Other Music Commons^™

Measuring Administrative Hiring Confidence Of Music Teachers In The Context Of Shallow Hiring Pools, Aaron M. Strum

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify and measure the confidence of K-12 administrators in hiring music faculty. This study also aimed to analyze administrators’ perspectives and confidence in key stages of the hiring process, including defining job expectations, posting, advertising, interviewing, and selecting highly specialized music teachers in K-12 settings. Confidence of K-12 administrators can be gauged through their understanding of how well an applicant aligns with the specific needs of the school’s program. Three research questions guided this investigation: (1a) How confident are K-12 administrators in their understanding of music teaching pedagogy when interviewing music teacher candidates …

Pro Rege Chr. Brass Band: A Century Of Sound, Jonathan T.J. Henneveld

Dissertations

The Christian Brass Band Pro Rege of Heerenveen, The Netherlands, celebrated its one hundredth birthday in 2024. As one of the most prominent community-based brass bands in the region, Pro Rege is part of a Dutch wind ensemble tradition that goes largely undocumented. While they and other bands like them function as cultural and educational institutions, academic literature remains limited, almost ignoring them completely. This dissertation wishes to address this oversight by providing an historical study of the brass band from its establishment in 1924 to the present day.

Starting out in the Dutch ensemble tradition of the Fanfare band, …

It’S Not A Phase, It’S A…Musical?: The Innate Theatricality Of The Emo Movement Of The 2000s, Kylie Alyssa Price

Honors Theses

This project is an exploration of the rock subgenres emo and pop-punk and how they interact with musical theatre conventions. Emo, short for emotional hardcore, is a descendant of hardcore punk music that is characterized by its focus on the emotional core of lyrics as well as softer, more pop-influenced sounds musically. In this project, the history of emo is delineated alongside the history of rock musical theatre. Subculture is also defined as it relates to this thesis. The natural theatricality of emo is then characterized as being through emo/pop-punk’s performance culture, through the existence of the concept album, and …

Expanding "Standards" Through Embracing Diversity: The Clarinet Quintets Of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Joyce Solomon Moorman, And James Lee Iii, Lauren Miller

Dissertations

Diversity in music education has been a long-standing discussion amongst educators. This document advocates for the recognition and acceptance of the intrinsic and extrinsic values of diverse peoples and their musical contributions while creating tolerance and respect. The focus lies with three composers, two African American and one African English, in service of promoting inclusion for composers of minority groups within the clarinet repertoire.

The goal is to expand standard clarinet repertoire, with “standard” defined as compositions considered important in building a well-rounded clarinetist in America, to include works such as Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in F-sharp …

A Survey Of The Comparative Performance Demands Of Performing Mozart’S Fourth Horn Concerto On The Natural Horn And Modern Horn, Brandon Garrison

Doctoral Projects

The four horn concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are fundamental standards of horn repertoire. Since the production of Dennis Brain’s early recordings in 1953, many virtuoso horn players have recorded these concerti on the modern horn. However, there are few professional recordings made on the natural horn. Though Mozart’s four horn concertos are prominent in horn study across the world, they are rarely executed with correct performance practice techniques. In my presentation, I will demonstrate passages from Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 4 to survey the challenges when performed on natural horn versus the modern horn. It is important to understand …

Ellerhein Girls' Choir: Seventy Years Of Choral Excellence, Bobby Helms

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

For hundreds of years, choral music has been central to Estonian culture. Prior to its founding in 1918, music and choral singing were deeply ingrained into the hearts and souls of the Estonian people. In 1869, Estonia, known as a nation of singing, held its first song festival. It continues to be held every five years. Thousands of choral members participate as part of the mass choir and join together raising their voices to celebrate the independence of Estonia. Although there are many choirs in Estonia, few have gained the status of Ellerhein Girls' Choir.

