Music Theory Commons^™

Bedeviled Beauty: My Journey Through White American Theater Institutions, J'Aila C. Price

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Game console: Oculus Quest

World: American Theater Institutions

Player: Minority

Place: United States

Level: “Ain’t no way.”

This thesis explores the contrast between the Westernized philosophies ingrained in my education and my identity as a Black female artist. It sheds light on the difficulties of pursuing higher education in the arts and the gaps that arise from limited exposure to culturally diverse Black resources, revealing the systemic issues in Western performance education. The paper also discusses the insights gained from my journey as a Black female artist, focusing on my thesis performance of Blood at the Root, which is …

Will The Future Of Video Game Music Require Real Composers?, Nathan Barrett

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

In order to gain a better understanding of video game composition and whether or not real composers will be required, I will explore a variety of categories within the field of game composition and sound design. General categories of focus will cover, 1) Basics, Standards, and Tropes for Game Composition 2) How Games Compositions Have Evolved 3) Creative Uses of Music inside of Games 4) Innovative Techniques for Game Compositions, and 5) The Ethics of Procedural Music and it's use in games.

Defining Recomposition Through The Works Of Gregson, Richter, And Peck: Creating A Dialogue With Vivaldi And Bach To Compose New Music., Amanda Peck

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recomposition has been a commonly utilized compositional method for hundreds of years, yet there is no universally accepted definition in the musical community. The existing literature on the subject is limited, so this project will examine various sources to define this term more accurately. This research analyzes successful recompositions for string ensemble, Peter Gregson’s Bach - The Cello Suites Recomposed (2018) and Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons Recomposed (2012), and my two new compositions, Air on the G String Recomposed and Vivaldi Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Minor Recomposed. My compositions incorporate the …

Exploring Improvisation Approaches Through Jazz, Blues, Funk, And Fusion, Luke J. Sunderland

Recital Papers

This paper explores the different approaches notable musicians utilize in improvisation. An example of this would be 1235 Coltrane patterns, whole tone and diminished concepts by Mike Stern, and chromatic lines by Pat Metheny. Through this study, one should be inspired to incorporate these ideas into their own playing.

Compositional Practices In The Accompaniment Of Celtic Trad Music, Mason Taylor

Composition/Recording Projects

n this research paper, I look at how traditional Irish folk musicians—“Trad” as it is commonly referred to by musicians in the style––approach, think of, and perform accompaniment, specifically the contrapuntal style that is common amongst mandolin and bouzouki players. Trad has evolved greatly over the years. Originally, Trad was performed without any form of accompaniment—no guitar, no piano, no cello. Many solo instruments, such as the flute and the fiddle, would play the same melody with the only harmony occurring at moments where performers would momentarily diverge from the melody with an improvised ornament. Somewhere along its varied history, …

Aardvark: A Solo Guitar Album, Jeffrey W. Buchanan

Composition/Recording Projects

In this production paper, I discuss the entire process of creating my debut solo guitar album, Aardvark. There are ten songs on the albums, eight of which are originals and two of which are arrangements of existing music for solo guitar. Each chapter focuses on a specific song and dissects all elements that went into its creation, including the composition process, the type of guitar used, theoretical analyses, and any technical roadblocks I had to overcome. Several of my influences for the music on this album include Ted Greene, Bill Evans, Francisco Tárrega, Dream Theater, and music from the video …

Chaconnes, Sonatas, And Fugues, Oh My: A Study Of The Influence Of Baroque, Classical, And Romantic Musical Forms On Today's Media, Cadence A. Graves

ATU Scholars Symposium

As a future music educator, it is my duty to have not only understanding and knowledge of composers, music history, and compositional techniques, but to also have an appreciation, passion, and interest in what music is, where it has been, how it has changed, and where it is going now. With this research, I deepened my appreciation for the evolution of music over the course of history, expanded my understanding of how and when they came into existence, and broadened my understanding and appreciation of music that draws on those techniques today.

In the comparisons I made between compositions of …

Music Therapy Techniques In The Commercial Music Industry, Sarah Heath

Senior Honors Theses

Despite the fact that music is commonly described as free therapy with easily accessible content in the modern age of streaming, most people do not realize that music they already listen to contains many legitimate, psychologically tested therapy. This creative artistic research study examines the role that music therapy processes and techniques play in affecting the form, songwriting and creative processes of the modern music industry. These foundational aspects of songs elicit neurological responses, the emotional effect of which is discussed and incorporated through creative research and implementation through a creative artifact. This study explores songwriting techniques found in various …

The Music Theory Booklet Balliol 173a, Fols. 74r–81v: Scribal Organisation Of An Early Medieval Theory Miscellany, C. Matthew Balensuela

