Composition Commons^™

Music In Site: Integrating Elements Of Site-Specificity Into Composition, Mace Francis

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Architectural spaces and their acoustic characteristics offer unique musical material for the compositional process. Acoustic and physical design features of unorthodox performance spaces can become part of works and their performances. This thesis examines ways to integrate acoustic characteristics of an architectural space into the compositional process, and discusses how different levels of site-specificity may be engaged in this process.

This research grew from an interest in composing music for the acoustic problems of performance spaces rather than trying to resist them, after a jazz ensemble performance in a large reverberant space. This led to exploring built environments that offered …

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, …

A Song Through Time: Tiger Rag And The Twentieth Century, Thomas Grady Hartsock

Music

Tiger Rag is one of the first recorded jazz works.This project investigates the initial creation of the work and follows it through five different artists in the twentieth century to explain how this piece of music has grown in it's hundred years of life.

Explorations In Double-Stops: Three New Pieces For Expanding The Role Of The Double Bass In The Jazz Ensemble, Ashley De Neef

Theses : Honours

This dissertation investigates the potential for using double-stops - the sounding of two or more simultaneous notes - as a means for extending the traditional role of the double bass, within compositions for a small jazz ensemble. It is the contention of this dissertation that it is possible to use double-stops to perform a more advanced function within the jazz ensemble, without compromising the double bass’ primary harmonic and rhythmic duties.

A historical overview of the history of the double bass within western classical and jazz music will be provided, as to outline and define what the double bass’ role …

Little Eichmanns: A Composition For Chamber Octet, Benjamin D. Norton

Theses and Dissertations--Music

An original composition in one movement for a chamber octet comprised of a string quartet and a jazz piano quartet with tenor saxophone. The work develops an idée fixe, introduced in the opening bars, through a wide variety of transformations, textures, and styles. The two quartets begin in antiphonal alteration, united in thematic material, yet separated by style. A modern art music style contrasts with an improvisational jazz style. Gradually, the two quartets, and their concomitant musics, bleed into one another, breaking down stylistic boundaries. In the conclusion of the work, the idée fixe, the supplementary themes, and …

Joe Henderson's Harmonic Approach To Improvisation Within The Duo Setting In His 1992 Quintet Album, Lush Life: The Music Of Billy Strayhorn, Patrick Van Der Moezel

Theses : Honours

Jazz improvisation can be greatly influenced by the combination of instrumentation, influencing the role of the instruments and the way they relate to each other. Notably, the stripped-back nature of the duo emphasises these differences. Musicians such as Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz and Joe Henderson are three of many saxophonists who have employed this particular combination to explore different ways of improvisation.

This paper will draw on Joe Henderson’s 1992 album Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn, which uses the duo setting on three tracks. Each of these three tracks has a slightly different combination (saxophone with bass, with …

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 …

Fifth Wheel For Jazz Band, Ian C. Boswell

Music Honors Projects

Fifth Wheel is a composition written for Macalester's jazz band that uses form and extended tonality to create an emotional narrative. It contains elements of both classical and jazz traditions: its form and unusual meter (5/4) from the former and improvisation and jazz harmony from the latter. Writing harmonies in an extended tonal language was of particular importance in this piece's creation.

A Comparison Of Two Distinctive Jazz Trombone Artists, David Steinmeyer And Curtis Fuller, Eddie Lee Elsey Jr.

Dissertations

This dissertation discusses two jazz trombonists, David Steinmeyer and Curtis Fuller. Six solos performed by these two artists are analyzed for the purpose of studying and comparing their individual styles of playing. Each solo is analyzed melodically, harmonically, and rhythmically with musical excerpts from each solo included to provide emphasis on a particular area.

This dissertation also includes comparisons of overall styles, full transcriptions of each solo, discographies for both artists, and brief biographical sketches of each artist. Although the artists play in different styles, they still share similar philosophies in approaching the performance of playing jazz trombone.

Transforming Messiaen : The Application Of Elements Of The Musical Language Of Olivier Messiaen To The Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, Johannes Luebbers

Theses : Honours

The music of Olivier Messiaen is a unique and interesting contribution to the canon of 20^th Century art music, but one that has received little attention from the jazz world. Through a detailed study of his music, this dissertation aims to gain a deeper understanding of Messiaen's musical language and investigate the possibilities of applying that language within the jazz idiom. In addition to a discussion of Messiaen and his music, a detailed analysis of the author's own composition for pipe organ and jazz orchestra, Auguries of Innocence, will explore the results of this application. The complete scores and …

Bob Brookmeyer: Composer, Performer, Pedagogue, Mace Francis

Theses : Honours

Before my California stay (1968-1978) I considered myself a player first and a writer second, although I did a lot of writing, from Ray Charles to Thad [Jones] and Mel [Lewis].1 Since 1979 I have come to view myself as a composer who also plays trombone; add conducting and teaching and that gives me 4 hats to wear. I do not have a swollen head, so they all fit nicely. (Brookmeyer, 1997, n.p.)

Although acknowledged as one of the pivotal figures in twentieth-century jazz, the career and the music of Bob Brookmeyer has received scant attention in secondary literature. This …

New Method Of Rhythmic Improvisation For The Jazz Bassist : An Interdisciplinary Study Of Dave Holland's Rhythmic Approach To Bass Improvisation And North Indian Rhythmic Patterns, Linda M. Oh

Theses : Honours

The focus of this honours dissertation is rhythm in jazz-bass improvisation. It is an exploration of the rhythmic devices employed by cutting-edge bassist, Dave Holland (b. 1946). Through transcription and analysis of Holland's improvisation over a selection of compositions recorded by the award-winning Dave Holland Quintet, this study isolates the key rhythmic tools he uses to create engaging solos. Furthermore this study examines rhythmic concepts from North Indian Classical music (a primary influence on Holland) through transcription and analysis of rhythm in certain tabla compositions. Consequently, a synthesis of the explored rhythmic devices is presented in the form of an …

The Plumed Serpent, Doug Lofstrom

Doug Lofstrom Music Collection

A symphonic piece for orchestra and jazz soloists composed in 1982 in four continuous movements; duration is 25 minutes. Accompanying audio recording is from page 65 of the score until the end of the piece. Score is 85 pages and recording is 6:04 minutes.

Volume 52, Number 08 (August 1934), James Francis Cooke

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

When Liszt Renounced the World

Arpeggio Practice

Energetic Fingers

How to Find the Keys and the Forms of the Minor Scales

Midsummer Musical Laughs

Jargon of Jazz: An Amusing Article Upon the New and Absurd Nomenclature Which Has Grown Up About the Jazz Orchestra

Music for the Local History Pageant

What Use is the Quarter Tone Scale? Is this Innovation in Modern Music Likely to Remain Merely a Curiosity?

Expressive Dictation

Remedy for Tense Muscles

Romance of Mendelssohn: A Favored Son of the Gods

Speeding Up the Left Hand

Wagner in Venice

Georges Bizet and the True Story of Carmen …