Composition Commons^™

Louise Farrenc: A Woman Composer's Voice Rising Out Of Obscurity, Allika Polowchak

All Zyzzogeton Presentations

Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) was a prolific composer, performer, and teacher of art music in Romantic-era France. Widely regarded during her lifetime for her incredible natural talent and hard work, her compositions fell into obscurity after her death due to general disinterest in women’s contributions to art. As Louise Farrenc started to become more recognized in the later 20th century, efforts were focused on reviving her instrumental works, but little is known about her choral and vocal pieces to this day.

New Hampshire, Liam Thomas

West Chester University Master’s Theses

New Hampshire is a concept album: a recording project inspired by Robert Frost’s (1874-1963) large poetic work of the same title. After reading Frost’s lengthy first poem (also titled “New Hampshire”) I felt an immediate connection between his texts and my musical style. Frost’s “New Hampshire” features many depictions of nature and creates mystery through its colorful, sometimes vague imagery that leaves interpretive space for the imaginative reader, which, in my opinion, is the mark of a great poet. As a reflection of Frost’s text, my album contains atmospheric, ambient music drawing influence from folk, Americana, rock, jazz, with the …

Demiana Ibrahim's Senior Recital: Music Across Continents And Centuries, Demiana Ibrahim

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis contains the recording and program notes of Demiana Ibrahim's Senior Recital in partial Completion of the Music major on the Performance track. The music performed is from a wide variety of composers, in addition to two transcribed from orchestral renditions by the performer herself. Beyond the composers expected in the Western canon, this performance includes music of North African origin, and highlights the first mainstream successful African American classical composer.

Through The Keyhole, Anna Higgins

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Through the Keyhole derives inspiration from the lyrical styles of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. The transformational form of the piece follows an organic growth process leading up to a true climax. The piece stops, yet it does not end, leaving the listener to feel incomplete. Two melodic themes shape the piece alongside timbral developments. The harmony helps to portray the emotional journey of the piece, changing slightly throughout.

Cyberinet: Integrated Semi-Modular Sensors For The Computer-Augmented Clarinet, Matthew Bardin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Cyberinet is a new Augmented instrument designed to easily and intuitively provide a method of computer-enhanced performance to the Clarinetist to allow for greater control and expressiveness in a performance. A performer utilizing the Cyberinet is able to seamlessly switch between a traditional performance setting and an augmented one. Towards this, the Cyberinet is a hardware replacement for a portion of a Clarinet containing a variety of sensors embedded within the unit. These sensors collect various real time data motion data of the performer and air fow within the instrument. Additional sensors can be connected to the Cyberinet to …

Florence Price: Forgotten No More, Kathryn E. Amdahl

2023 Symposium

Florence Price was a composer and musician who lived from 1887 to 1953. She composed music in every genre except for opera. The music of Florence Price traveled practically everywhere; from the radio to the concert halls to the church. Throughout her life, she became well-known as the first African American female composer who was featured by a major symphony. Florence Price was tenacious, brave, and courageous during her era which contributed to the level of acceptance that society now holds for African American composers. Despite the challenges she faced during her lifetime, she never gave up or collapsed due …

/////// Babaamiwizh – Blood Memory And How We Carry Ancestral Histories /////// On Memory, Immersive Theatre, Improvisation, & Absurdity, Olivia Shortt

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

babaamiwizh – blood memory and how we carry intergenerational histories: a collection of fragmented stories and thoughts on making Indigenous art. These writings attempt to find the balance of an artist's humanity, the artistic process and working with colonial institutions. I am stitching together my perspective on Indigeneity, museums and the process of repatriation, collaboration with trusted community members, as well as the land and its medicines.

Experimenting With Colors In Music: Making And Breaking Rules In The Butterfly Effect, Chloe King

Honors Theses

The following thesis is a culmination of four years of academic and musical development as a percussionist at the University of Mississippi. It offers a discussion and analysis of my original composition, The Butterfly Effect (2021-2023), exploring the compositional process from preliminary sketches to the finalized score. It also discusses the inspiration for composing an original work, the use of different music theory techniques relevant to an analysis of the work, and comparisons to relevant compositions throughout the history of Western music. The Butterfly Effect experiments with compositional techniques that often depart from established rules of harmony and counterpoint, a …

Honors Capstone Composition Recital, Kayla L. Bivin

Honors Capstones

The Honors Capstone Composition Recital is an exhibition of my own musical compositions from throughout my undergraduate study. The purpose of the event was to perform original music and share it with the community. The program is completely comprised of original works for a variety of instruments and ensembles and includes five world premiere performances out of the seven pieces, totaling about 45 minutes of music. The performance was held at the NIU Recital Hall (located in the Music Building at 550 Lucinda Ave.) at 7:00 pm CST on April 16, 2023. It was available for free to the public, …

Creativity And Organic Songwriting: A Deconstruction Of Original Songs, Pramuk Mohanlal-Vargas