Ellerhein’s history of choral …

A Narrative Case Study Of Transfer Students In Instrumental Music Education, Ashley Glenn

Dissertations

Transfer students in music fields face challenges that are different from other fields of study. Research has shown that transfer students in music are expected to acclimate and operate as upperclassmen with minimal onboarding while also potentially having to retake courses they received credit for at the community college level. This study examines the experiences of five transfer students in music education through the lens of Schlossberg’s transition theory and Dewey’s model of transaction. Building on existing transfer student research, it asks: what do transfer students experience in terms of acceptance and self-integration, and how do these experiences affect transfer …

A Stylistic Analysis With Performance Suggestions Of Robert Muczynski’S Selected Late Piano Works: Maverick Pieces, Opus 37, Masks, Opus 40, And Dream Cycle, Opus 44, Ji Hyun Kim

Dissertations

Robert Muczynski (1929-2010) was a composer, pianist, and educator whose work is starting to garner more attention and interest from scholars, performers, and audiences.

Muczynski’s musical output covers a variety of genres from works for solo instruments to orchestral works and film scores. He was especially devoted to writing for piano. This is well represented in his musical output. Among his forty-eight compositions with opus numbers, seventeen works are for solo piano. He also wrote a piano concerto (No.1, Op.7), and twelve chamber works featuring the piano. Although his music has increased in popularity, it is less discussed when compared …

Authenticity And Practicality: Evaluating And Performing Multicultural Choral Music, Jesse Noote

Dissertations

Many choral music educators believe that multicultural music is a vital part of any choral curriculum. However, the research shows that these same choral directors are reluctant to select multicultural octavos because they lack training in non-Western music, which prevents them from effectively teaching and performing this music authentically. The purpose of this dissertation is to equip choral directors with the necessary tools for bridging the gap between desiring to perform and actually performing multicultural octavos.

Six authors have provided authenticity checklists that are designed to help music educators evaluate and perform multicultural music. This research synthesizes those lists to …

An Analysis Of Western Art Music Arrangements For Steel Pan Chamber Ensemble, Ian Meiman

Dissertations

This dissertation is an analysis of western art music arrangements for steel pan chamber ensembles. Specifically, this dissertation will analyze how certain arrangers have adapted western art music for steel pan chamber ensemble while discussing the possible methods the arranger used to create this adaptation. The analysis will observe the melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and other significant alterations made in the steel pan chamber arrangement, and discuss any changes made, whether due to the adaptation of the instruments or otherwise, from the original works. The dissertation will also include a brief historical discussion on western art music’s influence of early steel …

The Flutists Of The John Philip Sousa’S Band: A Study Of The Flute Section And Soloists, Ramon Da Silva Moraes

Dissertations

The Sousa Band is widely known because of its leader and his compositions. Although it was one of the most successful ensembles in history, most of the instrumentalists and individuals who contributed to its success have had their legacies forgotten. The flute section of the Sousa Band is an example of a group of musicians who were recognized as some of the best in the United States during their time, but are neglected by the present flute community.

My research focused on gathering data about the flute section and the individuals who were instrumental for the creation and development of …

Cowboy Art Song: A Contextual And Musical Analysis Of Libby Larsen's "Cowboy Songs", Ann Gabrielle Richardson

Dissertations

This dissertation sprang from a combination of two personal interests: cowboy culture and classical art song. The union of my cowgirl heritage with my career as a classical vocalist has long fueled an interest in a particular niche of repertoire: soprano art song with thematic connections to the North American cowboy. A conducted state of research reveals no scholarly literature exploring this specific topic. Libby Larsen’s collection, Cowboy Songs, fulfills the aforementioned niche, successfully capturing the spirit, musical idioms, and cultural themes of the North American cowboy.

