Composition Commons^™

Of Seasons Have I Sung, Charlie Leftridge

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

This cantata is comprised of seven movements: versus i. the willows (SATB double choir, SSAA antiphonal soli and string quartet); versus ii. we once were (SA and string quartet); versus iii. when at night I see the sky (tenor solo and string quartet); versus iv. of seasons have I sung (unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir); versus v. if you should ask me (soprano solo and string quartet); versus vi. I once was (TB and string quartet); versus vii. in paradisum (SATB double choir, SSAA antiphonal soli and string quartet). The text set to music is the original poetry of the composer. This …

Suite For The Forgotten, Masayoshi Ishikawa

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

Suite For The Forgotten is an original composition that is dedicated to people who are currently living in Fukushima and its surrounding areas. The piece is comprised of three movements (“I. Grief and Wrath,” “II. Wasururuka,” “III. A Song for Children.”) The tragic Great East Earth Quake and tsunami occurred in Japan March 11, 2011. The disaster not only took thousands people’s lives away but also caused Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown.

Due to high radioactive leakage from the plants, thousands of people had to leave their hometowns. It has been said that some of those areas that have …

Suite For Kabbalat Shabbat: Five Hebrew Prayers, Steven J. Kaup

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

Suite for Kabbalat Shabbat: Five Hebrew Prayers is a setting of five Hebrew prayers that are presented during Kabbalat Shabbat, the welcoming portion of a customary Shabbat service. The musical setting for each prayer strives to embody characteristic feelings conveyed by the text in order to capture the essence and power of the Shabbat tradition. One of the primary goals of this composition was to explore new harmonic possibilities using tonalities derived from traditional Jewish musical structures and motivic ideas as a point of departure, and then find ways to fluidly blend them within the more common compositional practices of …

Syntagma Musicum Ii: De Organographia, Parts Iii – V With Index, Michael Praetorius, Quentin Faulkner Trans. & Ed.

Zea E-Books Collection

Michael Praetorius (1571–1621) achieved distinction as a practicing musician: as organist and Kapellmeister at Wolfenbüttel, Dresden and Magdeburg, and (in his later years) by incessant travel to fulfill commissions at various central German courts. Amid his travels Praetorius found time to publish an impressive series of collections of musical compositions, in all more than a thousand works. Praetorius’s three-volume Syntagma musicum (Musical Encyclopedia) belongs to the last years of his life. Volume I, Musicae artis analecta (1614/15, in Latin), treats principles and practices of religious music, from a decidedly Lutheran perspective. Volume II, De organographia (1619, in German) deals with …

On This Journey: Suite For Big Band And Five Voices, Kara L. Baxter

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

On This Journey: Suite for Big Band and Five Voices is a four-movement, programmatic work that explores traditional big band instrumentation with the addition of five voices used as instruments. Violin and cello are added in the last two movements.

This is the story of a journey, with each movement representing a phase of that journey. The first movement, Charmed with Possibilities, is a musical representation of Chicago. During the improvisation solos, the time moves fluidly between a measure of six and five. The meter and key change often, evoking a sense of the ever-changing city.

The second movement, Stop, …

Воспоминания (Acts Of Remembrance): For Violin, Cello And Piano, Marat E. Sanatullov

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

The piece has three movements: I. Истоки (Act I. Beginnings); II. Очарование (АCT II. Charm); III. Просветление (ACT III. Lucidity). The title of the piece and the titles of its movements are in Russian.

Adviser: Tyler Goodrich White

Garden Of The Carpathians: Four Reflective Pieces For Mixed Ensemble That Highlight The Dualism Of Romania’S People, Culture, And Aesthetic, David Stamps

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

Garden of the Carpathians is a collection of original compositions inspired by four separate explorations of Romanian cultural elements, rural and urban landscapes, and an American perception of dualism within their historical aesthetic. The four pieces (Țuică, Troubled Splendor, From Unknown Heights, and Modistoric) each emphasize a different aspect of this dichotomy. Țuică focuses on the social traditions of Romania by examining customary meal-time interactions that are now influenced by Western culture and commercialism. Troubled Splendor acknowledges the typical stereotypes of communism, gypsy life, and poverty, but then highlights the hard-working, curious, and motivated enlightenment …

