Music Theory Commons^™

Music As An Environment, Yuval Gur

Masters Theses

Music.

For me, music has always been a constant. In my happiest moments it lifted my joy into other realms; in my darkest, it consoled me and offered refuge.

Over time, however, this constancy has grown predictable. Recorded music, once capable of transforming a day, has faded into background sound - familiar but dulled. This project begins with my loss of wonder: how might the act of listening regain its power to move me?

I ask: how does the experience of listening transforms when music is encountered as an environment that can be entered and navigated rather than as a …

From Inside The Recording Studio, Mckayla J. Adkison

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This project documents the historical, technical, and creative significance of recording studios through both industry examples and the design and construction of a personal backyard studio. By examining iconic studios such as Abbey Road and Capitol Records, the paper highlights how technological innovation, acoustic engineering, and architectural design have shaped the evolution of recorded music. These concepts are then applied to the planning and construction of a custom-built recording studio, emphasizing room dimensions, sound isolation techniques, acoustic treatment, lighting, and sustainable design choices. In addition, the project addresses the importance of aesthetics and emotional comfort in creating a space that …

The Resonance Of Desire: A Sonic Exploration And Guide To Recreating Disney’S Signature ‘I Want’ Songs, Aiyanna E. Riley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the sonic architecture of Disney’s Renaissance-era “I Want” songs and develops a framework for recreating their signature production style. This study analyzes how vocal timbre, microphone choices, layering, stereo placement, and mixing strategies contribute to the immersive qualities that define the Disney sound. Drawing from historical accounts, interviews with industry professionals, and technical literature, the thesis documents production practices unexamined in scholarly work. Inspired by David Gibson’s The Art of Mixing, my analyses prioritize spatial and textural qualities in Disney mixes, highlighting how sound design shapes narrative impact. The study culminates in two original compositions modeled …

An Interdisciplinary Analysis Framework For Found Object Experimental Music, Erin Demastes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Found object experimental music consists of compositions and performances created with objects not intended for musical performance. Found objects can range from appliances and household items to power tools and consumer products to souvenirs and heirlooms. Although these objects are used with the intent of creating musical compositions, new characteristics that are not found in traditional music emerge. One major characteristic that differentiates found object music from traditional music is that the objects have inherent cultural associations and meaning outside of their use in the composition. While an analysis of the sonic structures and scores of found object experimental music …

Inattentional Deafness And Musical Training: Effects Of Perceptual Load On Tonal And Verbal Auditory Suppression, Annelise Coffey

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Inattentional deafness (ID) is a cognitive phenomenon of which we have relatively little understanding. The current study attempted to address this by considering current cognitive theories of thought and examined how musical training affects incidence rates of inattentional deafness. This study utilized a cognitive task and auditory stimuli previously designed to elicit inattentional deafness and measured musical training by administering the Goldsmith’s Musical Sophistication Index. Participants were instructed to engage in a high-load cognitive task, providing a condition in which inattentional deafness is likely to occur. During the task, a brief pure tone was presented simultaneously with the visual task …

Oblique, Edward Kijowski

Theses and Dissertations

Oblique is a multi-sensory art installation that provides a story of fragmentation in sound and light rendered by an obtuse hexagon arrangement of speakers and associated lighting prompts. The oblique direction of the soundwaves creates sonic sculpturing that propels listeners into an active state.

Give The Drummer Some: A Dive Into Drum Breaks And Drum Break Production, Kyle Kaldhusdal

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper traces the history of hip-hop culture through the evolution of the drum break, the original context of drum breaks in funk and soul music, their influence on DJ culture, and the subsequent impact of drum breaks on music and music production. It follows the development of breakbeat compilations in the 1970s and 1980s, parallel to the development of turntablism and sampling techniques. It also examines in detail how copyright litigation in the 1990s shaped the development of sample-based music genres and created a niche market for originally-recorded drum breaks over the subsequent decades.

Scores Of Nature (Volume 2), Anthony Elia

Bridwell Library Research

Scores of Nature (Volume 2) is a collection of experimental notation and scores, which are created through serial, unplanned, and partially planned musical sequences overlaid onto natural scenes, spaces, or objects that the composer has taken photographs of in different places. This sequence is of five sets of images, many of them with curvature or lines that can be redesigned within an imaginative or manipulated musical staff with parallel or intersecting lines, clefs, time signatures, and other elements of a traditional score. In some cases the composer has offered a possible interpretation of the experimental score and notation through traditional …

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 …

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.

