Music Commons^™

Learning To Sing, Nicholas Tierney

Senior Honors Projects

Singing alone in the car was okay because no one was there to listen. I wanted to see if I could learn to sing, and do it successfully, with a group of people. By joining URI’s University Chorus this semester, I hoped to learn techniques for successful choral singing. Through a guided self-analysis I set out to chronicle my journey from the first rehearsal to the final concerts.

For me, the three most important questions I wanted to answer when staging my research--a blend of an academic analysis and my personal and qualitative data--were: Why do people sing? Why do …

Carnegie Hall Recital Poster, Kate Boyd

Scholarship and Professional Work – Arts

No abstract provided.

Musical Ear Syndrome: What Do We Know?, Cara D. Pestel

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to review the existing literature regarding Musical Ear Syndrome and other related auditory hallucinations. While the existence of auditory hallucinations is evident, their cause is unclear and widely understudied. There was a need for existing information to be compiled for use in the healthcare field. This review of existing literature will aid speech-language pathologists, audiologists, nurses, psychologists, and physicians in understanding this condition and what differentiates it from other various disorders. This will allow these professionals to better understand the experiences and needs of those with Musical Ear Syndrome.

The Intersection Of Manufacturing Technologies And School Music Programs, Leslie Prunier

University Scholar Projects

The objective of this project is to design and manufacture a musical instrument, a marching baritone horn, out of plastic. It is constructed out of both PVC pipe and 3D-printed components. Utilizing this project’s documentation, a high school student could use a 3D printer and other basic tools to make their own musical instrument for a fraction of the cost of purchasing one. This documentation will produce a horn tuned in the key of B flat with one functioning valve, and suggestions for future work to make the other two valves functional as well.

"Choir Is For Girls": Intersectional Mixed Methods Perspectives On Adolescent Gender Identity, Singing Interest, And Choral Music Participation, Briana E. Nannen

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

As students progress through adolescent development, researchers have observed a lack of male participation in choral music activities. This male to female imbalance is often attributed to a perception that singing is a feminine activity and results in a lack of balance in choral music ensembles. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore adolescent gender identity as it relates to singing interest and choral music participation. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was used, in which quantitative data were collected and analyzed followed by in-depth qualitative interviews. A group of 9^th grade students (n=174) completed the …

The Transmutation Of The Immutable Abyss, Amanda Mccullough

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

The Transmutation of the Immutable Abyss is a song cycle for a female voice and chamber orchestra, originally inspired by the instrumentation of a community theater pit orchestra. This piece sets eight poems by A. R. Ammons over eight movements. One primary goal of this piece was to combine elements of jazz and contemporary classical music.

The Transmutation of the Immutable Abyss also explores duality along with the combination of disparate elements to create a more complete whole. In a literal sense, jazz and classical elements coexist in varying amounts of prominence. Also in a literal sense, elements of tonality …

Requiem, Jacob K. Lee

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

Traditionally, the requiem form began as a Catholic mass to honor the dead. Today, the requiem is generally composed conveying messages of solace to troubled hearts. Many composers, such as Britten and Rutter, choose to abandon some of the orthodox text of the mass to provide an added measure of connection for the audience. The result of these later requiems is often a baring of the composer’s soul – something profoundly personal shared in the hope of inspiring others. This latter process is my aim in creating my Requiem. I approach this end in several ways, compositionally: There is a …

A Study Of The Performance Requirements Found In The Sonata For Solo Violin Op. 40 By Miklós Rózsa, James Moat

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

Miklós Rózsa’s Sonata for Violin Solo, written in 1986, is his last work for violin and completes a collection of pieces written for the violin dating back to 1929. There have been various scholarly papers written about Rózsa’s violin works, including Nancy Jane McKenney’s dissertation: ‘The Chamber Music of Miklós Rózsa’, and the book written by one of Rózsa’s close friends, Christopher Palmer: ‘Miklós Rózsa, A Sketch of his Life and Work’. Neither of these works discusses the Solo Sonata; in fact, Christopher Palmer’s book was published in 1974, 12 years before the sonata was even composed.

