Music Commons^™

Middle School Choir Class Advocacy, Kara Vombrack

Graduate Research Showcase

This research is based on a survey given to surrounding middle school choir teachers regarding if their choir is a class or not in their district. The study looks into the benefits of having choir during the day and as a graded class. The study also analyzes school schedules and how they affect choir during the day. Choral advocacy is addressed and suggestions are given for how to grow a program that isn’t a class; which is the current problem at my school. This study also addresses how choir directors can gain more choral advocacy in their district and increase …

The Effect Of Listening To Relaxing Music Versus Mood Sequence Formulatm Music On Anxiety, Stress, And Resilience In Healthcare Workers And Hospital Staff: A Pilot Study, Anna P. Ortiz

All Zyzzogeton Presentations

The study aims include testing:

• Effect of music listening interventions to decrease anxiety and stress in healthcare workers compared to attention control.
• Effect of music listening interventions to improve resilience in healthcare workers compared to attention control.
• Compare the efficacy of music listening interventions with relaxing music (60-80 beats per minute) to music infused with the Mood Sequence FormulaTM (Stress Break) on stress, anxiety, and resilience in healthcare workers.
• Use of online intranet platform for delivery of study interventions and participant engagement

Star Burning Blue By Kelly-Marie Murphy, Madeleine Montgomery

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

Recruitment And Retention In The Choral Classroom, Brianna Riley

Graduate Research Showcase

One of the distinguishing elements of a successful, flourishing music program is the number of students enrolled in a performing ensemble. This literature review examines sources that provide answers to a simple question: How can teachers use strategies to improve recruitment and retention in a music program? Music teachers have always worked to improve enrollment and retention of students in their classes, but as we move forward in a world affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, traditional ways of recruiting may not always be successful. Considerations of current trends include lack of foundational relationships between programs and adherence to traditional, unsuccessful …

Honoring Womanhood: The Creative Works Of Elinor Dunsmuir: Minerva Teichert Award Winner 2021, Nicole Dayton

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

Edgerton Center 2022/23 Season, Edgerton Center For The Performing Arts

Edgerton Center Programs

Program for the 2022/2023 season of the Edgerton Center for the Performing Arts.

College Of The Arts 22/23 Season, Department Of Theatre And Dance, John J. Cali School Of Music

2022-2023

No abstract provided.

Using Song To Teach Sight Words, Taylor Hagood Guin

Graduate Research Showcase

This research is about how a group of seven kindergarten classes used a short and straightforward song to recognize the following six common kindergarten sight words: on, off, up, us, no, & go. As a current music educator and former middle grades English teacher, I wanted to create an opportunity to establish cross-curricular connections in my music classroom. For this specific experiment, seven different classes, including General Education, Self-Contained Special Education, and English Language Learning classes, were selected. They were taught these six sight word songs through the “Sight Word Song.” I selected the sight words specifically because the students …

Impact Of A Puppet On Music Performance Anxiety In Elementary Students, Jessica Nohner

Graduate Research Showcase

Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) is a common problem among musicians and has been shown to impact young children. There are many factors that may contribute to student feelings of MPA including perfectionism. Music educators are in a unique position and have a responsibility to assist students with MPA. While some strategies have been used to help individuals cope with feelings of MPA, music educators do not have researched strategies available to them which are easily implemented in general music classrooms. In music therapy and psychology, puppets have been used in work with children. In this study I research the use …

Supporting Reading In Elementary Music Classroom, Jazmin Hunt

Graduate Research Showcase

Many educators are posed with the task of supporting reading and math proficiencies of students, particularly in elementary school settings. It is the educator’s responsibility to take active part in the holistic growth of students. As music teachers, how can reading be intertwined in a way that can build a student’s reading score? Should there be additional learning taking place, or do music class curricula integrate reading well? Does music class actually have an effect on student reading skills? Supporting Reading with Music: Music Education and How It Supports Reading Proficiencies in Elementary School Students is a literature review that …

Music Theory Pedagogy For The Violin: Cognitive Philosophy And Three Model Curricula, Morganne J. Mcintyre

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Violin playing promotes a connection between mind and body that allows the performer to internalize, or embody, tactile features of the instrument, such as the distance between strings, the feeling of the fingertips on the fingerboard, the interval size between notes, and many other aspects. This thesis designs a pedagogy that employs the violin’s physical attributes to provide the beginning through advanced player with a deeper understanding of music theory. The thesis suggests pairing of physical learning and musical theory at each stage of a violinist’s musical education. Chapter 1 surveys embodied cognition and cognitive artifacts. Chapter 2 applies these …

“This Rigid Curricular Way”: Evaluating Expectations In Collegiate Music Education, Sophie Ailsa Lewis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Conversations surrounding curricular reform are abound in music education today. Much of the literature on this topic explores how professors can adapt their teaching practices to the presumed needs of students in the classroom, but student voices are infrequently centered in these discussions.

