Music Commons^™

Fundamentals For Horn Students, Kierstin Jenkins

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Many band directors find teaching horn to be intimidating. Through extensive research, this project has compiled some of the best exercises to help horn players improve and explains the rationale behind them. The written work contains information and descriptions about the different fundamentals that horn students need in order to be successful and develop good tone quality. The appendix includes examples of these exercises so that an educator has resources to teach his/her horn students. The fundamentals included are: breathing, buzzing, long tones, flow studies, lip slurs, and pitch.

Character Studies Of Time: A Two Movement Work For Orchestra, Crystal Darcell Birdsong

LSU Master's Theses

The idea behind The Character Studies of Time: A Two Movement Work for Orchestra should be reminiscent of, and is inspired by the character pieces of Robert Schumann’s Carnival. Although the works of Robert Schumann are originally short piano solos, the spirit of the character piece and all that it entails could be found throughout The Character Studies of Time. This symphony does not follow a strict form of 19th century writing, although the elements of romanticism can be found throughout the piece. The “characters” as they relate to time are quite literally “night” and “day.” The individual titles are …

On The Use And Development Of The Pentatonic Scale Through The Works Of Antonín Dvořák, Andrew W. Brinkman

LSU Master's Theses

Concepts related to style change have been discussed thoroughly by theorists such as Leonard Meyer and others. In the case of Czech scholar, Antonín Dvořák, this change relates directly to his pentatonic style. While many musicologists suggest that the composer's travels to the United States in the early 1890's had a profound effect on the birth of his pentatonic style, this thesis posits that Dvořák's pentatonicism is apparent from even his earliest works. In examining evidence of this pentatonicism it becomes clear that, for Dvořák, there are two types: thematic and cadential. Thematic pentatonicism arises from themes of works or …

Theseus And The Minotaur, Ben Lutterbach

Graduate Thesis Collection

Theseus and the Minotaur is a four movement, through-composed chamber work for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. The work explores elements of fear, chaos, love, and aggression.

Music As Narrative In American College Football, John M. Mccluskey

Theses and Dissertations--Music

American college football features an enormous amount of music woven into the fabric of the event, with selections accompanying approximately two-thirds of a game’s plays. Musical selections are controlled by a number of forces, including audio and video technicians, university marketing departments, financial sponsors, and wind bands. These blend together in a complex design that offers audible and visual stimulation to the audience during the game’s pauses. The music chosen for performance in these moments frequently communicates meaning beyond entertainment value. Selections reinforce the game’s emotional drive, cue celebrations, direct specific audience actions, and prompt behaviors that can directly impact …

Effect Of Self-Evaluation On Jazz Improvisation Achievement, Ollie Eugene Liddell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

"Pa'l Norte," "Sueño Americano" E "Ice El Hielo": Un Análisis Del Video Musical En El Desmontaje De La Retórica Anti-Inmigrante En Los Estados Unidos, Aida M. Villarreal-Licona

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis is an analytical case study of three music videos, "Pa'l Norte" by Calle 13, "Sueño Americano" by Los Rakas, and "Ice El Hielo" by La Santa Cecilia. It explores the visual and lyric narratives of these works and their role in critiquing anti-immigration rhetoric towards Latino immigrants in the United States in a post-9/11 context. Through critical analysis, this thesis argues that their work is vital in dismantling the dehumanizing and criminalizing language prevalent in legal and popular discourse, as well as challenging the manifestations of everyday "illegality."

Challenges In Beginning Trombone Pedagogy, Robert Sobnosky

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The development of strong fundamental skills is essential for success on any instrument. Beginning wind players must be carefully monitored so they can develop the good playing habits and basic skills that form the foundations of strong musicianship. Each instrument presents its own unique challenges. The trombone could be considered the most unique of the beginning band instruments due to size, slide, and technique. These challenges can lead to a number of problems that music educators must be able to recognize and correct. For this project, six music educators with experience teaching beginning trombone students were interviewed about common problems …

Heard In The Storm, M. A.Y. Greenhalgh , Text, Myrna J. Layton , Music, John C. Leavitt , Arrangment

Faculty Publications

The rain was falling, the winders were calling, The clouds swept over the sky, When 'mid the alarm of darkness and storm A shower of song swept by; ...

An Analysis Of Selected Rhythmic, Harmonic And Melodic Devices Used In The Arrangement And Improvisation By Gwilym Simcock On The Way You Look Tonight (2007), Brodie Stewart

Theses : Honours

Gwilym Simcock, a seminal jazz pianist at the forefront of the European music scene, sees no boundaries between jazz and classical music. His debut album Perception (2007) received impressive critical acclaim, and has been considered a musical fingerprint of his various influences and composition style. This research pursues a deeper insight into the characteristics of his arranging and improvisational style by identifying notable devices used in the performance of The Way You Look Tonight, a well-known jazz standard that is featured on the album.

