Musicology Commons^™

A Bird’S Eye View: Large-Scale Tonal Structures In Robert Schumann’S Four Song Cycles (Op. 42, 24, 39, And 48), Peter Kramer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Some of Robert Schumann’s most notable works are his Lieder for solo voice and piano accompaniment. Schumann's Lieder are considered some of the best compositions in this genre, engendering various interpretations by performers and exciting vigorous debate among musicologists and theorists. Robert Schumann’s early music was almost entirely composed for the piano alone; it wasn’t until 1840 that he started to compose almost exclusively Lieder and song cycles inspired by his predecessors Beethoven and Schubert. This was a prolific year for Schumann compositionally, in part due to his marriage to Clara Schumann who was one of Europe’s most preeminent piano …

Music And Madness: Three Critical Case Studies, Beth A. Cooper

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation interrogates and develops the multiple connections between music history, theory, composition, and reception and the sociopolitical structures of madness in the twentieth century. My work first uncovers the various definitions of psychological abnormality as they have taken shape through discourses of Western medicine, psychology, and history/criticism of the arts. As I argue, madness is not purely a somatic, transhistorical illness, but an elusively constructed term with tentative relations to shifting concepts of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral non-normativity. Following an outline of this methodological premise, rooted in the fields of disability studies and mad studies, I contextualize the life …

Intro To Jazz, Jon De Lucia

Open Educational Resources

OER Based Syllabus for MUS 145 Intro to Jazz course at City College. Covers the history and development of jazz along with basic music fundamental vocabulary.

Data Scraping Youtube For The Study Of Lieder Reception, Rachel E. Scott

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

A growing body of literature has shifted aesthetic attention from composition to performance, or the performing activity, and asserts that the act of performance creates meaning. Scholars have emphasized differences between the passive consumption and active making of – or even listening to – music. As I sought to understand the impact of performance on Alma Mahler's legacy, I identified the need to gather as much data as possible on who, what, where, when, why, and how her songs were performed. This need led me to evaluate the metadata associated with recordings of Alma Mahler's songs in the WorldCat union …

Review Of Ludwig Van Beethoven, Symphonien V: Nr. 9 D-Moll Opus 125, Ed. Beate Angelika Kraus, Barry Cooper

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

The Autodidactic Process Of Hugo Wolf And The Fourfold Learning Equation, Frank L. Strnad

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation investigates and discusses the self-study process of the Austro-Slovene composer Hugo Wolf. A fourfold learning equation consisting of imitation+emulation+invention =results will be presented, discussed, and applied to the musical compositions of Hugo Wolf, who learned how to compose music mostly by self-study, and minimal formal conservatory level training. Standard methods of analysis of musical construct, harmony, and orchestration will be used to evaluate each musical work. The selected musical works and their musical qualities were chosen to illustrate the effectiveness of the use of the fourfold learning equation by Wolf, both with and/or without instructional resources. This dissertation …

Mieczysław Weinberg: Music Transcending Tragedy, Ilana Shapiro

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis examines the music of Mieczysław Weinberg, a prolific Jewish Holocaust-era composer whose compositions remain in relative obscurity through the present day. I begin by investigating the musical expression of Weinberg’s Polish and Jewish identity under Soviet state persecution via close analysis of selected works: the Cello Fantasia, Op. 52 and Cello Concertino, Op. 43bis. Through context of composition and allusions to Jewish music and Polish folksong, these works reveal Weinberg’s identity as a Jew and a Pole, his connection to his homeland and youth, and his musical expression beyond the demands of the state. Subsequently, I explore qualities …

The Jazz Archive: Theorizing A Relationship Between Jazz Improvisation And Standard Repertoire., Toby Wren

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

The jazz standard remains an enduring part of the tradition of jazz performance and pedagogy. Contemporary jazz scholarship has tended to focus on improvisation as a practice and jazz-as-lived-experience and, while the jazz standard repertoire has occasionally been the subject of study the relationship between the standard repertoire and the ‘language’ or style of jazz has not been theorised. In this article I argue that the distinctive style of jazz improvisation is at least in part, determined by the characteristics of its shared repertoire and the statements that have accrued around that repertoire. I borrow Foucault’s conception of the archive …

Choosing Alternative Repertoire: Pedagogical Considerations For Robert Fuchs's Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 83, Jerram Isaac John

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This document serves to promote Robert Fuchs's Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 83, as a study piece for the cello, piano, and collaborative duo, showing the pedagogical benefits of this Romantic sonata. This project will begin with a biography of Fuchs and background of the work, followed by an analysis that establishes the piece in the Romantic tonal tradition. The next section will discuss the pedagogical benefits of the cello part, the technical accessibility in the piano part, and the collaborative opportunities encountered in the piece, comparing it with other Romantic sonatas in the standard repertoire. Additionally, I will be …

