Musicology Commons^™

Virtuoso Violinist Maud Powell: Enduring Champion For American Women In Professional Music, Sarah Joy Pizzichemi

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

Maud Powell, the first great American virtuoso violinist, sparked a change in the spirit of the advancement of classical music throughout North America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This document addresses gender inequality present in the classical music profession during Powell’s lifetime. It also explores the roles women occupied in the public and private spheres in Western art music of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. More specifically, it investigates the life of virtuoso violinist Maud Powell through her activism and interest in American women in professional music.

The document is divided into three parts. After a …

Experience-Specific And Domain-General Effects On Simple And Complex Meter Processing, Sangeeta Gupta

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Our ability to process rhythmic patterns is constrained by the complexity of its interval structure. The goal of the present study was to explore the cognitive demands and neural mechanisms for processing simple and complex meters, and the extent to which they are modulated by culture-specific experience. The first experiment explored the argument that perception of rhythm is guided by a domain-general ability to process quantity, and that processing simple and complex meter rhythms requires different cognitive strategies. Rhythm perception was assessed by testing listeners’ ability to detect disruptions in simple and complex meter melodies. Proficiency with numerosity judgments was …

Les Chansons De Bilitis: A Symbiotic Collaboration Between Two Artists Claude Debussy And Pierre Louys With An Annotated Performance Guide And Original Translations, Carmella Tian Ming Cao

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document examines Claude Debussy’s Les Chansons de Bilitis to understand how Debussy, in his musical settings reflects the literary texts of Bilitis written by Pierre Louÿs. The purpose is to gain insight into the interdisciplinary collaborations among artists in fin-de-siècle France. Many of Debussy’s most famous pieces, such as Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, were inspired by poetry. In this document I contend that Les Chansons de Bilitis could play a more meaningful role within the repertoire of the flute canon. This piece was composed in 1901 with a unique instrumentation of two flutes, two harps, celesta, and female …

Sehnsucht In The Heine Lieder Of Schubert’S Schwanengesang, Kathleen P. Brandau

Honors Theses

This thesis considers the theme of Sehnsucht in the context of German Romantic music, in particular, the Heine Lieder from Franz Schubert’s Schwanengesang. Of particular interest is the ordering of the Heine Lieder and the narrative that emerges when the songs are reordered to conform to the arrangement in Heinrich Heine’s poetic collection, Buch der Lieder. The final chapter identifies instances of Sehnsucht in the text and suggests a hidden poetic cycle that sheds light on some unusual musical connections between the poetry and Schubert’s settings of individual songs.

The Evolution Of The Cello Endpin And Its Effect On Technique And Repertoire, William Braun

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

This document investigates how the concept of a lifting device has evolved into the modern endpin that is a now a standard part of the cello. The endpin has a unique history that, prior to this writing, has not yet been fully documented. The evolution of the endpin has caused significant changes to cello technique, as its use, or lack of, alters the basic posture and setup of the instrument on the cellist’s body. Written and iconographic evidence show that endpins and other lifting devices have been used throughout all eras of the cello’s history. There are many instances when …

The Intersections Of Music, Love, And Worship, Jacob C. Wessel

Senior Honors Theses

When a right understanding of the doctrine of love infiltrates the art of music in the event of corporate worship, an opportunity arises for a unique synergism of knowledge, emotion and relationships. These qualities are paramount in the doctrine of love and practice of corporate worship, and they are especially encouraged by the powers of music. An exploration of these three aspects of love—knowledge, emotion and relationships—is here provided with special attention to the opportunity music and worship provide for intersections between them.

Hildegard Of Bingen: Visionary Woman Who Encouraged The Role Of Feminism, Melissa K. Treharn

Undergraduate Distinction Papers

This paper will discuss the life of Hildegard of Bingen and how her musical and lifestyle choices can be defined as that of a feminist. Hildegard was a nun during the mid 1100's who was given the gift of visions. These visions, sent from God, told her about how she should be living her life and the lessons she should be teaching her followers. However, as a woman during this time, Hildegard had no power or any opportunities to share these ideas with others without being shunned as stepping outside of her "gender role." It was not until she gained …

American Women Composers In The Late Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Centuries: A Comparison Of The Social, Cultural And Personal Influences On The Lives, Career, And Music Of Amy Beach And Ruth Crawford Seeger, Lindsey A. Scarberry