This thesis examines the study of music in the collegiate setting from the student perspective. Using a survey which I designed and interviews that I conducted, I examine the disconnect between student values and those of the institutions they attend. I then put these student perspectives in conversation with existing literature.

I discovered that student experiences revolve …

A Labor Of Love: Extensive Exploitation Of Contract Music Workers, Malia Odekirk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Workers across the United States are reckoning with unfair labor conditions by unionizing and speaking out. Systemic undervaluing of many workers has created a climate of fear, hidden agendas, and pervasive labor misconduct. The pageantry/marching arts are no exception. As a cultural insider, I conducted interviews, had many informal conversations, and ran a large survey that uncovered how the marching arts exploit instructors extensively despite their experience, education, and efforts. A systematic proclivity toward late payments, abused contracts, egregiously low compensation, and free labor begs the question: how can programs continually mistreat instructors this way? I explore this question through …

Chopin Prelude In C, Op. 28 No. 1: Reductive Analysis Worksheet, Gabe Fankhauser

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

This two-page assignment on Chopin’s brief but sophisticated Prelude in C, op. 28, no. 1 is designed for use in advanced undergraduate or graduate music theory courses involving reductive techniques or form. The primary question requires students to write a simple SATB- style reduction of the piano score. The first measure is given as example. Completion of the entire assignment would likely take more than one day. Other questions guide students to consider questions of motivic development, narrative, Fibonacci numbers and the Golden Mean, and performance. Suggested readings are provided to guide students interested reading more about prolongation (voice-leading graphs) …

Honoring Creative Women: Minerva Teichert Award Winner 2021, Ally Christiansen

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

Schumann, Barthes And Deleuze: Three Strangers, Jonah Esty

Music Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Los Artículos De Fe: De La Iglesia De Jesucristo De Los Santos De Los Últimos Días, Joseph Smith, Vanja Y. Watkins, Marvin K. Gardner, María Marta Molina De Monterroso, John C. Leavitt

Books

No abstract provided.

Music And Sound In Weihsien Internment Camp In Japanese-Occupied China, Zhihui Sophia Geng

Asian Studies Faculty Publications

From the chapter's Introduction:
On 7 July 1937, Japanese forces based in Manchuria charged southward towards Beijing, invading north China and hence starting the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45). On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, transforming the Second Sino-Japanese War into the Pacific War. As a result of Pearl Harbor, the status of Allied citizens living in China at the time changed from neutral to ‘enemy aliens’. These Allied citizens included individuals and their families who worked in China as government officials, executives, engineers and Christian missionaries. They were forced into internment camps under the watchful eyes of the …

Time Machine, William B. Sims, Joseph P. Robinette, Reid W. Sorel

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

The album will be organic, raw, gritty country sound, inspired by vintage country/folk and bluegrass and encouraged by modern underground/alt country and new-wave folk.

Mode Mixture In John Mayer's Continuum, Gabe Fankhauser

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

This one-page assignment is designed for use in undergraduate music theory or graduate music theory review courses. Two questions, one involving part writing and the other analysis, involve popular songs by John Mayer, “Stop This Train” and “Gravity,” both from his 2006 album Continuum. Both questions require some familiarity with mode mixture or borrowed chords, particularly iiø65, as well as basic part writing principles, secondary dominants (V7/V), and figured bass. The product of the student’s part-writing is a reduction of “Stop this Train,” in which seven different chords can be traced to convention tonal harmony and voice leading, yet with …

Volume 36, Various Authors

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Set Class 014 And Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, Gabe Fankhauser

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

This one-page assignment on set class 014 and Schoenberg’s “Nacht” is designed for use in undergraduate or graduate courses involving analysis of 20th-century music. The main question requires students to trace 014 trichords in the introductory measures. A chart of pitch classes approximating location in the score simplifies the task. Other questions guide students to consider questions of meaning, specifically connecting abstract trichords to the narrative of the music, which exemplifies Expressionism. A separate PDF provides a key and commentary for instructors.

Introduction To Modes, Daniel Lee

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

This lesson will introduce the Lydian, Mixolydian, and Dorian modes, as well as connect the major and minor scales/keys to the terms of Ionian and Aeolian. Students will need to know the WT/HT sequence within major and minor scales before receiving this lesson, and the visuals in this lesson include examples in treble, bass, and alto clefs. Also, musical excerpts and review/assessment examples are given in various keys.

