideration and although the pedagogical approach was accelerated in nature, gaining knowledge and understanding underpinned the skills-based and compositional elements.

Omphale, Phryné, Antigone, Hélène, Déjanire: ‘Le Sexe Faible’ In Camille Saint-Saëns’S Greece-Inspired Works, Arun Rao

Doctoral

This thesis examines the convergence of the fin-de-siècle revival of Greek antiquity and the denigration of women brought on by the patriarchal structures of the Second Empire and the Third Republic in five works composed by Camille Saint-Saëns between 1870 and 1910: Omphale, Phryné, Antigone, Hélène, and Déjanire. Its main purpose is to reveal the compositional strategies he devised in order to effectively give each of these title characters the musical upper hand over their male counterparts. That these five works were significant landmarks in his exceptionally long career is attested by the numerous articles he published around the time …

A Practice-Led Investigation Into Applying The Pianistic Qualities Of Guitarist Lenny Breau’S Artificial Harmonics To A Contemporary Music Setting, Joshua Luke Fairweather

Theses : Honours

Canadian jazz guitarist Lenny Breau (1941-1984) has long been revered for his innovative style and stellar approach to technique on the instrument. In his short career, he developed a reputation for emulating musical traits typically only associated with the piano. A key technique that allowed him to achieve this was his signature take on artificial harmonics, a guitar technique involving the displacement of a note by silencing a string’s fundamental frequency and isolating one of its overtones. Breau thoroughly explored this technique as a soloist over a range of jazz repertoire, but he was rarely heard playing outside of this …

The Early String Chamber Music Of Agnes Zimmermann, Miranda Dyskin

Theses : Honours

This dissertation focusses on the early string chamber music of German-English composer and pianist Agnes Zimmermann (1847-1925), written whilst she was a student at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Whilst almost unknown today, Zimmermann was one of the finest pianists of the late[1]Nineteenth Century, appearing throughout Europe both as a concerto soloist and as a distinguished chamber music collaborator. She was also an accomplished composer, writing piano pieces, songs, music for the church and, especially, chamber music. Her models were the great Germanic figures of the Nineteenth Century, especially Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Brahms.

This dissertation examines two …

Steve Grossman, The Catalyst: A Practice-Led Research Investigation Into Developing A Chromatic Approach To Improvisation, Joshua Parker

Theses : Honours

Steve Grossman was a tenor saxophonist from Brooklyn, New York, who passed away in 2020, leaving a catalogue of recordings and improvisations that are largely overlooked and under-appreciated by the mainstream jazz culture. Inspired heavily by the modal and free jazz improvisations of John Coltrane during his later period (which heavily utilised a chromatic approach to generate intensity), Grossman developed his own unique and powerful approach to the post-Coltrane style. This voice began to solidify from a young age, as is evident on recordings during the 1970s, such as Miles Davis’ Black Beauty Live at Fillmore West (1973) and Live …

Producing ‘Bedroom Pop’ Music: A Compositional Project That Employs Production And Compositional Techniques Identified Through Analysis Of Select Chelsea Cutler Songs, Anna Therese Dabbs

Theses : Honours

This study explores key production and compositional techniques in popular music, specifically within the genre of ‘bedroom pop,’ focusing on the distinctive style of artist and producer Chelsea Cutler. The aim of this project was to compose an entirely new work grounded in existing genre structures and shaped by Cutler’s unique approach. To achieve this, available literature on popular music production and composition, specifically ‘bedroom pop’, was reviewed to identify common processes and techniques. A listening analysis featuring five of Cutler’s songs was conducted to establish her unique production and compositional style, with findings applied in an original song, ‘You …

Equity In Harmony: Music Teacher Preparedness And Perceptions Of Multilingual Learners In The Midwest, Mckenzie Vick

Honors Program Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions music teachers in the Midwest have regarding working with multilingual students, how music education benefits their multilingual students, and how they perceive the struggles their multilingual students have regarding music education. The study was a qualitative study in which 5 teachers were interviewed on their perceptions. The study found that music teachers see many benefits of music education for multilingual students including: building a sense of belonging, helping with language learning, having a non-academic outlet, and providing additional socialization opportunities. It also found that teachers did not feel prepared to …

Concert Band Methods And Supplemental Ensemble Material For The High School Band, Carissa Blumka

Honors Program Theses

In a school band setting, most music educators will begin a rehearsal with a warm-up routine. When a unified group warm-up is desired, rather than allowing open time for students to warm up individually, a resource is needed. Many supplemental method books and materials have been published to provide exercises to organize this desired ensemble warm-up. After physically preparing students to play through a warm-up, many effective band directors choose to devote additional rehearsal time to the development of fundamental musical skills. Though much of the school band curriculum is taught through the repertoire selected for the ensemble to perform, …

Hillbilly Bands: Southern Rock's Impact On Southern Identity In The 1970s, John H. Hartman

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Music has always been a conduit in which its artists are able to voice their views, influences, desires, and heartbreaks to a wide audience. Southern Rock is no different. The emergence and popularity of the genre in the 1970s is not a coincidence, but rather a reflection of the South during this time. The South as a whole was changing due to the passage of the Civil Rights Act, ending Jim Crow Laws and denouncing racial oppression throughout the nation. For the South, This meant drastic changes to their society and the slow recognition of the racially oppressive ideals that …

Eurhythmic Use For Syncopation In An Instrumental Class, Kristen Flinner

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate how Dalcroze Eurhythmic approaches affect syncopated rhythm integrity in an instrumental class. One graduate and five undergraduate music education majors enrolled in a string methods course took part in this study. A pre-assessment was completed using an etude for cello comprised of syncopated rhythms. Following a sequence of four Dalcroze Eurhythmics-inspired lessons, post-assessment results showed an improvement in the fluidity and rhythmic accuracy of the six participants on the performance of the cello etude.