Music Performance Commons^™

Survey And Analysis Of Undergraduate Music Education Percussion Methods Courses In Relation To The Practical Needs Of Secondary Music Educators In American Public Schools, Bryan C. Pickering

Dissertations, 2020-current

The majority of Bachelor’s degrees in Music Education require students to enroll in a series of instrumental methods or techniques courses. These courses cover fundamental techniques and pedagogical approaches that prepare students for their future careers as music educators. Due to the percussion instrument family having a large scope of material that needs to be covered, it is commonly perceived by those who teach the classes, that Percussion Methods classes within an undergraduate Music Education degree operate on time frames that make equal coverage of all instruments and topics a pedagogical challenge within a standard academic semester.

The purpose of …

Demonstrable Effect Of Vocal Changes On Singing Voices Of Post-Menopausal Women, Haley K. Griffith

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

There is little research concerning the impacts of menopause on the female singing voice, and few research studies examine any treatment methods or exercises to help sustain vocal quality throughout and after menopause. To determine areas in which more detailed studies could be completed, I completed a thorough literature review of current research studies that investigate relationships between menopause and the voice. Many studies examined vocal symptoms of menopause, such as a lowered fundamental frequency (F0) and decreased vocal quality. However, there exists no formally researched or published vocal exercises that help to mitigate these menopausal voice symptoms.

In response, …

Shared Dramatic Pacing In Jake Heggie's Three Decembers, Cynthia Wohlschlager

Dissertations, 2020-current

Jake Heggie collaborated with Terrence McNally and Gene Sheer to infuse 21st-century topics into the chamber opera Three Decembers. This document traces the development of the Madeline Mitchell motif, followed by illuminating the concept of shared dramatic pacing through the use of score identifiers. Fueled by research into Heggie's compositional process, via personal interviews with the composer, it defines an effective method for character development, as well as provides suggestions for the successful preparation of a Jake Heggie opera. For this document, the concept of shared dramatic pacing refers to the time on stage during a performance that is …

Recording A Solo Instrumental Album: A Methodology And Representative Album, John Nye

Dissertations, 2020-current

Contests and Collaborations is a trumpet album consisting of solo and collaborative works for trumpet. The album is aimed towards demonstrating diverse performance abilities in a variety of musical styles. The methodology for recording a solo instrumental album is discussed in detail and includes topics such as selecting repertoire, recruiting collaborative artists, hiring a recording engineer, selecting a producer, choosing a recording venue, allocating rehearsal and recording time, and royalties and licensing. Contests and Collaborations, along with the accompanying methodology, serves as a resource for other musicians by detailing various considerations and procedures involved in recording an album.

The Integration Of The Interactive Teaching Method (Itm) Of The Alexander Technique In Vocal Pedagogy, Susan D. Gouthro

Dissertations, 2020-current

Abstract

The work of F.M. Alexander (1869-1955) has become renowned in the realm of bodywork. Instrumental in furthering Alexander’s teachings is the work of Donald Weed, American Alexander Technique (AT) teacher and developer of the Interactive Teaching Method (ITM), his unique method for delivering the Alexander Technique and training teachers.

This study investigates how certified ITM instructors apply the ITM principles into their music teaching pedagogy, with a specific focus on applied voice lessons. Six practitioner interviews, as well as multiple class interviews with Weed were conducted from July 5– 9, 2019, in Darmstadt, Germany during a five-day ITM Workshop. …

Holy Cross Choirs Newsletter (Spring 2020), Choir, College Of The Holy Cross

Holy Cross Choirs Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Ritualized Performance And Community Identity: A Historical Examination Of Drum Corps Competition In The United States, Denise Odello

Music Publications

What structures bind musical communities that reach over distances? This article examines the musical community of youth drum corps in the United States and, in particular, the changing performance practices at competitions over time and how those changes influence the identity of the community. Drum corps is a community that exists over increasingly greater distances, yet the identity of this musical community is strong. An important site for discovering this communal identity is in competitive performance. Drum corps performances are strictly regulated because of this competitive context, and the values seen in those competitive regulations reflect the identity of the …

Nadia Boulanger’S Fantaisie Variée Pour Piano Et Orchestre A Study Of A Significant Unpublished Piece, Sarah Elias

