Music Theory Commons^™

Urban Counterpoint (1992–2003): The Piano Music Of Ed Bland, Joseph Vaz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes the piano music of Ed Bland, a politically and philosophically vocal composer active in the second half of the twentieth century, whose music draws on both the European and American twentieth-century avant-garde, and on African American vernacular music genres from ragtime to hip-hop. A review of the historical and personal context for these pieces, and a detailed examination of the compositional processes used in this music, work together to demonstrate how Bland thought about the relationship between different musical genres and languages.

Through this combination of theory of musical genre, historical and biographical study, and detailed analysis …

Defying The Conventional: Musical Performance, Embodied Cognition, And The Reconfiguration Of Institutional Discourse, Dillon Parmer

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

This essay confronts the dialectic between theory and practice through a comparison of an idea basic to how we understand music (the notion that pitch moves up and down in vertical space) with how pitch is thought of in actual music-making. The comparison leads to both a new conceptual model for thinking about pitch, what might be called Pitch Horizontality, as well as a proposal for how to bring institutional discourse about music into sync, not with how scholars in other disciplines think about their subject matter, but with the thinking that goes on in contexts of real-world artistic production.

Analytical Commentary And Performer's Guide To Carlos R. Martinez's Four Pieces For Trombone, Bailey Jean Hardy-Price

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Musicians with hearing loss are documented in prominent figures, such as Ludwig van Beethoven. In the age of developing medical technology, hearing aids can turn the course for many musicians. Music can serve as an audio medium for this journey.

Carlos R. Martinez (b. 1978) is an active composer and pianist commissioned to create a piece that explores the journey of hearing loss in a musician. Martinez’s Four Pieces for Trombone and Piano illustrate a musician’s discovery of their hearing loss, its consequences, and joy in implementing the use of a hearing aid. The detailed discussion of the composer and …

Emotional Coding In Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’S Music: The Influence Of Text-Driven Musical Patterns, Antonio Toppi

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis investigates the phenomenon of emotional coding in the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), with particular attention to the ways in which text-driven musical patterns influence both vocal and instrumental works. The study draws on 18th-century theories of key characteristics, musical-rhetorical figures, and topoi, compositional devices that carried emotional implications for contemporary listeners. These codes are first examined in two of Mozart’s operas, Le Nozze di Figaro (KV492) and Don Giovanni (KV527), where the setting of text to music provides a framework for associating compositional choices with emotion. Findings from the analyses are then applied to three contemporaneous …

Reassessing Haydn’S Orfeo In The Theatre, Dorian Bandy, Caryl Clark

HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America

Haydn’s last opera, L’anima del filosofo (The Soul of the Philosopher), is a highly unusual retelling of the Orpheus myth. Written for London in 1791 to a libretto by C. F. Badini, the opera was never staged during the composer’s lifetime. Shut down in rehearsal and banned from performance, the opera never reached the stage because many of its themes—including the apocalyptic storm at the end—piqued British anxieties towards events unfolding in revolutionary France. The opera finally premiered in 1951, with Maria Callas singing the role of Euridice. Universal Edition prepared the performing material from sources photographed behind …

The Shape(S) Of Jazz To Come. Jazz Studies, Interpretation, Theory And Education Research Project, Ricardo Pinheiro

The IASJ Journal of Applied Jazz Research

Jazz Studies: interpretation, theory and education is a research project developed at Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, Polytechnic University of Lisbon, that involved the collaboration between the Jazz and Composition Departments. The focus of the project coordinated by Ricardo Pinheiro (with the collaboration of Carlos Caires and Carlos Marecos) was to rethink artistic research outputs in the field of jazz studies, questioning the hegemony of the current musicological paradigm (Cook, 2014; Pinheiro and Caires 2019; Pinheiro, Caires and Neto 2024), and to explore the broad academic, scientific and artistic scope that this field can provide.

J.A.C. Redford’S Variations On The Incarnation: Looking Back And Forward With Piano Theme And Variations, Nathaniel Brown

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This senior thesis consists of a lecture recital and research regarding the development of the theme and variations form in piano literature. It will trace the way the types of pieces that use theme and variations have developed from era to era and composer to composer. The culminating lecture recital will present my research on the topic and will end with a performance of J.A.C. Redford’s Variations on the Incarnation, one of the most recently published theme and variations pieces for solo piano. Redford’s piece was commissioned by Dr. Paul Barnes.