Adding To Blake Set To Music: A Bibliography, Ashanka Kumari

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

William Blake, like other Romantic-era poets, was inspired by and wrote about the world around him. The hundreds of poems he wrote later inspired other genres such as music. In 1990 the University of California Press published Blake Set to Music: A Bibliography of Musical Settings of the Poems and Prose of William Blake written by Donald Fitch. This bibliography lists 1,412 pieces up to 1988. The following bibliography consists of pieces of music written after Fitch’s bibliography was published or, in a few cases, a composition written before Fitch’s bibliography was published, but not mentioned in that bibliography. This …

Symphony No. 1 For Double Wind Orchestra, Amanda Mccullough

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

This piece represents the splitting of the mind as well as the irrational and often violent thoughts that compete against each other in order to blur the line between the real and the imaginary. The piece culminates in the third movement into a sort of psychotic break and ends in the disquieting limbo between life and death represented by the solo piano.

This symphony also explores the sonic possibilities of creating a stereo effect by splitting the wind ensemble into two separate ensembles. This includes the resolution of dissonances on one side by the opposite side, the continuation of melodic …

A Chant From The Great Plains: An Analysis And Rationale For A Critical Edition, Raul G. Barcenes

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

This document explores A Chant from the Great Plains by Carl Busch. As the winner of American bandmaster Edwin Franko Goldman’s composition contest in 1919, this work helped launch the tradition of commissioning upon which the repertoire of the modern concert band medium relies. Inexplicably, Busch’s piece fell into obscurity and has become so rare that the primary researcher on Carl Busch, Dr. Donald Lowe, was not able to view any of the music while compiling his research with the exception of citations and articles. This document provides a rationale for the revival of the work in both scholarship and …

Violin Concerto #1, Matthew J. Holman

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

This piece is a violin concerto modeled after, but not explicitly quoting melodic material of, several pieces of music by composers Bear McCreary, and Martin O’Donnell. The first and third movements of my piece were each modeled after two of Bear McCreary’s pieces from the soundtrack to Battlestar Galactica Season 2 – Allegro, and Prelude to War, respectively. The second movement of my piece was modeled after Martin O’Donnell’s piece Ashes, from the soundtrack to Halo: Reach.

Although I model my piece on the formal structures and, occasionally, the chord progressions of McCreary’s and O’Donnell’s pieces, …

Voice Recitals At The Unl School Of Music: Compilation Study, Audrey M. Nicholson

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

An informative compilation of Voice Recitals at the UNL School of Music categorized by Masters, DMA, and Faculty recitals from 1988-2012. Information includes: composer, work title, song title, performer, performance date, instrumentation, audio availability, and online program link.

"Download" button links to pdf version of file. Spreadsheet version (.xls) is attached below as "Related file." ".xlr" files are spreadsheets and can be opened from MS Excel.

Makiko Kinoshita And Her 9 Preludes For Piano: The Amalgam Of American Jazz And European Tradition, Mai Nagatomo

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

Makiko Kinoshita is one of the leading contemporary composers in Japan. Kinoshita’s 9 Preludes (2001) is remarkable twenty-first century piano literature that provides abundant use of various musical styles. The most important style that Kinoshita combined with traditional Western writing is jazz; especially the rhythmic and harmonic language of Jazz music. This document provides a detailed analysis of Kinoshita’s unique treatments of form, tonality, harmony, rhythm, and motivic materials. The central section of this study employs musical examples in order to examine how Kinoshita fuses diverse elements of musical styles with modern musical language to create her own idiom. Along …

The Choral Music Of Allen Henry Koepke (1939–2012) With A Conductor's Special Focus On The Preparation Of His Seminal Work, Missa Brevis, Keith J. Curington

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

Although American choirs have been performing Allen Koepke’s compositions since 1973 and his music is witnessing greater and greater international appeal, especially in Asia, academic writings about the composer and his contribution to the choral art have been absent. This document examines Missa Brevis, the seminal work by Allen Koepke, and serves as a conductor’s guide for score study and rehearsal preparation. It will address practical problems unique to the work and will suggest solutions that will ensure excellence in its performance. A biography, a complete catalogue of the composer’s large number of choral works in print, a listing …

Song Of The Wind, Aaron B. Bittman

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

Song of the Wind is an original cantata for contralto soloist, chorus, and chamber orchestra. More similar to Carmina Burana than a cantata such as those written by J. S. Bach, musical influences were drawn from such diverse sources as Greek Orthodox chant, minimalism, and New Age popular music. The story of Song of the Wind is drawn from a number of different texts, mostly Eastern and Mid-Eastern in origin, but European texts are represented as well. These texts span a period of time between 3,000 years before the Common Era and the Renaissance, and also include newly written verse. …

Symphony In Three Marches, Nels D. Daily

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

This symphony is in three movements and lasts about 25 minutes. The form of the music for each movement has been influenced by the marches of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Edward Elgar, John Philip Sousa, and Dimtri Shostakovich.