Dissertations

The research consists of a brief historical and biographical overview of Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), a main focus of a thematic and motivic analysis of her work Fantaisie variée pour piano et orchestre, along with touching upon the influences of Fauré, Debussy, Widor, Reger, and Franck on its composition, and a mention of the process of obtaining the Fantaisie from the Centre international Nadia et Lili Boulanger. Boulanger produced works in a variety of genres, including: a fugue; more than thirty songs for voice and piano; two completed works for solo piano; three works for organ; several chamber works; three works …

A Performance Guide To Keith Gates's Song Cycle, The Barren One, Analynn Sober

Dissertations

Keith Gates’s song cycle, The Barren One is based on Federico Garcia Lorca’s play Yerma. Originally, Gates had planned to write an opera based on Yerma, but after a religious awakening, he decided to abandon the project. Instead, he took the music originally written for the opera and combined it with songs using Lorca’s poetry to create a song cycle. The knowledge of Gates’s operatic intentions as well as knowledge about the play should be considered when performing this work. This is because the song cycle is a miniature version of the opera and should be performed as …

A Performance Guide To Wallace Stevens' Thirteen Ways Of Looking At A Blackbird As Set By Louise Talma, Meredith Melvin Johnson

Dissertations

This dissertation presents a two-fold discourse, first to provide a contextual source for singers interested in 20^th century composer Louise Talma, and second to provide an analytical guide to Talma’s adaption of Wallace Stevens’ poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird for voice, oboe, and piano. Though Talma’s composition never became renowned, it is both a commendable achievement and a highly sophisticated work, interweaving musical creativity with the extra-musical stimuli borne from the personal experiences of the composer.

The body of the document will feature four main chapters. The first chapter will introduce composer Louise Talma, the second …

The Language Of Expression: Solo Violin Through The Ages, Kimberly Rendahl

Recital Papers

The following paper centers around defining technical and expressive commonalities while also exploring the respective features of interpretation that distinguish the Sonata for Violin and Piano in G Major, Opus 30, No. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven, Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 by Johann Sebastian Bach, and the Moderato Nobile movement from Violin Concerto in D Major, Opus 35 by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. These works exhibit the full range of the violin’s expressive capabilities in music from markedly different style periods. The following chapters include an evaluation of expressive aspects found in each work, and the ways …

The Amalgamation Of Popular Music And Dance: An Exploration Of The Human Impact, Caroline Kasay

Recital Papers

The undeniable relationship between song and dance begins in the early stages of life, and it persists throughout time in bringing communities of people together. As Susan E. Pashman states in her article When the Music Moves You: Revisiting the Classics in the Company of Neuroscience, “music promotes a sense of oneness, a feeling that drives social bonding from an early age... In a dance club, then, it is both the music and the dance movements of others that draw an individual onto the dance floor.” (2014, 23). This emotional correlation, or “sense of oneness” that Pashman details repeats itself …

Exploring Literature Through Music: A Graduate Recital Of Nineteenth-And Twentieth- Century Vocal Literature, Emily Kivi

Recital Papers

As demonstrated in the four pieces chosen for this program, Strauss’s art songs are useful learning tools for a singer’s introduction to the technical demands required to learn and perform in his operas.

A Bright Size Transformation: Examining Pat Metheny's Improvisatory Evolution Through Select Original Compositions From The Album Bright Size Life (1976), Lee Heerspink

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

Pat Metheny has consistently been one of the most widely celebrated and prominent jazz guitarists from the mid-1970s to present day. Over the course of Metheny’s 45-year career, he has accumulated 44 albums as a band leader, 20 Grammy awards, and numerous “Best Jazz Guitarist” awards from DownBeat and JazzTimes. Despite the general sources, articles and interviews conducted about Metheny’s life and music, there is a lack of scholarly research which addresses how Pat Metheny’s improvisatory approach has changed throughout the course of his career.