Music Faculty publications

Using evidence of the quality of vellum, fascicle structure, scribal hands and illustrations, this article argues that the first fascicle of the music portion of Oxford, Balliol College, 173A (fols. 74–81) is a self-standing booklet, perhaps created to teach a scribe the basics of music theory and how to arrange text while leaving space for illustrations or examples. A new fascicle structure of the gathering is proposed that accounts for a previously unrecognised missing folio. An analysis of the contents of the gathering demonstrates that the theory booklet is a compilatio, with portions of the Musica disciplina (or it sources) …

Mind The Time: A Synthesis Of Pedagogical Approaches For Improving Rhythm And Meter For Instrumentalists As Applied To Bassoon, Annalea Milligan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Rhythm is imperative for the performing musician. This project aims to provide bassoonists with a resource for a rhythmic or metric-focused approach to their applied study. Pedagogical resources for improving rhythm in music through the lens of four categories are identified: experiential, pattern and phrasing, mapping, and repetition. Exercises created from a synthesis of each pedagogical approach demonstrate possible application to bassoon literature by exploring the ways in which an intentional awareness of rhythm can improve technical playing and build practice and performance confidence. By emphasizing the importance of rhythm, its components, and the various approaches to teaching and understanding …

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.

Arnaud Préot: Teacher, Composer, And President, Melonee Gray

Spring Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

Arnaud Préot (1818-1873) was the 8th president of Longwood University. He served between the years 1863-1869 and ran the institution during the Civil War. A Frenchman, Préot immigrated to America at the age of 19. In America, he served as a professor of language and music, and eventually served as president at three female colleges. Additionally, he composed music, including several piano compositions and many vocal pieces. His works are reflective of both the classical period and the French style. In this essay, two of his piano compositions and one of his vocal pieces are analyzed and discussed. Préot's pieces …

A Poetics Of Handel’S Operas, By Nathan Link, Jonathan Rhodes Lee

Music Faculty Research

Textbooks and program notes summarize the relationship between story and music in opera seria with tidy bullet points: recitatives = action; arias = reflection; ensembles sometimes contribute to a story’s progression, while instrumental pieces typically do not. Nathan Link’s A Poetics of Handel’s Operas dismisses such generalizations as caricatures, going so far as to assert that opera seria is “easily among the most complex forms of storytelling yet devised” (p. 7). The author turns to narratological theory, with occasional forays into opera studies and cinema studies (including film music scholarship), to explain the “semantic decoding” (p. 2) that audiences must …

2nd Place Contest Entry: What's Your Hip-Hop Story? How Authenticity Has Simultaneously Fought And Imposed The Commercialization Of Rap, Heather Ulwick

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Heather Ulwick's submission for the 2024 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won second place. It contains their essay on using library resources, their bibliography, and a summary of their research project on how authenticity has simultaneously fought and imposed the commercialization of rap music.

Heather is a fourth-year student at Chapman University, majoring in Music. Their faculty mentor is Dr. Jessica Sternfeld.

Harmonic Data: Ai Music, Edm Transcription, & Minimalist Jazz, Trevor Freed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents research in the domains of music theory and music technology. The topics of the three chapters are as follows: (1) the technical and artistic limitations of artificial intelligence when generating music, (2) the transcription of electronic dance music (EDM) using a hybrid notation system, and (3) the effective convergence of jazz and minimalism in the music of Joe Hisaishi from Studio Ghibli. Each topic investigates a different aspect of harmony and the modern ways in which humans communicate in terms of harmony. The first chapter surveys the latest research projects in AI-generated music and proposes ideas for …

Applications Of Information Literacy To Teaching Independent Music Analysis, Katrina Roush

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

Undergraduate and graduate music students learn many tools beneficial for music analysis, and they practice applying these tools to music in their music theory classes. However, they often struggle to perform useful analysis on their own without the guidance of an instructor. They can have trouble understanding that analysis should communicate their personal interpretation of a work, and they may not realize that independent analysis usually requires some preparatory work (analytical research),such as discovering if others have analyzed the work and learning new analytical methods. This article shows that there is a strong connection between various steps in the music-analytical …

Report On The 2023 Workshops In Music Theory Pedagogy At The University Of British Columbia, Jason Yin Hei Lee, Kaylee Therieau

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Rodrigo’S Concierto De Aranjuez Through The Writings Of Regino Sainz De La Maza, Leopoldo Neri

Soundboard Scholar

Regino Sainz de la Maza was the guitarist who premiered Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona in 1940. Although musicologists have studied this musical phenomenon from different approaches, this study approaches the subject from the perspective of the performer and his musical writings, affording us new historical, aesthetic and technical data on Rodrigo's work.

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 …

In Search Of The Armorial Aesthetic: The Counter-Reform Of Ariano Suassuna And The Compositional Techniques In Clovis Pereira’S Suite Macambira, Wagner De Oliveira Duarte

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, in the wake of the Week of Modern Art in São Paulo in 1922, Brazil grappled with defining its national identity, distinct from European influences. While eminent figures such as Villa-Lobos, Camargo Guarnieri, and Francisco Mignone provided foundational narratives in this quest, the Armorial movement emerged as a unique and emblematic response to these nationalistic aspirations.

