UNT Theses and Dissertations - 112 Matching Results

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EverWind: Original Composition and Analytical Essay on the Role of Inspiration and Nature in Music

Description: This paper provides an overview of the inspiration, research, and creative process involved in the composition of EverWind for orchestra and electronics. EverWind is based on field recordings from the American Southwest. The composition uses pitch material derived from spectral analysis of the recordings, and it incorporates a fixed media element using the field recordings that are then electronically manipulated to various degrees; this fixed media element is played alongside the orchestra. Th… more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Gerard, Garrison
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Critical Essay and Musical Score Accompanying the Original Music Composition, "East is East, and West is West (and Never the Twain Shall Meet)"

Description: This document accompanies and explains the concepts used in the development of the composition, East is East, and West is West, (and Never the Twain Shall Meet). The process for generation and development of much of the musical content of the composition East is East, and West is West, (and Never the Twain Shall Meet) is the use of quoted musical materials. The second process, but equally as important, for development of the composition relies heavily on the idea of parallel development of modu… more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Buehler, Alex
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Gradual: A Sound-Based Composition for Tenor Saxophone and Fixed Electronics, with Critical Essay

Description: In the first half of the twentieth century, sporadic attempts of avant-garde composers to include sounds other than pitch in musical composition paved the way for the composers in the second half to embrace the sound of all types in their creative works. The development of technology since the mid-past century has facilitated composers' inclusive use of sound. The recent achievements in electronics and computers have led to cost-effective tools for today's composers to explore new possibilities… more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Khajehzadeh, Iman
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"Natural Disasters"

Description: "Natural Disasters" is a cycle of five extractable movements for septet, conductor and computer. Each movement in the cycle is inspired by the ways that humans are affected by and respond to five different classes or categories of natural disasters: meteorological, such as hurricanes, tornados, and haboobs; geological, like earthquakes and landslides; hydrological, including flooding and sea level rise; wildfires; and extra-planetary disasters such as meteors and solar flares. The disaster type… more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Davidson, Clayton Simmons
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Cēgə Trouhèst

Description: Cēgə Trouhèst is a three-movement work of about thirteen minutes duration. The text by the composer provides a vehicle for aural stimulation only. Cēgə Trouhèst is a continuum of resonances embellished by melodic and rhythmic passages. These embellishments along with other devices and the choice of instrumentation all contribute to the development of the varied timbres. The first two movements introduce the material to be employed in the third, which continues the idea of change exhibited in th… more
Date: May 1976
Creator: Cox, Ronald Arnold
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New York City: A Collage of Cultures

Description: New York City: A Collage of Cultures is a single-movement programmatic orchestral work that features polytonality, prallelism, sound-mass, micro-tones, polychordal rhythmic ostinato, neo-impressionism, and folk themes and anthems from sundry cultures and nationalities. The simultaneity of contextual material at one point necessitates the employment of three conductors. The composition portrays America as a "melting pot" through its busiest immigration center, itself a microcosm of diverse inter… more
Date: May 1977
Creator: Drozin, Garth M. (Garth Matthew).
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Extension

Description: Extension is a three-sectional, one-movement composition for orchestra exploring various permutations of a single motivic unit. The central priority has been to present this motive in a variety of textural situations with a harmonic accompaniment evolving from a macrotonal to a microtonal setting. Some of the devices utilized to realize this priority are mixed-instrument timbral combinations, tone clusters, multiphonics for brass and woodwinds, multiple stops for strings, and superimpositions o… more
Date: December 1974
Creator: Ogilvy, James F.
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Grimaldi

Description: Grimaldi is a synesthetic work composed of aural and visual media including noise, tone, electronic devices, lighting and theatrical events. It is designed for solo saxophone with an accompanying ensemble of eight wind instruments and four percussion. The most important aspect of the piece is its texture, which consists of constantly changing and interacting aural and visual events. The compositional process of Grimaldi began with the selection of a form constructed of two equal arches of unequ… more
Date: December 1975
Creator: Gibson, John (John Wesley), 1946-
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Cosmophonia: Musical Expressions of Astronomy and Cosmology

