Music Practice Commons^™

The Most Common Vocal Fault In The Baritone Voice, Matthew Derek Cyphert

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this research project is to create an approachable guide to avoiding the most common vocal fault found in the baritone singing voice. The specific fault being discussed has been coined the “baritone swallow.” This document will explore the history of the baritone singing voice along with information regarding vocal fach identification, an in-depth study of this common vocal fault frequently experienced by baritone singers, and a fault-specific guide to identifying and addressing the “baritone swallow.”

Creating An Interpretive Edition Of "Sage And Spirit", Michael Crowley

Publications and Research

This paper reports on a practice-based research project designed to create a critically edited score of Bob Weir’s Sage and Spirit for solo guitar. Since no score exists for the piece, potential performers must first go through the time-consuming process of transcription as a way to learn how it works. This may deter potential performers who are either unfamiliar with the Dead’s music or lack formal training to undertake this preliminary work. This project was designed as an attempt to bridge the gap between what musical information is available through published sources and the concerns of the music’s potential performers. …

Words, Music, Memory: An Exploration Of Four Soprano Song Cycles By Lori Laitman Based On Poetry By Victims Of The Holocaust, Sheena Ramirez

Dissertations, 2020-current

This Doctor of Musical Arts document is an exploration of the four soprano song cycles by Lori Laitman based on text settings from victims of the Holocaust, with a specific focus on the compositional and performance devices that both underpin the power of words to bear witness to lived experience and ensure the process of musical commemoration as an act of historical preservation. Lori Laitman (b. 1955) has composed ten distinct song cycles commemorating victims of the Holocaust, of which four are included in this study – I Never Saw Another Butterfly, In Sleep the World is Yours, The Ocean …

Constructivist Peer Review In Music Theory And Composition Courses: Technologies And Practice, Brendan Mcconville

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

This article considers the supporting technologies and practices for effective semi-anonymous peer review in traditional music theory and composition-related courses: orchestration, arranging, and composition. A coordinated approach probes two questions nested within one broad case study: (1) does the use of peer review in music theory and composition-related courses create meaningful, constructivist-inspired learning experiences, and (2) what web technologies can efficiently and effectively accomplish its activities? The article first provides a constructivist theoretical framework; next, it explains the methodologies, technologies, and resulting feedback from using peer review in a three-course study; and finally it provides concluding remarks on the many …

Clube Da Esquina 1970-1972: A Compositional Analysis According To Ron Miller's Modal Jazz Concepts., Tullio Mesquita Cunha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The main goal of this paper is to analyze the harmonic and melodic transcriptions from the LPs Milton and Clube da Esquina according with the book Modal Jazz Composition and Harmony by Ron Miller in order to exemplify the compositional idiosyncrasy from Milton Nascimento, and especially, Lô Borges. The result is that Borges has a linear approach to write melodies while his vertical line has the use of open strings chords with mixed upper structures such as tertian, quartal and clusters.

Early Modern Scottish Metrical Psalmody: Origins And Practice, Timothy Duguid

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Non-literate societies are often dependent on music for transmitting news and ideas because of music’s ability to enhance memory. Sixteenth-century reformers were aware of this, but they had to compete with secular and Roman Catholic music that often contradicted Reformed doctrine. Highly influenced by the Strasbourg-based Martin Bucer and the writings of Saint Augustine, John Calvin insisted that Biblical Psalms, set in vernacular poetry, were most appropriate for both corporate worship and private devotion. The result was a series of metrical psalters that were intended to be performable by everyone. Some editions had explicitly liturgical designs, but most were intended …

To The Question Of The Specificity Of The Sound Director's Work In The Recording Of Traditional Music, Akbar Mirzayev

Eurasian music science journal

Relatively recently, the professional creative activity of musicians has developed the profession of sound director, the accumulated practical experience and the formed historical and theoretical base of this specialization reveals a number of signs allowing to speak about the specificity of this activity. It is no accident that there are obvious differences in the phonograms, that every sound director has a number of individual qualities that allow to speak about the creative nature of the profession.

