Composition Commons^™

Reimagining Folk Songs: A Bridge Between Tradition And Innovation In Georgy Sviridov’S Music, Polina Nazaykinskaya

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Georgy Sviridov (1915–1998), one of the most prominent Soviet composers of his generation, remains largely underrepresented in Western performance and scholarship. This dissertation examines the compositional language of Sviridov’s Kursk Songs (1964) through direct comparison with the seven folk songs published in Anna Rudneva’s 1957 collection Kurskie pesni that served as the work’s source material. The study addresses a central paradox of Sviridov’s musical language: how remarkably economical, predominantly diatonic materials can produce powerful and highly individual expressive results.

The analysis considers how Sviridov preserves essential characteristics of the folk sources while transforming their harmony, rhythm, form, texture, orchestration, and …

Remixing Dialogue: A Case Study On Perceptions Of Hip Hop Pedagogy In A Professional Learning Course, Kelly J. Thelen

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This qualitative case study examines how teachers’ decision-making and professional autonomy shift while participating in a Hip Hop Pedagogy Professional Learning course supported by structured FIXIT (Lo & Wachter, 2023a, 2023b, 2023c, 2023d; Wachter & Lo, 2024) game-facilitated dialogue in a rural, culturally and linguistically diverse Midwest community. Grounded in Freire’s (1970) Critical Pedagogy, Ladson-Billings’ (1995) Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (Paris and Alim, 2017), and Adult Learning Theory (Knowles et al., 2005), the study explores the reclamation of agency by teachers in a time of constrained creativity and educator autonomy shaped by strict policy environments, an emphasis on …

Music As An Environment, Yuval Gur

Masters Theses

Music.

For me, music has always been a constant. In my happiest moments it lifted my joy into other realms; in my darkest, it consoled me and offered refuge.

Over time, however, this constancy has grown predictable. Recorded music, once capable of transforming a day, has faded into background sound - familiar but dulled. This project begins with my loss of wonder: how might the act of listening regain its power to move me?

I ask: how does the experience of listening transforms when music is encountered as an environment that can be entered and navigated rather than as a …

Bass And Drum Grooves In R&B: Analysis And Composition, Hugh Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term “R&B” has existed within the musical lexicon for nearly eighty years. It was first introduced in 1949 to replace the label “race music,” and was a combination of blues, jazz, gospel, and rock. Since then, the genre has transitioned from swing-based, live instrumentation toward straight-eighth backbeats and electronically produced sounds. Despite these shifts, contemporary R&B continues to borrow from its ancestral roots while maintaining a modern aesthetic. A primary feature that has persisted through this landscape is the “groove,” specifically defined here as the rhythmic layer created by the drums and bass. In R&B, the bass provides both …

Expresiones Musicales Rurales, Ana Betina Morgante Combariza, Rosa Delia Acosta León, Manuel Fernando Merchán Bernal, Juan Manuel Urrego Laurin, Andrés Felipe Acuña Duarte

Ciencias Sociales, Humanidades y Ciencias Políticas

La riqueza musical de una región no solo reside en sus sonidos y melodías, sino en las historias, las tradiciones y los valores que estos transmiten de generación en generación. Este libro de partituras es el resultado de un proceso de investigación etnomusicológico que busca documentar, preservar y divulgar las expresiones musicales rurales de tradición oral en Cundinamarca. Las partituras contenidas en esta publicación no son solo transcripciones musicales, representan una ventana a la cosmovisión de las comunidades rurales cundinamarquesas, donde la música es un medio de comunicación, un canal para la memoria colectiva y una herramienta pedagógica de inestimable …

Hear & Now: Culturally Responsive Music Education Through Digital Audio Workstations & Musique Concrète, Benjamin T. Connolly