The first movement is in a march form related to the music of John Philip Sousa: 1st strain, 2nd strain, trio, dogfight, trio dogfight, trio. This form has been adapted to merge with sonata form. Broad fanfares play a central role in the formal outline. They introduce formal sections similar to Beethoven's slow introduction in the first movement of the "Pathetique" sonata acting …

A Survey Of The Sacred Choral–Orchestral Works Of Sir Henry Walford Davies (1869–1941), Martin C. Cook

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

In the closing years of the 19th Century, when Charles Villiers Stanford, Hubert Parry and Edward Elgar were at the height of their fame and influence in British musical society Henry Walford Davies emerged as one of the most promising talents of the day, receiving commissions from the provincial music festivals of Great Britain, which were a rite of passage for emerging composers.

Between 1904 and 1929 Davies produced eleven sacred choral-orchestral works for these festivals and one further work, which were received favorably in their day but are now almost forgotten. There are five large multi movement works: The …

Helen: An Opera In One Act, Garrett Hope

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

Helen is a one-act opera that tells the story of a woman whose husband would later betray her trust and love. It begins with her debut as an eligible young woman and ends with the husband’s demise. Through the course of the story it becomes apparent that her husband is both verbally and physically abusive as well as unfaithful to her. In the end her situation is redeemed through his death because his bacchanalian behavior resulted in his fatal sickness.

The opera is a retelling of a portion of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë, which was adapted …

Possibilities For Tuba Quartet/Ensemble And Percussion, Anthony J. Burnham

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

Possibilities for Tuba Quartet/Ensemble and Percussion is an exploration of the possibilities and potential that such an ensemble contains. The piece is set in sevencontrasting movements, each of which highlight, showcase, and challenge different members of the ensemble. Knowing that music for such a group is limited in quantity and scope, this piece has been written to fill a void in the repertoire for both the low brass and percussion families while allowing them an opportunity to collaborate on a level rarely seen. This piece presents a very unique and fun experience for performers and listeners alike.

David Maslanka's Desert Roads, Four Songs For Clarinet And Wind Ensemble: An Analysis And Performer's Guide, Joshua R. Mietz

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

Known primarily as a composer for the wind band, few American composers have received the notoriety and widespread acclaim that David Maslanka has since 1970. His works for wind ensemble are now considered standard repertoire and are played frequently by high school, college-level, and professional ensembles alike. Additionally, his works for chamber groups and soloists have continued to gain in popularity.  As of the writing of this document, Maslanka has composed concertos for saxophone, euphonium, flute, marimba, trombone, and piano.  Early in 2005, he completed his first large-scale work for solo clarinet with wind ensemble accompaniment:  Desert Roads.  Desert …

A Metrical Analysis And Rebarring Of Paul Creston's Sonata For Alto Saxophone And Piano, Op. 19, Christopher Kyle Sweitzer

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

The Sonata For Alto Saxophone and Piano Op. 19 is one of the most popular pieces in the saxophone literature, commonly played by professional saxophonists during their training. It features exciting rhythmic devices like irregular and mixed meter, the notation of which is the main focus of this paper. Although Creston often used irregular and mixed meter in his compositions, he rarely specifically notated them, choosing instead to use accents, beams, slurs, and other phenomenal cues at the musical surface to create the effect of these metric plans. Time signatures often remained constant throughout entire movements. Creston believed this would …

Dmitry Shostakovich's Twenty-Four Preludes And Fugues Op. 87: An Analysis And Critical Evaluation Of The Printed Edition Based On The Composer's Recorded Performance, Denis V. Plutalov

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

This particular research is a tribute to Dmitry Shostakovich, who was not only a great composer, but also a great pianist and interpreter of his own works. Shostakovich is famous for the most part as a great symphonic and chamber composer. His piano works did not gain as much popularity as his large scale works. In fact they attracted very little attention from the modern generation of pianists. Shostakovich's Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues op. 87 stand out among his piano works as a unique cycle, equaling Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier in its concept.