The composers and pieces featured in this project …

Sing A New Song: Analyzing A Cappella Arrangements Of Contemporary Worship Music, Ashley S. Cox

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Music is indispensable to Christian worship services, and pop/rock-influenced contemporary worship music (CWM) serves an important role in modern worship. This thesis explores strategies for arranging CWM for a cappella settings by comparing the originals with two a cappella arrangements: one intended for group performance and the other for congregational worship. This will be accomplished through examining the following five songs: “Hymn of Heaven,” “Raise a Hallelujah,” “Build Your Kingdom Here,” “Psalm 34 (Taste and See),” and “Battle Belongs.” Analysis of elements such as form, texture, harmony, and rhythm reveals many arranging techniques. The songs are categorized by the level …

The Reciprocal Interaction Of Musical Performance And Analysis, Gregory Hartmann

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Musicians can generally be divided into one of two kinds: practitioners who compose or perform music, and thinkers who analyze or write about music (theorists, musicologists, and critics). These roles might seem to be of approximately equal importance, so the perspectives of each should be given proportionate consideration. Yet the existing music-theoretical literature consistently relegates the performer to an inferior position. When performance is discussed, it is usually done in objective terms; an analysis is presented as a rationale to judge a performance as right or wrong. My dissertation challenges this perspective and provides an alternative. By marrying rigorous, theory-based …

Soundscape - A Guided Approach To Post-Tonal Horn Repertoire, Selena B. Boyda

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

More modern post-tonal works are being composed and it is imperative that horn players interpret the music as accurately as possible. Analyzing the music is a way one can interpret the music accurately. The purpose of this research is to develop a guided approach for interpretation of post-tonal horn repertoire using analytical techniques. Selected works analyzed and used are Olivier Messiaen’s “Appel Interstellaire,” Stanley Friedman’s Topanga Variations, and Jenni Brandon’s Dawn. Analytical techniques used include set theory, limited modes of transposition, contour relations, motivic patterns, modal analysis, and motifs.

Galina Ustvolskaya's Writing For Violin And Piano, 1952–1964, Patrick Doane

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Galina Ustvolskaya, Russian composer born in 1919 in Petrograd, navigated a life amidst the tumultuous changes in Soviet-era music and the upheavals of her home city. This dissertation explores Ustvolskaya’s compositions for violin and piano, to deepen the understanding of her musical language and style.

Despite the constraints and challenges imposed by the era’s political landscape, Ustvolskaya boldly crafted a distinct musical identity, writing social-realist compositions while privately cultivating a highly complex, individual style.

Few scholars have undertaken a comprehensive look at her music. This dissertation contributes to a growing body of recent scholarship by employing Russian music theorist Valentina …

Play Makes Perfect: An Exploration Of Game And Play Elements In Composition And Performance, Gabrielle Chou

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation aims to explore the intersection of play and games in Western classical music and define a new category of pieces, “ludic pieces,” which contain play structures and game mechanics within their composition. Starting with surveying perspectives in ludology and ludomusicology, including those by Roger Caillois, Johan Huizinga, Jesper Juul, Katie Salen, and Eric Zimmerman, I will examine various definitions of a “game” and what its qualifying aspects are. I will then turn to music and consider pieces that interact with play and games without containing game structures, including examples of musical humor and pieces which evoke the imagery …

Proceedings Of The 21st Century Guitar Conference 2019 & 2021

The 21st Century Guitar

This volumeʼs contributions grew from 20 of the 94 scheduled keynotes, lectures and lecture-recitals of the first and second editions of The 21st Guitar Conference. Five items stem from the inaugural edition (2019, 44 contributions) and 15 from the second edition (2021, 50 contributions).1 This conference is unique in that it is centered on contemporary guitar research, performance and pedagogy.2 Previously, guitar research had gained increased visibility thanks to the International Guitar Research Centre, launched in 2014 (Stephen Goss, President), which regularly (co-)organizes conferences on guitar research; and Soundboard Scholar, launched in 2015 (Jonathan Leathwood, Editor) ‒ currently the only …

Overlapping Gestural Zones And Modulation On The Fifteen-Tone Guitar, William R. Ayers

The 21st Century Guitar

With its unconventional tuning, notation, and performance requirements, Easley Blackwoodʼs Suite for Guitar in 15- Note Equal Tuning serves as a reappraisal of both tonality (through its application of a microtonal equal temperament) and guitar performance practice (with a modified fretboard and note layout). Using concepts from the fields of transformational theory and gestural music theory, this study considers modulatory and sequential passages in two movements from Blackwoodʼs Suite. This paper demonstrates how the fifteen-tone tuning and fretboard provide a unique opportunity to recontextualize the diatonic scale and its generative interval cycles in a consistent transformational space that allows the …

A Composer's Perspective On The Clarinet Concerto, Sarah Marze

Honors Scholar Theses

While seminal literature on concerto form analysis and compositions for clarinet and orchestra has been conducted, this undergraduate thesis is an exploration from a young composer’s perspective. My priority was discovering the breadth of what the clarinet concerto has to offer in order to learn how to place my own work as a composer into historical, cultural and aesthetic contexts.
First, I present an abridged history of the clarinet concerto. Despite this musical form being hundreds of years old, concerto composition is still relevant today because it is a display of balance; the best concerti are delicate balancing acts of …

Analysis And Performance Of Osvaldo Golijov’S Hebreische Milonga, Gerardo Sanchez Pastrana

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov is one of the most important and well-recognized composers of the 21^st century. His works are unique because of the diverse mixing of styles due to the interculturalism present in his music. In the program notes of his Hebreische Milonga, Golijov mentions that this piece can connect his Argentinian and Jewish roots as well as the influence of Astor Piazzolla’s music. In addition, there is a connection between the tango and the Jewish people residing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that is not addressed frequently when discussing the history of the tango. This research begins …

Performing Rhythmic Dissonance In Ligeti’S Études, Book 1: A Perception-Driven Approach And Re-Notation, Imri Talgam

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Interpretive approaches to the Études have been limited by Ligeti’s choice of notation, which creates several layers of difficulty in the presentation of complex rhythms. In order to resolve some of these difficulties, this dissertation includes a complete re-notation of four Etudes, using a methodology based on research in cognition and perception of rhythm.