This document discusses …

The War Never Ends: A Composition For Large Jazz Ensemble In Three Movements, Derek James Molacek

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

“The War Never Ends” is a three-movement programmatic suite for large jazz ensemble plus additional instruments, dedicated to the military service personnel who suffer from Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder. The piece is comprised of three movements:I.“The Call to Serve”; II. “The Call to War”; and III. “The Call for Peace.” Each movement tells a different part of a story of a person who has signed up for military service.

“The Call to Serve” serves as the beginning to our service member’s journey; from recruitment, to training, to assignment. “The Call to War” illustrates deployment: Specifically, deployment to the Middle-East. This …

Tonal Procedures In Lowell Liebermann's Concerto For Piccolo And Orchestra, Kathryn Laura Rice

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

This thesis seeks to impart how Lowell Liebermann incorporates common practice tonal elements into his twentieth-century Concerto for Piccolo. This will be shown through a detailed analysis of the three-movement work highlighting how the composer uses characteristics of common practice tonality as compiled by Joseph Straus in the third edition of his text, Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory. This document is organized into five sections. The first explains background information on the concerto as well as presents the parameters to be used for the analysis. The second through fourth sections provide an analysis of each movement in chronological order, detailing how …

Worship Renewal Through Discipleship: How Discipleship And Mission Affects Our Worship, Kevin Haglund

Masters Theses

Numerous articles, blogs, and books have been written in recent years about the lessening of congregational participation in singing and many have called for a renewal of worship and changes in worship practice within the church. Yet, most of the solutions offered are aimed at bettering what happens inside the worship event—singing songs with more theologically rich lyrics, incorporating more scripture and prayer, striving for more creative ways to engage the congregation, more resources and training for worship leaders, and many other valuable ideas. As excellent as those solutions may be, they are incomplete unless we also focus on that …

Enhancing The Spiritual Well-Being Of Alzheimer's Patients Utilizing Music, Sheri Heeb

Masters Theses

Over 40 million people have some form of dementia. Alzheimer’s Disease “is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.” The non-pharmaceutical approaches in this study do not have the side-effects of many of the therapies currently being used for treating Alzheimer’s Disease. As part of this project, I will reference multiple research studies which include spirituality and Alzheimer’s Disease, the Nun Study of the Sisters of Notre Dame, and music therapy and Alzheimer’s Disease. Results show that music therapy boosts the memory, reduces anxiety and behavioral issues, and restores a sense of self-awareness. Other studies show that …

Salar Music And Identity: A "Sad" Sound, Elizabeth Keating

Masters Theses

The Salar are a Muslim minority group in China. They are from the northwest province of Qinghai. Xunhua, the Salar autonomous county, is located about 150 kilometers away from Qinghai’s capital, Xining. I have elected to learn about this minority group because of the need for research and general value. There is a need because little prior research has been done concerning the Salar minority within the field of ethnomusicology. This hole needs to be filled within minority China research. Beyond ethnomusicology, cultural and sociological understanding will profit, expanding the knowledge base of humankind. Also, the Salar themselves are interested …

Introduction To Piano Pedagogy: A Bible-Based Course For Piano Teacher Training In Christian Colleges And Universities, Alissa Passburg

Masters Theses

Piano pedagogy, like teacher education in any discipline, is built on the conviction that an individual can be trained to be a successful piano teacher. However, determining what specific aspects to include in the piano pedagogy classroom to foster a pre-service piano teacher’s growth and development is a point of much discussion. Oftentimes piano teacher training focuses on developing the characteristics considered essential to the role of a successful piano teacher. For Christian pre-service piano teachers and piano pedagogy professors in Christian colleges and universities, these characteristics provide a meaningful way for Biblical truth and piano pedagogy coursework to intersect. …

Porch And Playhouse, Parlor And Performance Hall: Traversing Boundaries In Gottschalk's The Banjo, Laura Moore Pruett

Visual & Performing Arts Faculty Publications

This article reconsiders the cultural significance and historical impact of the well-known virtuosic piano composition The Banjo by Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Throughout the early nineteenth century, the banjo and the piano inhabited very specific and highly contrasting performance circumstances: black folk entertainment and minstrel shows for the former, white middle- and upper-class parlors and concert halls for the latter. In The Banjo, Louis Moreau Gottschalk lifted the banjo out of its familiar contexts and placed it in the spaces usually privileged for the piano. Taking its inspiration from both African American and minstrel banjo playing techniques, Gottschalk's composition relaxed and …