The growing demand for sound directors, the popularity of the profession, is an impetus for researchers. Today, the scientific-theoretical understanding of the creative process …

An Application Of Natural Learning Processes In The Preparation Of Edward Gregson's Trumpet Concerto, James Jenkins

Doctoral Projects

Concerto for Trumpet and Strings by Edward Gregson is a substantial work of the late twentieth century underperformed among trumpet players. The primary reasons for its relative neglect are its technical challenges and the demands of endurance it places on the player. A well-designed approach to the preparation of this work will benefit students and professional players wishing to prepare for a performance of the work. This project will combine the knowledge of researchers and teachers in formulating specific practice approaches for the concerto’s challenges.

The findings of neuroscientists and psychologists, gained through testing and measurement, will be consulted along …

A Hungarian Exotic Ingredient In Operetta: The Csárdás In Three Settings, Michelle Lange

Dissertations

The inclusion of the Hungarian National dance in Viennese operetta during the height of the genre’s popularity expresses an intricate relationship between two nations in the Austro-Hungarian Empire during a time of immense change. Examining the Hungarian elements of the Csárdás in the compositions of three operettas provides a deeper understanding of Hungarian influence in Viennese operetta culture and performance. While there is a wealth of information on Hungarian folk music, there is a gap in the application of this knowledge within the operetta genre. This document’s primary purpose is to explore the exotic Hungarian musical folk elements found in …

Astor Piazzolla's Cinco Piezas Para Guitarra: A Performer's Guide To The "Unwritten", Federico J. Díaz Páez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Astor Piazzolla found his voice as a composer in tango music. Starting in the 1950s, he extended the horizons of the popular genre by using the influences of classical music and jazz primarily. The performance practice is one of the strongest aspects that connects his music with traditional tango. The “unwritten” concepts particular to tango are unfamiliar for musicians outside of this tradition. This dissertation explains in detail these concepts and their application to Piazzolla’s only work for solo guitar: Cinco piezas para guitarra. Besides proving the context of Piazzolla’s life and production, Chapter 1 reviews the use of tango …

The Quartet’S Death: Embodiment, Performativity, And Physicality In Heinz Holliger’S 1973 String Quartet, Vicente Alexim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Throughout the twentieth century and continuing today, many composers have explored and expanded the ways in which performers are asked to interact with their musical instruments. Often referred to as “extended techniques,” these modes of playing frequently produce sounds of indefinite pitch, or which fall outside equal temperament, and the works that employ them rely on the physicality of these techniques in order to create additional layers of meaning. The concrete parameters involved in making use of such resources can sometimes take precedence over or drive other more abstract compositional materials such as precise pitch and rhythm, but their influence …

“Leisure With Decorum”: Gentlemen Making Music In The Georgian Era, Lidia A. Chang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project examines the musical activities of Georgian gentlemen with the goal of illustrating the ways that recreational music-making tested the boundaries of gender, class, and nationality. While the English nobility could respectably engage in music-making, socialize with professional musicians (subverting, or temporarily suspending otherwise rigid class boundaries), and openly extol the virtues of Continental culture without compromising their gentlemanliness, English gentlemen walked a much thinner line. In pursuit of these claims I will expand the scope of primary sources beyond conduct books and novels to include selections of unpublished, peripheral accounts of recreational music-making as found in letters, diaries, …

Travelin' To The Promised Land: Symbolism Of The Jordan River In African Spiritual, English Hymn, And American Folksong Selections, Hope V. Dornfeld

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

These program notes originally accompanied a performance of three vocal pieces: Deep River, On Jordan's Stormy Banks, and Poor Wayfaring Stranger. The notes analyze the role of the Jordan river in each piece, focusing on their historical context, first performances, and issues of authorship. As part of a performing arts research project, the program notes also address the method of expression and creative process that went into preparing the performance of these pieces.

The songs included in this presentation all speak to the journey from earth to heaven. In each piece, the Jordan River is found to symbolize a …

Unearthing The Artist: An Autoethnographic Investigation, Diane K. Daly

The Qualitative Report

In this paper I address how autoethnography was utilized to research the role and value of arts practice research in Western classical music professional training and practice, by a classically trained professional violinist. As a researcher, I use the philosophy and method of Dalcroze Eurhythmics as a framework to excavate the multiple layers of my own practice and investigate whether there is wider potential resonance for other professional performers. I utilize a mixed-mode approach, combining artistic practice with a number of documenting strategies, in particular using autoethnography as a tool for documentation and reflection. I propose key findings concerning the …

Editorial: Eudaimonia And Music Learning, Gareth Dylan Smith, Marissa Silverman, Dylan Van Der Schyff

John J. Cali School of Music Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Tubular!!: Works For Tuba(S), Christian Bush

Honors Projects

Tubular!! is an album that was produced during the Spring and Summer of 2021. It was made possible through the support of many friends, colleagues, and mentors, and will serve as a cornerstone upon which to build my career as a performer and a recording engineer. The album and liner notes can be found on my website: https://www.christianbush.com/tubular. The appendix at the end of this paper contains screenshots of the website.