Pitzer Senior Theses

Hear & Now: Culturally Responsive Music Education Through Digital Audio Workstations & Musique Concrète is a two-part ethnomusicological study of how the capacities and affordability of modern electronic instruments could be utilized within school curricula as an affordable alternative to traditional music classes. I explore the musique concrète movement from mid-20th century France, aiming my examination towards the movement’s emphasis on the materiality of sound production and utilization of modern technology during the composition process. From there, the paper transitions into a study on the affordances of contemporary music technologies through a series of interviews with electronic composers, tracing the …

More Than A Man: An Ethnomusicological Survey Of The Folklore Of John Henry And Resource Guide For “More Than A Man” By Shanyse Strickland, Clayton R. Heath

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

“John Henry” exists as an enduring folk legend in the United States of America, representing the confluence of the Reconstruction Era, the economic utility of Appalachia and the Westward expansion of industry which left it behind. Though based on historical events, Henry’s fictional representation has diverted and evolved in music and other media from its inception in the oral tradition to the modern age. Through this progression, shared symbols have circulated, gathering embedded meanings and associating the folklore with specific communities. Henry’s representational identity has been signaled with the creation and distribution of each version of his story, both complicating …

Schemata Of Barbershop Tags, Brian A. Cromer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the genre of barbershop tags, brief musical compositions in the barbershop style. After the introduction in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 describes the barbershop style and outlines a modified roman numeral system that reflects barbershop norms. Chapter 3 analyzes the 125 entries of the Classic Book of Tags based on two features: the harmonic point of interest (HPI) and the penultimate chord. Patterns emerging from these two criteria include eleven primary schemata along with a few secondary schemata accounting for the harmonic design for a majority of tags. Chapter 4 analyzes two barbershop arrangements: “Come Fly With Me” …

Learning How To Practice Takes Practice, Micah Killion, Robert Duke

John J. Cali School of Music Scholarship and Creative Works

Effective music learning depends on effective music practice. Although time spent with teachers is an important component of young musicians’ development, time spent alone practicing is perhaps even more consequential. Researchers and teachers have offered many prescriptions about effective music practice, yet observations of young musicians’ actual practice reveal that their behavior in the practice room is often quite unlike what teachers envision. The most important aspects of effective practice are the thinking, perceiving, and decision-making that serve to organize how musicians spend their time. We discuss how to help students focus their attention in ways that lead to the …

La Rumba Criolla Al Estilo De Emilio Sierra, Desde El Contexto Académico Y Creativo, Adalberto Pardo Rodríguez, Jair Herrera Bohórquez

Ciencias Sociales, Humanidades y Ciencias Políticas

La rumba criolla es un género musical identitario del departamento de Cundinamarca, cuyo precursor más destacado es el maestro Emilio Sierra Baquero, quien a través de sus composiciones puso a rumbiar al país en los años cuarenta, legado que aún sigue vigente. Este libro representa el estilo compositivo e interpretativo característico del maestro y su orquesta, incorporando arreglos, grabaciones y composiciones que permiten exaltar ese legado cultural y patrimonial reflejado en esta música, resultado de un proceso de investigación y análisis realizado por docentes investigadores del programa de Música de la Universidad de Cundinamarca. Se rinde homenaje al compositor Emilio …

Elements Of Greek Identity In The Eight Dances From The Greek Islands By Yiannis Constantinidis, Afroditi Mitsopoulou

Dissertations, 2020-current

The purpose of this research is to present elements of Greek style and identity in the composition for solo piano, Eight Dances from the Greek Islands (Οκτώ Νησιώτικοι Ελληνικοί Χοροί, για πιάνο) (1954) by Yiannis Constantinidis. What is regarded as Greek national identity? How was it formed and developed throughout the centuries, and what compositional techniques did Greek composers before Constantinidis use in their works to define Greek identity? A topic examined in this document was the construction and deconstruction of Greek identity, and the question addressed was whether Greek identity can ultimately be defined. Constantinidis (1903-1984) was …

Harmonic Innovators And Cultural Catalysts In American Jazz: The Social Impact And Musical Innovations Of Louis Armstrong In The Real Ambassadors, Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts And John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, Marcia C. Vandervinne