Chapter I lays a contextual foundation for cowboy song, providing a catalogue …

Spectral Analysis And Comparison Of Analog And Digital Recordings, Hannah N. Frosch

Honors Theses

The music industry is constantly shifting and changing as new developments emerge. The biggest transition still discussed to this day is the shift from analog to digital. The digital world of media has opened many doors and created a simpler way of making and consuming media. However, the desire for a vintage/analog sound environment has grown increasingly popular over the years. The main research question I will be addressing in this thesis is: How do analog and digital recordings compare at a signal level? I will attempt to answer this research question through analyzing different audio signals. To do so, …

Villa-Lobos's Compositional Techniques And Treatment Of Folk Melodies In Cirandas For Piano, Gustavo Schafaschek

Dissertations

Despite his significance as the most important Latin American composer of the twentieth century, serious analytical studies on the music of the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos are still few and far between. Recent scholarship has started to demystify the figure of Villa-Lobos as an intuitive composer with no technique, revealing an artist that strove to develop an idiosyncratic musical language. The present document aims to contribute to this new trend in Villa-Lobos’s scholarship by analyzing pieces from the piano cycle Cirandas, W220, considered one of the most important works from the composer’s mature style. Each of the sixteen pieces …

Taiwanese Traditional Musical Idioms Meet Western Music Composition: An Analytical And Pedagogical Approach To Solo Piano Works By Tyzen Hsiao, Yi-Chuan Tsai

Dissertations

Since Western classical music was introduced in Taiwan, many contemporary Taiwanese composers have been experimenting with different musical forms and techniques. The members of the Third Generation of Taiwanese Composers began to lead the modernization of Taiwanese music after 1960. They proposed the establishment of a specifically Taiwanese musical tradition, one which would reach out to Taiwanese audiences through the incorporation of familiar folk songs and musical idioms, while incorporating Western compositional techniques and forms.

Tyzen Hsiao (蕭泰然) (1938-2015) was one of the most influential Taiwanese composers. His music is a blend of Taiwanese traditional musical idioms and Western music …

A Discussion Of Shiguang Cui’S Piano Concerto No. 2, Focusing On A Stylistic Analysis And Traditional Chinese Musical Elements, Yuting Ji

Dissertations

Shiguang Cui (崔世光) (b. 1948) is a Chinese composer and pianist. To celebrate the 2008 Summer Olympic Games held in Beijing, his work Concerto for Ten Concert Grand Pianos and Orchestra was commissioned by the Dean of the National Center for the Performing Arts, Mr. Ping Chen. Ten internationally-renowned pianists were invited to give the world premiere on August 19, 2008. The pianists were Claude Frank, Phillippe Entremont, Vladimir Feltsman, Louis Lortie, Yunyi Qin (秦云轶), Shikun Liu (刘诗昆), Lang Lang (郎朗), Cyprien Katsaris, Guillermo Gonzalez, and Sha Chen (陈萨).¹

This piece was originally conceived as Concerto for Ten Concert …

Exploring Three Colombian-Andean Folk Style (Danza, Pasillo, And Bambuco): An Analysis And Arrangement Of Three Colombian Pieces For Flute And Piano, Jesus Castro Turriago

Dissertations

This dissertation contains an analysis, comparison, and transcription of three Colombian pieces for flute and piano, written by composers of three different styles of folk music: pasillo, bambuco, and danza. An understanding of the historical context of these Colombian musical genres, and comparison of these instrumental pieces for flute and piano to those of other Colombian composers, informed my subsequent transcription and edition. The selected musical material comprises Bandolita, a pasillo composed by Luis Uribe Bueno, Bambuquísimo, a bambuco by Leon Cardona, and Adiós a Bogotá, a danza by Luis Antonio Calvo.

An Annotated Bibliography And Performance Commentary Of The Works For Concert Band And Wind Orchestra By Composers Awarded The Pulitzer Prize In Music 1993-2015, And A List Of Their Works For Chamber Wind Ensemble, Stephen Andrew Hunter

Dissertations

The purpose of this document is to assemble into one resource the concert band, wind orchestra, and chamber wind ensemble compositions of the 23 composers who were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music between 1993 and 2015. The Pulitzer Prize in Music is given annually to an American composer in recognition of distinguished achievement in composition of a work that received its premiere during the previous year. Timothy Mahr completed this study on composers who received the Prize from 1943 to 1992. This is a continuation and replication of that study, following Mahr’s procedures.