Preparing To Perform: Brillance, By Ida Gotkovsky, Connor Fast

University Honors Theses

For a musician, preparing music for performance is a task undertaken daily. While the audience will only see the completed product, dozens of hours of dedicated work went into preparing that product. This thesis pulls the curtain back on preparing music and gives an insight on the type of preparation and work a musician might do to get a piece to the stage. Brilliance by Ida Gotkovsky is used as an example for how performance is developed. From the early stages of practicing, through rehearsal, and culminating with a performance, Preparing to Perform encompasses all of the steps in musical …

Developing Variation In The Late Work Of Morton Gould And Why It Matters, J. Wesley Flinn

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

American composer Morton Gould (1913-1996) was remarkably consistent stylistically over the course of his compositional career; this project examines certain motivic transformational techniques used in two of his last works, Stringmusic (1993, winner of the Pulitzer Prize) and Remembrance Day (Soliloquy for a Passing Century) (1995). These techniques, which can generally be filed under the principle of developing variation, are: 1. Mirroring and reversal; 2. Rotation; 3. Motivic expansion and contraction; 4. Additive sets; and 5. Asymmetric injection. After an overview of each technique, I give a full analysis of the fourth movement of Stringmusic using the approaches described …

Intriguing Interpretation Of Dyads In Common-Practice Tonal Music, Yosef Goldenberg

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

The study offers a systematic exploration of situations in which dyads in common-practice tonal music change their meaning, when repeated or as pivots. The most common such situation is thirds that serve as either the upper or the lower pair of consonant triad members, most often with the tonic as one of the options. Sometimes, however, an implied harmony turns out to be dissonant. Occasionally, dyads other than thirds are also subject to reinterpretation. In exceptional circumstances, dyads do not imply complete harmonies.

Sacred Music In Colonial Era Hispaniola: The Evangelization Of The Taino People, Tito J. Gutierrez

Student Theses

During the 15th-18th centuries, the major European religious orders; the Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, and Jeronymites, journeyed to the newly colonized American territories in an attempt to convert the multitudes of natives peoples living there. Along with prayer books, crucifixes, and religious images, these missionaries brought sacred European music to American shores in an attempt to attract the native people to the Catholic faith.The use of music as a tool for conversion of native people in places such as Mexico, South America, California, and the South West United States, have been well researched and documented. However, the research of the spiritual …

The Rise Of The Rock Star, Derik Sibit

Recital Papers

A history and analysis of hard rock and heavy metal from the 1960s through the 1980s, the musical elements that make these genres unique, and an evaluation of the sound and style of songs, vocalists, and instrumentalists of some of the most important bands of this era and the techniques and methods they used to achieve their sounds and styles. A pedagogical analysis of some of the greatest singers in hard rock and heavy metal helps the reader better understand the anatomy and physiology of the voice and of heavy belting and screaming in rock and metal music.

Villa-Lobos’S Segunda Sonata-Fantasia For Violin And Piano: An Analysis And Performance Guide, Maira Braga Cabral

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study focuses on Villa-Lobos’s Segunda Sonata-Fantasia for Violin and Piano, written between 1913 and 1914. A brief biography of Villa-Lobos until 1915 provides the context of the period during which he composed the piece. Next, Villa-Lobos’s main influences are presented, a list that includes European nineteenth-century aesthetics, Impressionism, Brazilian popular music, Wagner’s motivic treatment, and Brazilian indigenous music. Next, the main compositional devices used by the composer are discussed, providing examples from the Segunda Sonata-Fantasia and from other pieces by Villa-Lobos. A structural analysis of the piece is presented, focusing on the form, thematic approach, and harmonic processes.