Music Therapists' Self-Care: Examining The Effectiveness Of Educational Preparation For Clinical Practice, Maureen C. Hearns

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of undergraduate academic and clinical training programs for music therapy in addressing the subject of personal growth, as it relates to the development of critical self-awareness and self-care strategies. The study further attempted to identify which self-care strategies are being used by practicing music therapy clinicians and how a practice of self-care impacts their work with distressed and/or traumatized individuals. An electronic survey sent to all board-certified music therapists (MT-BCs) (N = 6369) generated a demographic profile of music therapy practitioners who identified their clientele as distressed and/or traumatized. The …

Changing Musical Canon In Depauw Piano Recitals, Eric Heaton

Student Research

In the present day, it is easy to imagine the tried-and-true simplicity of the current formula for piano recitals as something that must have always existed. A piano recital is expected to cover specific styles, genres, and composers, with a predictable framework to tie everything together. However, history reveals a wider and more varied offering of pieces, composers, and performers that could be presented in any configuration on a recital. This variety constitutes nearly half the history of the piano recital, but is not well known today. In the present directive of looking to the future for something new as …

Art Infested Water, Graduation Edition, May 2017, Nova Southeastern University Department Of Performing And Visual Arts

Department of Performing and Visual Arts Newsletters

No abstract provided.

The Biomechanics Of Music Performance, Rachel F. Bellisle, Jessika Decker

Senior Honors Projects

When first learning to play a wind instrument, beginner musicians are taught how to hold their instrument and correctly position their body. They are taught how to sit, where to put their hands and fingers on the keys, and how to hold their arms. This initial lesson on posture and hand positioning is often short, as one quickly moves on to learn the embouchure and breathing techniques that allow sound to be produced. As a musician progresses in skill, positioning is emphasized more, and they learn that it can affect their risk of strain or injury and improve their sound …

Music Therapy’S Impact On Substance Abuse Recovery, Justin Bishop-Williams

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Music therapy has been a viable means of treatment for various medical conditions such as; treating PTSD, mental illness and even used alongside cognitive behavior therapy practices. Since the 70’s licensed therapists have been utilizing music therapy to combat the effect of addiction caused by substance abuse disorders. Addiction impacts the lives of one in ten Americans and only eleven percent seek help in forms of addiction treatment centers or 12-step-programs. With the combination of music therapy, addiction patients can discover feelings and emotions that have been suppressed through years of substance abuse. Forms of music therapy being examined for …

Barfield, Kazik, Nazaykinskaya, And Beyond: A Discussion Of The Commission Process Regarding Trombone Literature, S. Kyle Moore

Honors Theses

There has historically been limited repertoire for trombonists to perform outside of orchestral writing—so limited that the first trombone solo recital was performed by Davis Shuman in 1947. The trombone has been present in the musical community since the mid-fifteenth century, yet it has only recently emerged as a unique, virtuosic instrument. Due to its delayed emergence and limited repertoire, the need to advance the instrument and its musical literature has led to the commission process between artists and composers: Interested parties approach composers with the prospect of writing music for compensation. In this manner, the composer is compensated for …

An Analysis Of Dvořák’S Symphony No. 6, Ii, Using Neo-Riemannian Transformation Techniques, Mary Hannah Mallett

Honors Theses

Music theory is often used to analyze compositions and provide insight into the inner workings of the literature. Any new type of analysis provides a different view of the work and they can all be used to better understand the work, composer, and performance practice. This analysis uses Neo-Riemannian Transformation Theory to highlight some of the voice leading within Dvořák’s Sixth Symphony. The Sixth Symphony currently has never been analyzed using Neo-Riemannian Transformation Theory. The entire second movement was analyzed using a traditional harmonic analysis and then the author selected three excerpts, containing voice leading that could be classified using …

Restoration: An Oratorio Based On Ezra And Nehemiah, Joshua Bland

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In beginning a project of this scope, I first spent months considering the genre in which I wanted to work. Once I committed to an Oratorio, more months were spent reading and finding the story I needed to tell and the orchestral medium through which to tell it. Thus began Restoration, an oratorio based on the story of Ezra and Nehemiah. I came to this story for several reasons: first, though comprising a unique moment in Old Testament history, it has not been told through music. More importantly, I believed that the themes of this story were ones that needed …