Undergraduate Distinction Papers

A comparison of the lives and works of two American women composers, Amy Beach and Ruth Crawford Seeger, provides an interesting look at the role of women in music in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Amy Beach and Ruth Crawford Seeger were pioneers in American music during the time period after the Civil War through World War II. Both women performed professionally, composed, and innovated musical ideas and theories during a time when women’s compositions were not widely performed or published. Their professional and personal lives illustrate many differences that informed their works in different ways. Amy Beach …

P-28 Musical Borrowing In Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas: Piazzolla, Desyatnikov, Vivaldi, Wayanne Watson

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

Leonid Desyatnikov arranged Astor Piazzolla’s Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas for violin and string orchestra, interspersing quotations from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons throughout the new work. My score-based analysis of the arrangement investigates Desyatnikov’s borrowing techniques by locating the Vivaldi quotations, examining Desyatnikov’s alterations to their original content and context, and determining whether the quotations’ identities are maintained or transformed. My research shows that, generally, Desyatnikov minimizes drastic alterations to content, but usually makes changes to context. Overall, this leads to transformation of the quotations’ identities. By examining these compositional procedures, my analysis provides a more nuanced exploration of musical dominance and …

The Irish Experience: Identity And Authenticity In Irish Traditional Music, Elizabeth Graber

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Over the last century, Irish traditional music, or “trad,” has become a global phenomenon that has flourished in communities from the United States of America to Japan. A musician need not be Irish in heritage to play and do justice to Irish traditional music or to feel a strong emotional connection to it; yet ethnic ties, real and imagined, constitute a powerful reason to play. The music is inextricably linked with the poetically-titled Emerald Isle even if its musicians are not. In this project, I explore and analyze the many facets of perception of and participation in Irish traditional music, …

Editorial, Michael E. Ruhling

HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America

No abstract provided.

Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Bwv 248, And The Jews, Daniel R. Melamed

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

It has been recognized since the nineteenth century that most of the poetic arias and choruses in J. S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 are parodies of music composed to other texts. In the early twentieth century it was claimed that at least one gospel narrative chorus was also derived from extant music, a hypothesis subsequently expanded to include several such movements said to be parodies as well. The claims are flimsily argued and are unlikely on source-critical grounds, but they have stuck, persisting in scholarly writings, reference works, and popular literature.

The origin of this idea is a 1916 …

Buddhism As Performing Art: Visualizing Music In The Tibetan Sacred Ritual Music Liturgies, Jeffrey W. Cupchik

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The eleventh-century Tibetan female ascetic, Machik Labdrön (1055-1153), developed a Vajrayāna (Tantric) Buddhist meditation method called Chöd (Tib. gCod, Eng. “to cut”) and associated ritual practices as a means of eliminating “self-grasping,” which is defined as the mistaken instinct of regarding one’s “self” and all phenomena as intrinsically, or independently, existent. Her musical-meditation method became renowned across Central Asia during her lifetime, and Chödritual practices and liturgies have been transmitted from teacher to disciple in unbroken lineages until today. The ritual is now well known globally, with Tibetan Lamas, nuns, and empowered exponents teaching widely, across a transnational …

Some Biographical Notes On Mauro Corticelli And A Previously Unpublished Letter To Him From Verdi, Martin Chusid

Verdi Forum

No abstract provided.

On The Hallelujah Efect: Priming Consumers, Recording Music, And The Spirit Of Tragedy, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

An overview of The Hallelujah Effect concentrating on priming or sonic branding, media, online porn as well as marketing and media programming, with a special excursus on the space of music --and radio in Adorno's Current of Music, and a detailed discussion on Nietzsche and music in antiquity as he explores this with reference ot Beethoven in The Birth of Tragedy.

"There, In The Fastness Of Rural England": Vaughan Williams, Folk Song And George Borrow’S 'Lavengro', Ryan M. Ross

CoE Publications

No abstract provided.

Counterpoint Applied In The Invention, Fugue, Canon And Other Polyphonic Forms: An Exhaustive Treatise On The Structural And Formal Details Of The Polyphonic Or Contrapuntal Forms Of Music, For The Use Of General And Special Students Of Music, Percy Goetschius, Jonathan Kulp

School of Music

No abstract provided.

Exercises In Elementary Counterpoint, Percy Goetschius, Jonathan Kulp

School of Music

No abstract provided.