A brief biographical sketch will be …

A Reception History And Conductor’S Guide To William Grant Still’S ...And They Lynched Him On A Tree, Harlan Zackery Jr.

Dissertations

William Grant Still’s lynching drama …And They Lynched Him on a Tree is a rarely performed work for white choir, black choir, contralto soloist, narrator and orchestra. The title and subject matter of the work have been significant hurdles for many conductors who have considered the piece for performance. Additionally, the piece exists in several editions, and among each edition there are inconsistencies in terms of scoring and text, further making the piece difficult to program. Further, the piece, published as a choral ballad, is often labeled as a cantata, oratorio, ballad or play. It is true that the piece …

Dual-Interval Spaces: Interrelations Between Interval Classes 1 And 5, Local Pitch Centers And Form In Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 12, Tae Young Hong

Master's Theses

Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Sonata No. 1, written in 1926, is one of his most complex and lengthy works for piano. In contrast to the conservative style used in his critically-acclaimed Symphony No. 1, Op. 10, composed a year earlier, the sonata employs a highly modernistic idiom which predominated the composer’s output in the late 1920’s. The musical surface of the sonata was crafted by an extensive use of interval classes 1 and 5 which serve as the primary means of structuring pitch material.

This paper examines the surface combinations of two interval classes as well as their interaction with …

A Jamaican Voice: The Choral Music Of Noel Dexter, Desmond A. Moulton

Dissertations

As we approach the twenty-first century, the world generally is moving away from the dominance of the European aesthetic towards a world music that owes much to the musical resources of the African-American tradition. Jamaica’s social and philosophical music belong mainly to that tradition, which includes the use of rhythms, and timbral and melodic resources that exist independently of harmony. Already in this century, Jamaicans have created two totally new music - Nyabinghi, which performs a philosophical function and Reggae, which performs a social function. The choral music of Noel Dexter is important because it is uniquely Jamaican/Caribbean in its …

British Brass Band Contest Pieces: A Study In Transcriptions For The American Wind Band Repertoire, Jonathan James Helmick

Dissertations

This study tests the underlying beliefs and values motivating research and repertoire development as related to the American wind band. It seeks to examine the belief that a sizeable body of quality, original repertoire is the barometer for measuring the success of the American wind band movement. Preliminary research finds an overwhelming emphasis placed on quality original repertoire as the measure of validation for the American wind band. An absence of research on transcriptions and their relationship to the American wind band is evidenced. The utility of the study is related to the value judgment surrounding the musical integrity of …

A Document In Death And Madness: A Cultural And Interdisciplinary Study Of Nineteenth-Century Art Song Settings On The Death Of Opelia, Jennifer Leigh Tipton

Dissertations

In the nineteenth century the character of Ophelia transformed from a minor role in Hamlet into one of the great muses of the Romantic period. Ophelia’s rise to an archetype of feminine madness was not a result of Shakespeare’s pen alone, but of the accumulation of interpretations of her character from actresses, artists, critics, writers, musicians, and social attitudes toward women. This paper focuses on nineteenth-century interpretations of her death, specifically art song.

A brief survey of the nineteenth-century European cultural and social climate pertaining to Ophelia is included in the paper:

*Shakespeare in France and Germany

*Nineteenth-Century Actresses in …

The Application Of Contemporary Double Bass Left Hand Techniques Applied In The Orchestra Repertoire, Eric Hilgenstieler

Dissertations

The uses of contemporary left hand techniques are related to solo playing in many ways. In fact, most of these techniques were arguably developed for this kind of repertoire. Generally the original solo repertoire is idiomatic for the double bass. The same cannot be said for the orchestral repertoire, which presents many technical problems too difficult to solve using the traditional technique. Historically, the double bass passed through several transformations in its shape, structure, and tuning system. Only in the late 19th century did the instrument begin to have its own standard pedagogy and experiments with the tuning system diminished. …