Music Reviews, Volume 73, No. 5, Kathleen Roland-Silverstein

Voice - All Scholarship

Contains reviews of Marietta’s Lied, “Gluck, das ist mir verblieb,” aus der Oper, Die tote Stadt, op. 12.; Complete Songs for Solo Voice and Piano. Part 1: Individual Songs; Part 2: Songs from Collections; 21st Century Musical Theatre: 50 Songs from Shows Since 2000; Contemporary Theatre Songs: Songs from the 21st Century; Theatre and Cabaret Comedy Songs: 33 Songs

Genesis : For Orchestra., Zachary Dwight Lowery

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Genesis is a two-movement work for full orchestra that depicts the Creation and Flood story. These two stories are an inverse of each other, one of beginnings, and the other of endings. The idea of creation is portrayed musically through the stacking and building of various motives presented throughout the piece to create a musical "world". Those motives and ideas are then scattered, distorted, and further fragmented to show the utter destruction of creation. Ultimately this piece is about the power and grace of God, and His plan through it all.

"Given Time..." For Soprano And Orchestra., Alex Isackson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The title of this work, Given time… is meant to be less like a traditional title and more like the beginning of a deep thought. Time is one of those things that I think humans just don’t understand and don’t give very much thought to, especially considering how much time has already passed and how much time left there is in the universe. Where does space and time end? And where do we (or I) fit in all of it? Does everything I do have any lasting impact on the eternal scheme of things? The list of questions goes …

Tonal Shift, Cadence And Transition In The Brass Sonatas Of Paul Hindemith., Blake Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines analytical facets in Paul Hindemith’s sonatas for brass and piano, ranging in date of composition from 1938 to 1955, while also considering Hindemith’s role as a neoclassicist and how these works help inform and shape our knowledge of Hindemith’s neoclassicism. The document is divided into four chapters: Hindemith and Tonality, Analytical Concerns and Methods, Brass Sonata Analyses, and Hindemith and Neoclassicism. As a fundamentally neoclassical composer, Hindemith combined traditional aspects of form with new applications of tonality, establishing within his music various levels of what he termed “key areas.” Through analyzing the corpus of sonatas for solo …

The Sounds Behind Language : Three Musical Settings Of Beckett's Not I By Heinz Holliger, Paul Rhys, And Agata Zubel., Trevor Roy Dejarnett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Samuel Beckett’s literary and dramatic works have served as sources of inspiration in the last five decades for multiple composers such as Morton Feldman and György Kurtág. Beckett’s late minimalist monologue Not I (1972) is the basis for recent compositions by Heinz Holliger, Paul Rhys, and Agata Zubel. While scholars have discussed similarities between Beckett’s style and individual musical works, a comprehensive study of multiple compositions based on the same work by Samuel Beckett has not yet been completed. Each of these compositions reflects various aspects of Beckett’s late dramatic style such as his use of rhythm, depiction of internal …

Participation In Amateur Orchestra And Subjective Well-Being In Korea: A Perspective From Community Music Therapy, Hyun-Jung Kang

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods research was to investigate which individual and external factors related to participation in an amateur orchestra influence members’ subjective well-being (SWB) and how those factors contribute to members’ SWB from a community music therapy (CoMT) perspective in South Korea. The study employed a sequential explanatory mixed-method design. Quantitative data were gathered from 126 members of nine amateur orchestras through a survey questionnaire including demographics and musical background, Perceived Values of the Amateur Orchestra Members (PVAOM), the Basic Psychological Needs Scales (BPNS), the Individualism and Collectivism Scale (INS-COL), and the Satisfaction with the Life Scale (SWLS). …

The Development Of Guzheng Tuning, Xin Yue Li

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The guzheng is a musical instrument that has existed for about 2500 years, since the period between 770 and 476 BCE. The tuning of the guzheng is the foundation that influences how its music performed. It plays a decisive role not only in musical creation, but also in musical skills and applications. It also affects the sustainability of the guzheng's art. By analyzing the traditions and the developments of the tuning of the guzheng, this thesis will inform the reader about how the various tunings of the guzheng have influenced its development. In addition, this thesis will deeply explore the …