Fostering Music Performers In The 21st Century: A Contemporary Professional Perspective Toward A New Curricular Agenda For Graduate Study In Music, Andre Januario

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

What if the core curriculum for graduate students in music performance were designed to prepare students to succeed in the world of the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

This dissertation offers a hypothetical answer: a structured and systematic academic curricular framework for music graduate students of performance of concert music (especially those in terminal degrees, such as doctoral students), along with music instructors, professional music performers, school administrators, and college professors, seeking to prepare such students for achieving and maintaining a music career more in keeping with the current work environment, especially those skills demanded by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the …

The Modes Of Intervention In Alvin Lucier’S I Am Sitting In A Room, Daniel Fox

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Alvin Lucier’s I am sitting in a room (1969) is an icon of experimental music and sound art. The sizable literature addressing the aesthetic and philosophical implications of this piece rarely discusses the performance practice beyond what is indicated in the score itself. This is problematic for two reasons: 1) The meaning that is derived from the piece often hinges not just on what sounds are obtained, but on how they are obtained. 2) Over the past 50 years, changes in the performance practice have altered what constitutes the work: magnetic tape was used until 2000 when it was replaced …

A Failure Of The Music Industry: The Frustration Of Women Of Color, Christina Estes-Wynne

Backstage Pass

Throughout the history of the music industry, women of color have not received the same recognition as their male counterparts because males have dominated the industry resulting in lack of female representation. Women have been oversexualized reducing their clout in their fields and the lack of acknowledgement of success, which discourages future generations of colored women from attempting to reach their highest potential.

Music And Words: Connecting The Love Of Music With Language, Eileen P. Kennedy, Raymond Torres- Santos

Publications and Research

Children from different cultures have a natural affinity for rhymes, rhythm and music. Imagine if students were able, from the beginning of their education and experiences with academic writing and literacy, to access their unconscious and original selves from which to create their writing. The study of music can help to access this aware, inventive side that can enhance anyone’s writing. As an early childhood writing teacher and a composition teacher, we draw on our experiences with young children with words and music. We examine the relationship between music and words in an effort to bring the primitive drive of …

The Future Of Arabic Music: No Sound Without Silence, Nesma Magdy Khodier Vcuq

Theses and Dissertations

For centuries, Arabic music has been intrinsically linked to Arab culture and by extension bonded to the environmental landscape of the region, reflecting their emotions, moods, and behaviors. Numerous technological advancements in the latter half of the twentieth century, have greatly affected the rich legacy of Arabic music, significantly impacting the natural progression of traditional Arabic musical genres, scales, and instrumentation.

This thesis serves as an introduction to generative methods of music production, specifically music generated through gestures. Through generative music, and its unique ability to map gestures to different musical parameters, music can be produced using computer algorithms.

The …

A Composed Space, Adam S. Hogan

Graduate School of Art Theses

My practice is invested in expanding our conscious scope—revealing phenomena and observations, and presenting the information to the viewer through auxiliary channels. Using the language of minimalism, cinema, and abstraction I create technologically sophisticated systems to produce spaces of contemplation (a meditative space challenging the ephemeral relationships between our sensorial perceptions, space, and time).

Material, space, and technology become instruments for composition manifesting as silent experimental cinema (created and controlled sonically). My work seeks to illuminate our conscious scope through the succession of frames.

Isomorphic Midi Controller, Jay Wyatt

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

No abstract provided.

Fantasy And The Concert Hall: Musical Performance In The Electroacoustic Age, Matthew Malsky

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

In 1941, the famously despondent Theodor Adorno worried about the detrimental effects of radio broadcast upon the symphony. He theorized that much of value was lost when listeners experienced an orchestral performance of a composition in symphonic form through its electronic transmission to their kitchens rather than in a concert hall. Based upon empirical research done in collaboration with Paul Lazarsfeld and the Princeton Radio Research Project, he argued that the presence of music was lost to the radio listener, and with it a part of music's auratic spell, its uniqueness in time and place, its ritual, cultish …