Composition/Recording Projects

Creativity and organic songwriting define uniqueness and are the building blocks of artistic self-expression. This paper consists of a deconstruction of eight original song recordings including the organic songwriting methods and creative ideas which led to the end result. The formulation of each recording is discussed in chronological order and in detail as well as influential ideas and songwriting styles of well-known contemporary artists such as Damien Rice, Passenger and Bon Iver. Along with individual and psychological approaches to songwriting, production elements are mentioned which indicate how the digital world influenced the final version of each song. This area relied …

Symphony: Tambora, Logan Purcell

Graduate Thesis Collection

Symphony: Tambora is a piece for chamber orchestra that is inspired by the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Lesser Sunda Islands of the Phillipines. Its three movements deal with the genesis of Mount Tambora, the magma chambers filling up and spilling over, and the series of eruptions that resulted in some of the worst climate crises in recorded history. The thesis includes a score of the work, and an accompanying analysis.

Chopin’S Piano Sonata No. 3 In B Minor Op. 58: A Structural Analysis, Maverick Harrold

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in b minor Op. 58 is an incredibly important composition to the world of music. This work will uncover many of the unique facets and features of this piece as well as discover the beautiful intricacies of each of the four movements. By learning about this sonata, the reader will gain an understanding of the importance of musical structure and musical form and will gain insight into the ways of Chopin’s compositional style and of romantic piano music as a whole.

The History And Development Of Solo Tuba Repertoire, Vasilios Tidwell

Honors Theses

The tuba's solo repertoire increased in quantity and quality as a result of developments in the instrument’s design and usage. Following the invention of the tuba in 1835, instrument makers experimented with design concepts to maximize the versatility and potential of the bass brass voice. Composers explored the various uses of the instrument, eventually making the tuba part of the standard orchestral instrumentation by the mid-nineteenth century. Following the instrument's acceptance into bands and orchestras, the first solo works for tuba emerged in the late nineteenth century.

Evolving from novelty pieces accompanied by wind or brass bands, tuba solo music …

A History Of Bass Guitar Effects Pedals: Liner Notes, David Lloyd

Composition/Recording Projects

This project examines bass effect-pedal technology and the lineage of recordings that have made use of such equipment. The timeline of bass pedal recordings and artists that used them range from modern day session players to The Beatles. A well rounded list of effects most frequently used on bass guitar include octave, fuzz/distortion, chorus, phaser, and envelope filter based processors, and this paper examines multiple songs from commercial music history that utilize one or more of these effects on bass guitar. These songs include ‘Think For Yourself’ by The Beatles, ‘For the Love of Money’ by The O’Jays, ‘Something About …

Windows Into Jazz, Nicholas T. Bilski

Composition/Recording Projects

This project is a culmination of multiple different genres of jazz music in multiple different stylistic arrangements. Each chapter tells the story of its respective piece and how that piece came into existence.

From Story To Song: Exploring The Storytelling Potential Of Instrumental Music, Celine Darr

Honors Projects

For this project, I have composed a piece of program music with the aim of capturing scenes from Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" through music. The project seeks to answer questions regarding the elements that make instrumental music "programmatic", or able to portray a story.

Guide To The Robert Leigh Morris Collection, Columbia College Chicago

CBMR Collection Guides / Finding Aids

Robert Leigh Morris (b. 1941) is an American composer and music instructor. The Robert Leigh Morris Collection contains his personal music scores, from published works to drafts, and programs from his performances, as well as scores by other composers. Professional correspondences, documents, and some of Morris’s writings are also included.

Cinematic Somnium: Piano Solo, David Patterson

Compositions of David Patterson

Cinematic Somnium: Piano Solo by David Patterson. Dream along with my students of composing for the movies, ominous, melodramatic of the silents.

Cello In Film And Television Music, Annastasia M. Yoshida

Composition/Recording Projects

Throughout the ages, the cello has had a specific role in symphonies, operas, musicals, and pop concerts. In the last century, one of the fastest-growing music practices has been soundtracks to film and television shows. String instruments and specifically the cello hold an integral role within this type of music. In this project I present a study on the use of the cello in film and television show music, using eight representative soundtrack cues. In this project, I seek to do an extensive study of the use of cello within film and TV show music. I have chosen a selection …

Noted With Honor: Intersections Between Theology, Music Therapy, Psychotherapy, And Original Music Compositions For Hospice Patients, Stanton Nelson

Doctor of Pastoral Music Projects and Theses

This thesis investigates the intersections between theology, music therapy, and psychotherapy when creating a music composition that honors a hospice patient’s walk of faith. A pioneer organization inspiring this thesis is Swan Songs in Austin, Texas, where musical moments are created for the patient and family. However, its model is primarily based on collating previously composed pieces for recitals without a personalized honoring of the patient’s witness of faith. Noted with Honor is an emerging non-profit organization that creates an original work that reflects upon the testimony of the patient and forms a new narrative towards the end of one’s …

Same As It Ever Was: An Exploration And Demonstration Of Techniques For Repurposing And Modernizing Advanced Musical Vocabulary In Mainstream Commercial Music, Aidan Scrivens