Musical Borrowing In Las Cuatro Estaciones Portenas: Piazzolla, Desyatnikov, Vivaldi, Wayanne Watson

Honors Theses

Leonid Desyatnikov arranged Astor Piazzolla's Las Cuatro Estaciones Portenas for violin and string orchestra, interspersing quotations from Vivaldi's Four Seasons throughout the new work. My score-based analysis of the arrangement investigates Desyatnikov's borrowing practice and connects his compositional techniques to musicological meanings. In addition to identifying levels of contrast value between the quotation and the surrounding arrangement, I examine alterations to the original content and context of the quotations and determine whether Desyatnikov maintains or transforms the quotations' identities. I combine identity and contrast value into an interpretive model of musical interaction, providing a more nuanced exploration of musical dominance.

"Goodbye, Old Arm": The Domestication Of Veterans' Disabilities In Civil War Era Popular Songs, Devin Burke

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

IN October of 1863, two years into the Civil War, a short editorial titled "Empty Sleeves" appeared on the front page of the Staunton Spectator.1 It addressed a question that had become familiar in the wake of the war's unprecedented violence; namely, how to encounter, or how to look at (in both the literal and figurative senses), the quickly growing population of veterans whose injuries marked them as "disabled:' This question could be cause for considerable anxiety in able-bodied Americans whose beliefs were shaped by Victorian and muscular Christian values.

From The Directors, Linda B. Fairtile, Francesco Izzo

Verdi Forum

No abstract provided.

A Note On 'Roderick Hudson' And 'La Traviata': Who Has Gone Astray?, Rodney Stenning Edgecombe

Verdi Forum

No abstract provided.

Review Of Abramo Basevi's 'The Operas Of Giuseppe Verdi' (Edited By Stefano Castelvecchi), Scott L. Balthazar

Verdi Forum

No abstract provided.

Review Of Susan Rutherford's 'Verdi, Opera, Women', Hilary Poriss

Verdi Forum

No abstract provided.

The Scottish Pipe Band In North America: Tradition, Transformation, And Transnational Identity, Erin F. Walker

Theses and Dissertations--Music

For Scots and non-Scots alike, the sounds of the bagpipes and the pipe band serve as a cultural metaphor for Scottish identity: the skirl of the pipes, the crisp sound of the snare drums, and the unique lilt of the music conjure an imagined Scotland of fierce, kilted clansmen and rugged, picturesque Highland scenery. This nearly global association appears to have been constructed on a series of transformations of cultural practices within Scotland itself, as well as throughout greater Britain and the lands of the Scottish diaspora, that began with the early “kiltophiles” in the late eighteenth century. …

Starships, Gallifrey, Krypton, And Earth: Searching For The Hero Archetype In The Melodies Of Science Fiction And Superhero Films, James Wesley Talbot

Wayne State University Theses

The study of science fiction and superhero melodies is relatively new in the academic world of music theory. Analysis of hero archetypes found in Doctor Who, Star Trek (and its major motion pictures), Star Wars, and Superman provide excellent conduits for all students of music to access the hidden and overt musical meaning assigned to heroes. Realization of this study’s findings will feature interval tension and Schenkerian analysis, score reductions, and topic theory to provide perspective on how heroes are identified and perceived by directors, composers and audiences alike. Deryck Cooke, Leonard Ratner, and V. Kofi Agawu’s approach to thematic …

The Social And Cultural Changes That Affected The Music Of Motown Records From 1959-1972, Lindsey Baker

Theses and Dissertations

Motown Records produced many of the greatest musicians from the 1960s and the 1970s. During this time, songs like "Dancing in the Street" and "What's Going On?" targeted social issues in America and created a voice for African-American people through their messages. Events like the Mississippi Freedom Summer and Bloody Thursday inspired the artists at Motown to create these songs. Influenced by the cultural and social circumstances of the Civil Rights Movement, the musical output of Motown Records between 1959 and 1972 evolved from a sole focus on entertainment in popular culture to a focus on motivating social change through …

Verdi At 200: Recent Scholarship On The Composer And His Works, Linda B. Fairtile

Verdi Forum

No abstract provided.

Cammarano's Libretto For 'La Battaglia Di Legnano': A New Translation, Douglas L. Ipson

Verdi Forum

No abstract provided.

Verdi's Shakespearean Operas: Macbeth, Otello, Falstaff, David Lawton, Linda B. Fairtile, Emanuele Senici

Verdi Forum

No abstract provided.