Composition Commons^™

Embodied Composition: The Creation Of Enriched Interactional Experiences Through Music Composition, Aaron Bilney Geringer

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Music is a form of embodied interaction through which people can synchronize their motor, sensory, and emotive systems. Anthropologists and developmental psychologists suggest that elements of music provide the groundwork for verbal interaction and interpersonal relationships (Aiello, 1996; Dissanayake, 2000; Mithen, 2006). When people interact with each other through music, the bases of community are formed. Phenomenological descriptions of individual’s experience of music and the role music plays in interpersonal interaction have been documented. However, there is little literature describing the embodied experiences of music composers as the architects of embodied interactions through music. Through this study, I address this …

Applications Of The Sierpiński Triangle To Musical Composition, Samuel C. Dent

Honors Theses

The present paper builds on the idea of composing music via fractals, specifically the Sierpiński Triangle and the Sierpiński Pedal Triangle. The resulting methods are intended to produce not just a series of random notes, but a series that we think pleases the ear. One method utilizes the iterative process of generating the Sierpiński Triangle and Sierpiński Pedal Triangle via matrix operations by applying this process to a geometric configuration of note names. This technique designs the largest components of the musical work first, then creates subsequent layers where each layer adds more detail.

Breakdown: Vol 1: Text And Music, A Survey Of Methodology And Process, Vol 2: In Full Score., Andrew Synnott

Doctoral

The work presented here is in two parts. The first part is an opera composed to a libretto by the Irish playwright, John Breen. This opera is in three acts and concerns the performance of four famous performance art pieces; Rhythm 0 by Marina Abramović, Breakdown by Michael Landy, Velocity Piece by Barry La Va and How To Explain Pictures To a Dead Hare by Joseph Beuys. These art works are presented as the action of the opera and happen concurrently on the stage during the first two acts. The third act reflects on the action of acts one and …

Society Of Composers Region Iii Conference February 25-27, 2016, Mark Zanter

All Performances

No abstract provided.

Composing/Arranging Familiar Songs In Choir With Garageband, Brent C. Talbot

Sunderman Conservatory of Music Faculty Publications

This practical multi-stage project description demonstrates to teachers how they can engage students in arranging and composing music related to the choral curriculum by using Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) like GarageBand.

Childe Roland: String Quartet, Percussion And Electric Guitar, David Blevins

Theses and Dissertations--Music

An original composition in five movements for string quartet, percussion and electric guitar. Majority of the electric guitar parts are marked “quasi-improvisation”, with the intent of allowing the player freedom to explore their own creativity and expand upon the notated guitar parts as desired. The percussion parts, also marked “quasi-improvisation”, allow the player to expand upon the notated rhythms and choose their own combination of muted wood blocks as desired.

The name of this piece and its individual movements pay homage to the author Steven King and his series of books known as the The Dark Tower. Much of …

Movement I. "Lo" From Four Moons For Brass Quartet, Gregory V. Goeden

Compositions

"lo" is the introductory movement of a four-part suite, entitled Four Moons for Brass Quartet. As suggested by the title, the four movements of the work were modeled after a specific set of astronomical entities, the four Galilean moons of Jupiter. These celestial satellites provided inspiration for this work in a number of different ways. Scientific observations and measurements for each moon, such as diameter, mass, density and composition, provided melodic and harmonic ideas through a 20th century musical process that is commonly referred to as "pitch set theory." The visual and physical qualities of each moon, and their relationships …

Concerto For Viola: A New Work For Solo Viola And Orchestra With Analysis And Commentary, David E. O'Fallon

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This project consists of a new work for solo viola with orchestra and includes an analysis of that work with commentary on the composer's stylistic traits and influences. The analysis comprises not only an examination of the formal and thematic elements of the work, but also an investigation into the problems of projection and balance that are inherent in a work of this type and how various composers have attempted to solve, or at least minimize, these problems.

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 …

Oasis Dreams, Clarisse Tobia, David Vayo, Faculty Advisor

Compositions

Full musical score for violin, viola, cello and piano for large or small ensembles.

Flow, Tommy Bravos

Compositions

Flow was composed in the Spring of 2014 and premiered in it’s entirety during the April Student Composition Concert here at Illinois Wesleyan University. I composed the piece during an emotionally tumultuous time, and it represents many events that were occurring cyclically in my life at the time. The emotional events that directly inspired Flow were like opposite sides of a coin: one being relationships attempting to grow and the other being relationships gradually turning sour, needing to be left behind. These ideas are represented by the piece revolving around the recurring motive, showing how these events constantly wove in …

Exploring The Mediality Of Live And Studio Composition: The Case Of Computer Music, And Its Implications In “Ambivalence Of Density”, Michael Terren

Theses : Honours

This dissertation attempts to apply the communications theory concept of “mediality,” as described by Jonathan Sterne, to the context of music composition for different mediums, namely the media of the live performance and the studio work (the recording, the concrete work). Mediality denotes the complex “web of practice and reference” between different media—how we interact with and perceive media, and how this affects the content of the medium. The mediality of live and studio composition is posited as cross-referential, non-hierarchical and non-dichotomous—a relationship of “dependence and imbrication” rather than antagonistic binaries.

