Composition Commons^™

Bob Becker: An Examination Of His Compositional Approach And His Chamber Work Never In Word, Kaipo Lan

Dissertations, 2020-current

In the late twentieth century, the dual role of percussionist-composer became more visible, supported by the growth of percussion ensembles, specialized university training, and musicians who embraced both performance and composition as central to their artistic identity. Bob Becker is such a musician, a world-renowned percussionist and composer notable for the fusion of North Indian classical music and Western music conventions. His chamber pieces are excellent additions to the repertoire and notable for his multicultural music aesthetic, orchestration, range of musical colors, and idiomatic writing for the performers. Moreover, Becker’s ongoing exploration of his interest in poetry has been reflected …

Jazz Scale Patterns With Abjad And Lilypond, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Background

Jazz method books often advise students to “learn it in all keys,” yet most present examples in only one or two keys (if that, as they start from C, the easiest key, and usually stop there). For many "classically-trained" players—especially those who check fingerings, enharmonics, and voice-leading by reading—the absence of complete, notated materials is a barrier. While most scales can be internalized as Whole (W) / Half (H) step patterns, important exceptions (e.g., harmonic and melodic minor, octatonic, whole tone, and blues) are aided by having notated patterns in front of us.

Aims

To generate clear, consistent notation-first …

Structural Models For Lyric-Setting Analysis In Popular Song, Matthew T. Hough

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

Studies of English text setting have long focused on "well-formed" examples, typically in 4/4 time, in which syllabic-stress-to-beat matching is prioritized (Halle and Lerdahl 1993, Hayes and Kaun 1996, Hayes 2009). Evidence of this prioritization has been presented in Palmer and Kelly 1992 and Girardi and Plag 2019, and such examples are ubiquitous in English-language nursery rhymes, children’s songs, and folk tunes. The present study contextualizes this type of text setting as one of four models for the structural interaction of English lyrics and music in popular song: 1) unified ("well-formed"), in which musical considerations and a preference for stress …

Idiomatic Compositional Techniques In John Rutter’S Requiem, Marguerite Walsh

Student Publications

John Rutter is an extremely significant figure in choral music, and his 1985 Requiem is one of his most widely performed works. Despite this popularity, it has yet to be analyzed in a rigorous academic capacity. Requiem is a harmonically rich and sophisticated work, and said lack of previous analysis represents a gap in theoretical research. This thesis analyzes Requiem for significant harmonic structures and idiomatic compositional techniques and applies those techniques in an original composition. Subtopics of note included harmonic non-functionality, modulations, and orchestration. The original work is comprised of two movements for choir and piano respectively titled “Requiem …

0895: Whear Family Papers, 1909-2019, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Dr. Paul W. Whear was a noted composer and Marshall University professor and founded the Huntington Chamber Orchestra. Nancy Robinson Voiers Whear was a renowned musician who worked in Morrow Library at Marshall University and wrote several articles that were published. Their children were Allen Whear, violoncellist, brother Bill, a prominent photographer, and Cynthia, another distinguished musician.

The Whear Family Collection includes original compositions and musical scores by Paul W. Whear, research materials used by Nancy Whear, photography by Bill Whear, and documentation of the musical career of Allen Whear. Also included are programs and other materials from the Huntington …

Building Toward A Timbral Tool-Kit: A Practice-Led Exploration Of Timbre As An Inspirational Tool In The Composition Process, Kailan O’Dell

Postgraduate

This exegesis is a practice-led investigation into the role of timbre as a tool of inspiration and musical expression in the composition process, with a specific focus on keyboard instruments. Two contrasting compositions for grand piano were recorded, then recorded again using four other distinct keyboard instrument timbres. The composer’s emotional perception of each keyboard instrument timbre was evaluated through reflective analysis, and with the use of the Geneva Emotional Music Scale. Knowledge of the emotional associations of the various timbres was used in the creation of four new compositions, one for each of the four distinct keyboard instrument timbres. …

Composition Portfolio Of Doug Falk, Doug Falk

Music ETDs

This composition portfolio contains six compositions:

Heterogeneity (2020) for solo guitar

Amalgamation (2023) for reed quintet

Oil and Vinegar (2024) for wind symphony (satisfying the requirement of one work for large ensemble)

Shouting into the Abyss (2024) for flute with electronics (satisfying the requirements of a work for electronics and a work for voice)

Movements Come, Movements Cease (2025) for voice, trumpet/flugelhorn, marimba, electric bass, drum set and fixed media; written in collaboration with choreography by Laura Orozco Garrett (satisfying the requirement of one collaborative work)

Celestial Bodies in Motion (2025) for 10 piece wind ensemble (satisfying the requirement for …

Singing Our Story: Composing And Writing An Original Musical, Gianna C. Daiuto

Music Summer Fellows

How can we use music to deepen the emotions of the stories we tell? What is the effect of combining song and speech? Through an extensive independent project, I have composed several pieces of original music alongside a script to create an original musical. While it is still in its infancy, this project is the first full draft of this story, and will hopefully be fleshed out to be staged and performed one day in its entirety.

The Oboe Thread: Tracing The Evolution Of Viet Cuong's Compositional Voice, Devin Gilbreath

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Viet Cuong is an emerging and highly regarded American composer currently serving on the faculty at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he teaches composition, orchestration, and music theory. Cuong's academic credentials include degrees from prestigious institutions such as the Curtis Institute of Music, Princeton University, and the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Over the years, his compositional portfolio has expanded significantly, encompassing a diverse range of genres and mediums, including vocal, orchestral, wind band, and chamber music. His chamber works, in particular, stand out for their fusion of diverse genres and instrumentation. One area in which Cuong has made …

"Inspiring Empathy": A Descriptive Review Of A Musical Composition, Garo Saraydarian

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study explored the experiences of college professors using an assessment approach, descriptive review, to assess undergraduate music compositions. College professors, and educators in general, often debate best practices around assessing student work. A literature review showed a debate amongst music educators over approaches to assessing student compositions, with rubrics being especially controversial. Descriptive review uses collective discussion and a series of non-judgmental exercises that aim for participants to become more intimate with a student and their work. As an assessment technique that had been used to look at student artwork, albeit at the elementary grade level, descriptive review has …

Composing Songs For Dead Sailors, Toby Wren

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

Toby Wren discusses his latest creative work, the Songs for Dead Sailors song cycle, a psychological exploration of love and loss in the time of tall ships. This project was conceived as creative practice scholarship. In this presentation, Toby explains the creative processes and influences behind the work.

Reimagining Musical Collaboration: Ai And Music Real-Time Communication (M-Rtc), The Future Of Musical Creativity, Dana Kemack Goot

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

This project explored the intersection of Music Real-Time Communication (M-RTC), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) in online musical collaboration. Presented at the 2023 National CMS/ATMI conference, the project served as a preliminary inquiry into how online musicking technologies impact human-to-human interactions and sought out the capabilities in creativity in music technology. The live performance featured three musicians performing from different geographic locations using an AI-generated composition and an AI-powered accompaniment application. The project demonstrated the creative potential of integrating AI and ML into M-RTC, expanding the possibilities for remote collaboration, composition, and performance. The musicians navigated both the …

"Constructing Music" By Teresa Nakra. Book Review., Jorge E. Variego

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

Technology is a crucial tool for enhancing music creativity and pedagogy, enriching learning rather than posing a threat to traditional educational means. The integration of computers into music pedagogy allows educators to access numerous resources, refining teaching methodologies and inspiring students' musical pursuits. Embracing technology in music education enables dynamic exploration of composition, production, and performance, fostering an interactive and engaging learning environment. Computers and AI offer opportunities for revitalizing music instruction and deepening students' appreciation for the art form.