Composition/Recording Projects

In the market for tertiary level commercial music education, educators find themselves pulled between students' commercial stylistic interests and the seemingly incommensurable genres better suited to exploring advanced theoretical concepts and vocabulary. This divide can lead to a motivational deficiency in a student that, in turn, can hinder their development and render their collegiate experience less worth the expense. In the interest of combating this potential motivational deficiency, this recording project and accompanying paper explores and demonstrates the process of modernizing and recontextualizing material found in these less commercially mainstream genres. By adapting vocabulary and approaches learned from the transcription …

The Planets, Reimagined: Translating Science Into Music, Kaitlyn Wincup

Honors Projects

Inspired by Gustav Holst’s The Planets, this project analyzed the qualitative properties of the planets in our Solar System and translated them into a composition, created by Connor Gibbs, to represent an overall aural depiction of each planet. Where Holst created an astrological depiction of each of the planets, this piece is an astronomical depiction that broadens the perspectives of its listeners.

Wordmuse, John M. Nelson

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Wordmuse is an application that allows users to enter a song and a list of keywords to create a new song. Built on Spotify's API, this project showcases the fusion of music composition and artificial intelligence. This paper also discusses the motivation, design, and creation of Wordmuse.

Escape Beneath: An Original Game Score Inspired By An Analysis Of Garry Schyman's Music, Daniel Cooper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Video-game music has grown into a vast array of different styles, sounds, and applications. As a newer field of music, game scoring has begun to receive high acclaim. Garry Schyman has become one of the most successful composers within the video-game industry. His music has received many awards and nominations throughout the years. Despite this, research and analysis into his compositions and techniques are almost non-existent. This thesis studies his techniques within the video-game scores for BioShock, BioShock 2, BioShock Infinite, Middle Earth Shadow of War, and Torn; and then applies them into an original …

The Musical Implementation Of Additive Synthesis, Quinn Ingrassia

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper on the musical implementation of additive synthesis seeks to explore and divulge what exactly is additive synthesis and what makes it distinct from other types of synthesis. A part of it is dedicated to making clear and palatable case for additive synthesis and is followed by a discussion of how and why various artists have implemented additive synthesis into their music, and how to recreate their techniques.

Phantasticus: An Exploration Of The Sound World Of 17th Century Italian Instrumental Music, Ian Jones

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

The Baroque period is home to some of the most prolific composers known today: Handel, Vivaldi, Bach all fill the standard repertoire of many instrumentalists today. However, who came before, and why should we care? Prior to these notable composers of the High Baroque, the 17th century marked an era of immense musical discovery. The early 1600s was a time of exploration and excitement within the realms of music making and musical thought. Claudio Monteverdi was a pivotal figure in the development of the early Baroque world, and with that, new styles of music emerged, noted as stil concertato …

Digital Evolution: How The Development Of Digital Audio Technologies Have Changed The Way Video Game Composers Create Music, Mason Cooke

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

This work provides annotations for a collection of sources relevant to the topic above.

Copland And Bernstein: How The American Left Responds To Mccarthyism Through Music: An Annotated Bibliography, Rachel Clausing

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein were not only two of the most influential American composers but were also important cultural figures in left-wing American politics throughout their lifetimes. As public figures with sometimes communist sympathies, they fell victim to McCarthyism’s Red Scare tactics like so many others did, facing scrutiny from the US government. The Cold War era, marked by a contradictory combination of a cultural push for family values and consumerism with the overarching fear of foreign infiltration and nuclear annihilation, led to a feeling of anxiety and mistrust. In this paper, I examine the ways in which Copland’s …

The Significance Of Sonic Branding To Strategically Stimulate Consumer Behavior: Content Analysis Of Four Interviews From Jeanna Isham’S “Sound In Marketing” Podcast, Ina Beilina

Student Theses and Dissertations

Purpose:
Sonic branding is not just about composing jingles like McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It.” Sonic branding is an industry that strategically designs a cohesive auditory component of a brand’s corporate identity. This paper examines the psychological impact of music and sound on consumer behavior reviewing studies from the past 40 years and investigates the significance of stimulating auditory perception by infusing sound in consumer experience in the modern 2020s.

Design/methodology/approach:
Qualitative content analysis of audio media was used to test two hypotheses. Four archival oral interview recordings from Jeanna Isham’s podcast “Sound in Marketing” featuring the sonic branding experts …

Energy Portraits For Flute, Clarinet In B-Flat, Violin, Cello, Piano, And Percussion, Luis Solis

Music Theses and Dissertations

Energy Portraits is a 25-minute work for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion based on the nine Enneagram personality types. The Enneagram system delves into underlying motivations and thought patterns of different people rather than only external behaviors, so this piece incorporates the typical overall energy of each number as a miniature portrait. The movements are not in the same order as the nine types from the Enneagram but are reordered and renamed for musical reasons. This allows the listeners who are not familiarized with the Enneagram to still understand the theme and energy of each movement.

Flourish is …