Athenian Choral Institutions And Plato's Ideal Polis, Emma Beachy

Grand Valley Journal of History

This paper discusses the role of choral institutions in Plato’s ideal polis. In the fourth century BC, choral competitions were a key site of political discourse in Athens, exposing the conflicts inherent to the use of aristocratic patronage in a democratic system. As the demos embraced new musical practices, aristocrats critiqued these changes as a proxy for their opposition to democracy itself. Plato, operating firmly within the aristocratic tradition, placed choral education at the center of his ideal polis as a means to restore and cultivate aristocratic power. However, he also sought to use choral music as a means to …

X Marks Nothing: Chiasmus And Kenosis In Kaija Saariaho's La Passion De Simone, Desiree Scarambone

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Composer Kaija Saariaho’s 2006 work La Passion de Simone often leaves audiences and critics at a loss to understand what they have witnessed. The title, subject, and sparse libretto only complicate this confusion. The genre of the work is ambiguous to many; some critics call it an opera, some an oratorio. Because the subject of the work, French philosopher Simone Weil, is widely unknown to the public, her placement within the framework of a Passion is often met with confusion if not criticism.

By fusing Weil’s life and philosophical ideas in this work, Saariaho explores how the awareness of the …

Karol Lipiński As A Musical Interpreter In The Pre-Joachim Era, Andrzej Kunecki

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The work concerns a study of Karol Lipiński – the early nineteenth century Polish violinist – focusing on his activity as a musical interpreter. The work is supported by a comparison with another violinist acknowledged in this field – Joseph Joachim. The work is divided between four chapters: The first chapter begins with a discussion on the development of the concept of musical interpretation in the context of the broader social and aesthetical changes of the early nineteenth century, and ends with a summary of Joachim’s interpretative activity in the latter half of the same. The second chapter includes Lipiński’s …

Medieval Minstrels In Media: A Comparative Study Of Minstrelsy In The Robin Hood Tale, Medieval Society, And Media, Heather Sounik

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The minstrel character Alan-a-Dale, as well as other variations of the minstrel, have been effectively ingrained into the history of the Robin Hood tale through screen media interpretations. This study seeks to investigate the origins of the minstrel character in the medieval through present day texts and analyze the interpretations of these characters in a collection of the present day screen media sources that involve this character. Topics to be addressed within this survey include medieval minstrel performance practices and their overall reception in medieval society, as well as the variety of roles the on-screen minstrel characters take, both as …

“When Will The Time Finally Come When There Will Only Be Humans”: An Unknown Letter From Beethoven To Heinrich Von Struve, Julia Ronge

The Beethoven Journal

Transcription, translation, and discussion of a recently discovered letter from Ludwig van Beethoven to Heinrich von Struve from 1795. In the letter, Beethoven expresses a yearning for a time when there are only humans, without distinctions of rank and class. This sentiment accords with Schiller’s ode An die Freude, which Beethoven set to music more than once.

From “Radical Blunders” To Compositional Solutions: A Form-Functional Perspective On Beethoven’S Early Eroica Continuity-Sketches, Thomas Posen

The Beethoven Journal

Beethoven’s sketches to his third symphony, the Eroica, have fascinated scholars since Nottebohm’s pioneering study of the Eroica Sketchbook in the late nineteenth century. More recently, Alan Gosman and Lewis Lockwood finished a complete transcription of the sketchbook, which has led to a resurgent interest in these sketches. In this article, I re-evaluate Beethoven’s approaches to composing the first movement of the Eroica symphony by reappraising two supposed problems with the first two exposition continuity-sketches. Contrary to prior studies, which have interpreted these reputed compositional problems as “failed experiments” or “radical blunders” (Tovey 1941, 80), I interpret them …

“The Bonn Master-Baker Gottfried Fischer’S Reminiscences Of Beethoven’S Youth” [Des Bonner Bäckermeisters Gottfried Fischer Aufzeichnungen Über Beethovens Jugend]. Translated Into English, With Editorial Commentary And Notes., Susan Cooper

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Review Of Beethoven 1806 By Mark Ferraguto, Desmond Sheehan

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Review Of Beethoven Studies 4, Ed. Keith Chapin And David Wyn Jones, Nicholas Chong

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Salome- Femme Fatale, Gaze And Rejection Of The Feminine, Ramya Thiyagarajan

