Music Theory Commons^™

Archetypes (Sérgio Assad, Clarice Assad, Third Coast Percussion), Nathan Cornelius

Soundboard Scholar

A review of  Archetypes, by Sérgio Assad, Clarice Assad, and Third Coast Percussion (Cedille 201, 2021, 1 compact disc).

Reginald Smith Brindle’S Concept Of Tonal-Atonal Equilibrium In Theory And Practice, Oliver Chandler

Soundboard Scholar

In an attempt to explain how post-tonal harmonic progressions might “make sense,” Reginald Smith Brindle formulated theories of tension flow and tonal-atonal equilibrium in his 1966 textbook, Serial Composition. The former theory compares the number of consonant and/or dissonant intervals between chords, albeit without providing a consistent means of distinguishing between similar sonorities; the latter observes that various musical passages strike a balance between functional and non-functional harmony, albeit without explaining the nature of said balance. While his ideas are evocative, they lack theoretical finesse. Placing them in dialogue with recent developments in post-tonal scholarship helps to unlock their …

The Flight Of The Maiden: Representations Of Women And The Guitar In Brazilian Culture, Cláudia Araújo Garcia

Soundboard Scholar

This article examines the relationship between women and the guitar in the context of both Brazilian literary discourse and the instrument’s culture and history. To this end, I have sought out texts that illustrate intersections between women and the guitar from the perspective of both female and male authorship. We see that the guitar provides a vehicle for the woman’s voice in all its restlessness, violation, and libertarian desire; but equally, it enables the perpetuation of stereotypes linked to the mirroring of the guitar and the female body. In the absence of literary and historic records of the guitar in …

Soundboard Scholar No. 7: Cover

Soundboard Scholar

Cover image: José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior (1850–1899), O violeiro (The Guitarist). Oil on canvas, 1899. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Cover design by Colleen Gates.

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 …

Five Songs By Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960): From Nostalgia To Christian Hope And The Assurance Of Heaven, James K. Richardson

Dissertations, 2020-current

During the first few decades of the twentieth century, prolific composer, teacher, and conductor, Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960), was well-regarded for his contribution to the landscape of English art song. However, against the backdrop of Modernism and the tumult of the Second World War, his musical style was deemed “out of touch.” In a 1943 chain of correspondence with fellow songwriter Roger Quilter, Gibbs describes feeling “exceedingly sore and discouraged at neglect at the hands of the critics.” He further explains, “Just because we both write music that is intelligible & frankly tries to aim at beauty, we are considered beneath …

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 …

An Analysis Of Effective Practice Strategies For The Performing Undergraduate University-Level Pianist, Elizabeth Ann Duncan

Music Theses & Dissertations

The intent of this study was to provide awareness of the trends surrounding piano practice pedagogy as determined by students either immersed in a university piano program or graduates thereof. The areas of study include a historical context of university music programs and the field of piano pedagogy, trends of imitative instruction, the importance of qualitative and quantitative practice, and the discovery of piano practice routines of collegiate pianists. This research project was approved for an IRB exemption by the Old Dominion University College of Arts and Letters.

Within this study, the subjects were either graduates of a collegiate piano …

Work In Progress. Haydn’S Schemata And Hexachords: Two Analytical Case Studies, Gilad Rabinovitch

HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America

Two analytical case studies, from Haydn’s minuet al roverso (from the Symphony Hob. I: 47) and the opening movement of the String Quartet Op. 50, no. 6, show the interaction of galant schemata (Gjerdingen 2007) and the hexachordal solmization of the solfeggio tradition (Baragwanath 2020). Haydn plays upon conventional galant schemata—presumably elements of style shared by listeners who are closely familiar with the idiom (even if they do not have explicit schema labels); he also plays upon a more esoteric element of his own training and that of many other musicians in the period: hexachordal solmization. By considering both schemata …

Inclusion Initiative Project (Final Collaborative Composition Project), Brian Ciach

Assignment Prompts

Write a piece for 4-part chorale using text related to Social Justice and Racial Equity. For example, set the words of a speech by John Lewis to music or depict the noble character of MLK Jr. in music. You may alternatively write a solo piano piece, a work for piano and solo instrument, and/or other chamber ensemble (no more than 4 instruments please—which instruments are in your group?). The hard rule is that the work must be collaborative and inspired by our times from some other art form, and it must explicitly depict its source.

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 …

A Schema-Theoretic Approach To Hierarchy In Eighteenth-Century Tonality, Simon K. S. Prosser

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Prevalent modern-day theories of tonal hierarchy for eighteenth-century music, especially those influenced by the ideas of Heinrich Schenker, have been called into question by schema theorists such as Robert Gjerdingen and Vasili Byros, who argue from both cognitive and historical evidence that eighteenth-century tonal cognition was sequential or “windowed” rather than hierarchical. This dissertation seeks to recuperate the concept of tonal hierarchy in eighteenth-century music, drawing on research that reconstructs the implicit tonal theories of the partimento and thoroughbass traditions, as well as concepts of hierarchy from schema theory itself, to formulate a historically and cognitively grounded theory of tonal …

Gendering The Virtual Space: Sonic Femininities And Masculinities In Contemporary Top 40 Music, Michèle Duguay

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes vocal placement—the apparent location of a voice in the virtual space created by a recording—and its relationship to gender. When listening to a piece of recorded music through headphones or stereo speakers, one hears various sound sources as though they were located in a virtual space (Clarke 2013). For instance, a specific vocal performance—once manipulated by various technologies in a recording studio—might evoke a concert hall, an intimate setting, or an otherworldly space. The placement of the voice within this space is one of the central musical parameters through which listeners ascribe cultural meanings to popular music. …