Originating from the creative vision of Ariano Suassuna, the Armorial movement, though often perceived as a regional initiative, epitomized a broader endeavor to represent Brazil's diverse cultural tapestry. Central to understanding this movement is the work …

Experimental Document Analysis—An Analytical Framework For Document Design, Niels W. Lund

Proceedings from the Document Academy

In this paper I will present an analytical framework for future documents, an experimental document analysis providing support for document design. The American economist, Herbert A. Simon outlined how to design an artificial object in his work "The Sciences of the Artificial" (1969, 1996) and described how this can be done in a systematic way, by a science of design. Simon describes the design process as a matter of finding possible alternatives among the potential optimal alternatives and finding a satisficing solution, by which he means a solution in-between satisfactory solutions and optimal solutions which can work in real life, …

Reviews Of A New Approach To Sight Singing, 7th Edition By Sol Berkowitz; Gabriel Fontrier; Leo Kraft; Perry Goldstein; And Edward Smaldone And Progressive Sight Singing, 4th Edition By Carol Krueger, Karin Buer

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Review Of Improvising Fugue: A Method For Keyboard Artists By John J. Mortensen, Bryan Espinosa

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Inhabiting Numbers: Weaving, Polyphony, And Embodied Mathematics, Kristine Barrett

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Inhabiting Numbers: Polyphony as Woven Sound explores connections between vocal polyphony and textile practices, specifically weaving and spinning. Rather than consider music and weaving as separate from one another, the following paper presents the ways in which they are deeply intertwined and mutually constitutive forms of cultural expression. The technical modes of thinking produced through repetition inherent in both—particularly as practices utilizing complex mathematical structures—produce ways of thinking unique to each. Through practice, I suggest these technical modes of making transit across different materials and mediums—in both explicit and implicit ways. The music created through the interweaving of multiple voices …

Woven Symphony: Exploring The Parallels Between Weaving And Music, Qianwen Yu

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Weaving and music are art forms often perceived as unrelated but actually share deep connections and fascinating similarities. In this presentation, I will first briefly introduce the impact of the 19th-century Jacquard loom on the invention of the Player Piano, a musical technology that evolved into the modern "MIDI" computer audio notation system. Second, I will explore the similarities found in both weaving and musical composition by presenting some of my own media installation art works. These works translate musical scores into woven textures, and vice versa, creating symphonies and revealing new sensory ways to appreciate textiles and music. I …

The Tradition Of Microtonal Guitar On The American West Coast, Kenneth M. Cotich

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Microtonal music in the United States has a significant connection with the American West Coast. Influential microtonal musicians and theorists originated on the West Coast or passed through California, subsequently inspiring future generations of composers to work outside of twelve-tone equal temperament (12tet). This project begins by examining the early trailblazers of music education and composition in California who sought to rearticulate the fundamentals of music. Two substantial sources that influenced new musical materials were the harmonic series and non-Western music and culture. Microtonal music in California is then examined through the efforts of a series of outsider speculative music …

An Analysis Of Musical Layers And Formal Organization In Takashi Yoshimatsu's Piano Concerto, Memo Flora, Jacob A. Farr

Music Theses - Archive

My thesis, An Analysis of Musical Layers and Formal Organization in Takashi Yoshimatsu’s Piano Concerto, Memo Flora, draws on a range of analytical techniques to uncover writhing the work, a deep connection to classical formal norms, that are hinted at by the composer in the program notes and interviews regarding Memo Flora. A driving force behind the analysis is my concept of musical layers, in which the music is separated, according to the perception of the listener/analyst, into various Musical Strata. These Musical Strata can then be represented in a musical analysis of the work via corresponding musical-analytical strata. …

Vital Status, Thomas Ginnona

West Chester University Master’s Theses

“Vital Status” is a term used to describe the state of being alive or not and is typically used in a medical and/or biological context. The project explores duality and balance in the universe and ultimately questions the nature of what it means to be a truly living creature or entity. This occurs through four distinct pieces, each focusing on a different duality or aspect of life: “A Nameless Evil” addresses internal struggle/anxiety (individual/internal strife), “Resonances of the Earth” depicts the resonance of the planet and the natural balance therein, “V404 Cygni” portrays relationships both here and in the universe, …

Determining Why Before How: Crafting Mission, Vision, And Values Statements To Facilitate Undergraduate Music Theory Curriculum Reimagining, Paula Maust, Vid Smooke

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

The Department of Music Theory at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University recently joined many other institutions across North America in reimagining our undergraduate curriculum. Following practices more commonly found in the nonprofit sector, we began this undertaking by crafting mission, vision, and values statements. These newly articulated ideals for our department then served as a polestar, effectively guiding the rest of the curriculum review and revision. The process we effected created an environment that facilitated creative thinking while simultaneously engendering clear consensus among our colleagues.

In this paper, we—as co-chairs of the committee charged with reviewing the …

Volume 38, Various Authors

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

No abstract provided.