I investigate the mediality of live and studio composition …

Something Wicked This Way Comes: Scoring Hamline University's Production Of "Macbeth", Andrew Brady

Departmental Honors Projects

This project represents a practical investigation into using original underscore in the modern theatrical experience. Over 40 minutes of cinematic, orchestral underscore were composed by the author specifically for Hamline University Theatre Department’s 2014 production of Macbeth. Using electronic scoring methods and digital playback strategies, the music was “performed” with variable timing that was able to directly match the performance of the actor’s for each show. The accompanying written musicological analysis explores the score’s uses of themes, spotting strategies, and integration of the show’s artistic concept. The analysis, in conjunction with the recorded score, demonstrates a cohesive effort to …

Dolce Stil Novo, Timothy W. Mcdunn

Compositions

Dolce Stil Novo is a slightly unconventional kind of tone poem. As the title suggests, the main inspiration for the piece is the poetry of Dante Alighieri, especially that subset of it which belongs to his so-called "Sweet New Style." While the three successive intermezzi are tied only obliquely to this subject, the first and final movements make direct reference to Dante's Sweet New Style as found in the Vita Nuova, an autobiographical compilation of prose and verse. In this way, the piece is a reflection on Dante's writings from two perspectives: that of the author (in the first and …

The Final Cut: Music For Film And Electronic Media, Johnathon Edward Paape

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis contains both music scores and audio files that pertain to the scoring of music for film and video games. My thesis contains five pieces that were written for either film or video games. The scores were made using Finale 2011 and the audio tracks were created using the sequencer Reaper in combination with East West Hollywood Brass, East West Stormdrums 2 and Vienna Symphonic Orchestra virtual instruments. With these, I will demonstrate my ability to effectively compose and orchestrate music for various genres.

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 …

April: A Song Cycle For Low Voice And Chamber Orchestra, Daniel Arnold

Theses and Dissertations--Music

An original composition in five movements for voice and a chamber orchestra of eleven instruments. The first movement is an overture; the second and fifth movements have text by Sara Teasdale; the third and fourth movements have text by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Composing Music In Constrained Search Environments, Jeffrey Keene

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Composing music with computers in constrained search environments adds complexities and problems not present in the traditional problem domain of generative music. The traditional and well researched mechanisms of Markov chains, genetic algorithms and data driven rule based systems do not directly map to a problem domain in which pitch choice and rhythm choice are likely to be highly limited.

We therefore explore several possible solutions to generating rhythms in extremely constrained environments with the goal of generating music that adheres to user specified constraints and is aesthetically pleasing.

Dialogue As Performance. Performance As Dialogue, Laura Lynn

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation is an arts-based qualitative study in Leadership and Change that describes the qualities of dialogue revealed through the felt experience of Native and non-Native American music composers engaged in a dialogue through music composition. The fifteen co-collaborators who participated in the study range in age from three-years-old to elders. The study is theoretically embedded within Performance Studies, Dr. Carolyn Kenny’s music therapy model Field of Play, and aesthetic philosophy. Methodologically, this work is expressed through performance ethnography and autoethnography and privileges textual and non-textual modes of account including photographs, video excerpts, poetry, and music manuscript. The text is …

Composition And Analysis Of Music Using Mathematica, Marianella P. Machado, Christopher W. Kulp, Dirk Schlingman

Languages, Cultures, and Humanities Faculty and Staff Research

In this paper we demonstrate how to create and analyze musical compositions using Mathematica. In §1, we begin by demonstrating how to create a musical composition for an orchestra based on the butterfly curve using traditional means. In §2, we then show how a computer generated piece based on any curve can be composed using Mathematica. Finally, in §3, we show how Mathematica can be used to analyze musical compositions using the methods from nonlinear time series analysis.

Convergence And Divergence In Peter Mennin's Canzona, Gene H. Anderson

Music Faculty Publications

In a brief but perspicacious study of Mennin' s music in 1954, Walter Hendl describes the composer as "a consummate craftsman who devotes great attention to the organization of materials." Although Hendl may not have known Canzona, which had been premiered in 1951 but not published until the year of his essay, the author's statement could well have been written with Mennin's sole piece for band specifically in mind. Not only is every aspect of Canzona integrally related to every other, but the relationships are deployed with a remarkable economy of means.