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 …

Narrative Ambiguity In Brahms Op. 38: An Argument For Multi-Movement Analysis, Joseph Grunkemeyer

Symposium of Student Scholars

In this presentation, I will show how the ambiguous ending of the first movement of Brahms Op. 38 is part of a single, multi-movement narrative in which persistent tragic signifiers, metric dissonance, and formal degradation will confirm an overall tragic archetype. Using literature on musical narrative from Cone (1974), Hatten (1994), and Almén (2008), this presentation will analyze the first movement in-depth and show that the movement contains a number of tragic signifiers, including pianto motifs, metric dissonance, and tragic key areas, that suggest a tragic archetype between two characters in a contentious relationship. However, this tragic reading is subverted …

An Annotated Bibliography Of Selected Music Theory Resources For The Middle And High School Choral Classroom With Alignment To Mississippi College- And Career-Readiness Standards, Amanda M. Brandon

Master's Theses

Middle and high school choral ensembles often struggle to produce musicians who are proficient in music theory skills; however, music theory and ear training skills provide numerous benefits to the student and ensemble. Promoting and fostering theory and ear training skills develop a student’s overall musicianship – thus, strengthening sight-reading skills– further leading to more accurate sight reading, using less rehearsal time, and the option of learning more, or even more technically challenging, literature. Additionally, developing independent musicianship skills encourages higher order and critical thinking in the choral classroom.

This project will examine and review selected music theory and ear …

An Analysis Of Nobuo Uematsu’S Linear Structures: The Score Of Final Fantasy Vi’S Opera, Daniel Comeaux

Master's Theses

Nobuo Uematsu, the composer of the first nine entries in the Final Fantasy video game series, creates sophisticated music in the operatic section of Final Fantasy VI. This thesis will provide a linear analysis of the music, borrowing from contrapuntal techniques of important theorists such as Heinrich Schenker and Paul Hindemith. The analysis will explain how some linear progressions play guiding roles within the music while others although heard, may not be as important. Furthermore, the most important linear structures will be shown to support the tonal identity of a movement, while important end points coincide with junctures in the …

The Rougarou Concerto And Initial Observations Of The Flex Ensemble, Thomas Wilson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the immediate impact of the coronavirus pandemic through a composer’s lens. It will examine the impact through a variety of means, considerably: interviews of those with first-hand experiences, analyses of prominent adaptable works, and self-analysis of how my own process adapted to meet the moment.

After discovering the Composers Repertoire Initiative and being commissioned to write a concerto by Eduard Teregulov, I wrote a cello concert. The central chapter features the Rougarou Concerto, a cello concerto with accompanying flex ensemble, written for Eduard Teregulov. The work was written over ten months …

Harmonic And Fret Features Of "Tanovar" Processing By A. F. Kozlovsky And A. Nabiev, Mashhura Anvarovna Rajabova

Eurasian music science journal

In the modern musicology of our country, the issues of the modal structure of national music in its folk and classical branches are the most relevant. And they require a detailed study of the historical and theoretical aspects of fret thinking both in traditional classical and folk Uzbek music, and in the works of composers of our country. The article deals with some theoretical and historical aspects in the use of the means of musical expression of two composers of Uzbekistan: A. F. Kozlovsky and A. Nabiev. A brief comparative analysis of the stylistic features of orchestral and piano processing, …

Review Of Coherence In New Music: Experience, Aesthetics, Analysis, By Mark Hutchinson. (New York, Ny: Routledge, 2016)., Orit Hilewicz

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

A review of Mark Hutchinson's book from 2016, Coherence in New Music: Experience, Aesthetics, Analysis.

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 …

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

Music Publications

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 …

The Art Of Listening: A Conversational Approach To Lecture Recitals, Javor Bracic

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Lecture recitals as the practice of pairing live music performance with verbal explication have been around since at least the end of the eighteenth century, but research on them is surprisingly scarce despite how ubiquitous they have become. What exactly are lecture recitals? Where did they originate? How are they conducted? Is there anything we could do to improve upon them?

In this dissertation I not only consider these questions but also propose a new kind of lecture recital I call a conversation concert. After a brief historical overview of lecture-recitalists from Johann Nikolaus Forkel to Rob Kapilow, I showcase …

Plainchant Accompaniment And Modal Harmony In Nineteenth-Century France, Ruka Shironishi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, harmonization of plainchant melodies had become a trend among church organists. In their harmonizations, many of these organists freely applied the harmonic conventions of what may be characterized today as common-practice tonality, such as dominant-to-tonic cadences, often including the use of accidentals. French scholars and educators of the time, like Louis Niedermeyer and his collaborator Joseph d’Ortigue, viewed such practices as a corruption of plainchant and sought to reform the ways in which plainchant was harmonized on the organ.

The nineteenth-century reformation led by these harmonists ignited discourse on the nature of plainchant …

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.

Analyzing Non-Strophic Forms Through The Facets Model: The Early Compositional Style And Technique Of Trey Anastasio And Phish, William Mandelbaum

Honors Scholar Theses

While a surprising amount of research has been conducted on the American “jam band” Phish, most academic scholarship that exists regarding the band is concerned of the cultures, rituals, and communities that surround the band and the jam band scene. Of the band’s music that has been analyzed, most analyze the band’s improvisation, leaving little to no scholarship concerning the band’s hyper-complex, fugue-like compositions, especially those composed by Trey Anastasio in the band’s early years from 1983-1989, most of which became Phish’s most popular and most performed songs in concert. This thesis will analyze the early compositional style and technique …