This lesson is appropriate for undergraduate or high school theory students, or for anyone desiring a review of modes. During the lesson an acknowledgement of the system of assigning modes to specific …

Eye-Movements Of Vocal Performers Across Experience Levels, Charlotte Kelly

Honors Program Theses

Expertise, such as music expertise, is commonly studied through an analysis of eye-movements. Experts typically have fewer fixations, longer saccade amplitudes, and thus greater perceptual spans when reading music than non-experts. Most musical expertise literature is focused on instrumentalists and sight-reading. The current study aimed to extend the research to include vocalists and to see if there are still expertise effects when both experts and non-experts are familiar with the piece of music. Participants were recruited to sing a piece from their choir once when they had first started learning the piece and again right before their concert. They were …

A Unified Theory Of Musical Meaning, Luis Verdin

CMC Senior Theses

In this thesis, I present a novel theory of musical meaning. This theory posits a complementary relationship between the theories described in Lerdahl and Jackendoff’s Generative Theory of Tonal Music and Arnie Cox’s Music and Embodied Cognition. Each of these theories explain particular aspects of musical meaning (semantic and grammatical, respectively), though I argue that by unifying these theories into a broader framework, they can explain more about musical meaning than they could individually. This unification is performed via the novel theory I present: the Analogical Argument. This argument suggests that Lerdahl and Jackendoff’s Generative Theory of Tonal Music is …

Longitudinal Changes In Auditory And Reward Systems Following Receptive Music-Based Intervention In Older Adults, Milena Aiello Quinci, Alexander Belden, Valerie Goutama, Dayang Gong, Suzanne Hanser, Nancy J. Donovan, Maiya Geddes, Psyche Loui

Faculty Works

Listening to pleasurable music is known to engage the brain’s reward system. This has motivated many cognitive-behavioral interventions for healthy aging, but little is known about the effects of music-based intervention (MBI) on activity and connectivity of the brain’s auditory and reward systems. Here we show preliminary evidence that brain network connectivity can change after receptive MBI in cognitively unimpaired older adults. Using a combination of whole-brain regression, seed-based connectivity analysis, and representational similarity analysis (RSA), we examined fMRI responses during music listening in older adults before and after an 8-week personalized MBI. Participants rated self-selected and researcher-selected musical excerpts …

Shakespeare As Opera In English: Britten's Dream And Adès' The Tempest, Joanne E. Gates

Presentations, Proceedings & Performances

I assert that we learn Shakespeare better when we study him against the adaptation. Some of the adaptation choices made by opera composers and librettists-- and especially by stage designers in recent productions-- provoke us to critique a production concept for its innovative staging, forcing us to learn more about Shakespeare's original. The recent Metropolitan's The Tempest conveys the 2004 Thomas Adès Tempest as if an 18th century impresario Prospero had conjured or appropriated the contents of the Milan opera house to his island. Meredith Oakes's libretto simplifies much of Shakespearean language to efficient rhyming couplets, yet this opera eloquently …

Fashioning The Flapper: Clothing As A Catalyst For Social Change In 1920s America, Julia Wolffe

Honors Program Theses

Fashion has been a catalyst for social change throughout human history. Fashion in 1920s America in particular reflects society's rapidly evolving attitudes towards gender and race. Beginning with how corsetry heavily restricted women for nearly four hundred years up until the twentieth century, this thesis explores how clothing has acted as a tool for societal progression following World War I and Women's Suffrage and during the Jazz Age and The Harlem Renaissance. Specifically, this thesis examines how the influence of jazz music and dance that originated from Black American communities led to the creation of the flapper evening dress. The …

Using Neural Networks To Model Guitar Distortion, Caleb Koch, Scott Hawley, Andrew Fyfe

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

Guitar players have been modifying their guitar tone with audio effects ever since the mid-20th century. Traditionally, these effects have been achieved by passing a guitar signal through a series of electronic circuits which modify the signal to produce the desired audio effect. With advances in computer technology, audio “plugins” have been created to produce audio effects digitally through programming algorithms. More recently, machine learning researchers have been exploring the use of neural networks to produce audio effects that yield strikingly similar results to their analog counterparts. Recurrent Neural Networks and Temporal Convolutional Networks have proven to be exceptional at …

Guide To The Cheryl A. Wall Collection Of Margaret Bonds And Florence Price Manuscript Scores, Margaret Bonds, Florence Price

CBMR Collection Guides / Finding Aids

Cheryl A. Wall was a literary critic and English professor at Rutgers University who donated three manuscript scores to the CBMR – Troubled Water by Margaret Bonds with a handwritten autobiographical sketch by the composer on the back and two works by Florence Price, Negro Fantasy and Concerto in One Movement for three pianos. The Bonds score was given to Cheryl Wall by the composer and the two Price scores belonged to her aunt, Nannie Strayhorn Reid, a classical pianist and teacher in Chicago, Illinois.