Description: Astronomy and music are both fundamental to cultural identity in the form of various musical styles and calendrical systems. However, since both are governed by incontrovertible laws of physics and therefore precede cultural interpretation, they are potentially useful for insight into the common ground of a shared humanity. This paper discusses three compositions inspired by different aspects of astronomy: Solstitium e Equinoctium, a site-specific composition for four voices and metal pipes inv… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: DiFalco, Elaine
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Sonic "Alchemy": An Original Composition for Piano and Electronics with Critical Essay

Description: This paper presents the history and the theoretical study of mixed music and focuses on two piano solo works and two mixed electroacoustic compositions for piano and electronics. By discussing the working process and giving the analysis of the original composition Alchemy for piano and electronics, this paper investigates the relationship between cause, source and spectromorphology, reflecting how the concept of energy-motion trajectory are embodied in this mixed electroacoustic work. Alchemy i… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Wen, Bihe
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Music on the Edge of Silence

Description: This paper presents a discussion of functional silence in contemporary classical music with a particular focus on the music of Salvatore Sciarrino and Jürg Frey, two composers whose drastically-contrasting bodies of work both occupy the interstitial space between the audible and inaudible. To begin, I address three main questions: what are the functions of silence in a musical context, how do the characteristics of a work affect our perception of these silences, and how do these functions relat… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Snow, Kyle, 1992-
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Music as a Woven Narrative to an Absurd Tale in Act One of The Metamorphosis

Description: Act one of The Metamorphosis is based on the novella by Franza Kafka of the same title. In the writing of the act, George Benjamin's Into the Little Hill and Oliver Knussen's Where the Wild Things Are provide a model of using musical material as a storytelling device. Benjamin emphasizes the parallel nature of Crimp's text through the manipulation of similar music between the acts. Knussen uses form and color to emphasize Max's childlike energy and his desire to return home. In act one of The M… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Poovey, Christopher, 1993-
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Replenishment: A Musical Narrative Inspired by Sleep

Description: The Replenishment cycle contains five works that allude to the experience of sleep, beginning with awake drowsiness and ending with the piece inspired by rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, titled Conceiving Realities. This last piece is an intermedia work composed for chamber ensemble, live painting with biofeedback, computer, and audiovisual processing. This critical essay describes the composition of Conceiving Realities within the context of the Replenishment cycle, followed by a thorough analy… more
Date: December 2017
Creator: Espinel, Miguel Angel
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War Is Kind

Description: This composition is a single-movement work for three choirs and full orchestra, including celesta, piano, and four percussionists. Total duration is fifteen minutes. The music is divided into six sections, with the overall form being substantially influenced by the structure of the poem, War Is Kind, by Stephen Crane (1871-1900). Many devices are utilized to contrast tension and relaxation, as associated with ironic elements of the text, with repetition and development of musical elements and m… more
Date: August 1983
Creator: Hinderlie, Sanford E. (Sanford Edward)
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The English Walnut Joke: A Composition for Dramatic Soprano and Band

Description: The English Walnut Joke is a composition for concert band and dramatic soprano. The English Walnut Joke was based on a text of the same title by Alec Rowell and is divided into two movements with a total duration of approximately twenty-two minutes. The joke concerns itself with the dealings between a wood-chopper and a jongleur in medieval England and is related to the audience by a destitute factory worker (the dramatic soprano) in the early Industrial Age of that country.
Date: December 1980
Creator: Futterer, Kenneth Thomas
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Monolith: A Piece for Midi Piano, Mixed Sextet, and Fixed Electronics