Teresa M. Nakra's Constructing Music presents an innovative approach to music theory instruction by substituting traditional Western notation with principles …

Diy Music Career, Griffin Schmeltzer

University Honors Theses

As we know, the music industry is changing. Where artists once needed access to extremely expensive gear, we now have access to tech that can create professional quality music at a fraction of the price. And where artists once needed labels to back and distribute their music, we're entering into an age where anyone can upload a song directly to the primary platforms consumers use to listen to music. This has led to an era where songs written and recorded in bedrooms are winning grammys (Billie Eilish). But for all the upsides of anyone being able to make and release …

Dreamvisions+: Virtualizing Medieval Poetics In Multimedia Performance, Mac Waters

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

DreamVisions+ is a transdigital and transhistorical odyssey into the realm of fiction and truth, reality and virtuality. Rooted in the tradition of late medieval dream-vision poems—wherein religious or political allegories unfold through dreaming protagonists—DreamVisions+ stages a multimedia dream vision of the digital age, reading medieval dream visions as proto–virtual reality. Through the creation and analysis of DreamVisions+, a full-length solo multimedia performance, I synthesize live electroacoustic music, XR technologies, and 3D game environments with medieval textual and visual iconography to construct a porous, unstable dream world that collapses medieval and digital imaginaries.

Situating my work within broader political …

How To Walk On Water: Living Through The Absurd, Esther Du

Masters Theses

Set in a speculative world submerged by water, this thesis constructs a fragmented, nonlinear narrative that reflects on survival, memory, and displacement in the aftermath of catastrophe. Through three interwoven chapters—The Outcast, The Researcher, and The World—the project explores the emotional and psychological landscapes of individuals navigating a post-apocalyptic existence where the past is irretrievable and the future uncertain. Using an interdisciplinary form of visual storytelling, writing, and sound, the work draws from personal experience and collective trauma to examine how people reconstruct identity and meaning after loss. Rather than offering a definitive answer to existential …

Sweet Talk "Switch On", David Turner, Soren Walker

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

“Switch On” is the debut album by Melbourne’s Sweet Talk. Founded in 2018 by D. M. Turner and Soren Walker, Sweet Talk was created as a means to explore their love of American music of the mid to late 20th century through a uniquely Australian lens. Australia and the United States have a close relationship stretching back over 100 years. This bond continues to be expressed geopolitically and is prevalent in the cross-cultural exchange found in contemporary music. Sharing a British and Irish heritage, the countries have developed several musical styles in parallel including country music and rock n roll. …

East Meets West In Chinese Orchestral Repertoire: The Fusion Of Chinese Nationalism And Western Musical Influence, Tianxi Wen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This doctoral document explores the intersection of Chinese musical traditions and Western orchestral influences, focusing specifically on how Chinese composers have navigated this blend to create distinctive orchestral works. Grounded in my background as a doctoral student in orchestral conducting and enriched by my ethnomusicological expertise, this document examines how these composers have integrated both traditions into their music.CHAPTER 1, “Introduction”, introduces the document’s structure, central argument, and the selection of orchestral works for analysis. It also defines the document's purpose and scope. CHAPTER 2, “A Brief History of the Orchestra in China”, examines the origins, evolution, and development of …

Influences On The Ecuadorian Flute Repertoire: Compositions By Sixto María Durán, Jacinto Freire, Gerardo Guevara, Luciano Carrera, Juan Carlos Urrutia, Blanca Layana, And Leonardo Cárdenas, Ligia Verduga

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Ecuadorian music is rich, diverse, and beautiful. It encompasses several genres, rhythms, histories, backgrounds, and influences. Ecuador is a small country situated in the northwest corner of South America atop by the equatorial line that divides the northern Hemisphere from the South, hence the name Ecuador. It borders to the north by Colombia, to the south and east border by Peru, and to the west, by the Pacific Ocean. The repertoire for flute from Ecuadorian composers is a very interesting topic that deserves further exploration and research. As additional repertoire is available; however, there are not many scholarly papers written …

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 …

Social Media Addiction Explained Through Film, Matthew Layton

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

“How much is too much?” The central frame of my creative work tackles this question through the lens of queerness, addiction, isolation, and self-identity, giving an unfiltered voice to today’s youth. Social Media’s negative effects go deeper than the usual anecdotes of decline in sleep quality, physical activity, and attention span. The ramifications of a negative mental headspace are often overshadowed by flashy promises and a false sense of belonging. The societal impact is especially influenced due to the malleability of the adolescent brain. In 2022, up to 95% of teenagers ages 13 to 17 claimed to use social media, …

Composition Honors Recital And Lecture, Hannah Simmers

Honors Projects

This project demonstrates compositional techniques and development. It provides a view on the writing process of musical compositions and an analysis on the different components of the pieces. The project included public speaking, where I spoke about each piece and different aspects of the pieces to listen for. A large portion of my role before the recital consisted of organizing musicians, creating a program, and writing my essay.