The tune itself is has been reimagined as a modern-sounding arrangement centred on a rhythmic …

A Performance Guide To Etüden Für Flöte(N) Solo By Isang Yun, Brian Dunbar

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Born in Korea, Isang Yun (1917-1995) became one of the most prominent avant-garde composers in the world. Yun made use of a distinctive musical language that synthesized Far East Asian philosophy, especially Chinese Taoism, with Western techniques and Korean traditional instrumental idioms. Isang Yun left more that 100 works, including twelve works that feature the flute. This essay will discuss Yun’s five Etüden für Flöte(n) solo (Etudes for solo flute(s)), which are highly representative of Yun’s solo music for flute. The document will include a discussion and performance guide for each of the five etudes. This document will present an …

A Theory Of Form As Temporal Referentiality, Eron F. Smith

Pomona Senior Theses

This study proposes temporal referentiality—roughly defined as the orientation of substance in its temporal medium—as a theoretical and analytical framework for musical form. Operating on the principle of music as a temporally extended entity, this thesis explores the connections that occur between substance across its medium, suggests an additional interpretation of medium connections (temporality) in terms of language tense, and examines substance connections (referentiality) through different types of filtering.

I also propose a means for visual and literary interpretation of temporal referentiality, depicting a network of substance relationships established over a piece’s timespace. Analysis of this type assumes a listener’s …

Uisce: Compositional Explorations For Various Ensembles, James May

Senior Independent Study Theses

No abstract provided.

Practising Jazz Performance: An Investigation Into The Process That Underpins Optimal Instrumental Practice In The Jazz Idiom, Christopher J. Tarr

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Little formal research has been undertaken into the processes associated with jazz improvisation, particularly those associated with practising to become an elite jazz improviser. This study seeks to understand the role of instrumental practice, particularly physical practice strategies and the associated mental states, in the development of jazz improvisers. Interviews were conducted with six improvisers of various ages, instruments and backgrounds. The study identified a number of strategies specific to jazz practice that differed from traditional practice strategies described in Western art literature, particularly in relation to the importance of the ear-to-instrument connection. Accordingly, the study sets out a series …

The Possibilities Of A Line: Marking The Glissando In Music, Cat Hope, Michael Terren

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The glissando as it is deployed in Western art music notation carries with it a number of challenges to the hegemony of traditional harmony, rhythm, and notation. The glissando embodies the smooth line, unlike the striated pitch-time space of traditional Western music, which aligns the glissando to many philosophical concepts, as well as mathematical, scientific, and architectural disciplines. Select works by Iannis Xenakis, James Tenney and Giacinto Scelsi are discussed for their development of glissandi as integral formal components, especially around the glissando’s tendency to encourage stasis. Compositional attempts to combine the nature of glissandi with drone in the author’s …

Exploring Teachers’ Perspectives Of Cooperative Learning To Create Music In Orff Schulwerk Classrooms, Nicole A. Chapman

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

The Framework for 21st Century Learning identifies four learning and innovation skills to prepare students for a changing world. The 4Cs identified are critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity (Framework for 21st Century Learning, 2015). With the adoption of this new teaching framework, it is important that music educators evaluate their own teaching methods to meet the needs of their students in a changing society. The purpose of this study was to examine how cooperative group learning is currently integrated in the Orff-Schulwerk certified teachers’ elementary music classroom as part of the creative music process. In this qualitative study, I …

Physiological Response To Dissonance In Musicians And Nonmusicians, Angela Beth Biehl

Masters Theses

Knowing the human response to musical dissonance could have important therapeutic implications in the music therapy setting. The listener’s musical experience could significantly impact their response and subsequently its effect in a therapeutic setting. Thus, this study aimed to examine both the psychophysiological and subjective responses to dissonance and the difference in these responses between those with high experience and those with low experience. Participating groups, categorized as high experience (HE) and low experience (LE) in terms of musical knowledge, listened to consonant and dissonant musical excerpts, and rated each excerpt on its pleasantness; their physiologic responses were measured to …

The Effects Of Music On Education And Early Literacy: An Insight On Defining Literacy And The Use Of Music In The Classroom, Lindsey Hawkins

University Honors Program

The purpose of this essay is to examine the effects that music has on education and literacy, and to provide insight on how to go about using music in a classroom. First, the essay will define the word ‘literacy,’ and prove why this is important, and then describe how literacy is taught in a classroom using phonics. Then, it will take a look at how music affects the student brain, and how those effects are linked directly to the way students process reading, writing, and communication. Finally, this essay will look at the direct effects that music has on education …

Melodious Marketing: The Intentions Of Music In T.V. Commercials, Katelyn Reithel

University Honors Program

Whether intentional or not, music seems to be an important element in television commercials. This thesis will determine exactly how effective music is and if a company’s marketing team considers using music to reach a specific advertising goal. To do this, several areas are discussed including psychomusicology (the effects of music on a human’s responses) in relation to emotional response and memorability, music’s effect of brand attitude and purchasing intentions made by consumers, the use of jingles, effects of T.V. commercials on the music industry, and the challenges that may arise by using music in a T.V. commercial. Regardless of …

Fall Chamber Series (November 20-21, 23, 2015), Lindenwood University

Student Music Performance Programs

Program for Fall Chamber Series (November 20-21, 23, 2015).