Description: Reference to a regular pulse is one of the most common ways of measuring time in music. As the basis for tempo, meter, subdivisions, and even formal symmetry, pulse, or the sonic articulation of regular units of time, is found throughout all levels of music. In this paper, I describe how I used a structure of twelve simultaneous pulses to compose "Monolith," a recent piece for MIDI piano, Pierrot ensemble, and fixed electronics. In the first chapter, I contextualize "Monolith" by briefly examin… more
Date: August 2017
Creator: Vaughn, Mark, 1987-
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Chronomorphosis

Description: Chronomorphosis is a chamber ensemble piece for flute, clarinet, viola, cello, piano, and percussion. The work, comprising three movements is approximately fourteen minuted in duration. One of the most apparent characteristics of the work is its progression from non-metrical time organization involving aleatoric elements to metrical time organization involving changing meters but no aleatoric elements. The Pitch set is a constant element throughout the piece. The instrumentation selected exhibi… more
Date: August 1983
Creator: Hemphill, David
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The Seven Last Words of Christ: A Sacred Cantata

Description: The Seven Last Words of Christ is a sacred cantata for SATB chorus with soloists accompanied by a woodwind quintet, brass quintet and three percussionists. The text employed in this work is based on the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in the King James Version of the of the Holy Bible. The cantata consists of seven movements with an instrumental introduction and postlude, and has a duration of approximately twenty-seven minutes. The majority of the movements are slow in tempo… more
Date: May 1987
Creator: Roberson, Kevin D. (Kevin Douglas)
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Tempered Confetti: Defining Instrumental Collage Music in Tempered Confetti and Venni, Viddi, --

Description: This thesis explores collage music's formal elements in an attempt to better understand its various themes and apply them in a workable format. I explore the work of John Zorn; how time is perceived in acoustic collage music and the concept of "super tempo"; musical quotation and appropriation in acoustic collage music; the definition of acoustic collage music in relation to other acoustic collage works; and musical montages addressing the works of Charles Ives, Lucciano Berio, George Rochberg,… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Campbell, Andrew (Andrew S.)
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"Deborah": The Creation of a Chamber Oratorio in One Act

Description: In comparing oratorio traits across history, three aspects of oratorio were found to be particularly applicable to the creation of "Deborah: A Chamber Oratorio in One Act." These aspects were: the selection of topic and the creation or adaptation of text; the differences between recitative and aria, in form and function; and the level of stylistic diversity within a given work.
Date: May 2016
Creator: Mixter, Mary
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An Analysis of Du cristal…à la fumée by Kaija Saariaho and Axiom Unearthed, Original Composition

Description: Beginning in the 1970s, and aided by the advancement and an increased prevalence of computers, spectral music emerged as an important development in twentieth century music. Spectral composers, as exemplified by Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail, took the harmonic spectra of sounds as the fundamental materials of composition. The resulting music placed an emphasis on texture and gradually evolving forms. The generation of composers immediately following the spectralists assimilated their techniq… more
Date: May 2015
Creator: Allen, John Clay
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The Nothingness of Presence: Sound, Ritual, and Encounter in the Music of Into Your Hands

Description: The ritual music written for the Compline service of the Liturgy of the Hours, Into Your Hands, is analyzed using an ontological and phenomenological approach, which seeks to answer how such sound/musical phenomena wed to the specific ritual dynamics of Compline in their own right can create a potential for encounter with the Divine. The Jewish philosopher Martin Buber’s understanding of encounter is used to show that the sound/musical phenomena in itself bears similarities with the nature of t… more
Date: May 2015
Creator: Evans, Eric
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A Voltage-Controlled Incandescent Lamp Driver for Musical Performances of Multimedia Works

Description: Performances of multimedia works are hampered by the difficulty of controlling large numbers of incandescent lamps rapidly and accurately. The instrument described in this document is aimed at alleviating this problem. Chapter I describes the design and operation of the voltage-controlled dimmer unit and the DC controller. Chapter II describes step-by-step procedures for building the instrument. Schematics, wiring diagrams, and illustrative photographs are included. Chapter III discusses some o… more
Date: August 1975
Creator: Balentine, Bruce
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