Publications and Research

Salome was an unnamed, minor character in the New Testament of Mark and Matthew, an innocent girl who is presented as a pawn in her mother’s scheme to behead John the Baptist. Over time, Salome developed a life of her own, from being imagined as an acrobat in the Middle Ages, to a virgin beauty in the Renaissance and for Christians a constant example of evil woman. In 1891, Salome was reborn as the erotic femme fatale through the imagination of Oscar Wilde and given an existence on the stage, though the play was banned for years. Only after an …

Evocations Of Nature In Selected Piano Works By Debussy, Heah Zi-Ling

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The connection between nature and the music of Claude Debussy is unique and fascinating, with nature serving as a source of influence and inspiration for Debussy. Debussy looked upon nature with veneration and this viewpoint helped to form the musical ideals that he pursued while breaking with the traditional forms of music. References to nature appear in the descriptive titles of many works by Debussy, but this research focuses on selected piano works from his two books of Images. Debussy’s sense of connection to nature in his music, especially when viewed through the lenses of the Impressionist and Symbolist movements, …

Investigating The Marketing Language Among Online Retailers Of Violin Strings To Determine The Implied Aesthetic, Kira Kay Browning

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The aim of this research is to determine if language in the advertising of violin strings is acting as an exclusionary tool in favor of a Western art music “sound” produced by “classical” violinists. It posits that the marketing of strings to violinists is a topic laden with unacknowledged biases and values of musicians within Western art music. The aesthetic values attached to playing Western art music for the violin in the United States are passed on through pedagogic practice and acculturation of language. Product descriptions for strings in the United States employ language which adheres to these cultural values …

Remembering Tom Heck And His Legacy, Robert Ferguson

Soundboard Scholar

An obituary of Thomas Heck (1943–2021), outlining his contributions to guitar scholarship, especially with reference to his seminal biography of Giuliani and his research into musical iconography. This article also describes his contribution to the classical guitar community in the United States, as the founding visionary of the Guitar Foundation of America.

The Guitar In America As Mirrored In Cadenza (1894–1924), Peter Danner

Soundboard Scholar

No abstract provided.

Of Self And Circumstance: Music And Representation In The Works Of Rodrigo, Walter Aaron Clark

Soundboard Scholar

Though Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-99) is renowned for his guitar works, especially the Concierto de Aranjuez, less well known is the fact that his compositions embrace a wide variety of genres, styles, and media, from piano solos to art songs and from orchestral tone poems to film scores. This article proposes a novel way of organizing and comprehending the roughly 200 works in his catalogue. Rather than the standard method of organization by chronology or medium, it surveys his oeuvre through multiple lenses, including literary, folkloric, virtuosic, sacred, historical, theatrical and descriptive. Each of these categories represents the salient dimension …

Notes On Some Early-American Guitar Concerts, Peter Danner

Soundboard Scholar

No abstract provided.

The Guitar In Nineteenth-Century America: A Lost Social Tradition, Peter Danner

Soundboard Scholar

This article is one of a series of five by Peter Danner on the history of the guitar in the United States from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Written between 1977 and 1994, these articles first appeared in early issues of the GFA’s magazine Soundboard. They are reprinted here in tribute to Danner’s pioneering contribution to guitar research and to bring them to the attention of a new generation of scholars. The author has generously provided a newly written introduction to the series.

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).

"The Lutenist!": Anxieties, Ambiguities, And Deviations In Julian Bream’S Discography, Sidney Molina

Soundboard Scholar

The recent passing of English guitarist Julian Bream (1933–2020) has prompted a reevaluation of his artistic legacy by critics around the world. In this article, I propose a way of reading Bream’s discography in relation to that of his predecessor, Andrés Segovia, utilizing Harold Bloom’s theory of influence, a methodology that I first proposed in application to music in 2006. After dividing Bream’s fifty albums into phases inspired by Bloomian categories, I examine the works that Bream chose to record more than once, with a focus on those to which he returned three or more times.

On The Need For A Scholarly Edition Of Tárrega’S Complete Works, David J. Buch

Soundboard Scholar

In this guest editorial, the author provides evidence of the unreliable nature of the majority of Tárrega’s first editions, and the substandard quality of most modern editions. The author argues that in light of the recent availability of formerly inaccessible primary sources, the time is right for a scholarly edition of Tárrega’s complete works with state-of-art editorial methods.

How I Got Into This: Toward A Social History Of The Guitar In America, Peter Danner

Soundboard Scholar

An introduction to a series of five articles by Peter Danner on the history of the guitar in the United States from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Written between 1977 and 1994, these articles first appeared in early issues of the GFA’s magazine Soundboard. They are reprinted here in tribute to Danner’s pioneering contribution to guitar research and to bring them to the attention of a new generation of scholars. The author has generously provided this newly written introduction to the series.