The …

Signal To Noise: Harmonic Temperaments And Patterns Of Interference, Dylan A. Marcheschi

Theses and Dissertations

An audio/visual exploration of historical tuning systems. Most contemporary Western audiences will seldom if ever encounter harmony outside of post-Renaissance tuning conventions. This presentation highlights some of those pre-orthodox harmonic relationships which existed throughout most of history. The corresponding paper documents correlates in recent advances of acoustic ecology.

Offenbach’S Operetta As Performance Practice: A Pedagogical, Dramatic, And Stylistic Role Guide For Pâris In La Belle Hélène, Peter Lake

Dissertations

This dissertation originated from my personal experience in performing the role of Pâris in Offenbach’s La belle Hélène and the research I conducted in preparation for the performance. Upon examining the score, I discovered the role to contain vocal elements that seemed foreign to my expectations of operatic repertoire. After consulting as many scholarly sources as I could find on the subject, I discovered little to no sense of direction in preparing and performing this unique role or for French operetta as a genre. I decided to compile my experience and research into a usable tool for preparing a French …

Discovering Two New Solo Works For Trombone: A History, Summary, And Preparation Of Frank Gulino’S Sonata No. 1: The Journey, And Joseph Buono’S Elegy For Trombone And Piano, John Mark Whitfield Jr

Doctoral Projects

This paper will serve as a guide to musicians for the preparation and performance of two recent solo compositions for trombone worthy of study and performance: Frank Gulino’s Sonata No. 1: The Journey (2019) and Joseph Buono’s Elegy for Trombone and Piano (2016). Included will be sections or chapters on the history and background of each work, biographical information about each composer, a detailed performer’s analysis of each work, exclusive interviews with the composers, and interviews with the trombonists who commissioned and/or premiered each work.

Each individual interview will provide insight into the music, including information on personal inspirations and …

Captain And Stoker: Exploring Tandem Performance Through New Instrument Design And Implementation, Matthew Spady

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper examines historical examples of two-player, or tandem, instruments and electroacoustic sound manipulation practices beginning in the nineteenth century, addresses design theory and construction principles for modern electroacoustic performance instruments, and investigates practice for such instruments. The paper begins with an exploration of Jean-Baptiste Vuillame’s octobasse, Maurice Martenot’s ondes martenot (including its distinct sound diffusion apparatuses), and Nicolas Collins’ backward electric Hawaiian guitar as progenitors of new, tandem instruments that require collaboration to produce a single, sounding result. The paper poses that while some of the devices mentioned above hold potential as tandem performance instruments, they were not designed …

Sound Healing, Devina L. Pulido

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Most people would imply that music is used for solely entertainment, artistic expression, celebration, ceremony, or communication. Whether we are musically inclined or not, music is the one thing that genuinely connects humans from all cultures and corners of the earth. Another application of music is sound healing, a therapeutic practice that utilizes different signals and vibrations to improve the physical and emotional health of individuals, groups, and cultures. This can entail listening to various musical experiences (such as a concert), singing along to a favorite song or chant, dancing to the beats of other music, meditating, or playing an …

Musical Perspective: An Analysis Of How Musicals Reflect Cultural Discourse, Amosi Morgan

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

In this paper, I will be analyzing the role musical theatre productions play in reflecting cultural discourse. I will also discuss the impact musicals have on societal discussions regarding topics like race, capitalism, and social justice. The way I seek to do this is by first explaining the origin of musicals as musical comedies. I will also discuss other musical innovations such as the opera that influenced the shift. I will discuss the rise of musical dramas as musicals started incorporating serious themes. The emotional impact of musicals and their use of pathos will be analyzed. I will research the …

Effects Of Musical Content On Student Practice Judgments, Decisions, And Improvement, Molly N. Batchelor

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to observe and compare the differences in practice behaviors among middle school band students who are presented with etudes of varying stylistic, technical, or expressive qualities. Existing literature has covered practice methodology extensively, but this study was intended to help understand how students vary strategies when presented with different musical challenges. Participants were individually observed in a pre-test, practice period, and post-test for each of two musical examples to examine the strategies used and improvement from pre-test to post-test. Results showed that participants who varied their strategy-use in lyrical and technical etudes increased performance …

Graduate Conducting Recital, Amelia R. Markley

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 conducting recital at Pittsburg State University. Selections performed were written by the following composers: Jacques Offenbach, Antonio Vivaldi, Joseph Haydn, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Biographical information of the composer and program notes will be included for each piece conducted.