This document provides a better understanding of Pat Metheny’s improvisatory evolution with transcriptions, analyses, …

Effects Of Chair Testing In Orchestra On Student Motivation: Student Perspectives And Applications From Motivational Theories, Rosanna Christine Honeycutt

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine how string students perceive achievement on chair testing through the lens of attribution and achievement goal motivational self-theories. A teacher survey was administered to identify the goals of chair testing in two high school and seven middle school orchestra classrooms. A student survey was used to collect data in those same classrooms on (a) the reasons why students do and do not do well on chair tests, (b) the perceived goals of chair testing and (c) the ratings of motivation and self-achievement. Qualitative techniques were used to analyze attributions within both …

Chameleons Of Modern Drumming: Mastering Diverse Commerical Styles, Cameron Simons

Recital Papers

Studio drummers are some of the most well-rounded musicians contributing to commercial music in the modern era. They are hired to lend their talents to an artist’s compositions by creating drum parts that will complement the overarching song arrangement. In this type of work, it is very helpful to be fluent in many different styles of drumming, as the music of each artist will require different techniques. Each of the drummers highlighted in this research have mastered the ability to shift from one style of music to the next with ease, earning them the title as a “chameleon” of modern …

Bach-To Ysaÿe: History And Performance Considerations Of Sonata No. 2, Mai Vestergaard

Honors Scholar Theses

Eugene Ysaÿe’s Violin Sonata No. 2 has been influenced by the baroque music of Johann Sebastian Bach and the musical techniques brought forth by the Franco-Belgian Violin School. Each sonata movement has musical elements incorporating virtuosic techniques such as ponticello, chromaticism, and emphasis of the tri-tone. The performer draws attention to the audience by using advanced performance practices to change the piece's color and story. Ysaÿe engages with these ideas to share a musical and personal journey through each sonata movement, dedicating it to Jacques Thibaud. This violin sonata is a pinnacle to the violin repertoire, emphasizing the importance of …

A Master's Recital In Conducting, Meredith Kay Tipping

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Meredith Tipping’s Master of Music Recital in conducting was scheduled for April 28th, 2020, at 7:30 pm in the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Art Center’s Great Hall with the University of Northern Iowa Wind Ensemble. The recital was presented in partial fulfillment of a Master of Music in conducting. The program consisted of four contrasting pieces from the wind band repertoire: Novorossiisk Chimes by Dmitri Shostakovich, Pageant by Vincent Persichetti, Letter from Sado by Jodie Blackshaw, and Paris Sketches by Martin Ellerby.

Utilization Of Recycled Filament For 3d Printing For Consumer Goods, Alexa Peterson

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

The 3D printing market has been used in a wide variety of manufacturing industries including textile and apparel. Many consumers can now own a personal 3D printer at home for recreational printing. There are even websites dedicated to 3D printing patterns made by consumers. However, the materials used in the 3D printing process pose a problem for the environment due to their plastic-based nature. 3D printing is a layered process with each layer being printed depending on the layer below it for strength and stability. During the 3D printing process, great amounts of waste are produced as a result of …

Music Performance Anxiety In The Middle School Classroom, Allison Custer

Theses

This project analyzes Music Performance Anxiety, including who it affects, symptoms and techniques to reduce symptoms. The task is to focus on activities that can be used in the middle school ensemble classroom, to help students who suffer from Music Performance Anxiety.

Master's Recital: Isaac Schwartz, Isaac Schwartz

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this recital is to partially fulfill the requirements for the Master of Music degree in Jazz Pedagogy, and to display musical proficiency on drum set, bass guitar, and piano. Isaac Schwartz scheduled his graduate jazz recital for April 8, 2020, at 7:30pm. Due to COVID-19 quarantine regulations, he met the alternative requirements provided by his graduate committee instead of presenting a live recital.

With seven pieces on the recital program, the recitalist will play three on drum set, and two each on piano and bass. This shows a diverse set of skills on all three instruments while …

Graduate Recital In Trombone, Obediah Bauer

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This recital partially fulfills the requirements for the Master of Music degree in Trombone Performance. Repertoire was chosen to demonstrate a variety of musical and technical facilities in different historical settings. The program features Launy Grøndahl’s Concert Pour Trombone et Piano ou Orchestre; three movements from Gustav Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer); Enrique Crespo’s Improvisation Nr. 1 für Posaune Solo; Paul Craven’s Sonatina for Trombone and Piano; and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Drei Equale für vier Posaunen.