Series included:

• Brass Ensemble Concert (November 20, 2015)
• Guitar and Jazz Combos Concert (November 21, 2015)
• String and Woodwinds Ensembles Concert (November 23, 2015)

Joan, Sarah Bauerle

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Joan is an original, programmatic piece for orchestra, with an approximate running time of eight minutes. It is inspired by the life of Joan of Arc, the French heroine at the end of the Hundred Years' War. Themes evoking major characters are presented as the piece unfolds. Along with original material, melodies from several folksongs are used in the themes representing Joan and the English. The English "Agincourt Carol" dates to the Hundred Years' War. Joan's themes, "Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella" and "He is Born," are both familiar French carols. In addition to these two themes, the piece begins …

Fall Music Series (November 9-11, 14, 2015), Lindenwood University

Student Music Performance Programs

Program for Fall Music Series (November 9-11, 14, 2015).

Series included:

• Jazz Band (November 9, 2015)
• Symphonic Orchestra (November 10, 2015)
• Percussion Ensemble and Symphonic Band (November 11, 2015)
• Lindenwood University Choirs (November 14, 1015)

Who Can Afford To Improvise? James Baldwin And Black Music, The Lyric And The Listeners [Table Of Contents], Ed Pavlic

Literature

More than a quarter-century after his death, James Baldwin remains an unparalleled figure in American literature and African American cultural politics. In Who Can Afford to Improvise? Ed Pavlić offers an unconventional, lyrical, and accessible meditation on the life, writings, and legacy of James Baldwin and their relationship to the lyric tradition in black music, from gospel and blues to jazz and R&B. Based on unprecedented access to private correspondence, unpublished manuscripts and attuned to a musically inclined poet’s skill in close listening, Who Can Afford to Improvise? frames a new narrative of James Baldwin’s work and life.

The route …

Ed Roth, Margaret Von Steinen

International Faculty Researchers

Can listening to and making music be effectively used in the treatment of people diagnosed with neurologic and psychiatric disorders? This is the primary question Professor Ed Roth, director of WMU’s music therapy program, is attempting to answer in collaboration with colleagues from around the world to improve treatment for people experiencing post-traumatic stress and other acute anxiety disorders. He is a co-founder and director of WMU’s Laboratory for Brain Research and Interdisciplinary Neurosciences (BRAIN) (article) and a Fellow in the Academy of Neurologic Music Therapists, who specializes in the application of music in the treatment of neurologic disorders and …

Martha Councell-Vargas, Christine Lena

International Faculty Researchers

Travelling to Central America in college is all it took to inspire Martha Councell-Vargas to begin a career of teaching, researching, and performing flute music of the Americas.

B-Boy And Buuz: A Study Of Mongolian Hip-Hop Culture, Quinn Graham Wallace

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

When walking down the streets of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, passersby will find countless material traits of hip-hop culture surrounding them, including snapback hats, skateboards, and tattoos. A powerful combination of urban growth, democracy, and a booming market economy has invited and stimulated contemporary forms of hip-hop, creating an active but unorganized Mongolian hip-hop sub-culture and community. In this explorative and analytical paper, I examine what Mongolian hiphop artists express about present-day Mongolia through hip-hop mediums and why they are a unique critical voice. While there are several facets of hip-hop, I focus on three modes of traditional hip-hop culture: oral (rapping), …

Making A Great Performance: A Step-By-Step Guide, Diego A. Rocha

Student Publications

This project is meant to synthesize the body of knowledge I gained from my First-Year Seminar and my own research into a practical guide for excellence in performance. In it I address a number of stages and steps necessary for successful performance and various ways of going about those. While it focuses more heavily on the performance of music, due to my background and my intention to become a music educator, much of the text can be used in any field.

The Trials Of A New Teacher, Diego A. Rocha

Student Publications

Tim, a new teacher, faces challenges as he works towards changing the environment in a high school music program.

Notes From Mrs. Hadgu's Class: Conceptualizing Music Education Curriculum For A Changing World, Logan B. Santiago

Student Publications

How can we conceptualize curriculum and school knowledge to better address important questions of social change, contingency of knowledge, life in mediated worlds, and inequalities? To answer this question I wrote fictional stories from students about their favorite moments from their 8th grade music class. Each account deals with a specific activity or instance in which the teacher included social change and/or student centered knowledge in the curriculum. The explanation at the end of the accounts details the reasons for creating each activity and the relation of the stories to texts utilized in class.

Authenticity In Music Performance: Evidence From The Singer-Songwriter Community, Jon Littlefield

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Experiencing music provides a unique lens to study identity. The alienation resulting from increased technological mediation in both music production and consumption might drive consumption (Potter 2010), hence authenticity may be an appealing positioning strategy for marketers. Singer-songwriters, for example, write and perform their own music with minimal technological interference. This represents a direct connection with the musician that we characterize as more historically authentic (Thornton 1996), however this characterization is not universal. In this paper, I seek to gather insight into the myriad expressions of authenticity within the music consumption environment by detailing a study of performance musicians.