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Abstract This capstone project explores how three landmark jazz works—Louis Armstrong’s The Real Ambassadors (1961), John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme (1965), and Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts (1965–1973)—responded to the social challenges of the Civil Rights era while advancing the artistic stature of jazz. Each composition challenged systemic racism through its unique blend of innovation and cultural expression: Armstrong’s performance in The Real Ambassadors used satire to critique American racial hypocrisy; Coltrane’s A Love Supreme presented a spiritual and musical journey grounded in modal development and personal transformation; and Ellington’s Sacred Concerts fused jazz with sacred and classical traditions to elevate …

Commissioning And Recording Project Of New Works For Saxophone Focused On Promoting Mexican Composers And Educating Future Commissioning Saxophonists, Andres Efrain Santana

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This document chronicles my process of commissioning and recording five new works by Mexican composers. To contextualize this experience, I provide a brief introduction of Mexican contemporary music history, an overview of second-hand accounts of the commissioning process, my personal experience of this process, and my assessment of the impact these works could have on the classical saxophone repertoire. As I have reflected on my own experience with historical and contemporary accounts of the commissioning process, it has become clear that personal connections between composers and performers and the patronage or funding linked to those relationships are just as important …

Arranging, Teaching And Performing The Cypriot Folk Song, Αχερόμπασμαν (Aherombasman), Georgia Orfanides

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

This paper documents my process of arranging, teaching, and conducting the Cypriot folk song, Αχερόμπασμαν (Aherombasman) to JMU’s Treble Chamber Choir. I am Cypriot-American and I wanted to create an accessible arrangement of a Cypriot folk tune in order to introduce the musical culture and language of Cyprus to a Western audience. The first section of this paper provides a brief history of the cultural and political influences on Cyprus, and an introduction to common practices in the Cypriot folk tradition. The second section details the process of transcribing the original tune from Alkinoos Ioannides’ arrangement, creating the final arrangement …

Impressionism In The Hands Of Griffes, Bauer, And Howe, And The Musical Climate In Early 20th-Century America, Elaine Sara Lim

Dissertations, 2020-current

American composers Charles Griffes (1884-1920), Marion Bauer (1882-1955), and Mary Howe (1882-1964) are considered “Impressionist” composers by some scholars. This document will explore selected piano works of each composer to determine the extent to which impressionistic traits are present. Topics such as tonality, harmony, texture, and individual style will be examined, as well as the significant relationship between music and poetry. American Impressionism was short-lived but served as a link to Modernism, as all three composers eventually experimented with other styles. Early 20th-century American audiences, accustomed to the influx of European artists and music, were slow to embrace the new …

María Grever: Influence Through Mexican Folk And Classical Romantic Techniques And Ideals In ‘A Una Ola.’, Alexandria C. Ellis

ATU Scholars Symposium

In the last 25 years, there has been a resurgence in Latin American ethnomusicology. This means that, while interest continues to grow, there are several gaps, especially when it comes to the contributions of women. Interestingly, some of these gaps surround the popular Mexican composer María Grever. This includes the lack of information on the variety of sources she gathered inspiration from for composition. Through analyzing Grever's compositional style, especially in the bolero ‘A Una Ola,’or ‘To a Wave,’ I will examine the relationship that Grever employs between the classical Romantic approach and Latin American techniques, especially Mexican folk. While …

In Search Of The Armorial Aesthetic: The Counter-Reform Of Ariano Suassuna And The Compositional Techniques In Clovis Pereira’S Suite Macambira, Wagner De Oliveira Duarte

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, in the wake of the Week of Modern Art in São Paulo in 1922, Brazil grappled with defining its national identity, distinct from European influences. While eminent figures such as Villa-Lobos, Camargo Guarnieri, and Francisco Mignone provided foundational narratives in this quest, the Armorial movement emerged as a unique and emblematic response to these nationalistic aspirations.