Afrosonic Noise: A Transnational Black Feminist Musicological Study Of Global Black Joy In Black North American Rock Music And Afro Argentinian Music Performance., Jerika M Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I have decided that my academic mission, at this juncture at least, is to find common links between 2 groups of people that have come to know themselves through paralleling but colonially different environments. Perhaps it is wise for me to explore the similarities between Afro Argentine Black Music and African North American Music in closer ethnomusicological detail using feminist praxis—after all both communities are part of the African Diaspora and producing Black music. I do this by reconstructing a very limited genealogy of Black Femme’s and their contribution to their respective musical communities. I draw parallels between the global …

Backing Tracks/Play-Along Materials: Origins Of Several Currently Popular Platforms And Strategies For Their Use., Giovanni De Castro Sena

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research is to discuss if the use of backing tracks/play-along materials can be an effective method for musical development. For this end, I interviewed six influential musicians who answered particular questions in order to have a better understanding about the real-world scenario of the use of backing track materials. Based on their answers, I found that the learning engagement and/or musical development happen when specific strategies while using such materials are made.

Vocal Styles In Commercially Successful Popular Music In The United States During The 2010'S, Jay Thao

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Vocal performance in commercially successful American popular music during the 2010’s implemented many different vocal techniques. However, the vocal styles that were prominent during this era of music are: vocal breathiness, vocal belts and the usage of the head voice. In this paper, I will examine the vocal styles and performances of pop stars who were influential during the 2010’s. These artists are Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, and Billie Eillish. Through these examinations, readers will have an understanding of the popular vocal styles that were heavily used during this decade of music.

Our Perception Of Scary Sounds: A Comparison Of Films And Popular Music, David Puhl

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

My Capstone Research Paper will be an analysis on the usage of “scary” sounds performed in popular music as well as a comparison to the practice of using similar sounds in film, making a note of any similarities or differences (ex. audience perception, use of visuals). I will also touch on the integration of scary sound effects alongside music scoring for film, specifically in the Horror and Suspense genres. With popular music being my primary focus, I want to elaborate on the cognitive psychology of audiences (in film and music) and their reactions to "scary" or "horrific" sounds to better …

Trippy Sounds: Recording Studio Effects Of Psychedelic Rock, 1960s And Present, Theo Farnum

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The psychedelic rock movement of the 1960s dominated popular music and culture of the decade. The movement was heavily shaped by the consumption of LSD, a mind-altering hallucinogenic drug. Songwriting and lyrics often reflected the drug and the states of mind that it induced, and unique cutting-edge production techniques were used to imitate the effects of LSD use. Artists such as The Beatles used new effects, such as phasing, artificial double tracking, tape loops, and reverse recording.

In the 21st century, music has again been described as psychedelic rock, though the music under that term is much more diverse. Bands …

Innovative Marching: A Look Into The Innovation Of Dci, Sarah Ann Kano

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper analyzes unique innovations from five Drum Corps International (DCI) shows: 2008’s show Spartacus performed by Phantom Regiment, 2011’s show Angels and Demons performed by the Cadets, 2013’s show E=MC2 performed by Carolina Crown, and lastly 2014’s shows Tilt performed by the Bluecoats and Fellinisque performed by the Blue Devils. In each judging caption I have explored how each show met the expectations of that caption, if it has a new approach to the caption, if that approach is truly innovative, and if it has been emulated. This analysis suggests that even if the judging captions can sometimes inhibit …

Graduate Viola Recital, Chelsea Pfeifer

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to provide an understanding of, and present historical information regarding the selections performed on a graduate viola recital. Selections performed were written by the following composers: Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert, Max Bruch, and Alan Hovhaness. Biographical information of the composer, program notes, and performance considerations will be included.

Graduate Recital In Violin, Bethany Washington

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Bethany Washington scheduled her graduate violin recital for March 27, 2020 at 6PM with pianist Dr. Vakhtang Kodanashvili. Due to COVID-19 quarantine regulations, she met the alternative requirements provided by her graduate committee instead of presenting a live recital. The repertoire selected for her recital included Sonata No. 2 in A Minor, BVW 1003 by Johann Sebastian Bach, Graceful Ghost Rag by William Bolcom, Sonata No 5 in F Major by Ludwig van Beethoven, and Resurrection Prelude and Rondo by Denzel Washington. These works were selected not only because they cover a wide range of musical genres and styles, but …