An Examination Of The Requirements And Preparation Required Fortubists Desiring A Career In The Military, With Emphasis On Premier Band Auditions, Patrick Charles Rettger

Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to explore the differences between the various military bands in the United States with respect to tuba players. Fourteen military tuba players were interviewed. Based on their responses, each branch’s similarities and differences are presented. The research then focuses specifically on the audition process for premier band tuba players. These positions are highly coveted; yet they are not ideal for everyone. A survey was sent to all of the current and a number of prior service premier band tuba players asking them to list important band excerpts for tubists to know for military band …

What Makes Finzi Finzi? The Convergence Of Style And Struggle In The Life Of Gerald Finzi And In His Set Before And After Summer, Op. 16, Trevor Dangerfield Smith

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is two-fold: to discuss the nationalistic characteristics in Gerald Finzi’s life and in his mature compositional style, and to discuss both the beliefs he held and the struggles he faced during his life, and how these themes are integrated into his work for voice and piano Before and after Summer, op. 16.

Before and after Summer was not conceived as a cycle, but its songs are tied together by similar poetic themes and emotional impact, so despite the fact they were composed as individual entities they form a coherent collection from beginning to end. …

Joseph Kreines: A Biographical Sketch, An Analysis Of American Song Set For Band And A Descriptive Catalogue Of His Original Compositions And Transcriptions For Wind Band, Paul Eugene Weikle Jr.

Dissertations

Joseph Kreines is a well-respected composer, conductor and educator who has maintained an illustrious musical career in Florida and elsewhere. Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Kreines came to Florida in the 1960s as the Associate Conductor of the Florida Symphony Orchestra. Other professional conducting appointments with the Brevard Symphony Orchestra, The Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra and appointments as the conductor of the Florida Symphony Orchestra Youth Symphony, Pinellas Youth Symphony Orchestra and Brevard Youth Symphony Orchestra proved to be the launching of a successful free-lance career as guest conductor for hundreds of Secondary programs in Florida and elsewhere including band, orchestra …

The Spirit Of Triumph, James Anderson Depreist: The Life, Career And Music Of An American Conductor, Darryl Eric Harris Sr.

Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to present an organized account of the life, career and music of this prominent American symphonic conductor. James Anderson DePreist is an African American conductor/composer, educator and spokesman for the Americans with Disabilities who has achieved prominence in the symphonic field while overcoming many obstacles, both physical and social. In addition to having have conducted orchestras all over the world, this maternal nephew of famed contralto Marian Anderson is best known as the arranger/composer of Theme For The Cosby Show, the 1988–1989 season, as recorded by the Oregon Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to a …

An Analysis And An Historical Contextualization Of Frank Ticheli’S “Cajun Folk Songs”, Jody Anthony Besse

Dissertations

This document was constructed using a qualitative research approach to discuss and illuminate the various compositional techniques used by Frank Ticheli in his composition Cajun Folk Songs. The content will include a biographical background of Mr. Ticheli, documentation related to the Cajun Culture and Cajun Music, an analysis of Ticheli’s composition Cajun Folk Songs, and valuable information related to the rehearsal and performance of this work. The intent of the study is to shed light on the relevant aspects pertinent to the musical interpretation of the selected work for the conductor, the performer, and the listener.

A Performance Project With An Historical And Analytical Perspective On The Concerto For Alto Saxophone And Orchestra, Op. 31 By Peter Jona Korn, Brian Sanford Ransom

Dissertations

Peter Jona Korn (1922-1998) is not a name immediately recognized in American music circles, yet during the 1940s and '50s he led a successful career as an American composer. His Saxophone Concerto - composed in 1956 for the virtuoso Sigurd Rascher, and revised by Korn in 1982 - is an important contribution to the saxophone repertoire.

Many composers, including Glazounov, Ibert, and Larsson, wrote concertos for Sigurd Rascher. These works, once considered highly virtuosic, are now studied and performed by college level saxophonists. The original version of Korn's Concerto, among the most technically demanding works, has remained in obscurity for …