Originating from the creative vision of Ariano Suassuna, the Armorial movement, though often perceived as a regional initiative, epitomized a broader endeavor to represent Brazil's diverse cultural tapestry. Central to understanding this movement is the work …

La Fiesta Del Espiritu Santo: An Original Work For Choir, Soloists, And Small Ensemble Influenced By The Santeria Music Of The African-Dominican Community In The Dominican Republic, Rafael Scarfullery

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This study examines the role of Santería music as practiced by African Dominicans in Villa Mella, a neighborhood of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. This musical tradition comes from the culture and religion of the Yoruba people who were brought as slaves from Africa, and features complex drum rhythms and call-and-response chants. This paper deals with the historical and social context of Santería music within the Dominican Republic, but its principal objective is to adopt the musical language of this tradition and use it to create a new contemporary work for mixed choir and small ensemble.

One of the most …

Music Of The Divine: Interweaving Threads Connecting Contemporary Chant-Based Piano Repertoire, Jeremy D. Duck

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

The purpose of this document is to prove chant remains an important source of inspiration among living composers, and, despite the number of piano works already incorporating chant, composers today are still finding unique ways to include chant in their music. To achieve this objective, representative works have been selected for research and analysis for four of the major chant traditions. Connor Chee’s The Navajo Piano, Victoria Bond’s Illuminations on Byzantine Chant, and Hayes Biggs’ E.M. am Flügel: Poem-Étude for Piano Solo, though the chants from which they are inspired are diverse in concept and style, they …

Dong Qing Fang’S Musical Depiction Of Lin Chong: An Analysis Of Chinese Traditional Music Elements In His Cello Composition Of 2009, Congcong Bi

Doctoral Projects

Dong Qing Fang (b. 1981) is a prolific composer of cello music. His contribution includes twenty compositions, many of which have been performed around the world.[1] While Fang is the most famous composer in China as well as a leading figure of recent music, his compositions have not been recognized world-wide. This project focuses on his representative cello composition Lin Chong (2009). Lin Chong is a significant character in Chinese literature, known for his role in the classic novel, Water Margin (1524). Fang's musical portrayal of Lin Chong's life incorporates elements of Chinese traditional music.

The methodology for this …

Give The Drummer Some: A Dive Into Drum Breaks And Drum Break Production, Kyle Kaldhusdal

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper traces the history of hip-hop culture through the evolution of the drum break, the original context of drum breaks in funk and soul music, their influence on DJ culture, and the subsequent impact of drum breaks on music and music production. It follows the development of breakbeat compilations in the 1970s and 1980s, parallel to the development of turntablism and sampling techniques. It also examines in detail how copyright litigation in the 1990s shaped the development of sample-based music genres and created a niche market for originally-recorded drum breaks over the subsequent decades.

Perils Of Heavy Rainfall: Displacement And Resettlement Driven By Floods, Shumaila Hemani Dr.

The Goose

Monsoon is typically a season to rejoice in South Asia because it cools off July's hot summer weather. In the poetry of Sufi mystic Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, the monsoon represents a time of abundance, and his verses are prayers of abundance for Sindh and the entire world as rainfall is indeed a much-awaited season to cast off dry spells of the desert. However, in the past few years, climate change has led to heavy floods and massive displacement of poor people in Sindh. This year, floods even reached Karachi's urban city, the biggest metropolis of Pakistan, causing the displacement …

Rupturismes: Art Sonor A Mallorca, Un Poc De Context, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Antoni Caimari (1943-2021), com sap tothom, no era un músic com els altres; i tampoc no ho volia ser. Encapçalava els títols de les seves obres musicals amb les inicials EB o «esbós» (com altres compositors les inicien amb Op.) per donar una idea que no tenien res a veure amb les composicions tancades i immanents dels mestres del passat. Aquests EBs no tenien partitura perquè, com va dir Llorenç Barber, un altre compositor donat als aforismes, estaven alliberats de la tirania de la «partiturocràcia».