The Spell Of Speech, Bruno Tucunduva Ruviaro

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This text is a complement to the musical composition The Spell of Speech, a piece for actress, electro-acoustic sounds and live-electronics composed in 2004 as part of the requirements to conclude the Master’s degree in Electro-Acoustic Music at Dartmouth College. The core of this research is the relationship between speech and music composition. The first chapter presents a theoretical framework comprising evolutionary musicology and music cognition. The second chapter contains a historical survey of electro-acoustic music in which human voice plays a fundamental role. Finally, the third chapter analyzes the composition The Spell of Speech, presenting the main techniques used …

Computer-Assisted Music Composition In The 32-Bar Jazz Standard Form, Chad Hogg

Computer Science Honors Papers

The goal of this research project was to explore the potential for teaching a computer to compose jazz music. Specifically, the hope was to develop a method in which every decision could be made based on information about the entire system. If this problem were solved, the ancillary goal of allowing the user to set any arbitrary constraints that have global effects would be a trivial addition.

The Triumph Of Timelessness Over Time In Hindemith's "Turandot Scherzo" From The Symphonic Metamorphosis Of Themes By Carl Maria Von Weber, Gene H. Anderson

Music Faculty Publications

Hindemith's title of his four-movement von Weber suite of 1943 poses a problem. The composer's characteristic reticence about his sources delayed their documentation for some twenty years, whereupon it was found that the Symphonic Metamorphosis was based, not only on themes, but on complete pieces. Rather than "thematic transformation," the "metamorphosis" of the title would thus be more accurately regarded as "recomposition," in which changes of tone system, timbre, harmony, rhythm, and form, in addition to the melody itself, transform every level and component of the original composition's structure. This study attempts to demonstrate how Hindemith achieves such a metamorphosis …

Musical Metamorphoses In Hindemith's "March" From The Symphonic Metamorphosis Of Themes By Carl Maria Von Weber, Gene H. Anderson

Music Faculty Publications

From the composer we learn nothing about his approaches to the construction of this piece or about specific methods of musical metamorphosis. Hindemith, in fact, considered such knowledge useless, as he trenchantly observed in an early autobiographical note: " ... for people with ears my things are perfectly easy to understand, so an analysis is superfluous. For people without ears such cribs can't help." Indeed, one is struck, not by the differences, but by the similarities between the March and its prototype, von Weber's Marcia from Huit pièces for piano duet, Op. 60, No. 7, composed in 1819. But while …

Outlines: An Original Composition For Concert Band, Bruce Albert Stephenson Hunter

All Master's Theses

If one attempted to study the history of jazz through the study of music playable by and available to the average high school band, he might conclude that jazz was a frivolous medium which died in the late 1940's. Outlines was composed in the hope that future high school musicians will develop a more balanced view of music trends in the last half of the century.

Volume 61, Number 09 (September 1943), James Francis Cooke

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

When Walt Whitman was a Music Critic

How to Become a Better Pianist (interview with Jan Smeterlin)

Opera for the Millions: An Analysis of the Popularity of Opera (interview with Milton J. Cross)

Use the Mirror in Voice Study

Claude Debussy, French Patriot

Musicians in Khaki: A Vision of Victory in Music Thrills Britain's Armies: The Amazing Story of Symphony Orchestras Made Up of Officers and Men

Among the Composers

Fundamentals of Good Breathing

Natural Power in Piano Playing

Roses and Thorns in the Path of Private Teaching

Grieg—Nationalist and Cosmopolitan: Personal Recollections of Edvard Grieg, Part 4

Three T's: …

Volume 06, Number 10 (October 1888), Theodore Presser

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

How to Listen to Music

Musical Punctuation

Raif's Method

Incident

Songs Without Words

Fourth Finger Operation

Harmony as a Study

Grand Social

Art of Studying

Philosopher's Opinion of Music

Practical Letters to Teachers

Knowledge of the Relation of Physiology and Anatomy to Piano Playing

Advice to Nervous Pianists

Sight-Reading

Franz Liszt's Mother

Volume 04, Number 09 (September 1886), Theodore Presser

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Book, Newspaper, or Magazine?

How Shall A Young Teacher Succeed?

Tone in Piano-Forte Playing

Effect of Liszt's Piano-Forte Compositions

Liberating the Ring Finger

Concerning the Title Professor

Franz Liszt

A Method for Beginners

Nature of Harmony

Simplicity of Technique

Teacher's Responsibility

Scales

Interpretation

Removal

Old Fogy Has a Word to Say on Individuality

What Shall We Play?

Volume 03, Number 05 (May 1885), Theodore Presser

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957

Liberating of the Ring-Finger

Some Phases of Technical Study

Approbation

Mechnical Aids to Piano Playing

Out of Tune

About Piano-Fortes

Phrasing

Pianists: Their Development and Styles

Musician