Chapter One provides an introduction to the subject …

The Logic Of Objects, David B. Eichelberger

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

The human mind assimilates information and experiences quickly and constantly, and is aided by mental systems that we rely on to function. We classify the input of our lives with extreme efficiency. Our notions about the things we encounter in the world are learned from past experiences, and these expectations help us file the data of our lives. My work is composed to create pause. I am interested in slowing down the processes of assimilation by manipulating our expectations, and extending events measured in microseconds into saturated and engaging experiences. Functional qualities, visual rhythms, and exaggerated proportions are some of …

Starlata, Princess Of Mars: A Space Operetta In One Act, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

Starlata, Princess of Mars: a space operetta in one actStarlata, Princess of Mars a space operetta in one act Randall Snyder (2003)Randall Snyder (2003)

synopsis

Two Americans attempt the first landing on Mars. After escaping a meteor shower, they crash on the Red Planet and are captured by a hostile band of Children led by Ergo, the Grand Vizier. They are brought to the palace of Starlata, Princess of Mars, the last female of her dying species. After an intensive and humiliating interrogation, Starlata, in order to ensure the survival of her race, eventually decides to mate with …

The Divine Madness: A Comedic Theater Piece For Six Players In Five Scenes, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

The Players (in order of appearance)

a middle-aged composer, dressed in 19th century costume
an impresario, speaks with W.C.Fields accent, dressed in a Dickensian style
the cast (chorus) of the Willy-Nilly Traveling Opera-Circus Troupe:
a flamboyant soprano, an aging diva, colorfully dressed
an alto, a timid musicologist, dressed as a college co-ed
a tenor, a jazzer, dressed in a pin-striped zoot suit, wearing sun-glasses
a bass, a bitter old man, speaks with a German accent, wearing shabby clothes
stage audience including a critic, and crew

Place

Five days in the present sets a garret and the backstage of a theater …

“A Splendid Time Is Guaranteed For All,” Sgt. Pepper’S Lonely Hearts Club Band: A Brief Consideration, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the 13th of 18 Beatles albums, released in the United States on June 1, 1967, has come to be regarded as one of the seminal artifacts of popular culture of the 20th century. This short paper explores aspects of this music that reached such a broad audience, in particular, some observations of the albums’ astonishing textual and musical diversity as well as less-obvious commonalities that bind the 13 songs with a logic and unity rarely found in popular music.

Words And Music: The Assembling Of Traveling West, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

This paper is a consideration of the art song as a unique collaboration of poet and composer, the result of which, rarely achieving a balance between the two, often resulting in a creation that comprises the predominant artistic vision of one or the other, with poetry usually getting short shrift. This discussion will examine how dfferent methods of text setting can affect the intended meaning of the poem, citing examples of poet-composer relationships. Then I will discuss how these concepts are utilized in my song cycle, Traveling West, settings of poems by Susan Strayer Deal, Marjorie Saiser, Hilda Raz, …

Ma Fin Est Mon Commencement (My End Is My Beginning): An Allegory In Five Scenes, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

Dramatis personae: Artist, Narrator, Chorus

Synopsis

PROLOG

Perceiving society as decadent, an artist ruminates over his existence. A narrator describes the chorus as they reluctantly assemble on a black box stage.

SCENE 1

Painful thoughts force the artist to remember his past as essentially a trilogy of forces: (1) Caritas – mystical religious feelings embodied in the Latin liturgy; (2) the narrow space between the five lines – an allusion to the musical staff and his career as a composer; (3) post puterbific thoughts – physical, carnal instincts. The chorus dismisses the composer’s concerns as superficial. They speak of their …

Noumenon: A Metaphysical Comedy, Randall Snyder

Randall Snyder Compositions

Noumenon: Synopsis

The work, which perhaps could best be described as a “metaphysical comedy”, consists of three levels:

1) the biography of the unnamed dilettante artist-philosopher “__”
2) personal interpolations by the biographer, Russel Stanford
3) editor’s commentary by Randall Snyder

Stanford, in spite of a lack of enthusiasm for the subject, agrees to write the biography. During this period his health degenerates and he increasingly imposes his own irrelevant opinions into the biography (his remarks are all indented, using the Palatino font, and further identified by the use of the small case “i”. The “biography” uses the New York …