Based on this new score, the notion of rhythmic dissonance is developed as an analytical tool to investigate in-time perception of rhythmic complexity, drawing on existing work on metric entrainment and metric dissonance. Different compositional strategies for the production of rhythmic dissonance are shown to have …

Ministry Through Musical Performance: Establishing Biblical, Historical, And Pedagogical (Educational) Precedent For The Christian Performing Artist, Lindsey Graham

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

As a performing artist, the author suggests in an “American Idol” culture, Christian artists have largely lost their identity as worshipers with a ministry of the Gospel through music. The Christian performing artist has the responsibility to commit to spiritual maturity and personal growth. This thesis project proposes the artist is a communicator of the Gospel through music and seeks to substantiate the Christian performing artist through biblical, historical, and educational rationale and precedent. Biblical rationale of the Christian performing artist is considered in Old Testament and New Testament principle and precedent. Historical rationale and precedent is established through the …

Tyler Kline’S Render: A Formal Analysis And Performance Guide, John Douglas Handshoe

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Since the 1950s, composers worldwide have explored the use of the trombone in new and exciting ways, from expanding the functional range of the instrument to creating unique timbres through the use of mutes and extended techniques. Since then, many standard works in the literature have been born from this pushing of the envelope from composers like John Cage, Luciano Berio, Iannis Xenakis, and Daniel Schnyder.

On the forefront of the newest crop of composers expanding the voice of the trombone is Tyler Kline (b. 1991). This project will function as a formal analysis and performer’s guide to his 2015 …

Music, Politics, And Sociality: Ethnic Tensions And The Performance Of Gikuyu Nationalism, Peter Njagi Mwangi

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This thesis examines how some selected Gikuyu popular music propagates ethnic tensions in Kenya by promoting Gikuyu nationalism at the expense of Kenyan nationalism. This music derives its themes from the historical period of the Mau Mau armed struggle against British colonists and connects this struggle with everyday experiences of the Gikuyu people. Memory and the performance of everyday life in this music solidifies the Gikuyu community as tied to a common destiny and distances other Kenyan communities from this destiny. The music consolidates Gikuyu ethnic nationalism and authenticates the position of the community as superior and a dominant force …

Songs From The Willow Tree: Staging Collective Inspiration For Creative Songwriting, Aubrey W. Carpenter

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The songwriting process, inspiration to song, can take many forms. This project explores a highly structured approach, using themes derived from reported individual experience to direct the creation of musical ends addressing common experience.

Establishing Human Identity Through Randomly-Generated Lyrics: A Comprehensive Performer's Analysis Of Robert Paterson's Captcha And Its Performance, Kyle Yampiro

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Robert Paterson’s CAPTCHA is a five-song cycle for baritone and piano that comes with some unique challenges from an interpretive standpoint. The text is comprised of CAPTCHAs: two-word phrases originally designed to test human identity versus that of a computer. Nearly every phrase contains a gibberish word and a real word and there is no proper syntax. The composer leaves interpretation open to the performer, which prompts the primary question explored in this document: how can a singer create an effective performance of this piece, given its unique challenges?

This document takes a multidisciplinary approach to discover the range of …

Beethoven Ahead Of His Time: Sonata In C Major No. 21 Op. 53, Carolina E. Perez Ms.

Honors College Theses

This research looks at the work of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata in C major No. 21 Op. 53. A historical, theoretical, and technical analysis helps set a foundation for a better comprehension of the work and influence the overall performance.

Fsu Ovation: 2012-2013 Season Fine Arts Series And Chancellor's Distinguished Speaker Series, Lamb Earnest

Choir History

The Department of Performing and Fine Arts Building Community through the Arts

Vision: The Department of Performing and Fine Arts will be the cultural and intellectual center for Fayetteville and its environs.

Mission: The primary mission of the Department of Performing and Fine Arts is to produce graduates in the performing and fine arts — music, dance, theater, visual arts — that will be leaders in their respective fields and its advocate. The Department is also committed to building community through the arts by being a resource for performing and fine arts pedagogy, cultivating a climate where creativity flourishes, engaging …

Strategies For Music Learning, George Palton

Music Faculty Research

Article provides strategies on how to take a new and fresh piece of literature from being completely unknown to performance ready.

A Christmas Celebration- Cd Jacket, Marvin V. Curtis

Choir History

CD jacket of the official recording of the concert A Christmas Celebration, performed by the Fayetteville State University Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr. Marvin V. Curtis.

Sing 'Til The Spirit Moves My Heart- Cd Jacket, Marvin V. Curtis

Choir History

CD jacket of the official recording of the concert "Sing 'til the Spirit Moves Into My Heart".

Performed by the Fayetteville State University Concert Choir.

Conducted by Dr. Marvin V. Curtis