Saxophone Quartet "Phoenix", Noah Magnus

Graduate Thesis Collection

This thesis is a musical composition which is a saxophone quartet lasting ca. 35 minutes. It also has an accompanying paper.

A Mixed Methods Study Of The Process Of Commissioning New Music For Choirs, Kyle Justin Brazell

Dissertations

This study provided an in-depth look at the commissioning process for choral music. The pursuit of new music has a storied tradition in western culture, deeply connected with the Catholic church, starting in the medieval era. In modern times, there is a substantial amount of research on commissioning new music. However, most of the existing research is focused on band and orchestra ensembles, with very few exploring choral music commissions. Using a mixed methods design, this study identified a process for pursuing new music for choral ensembles and measured attitudes and perceptions of the director and composer during the commissioning …

Investigations Of Musical Constructs: An Analysis Of Graphic Scores And Their Spatial Relationships, Garrett J. Henderson

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

This project seeks to understand, through creative production, how graphic scores and their purpose as a medium can be applied to architectural design. Graphic scores are an abstract representation of musical notation; they utilize unfamiliar concepts and shapes to illustrate musical ideas through unconventional means. Discovering how one can reverse-engineer these works of notation can allow architectural designers to rethink the representation of spaces and the underlying inspirations that form them. Research into broader artistic overlap, historical context, and precedent analysis culminated into a set of drawings that illustrate such concepts through an architectural lens. The production of these drawings …

Gastropoda A Song Cycle In 7 Movements For 10 Musicians., Jonathan Krueger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Inspired by Gnostic myth, biosemiotic forms and Basilides of Alexandria's Seven Sermons to The Dead, Gastropoda tells a creation myth of the opposite yet complementary processes of birth and consumption. The subject of the myth, an unnamed Gastropod, is thrust from the formless ocean to a land more differentiated; full of boundaries and obstacles which obscure the source from wence it came. Through communion with the darkest and lightest aspects of this world, a worm-like entity known as Abraxas, the Gastropod follows two separate yet simultaneous sequences of events that lead to the same essential outcome. One is the path …

Concerto For Flute, Wind Ensemble, And String Quintet, Catherine A. Hoelscher

Graduate Thesis Collection

Concerto for Flute, Wind Ensemble, and String Quintet is a 15 minute work created to demonstrate the virtuosic abilities of the flute. This thesis contains a 47-page score separated into three movements, along with a list of its instrumentation and statements of gratitude. Alongside the score there is a brief overview of the piece with excerpts from the score and descriptions of its musical themes. The overview compares and contrasts the themes and the three movements.

From The Four Winds: A Suite For Orchestra And Jazz Musicians, Thomas James Johnson

Graduate Thesis Collection

From the Four Winds is a four-movement suite for orchestra and jazz musicians. Work on the first movement started in early 2021, and work on the other three movements began in fall 2023. All of music is based on four pitches, B, C, Db, and Eb, which are usually used as chord roots. The concept of four winds was inspired by Chinese culture, but the relationship between the music and the four compass directions was from the perspective of the Midwestern United States. Two movements have sections for jazz style improvisation, and two were influenced by musical minimalism. The final …

Human Evolution: A Musical Portrait, Chloe S. Roper

Senior Honors Projects

The story of human evolution has been an elaborate progression entrenched in metamorphic processes and associated trial and error to create the species we are today. While these milestones are primarily explored through an academic lens, intellectual ideas are less often conveyed through a creative or abstract approach, such as through music or other art forms. Similarly, while music is often employed to evoke emotion, inspire reflection, or symbolize experiences, it is underutilized in conveying intellectual ideas. This project explores the juxtaposition of benchmark concepts of what makes our species distinctly human with instrumental musical expression in order to design …

"River", John Renshaw

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.