Archetype, Story, And Myth Within Bulgarian Folklore And Black American Music, Wes C. Georgiev

University Honors Theses

The confluence of several disciplines is explored through the investigation of archetypes, stories, folklore, and myths within the realm of music composition. This research aims to draw fresh conclusions which contend with some of the meanings of being a human. All research is done in conjunction with the creation of a new body of compositions written and arranged for piano, upright bass, and drum set. The academic objective of these pieces is to combine many of the salient characteristics of Bulgarian Folk music with those of Black American music. The supporting research in this essay examines centuries of migration, conflict, …

Homage To Eleanora: A Musical Journey Through The Billie Holiday Songbook, Keith A. Dames

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Billie Holiday was a singer, songwriter, vocalist, bandleader and composer in the fields of music, black culture and more specifically the genre of jazz. The primary focus of this study is Billie Holiday’s discography, music, and compositions as treated in relation to the black culture of production. This study will explore a secondary content analysis of Billie Holiday’s music, musicianship, musicality and compositional skills within the American jazz mainstream, broader jazz audience and world at large. This project will take an analytical look at the structure and form of the compositions of Billie Holiday. Billie Holiday is credited with composing …

The Sounds Of Home: A Composition Portfolio, Paul Gabriel L. Cosme

Music Honors Projects

What does home sound like? I have spent most of my recent life outside my homeland, the Philippines, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, and this question of what home is has become a persistent thought, if not, a necessary inquiry. This composition portfolio attempts to answer that question in three varying pieces. The first, The Sounds of Home, is a string quartet in three movements where each one tells a personal story by invoking Filipino folk and indigenous themes. The second, Commuting in Manila, is a wind septet that sonically emulates the commuting experience in Manila from the …

The Rougarou Concerto And Initial Observations Of The Flex Ensemble, Thomas Wilson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the immediate impact of the coronavirus pandemic through a composer’s lens. It will examine the impact through a variety of means, considerably: interviews of those with first-hand experiences, analyses of prominent adaptable works, and self-analysis of how my own process adapted to meet the moment.

After discovering the Composers Repertoire Initiative and being commissioned to write a concerto by Eduard Teregulov, I wrote a cello concert. The central chapter features the Rougarou Concerto, a cello concerto with accompanying flex ensemble, written for Eduard Teregulov. The work was written over ten months …

Sacred Music In Colonial Era Hispaniola: The Evangelization Of The Taino People, Tito J. Gutierrez

Student Theses

During the 15th-18th centuries, the major European religious orders; the Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, and Jeronymites, journeyed to the newly colonized American territories in an attempt to convert the multitudes of natives peoples living there. Along with prayer books, crucifixes, and religious images, these missionaries brought sacred European music to American shores in an attempt to attract the native people to the Catholic faith.The use of music as a tool for conversion of native people in places such as Mexico, South America, California, and the South West United States, have been well researched and documented. However, the research of the spiritual …

The Arranging Techniques Of Leon “Smooth” Edwards And Their Application To Calypso-Styled Classical Music Arrangements For Steel Orchestra, Michelle A. Rudder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The steelpan was invented in the 1930s in Trinidad and Tobago. It has evolved over the past eighty years. Although steelbands are now found across the globe and at all levels of music education, academic research regarding the music of the steelpan and its composers and arrangers is scarce. This paper examines six works for steelband by Leon “Smooth” Edwards, a prominent arranger of indigenous steelband music for the Panorama competition in Trinidad and Tobago. Music scores for four of the works have been notated for the first time. The paper documents Edwards’ variation development techniques, voicing, and orchestration. The …

01 Traditional Songs Introduction, William Donner

Sikaiana Traditional Songs

This is an introduction to Sikaiana songs. It includes a discussion of the social cultural context of song composition and singing. There is a discussion of the different features of song production and a list of different song genres. Most of the discussion is concerned with traditional song expression that are part of derived form changes associated with colonialism and modernization.