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J. F. Daube's "General-Bass in drey Accorden" (1756): A Translation and Commentary

Description: General-Bass in drey Accorden (1756), the first of Johann Friedrich Daube's theoretical works, is a practical instruction manual in thorough-bass accompaniment. It consists of a sixteen page preface followed by 215 pages of text and musical examples. The twelve chapters begin with a presentation of interval classification and a discussion of consonance and dissonance. Daube then explains a theory of harmony in which all "chords" are derived from three primary chords. These are illustrated with … more
Date: May 1983
Creator: Wallace, Barbara Kees
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Beethoven's Transcendence of the Additive Tendency in Opus 34, Opus 35, Werk ohne Opuszahl 80, and Opus 120

Description: The internal unity of the themes in a sonata-allegro movement and the external unity of the movements in a sonata cycle are crucial elements of Beethoven's compositional aesthetic. Numerous theorists have explored these aspects in Beethoven's sonatas, symphonies, quartets, and concertos. Similar research into the independent variation sets for piano, excluding Opus 120, has been largely neglected as the result of three misconceptions: that the variation sets, many of which were based on popular… more
Date: December 1989
Creator: Kramer, Ernest J. (Ernest Joachim)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Traité d'harmonie of Charles-Simon Catel

Description: With the founding of the Paris Conservatory in 1795, a diversity of instructional methods for the teaching of harmony were used. Each theory instructor insisted upon using his own system; some relied heavily upon the theories of Rameau, while others used ideas based on eighteenth century German or Italian theorists. The Conservatory administration, realizing the need to unify theoretical instruction into a single method, formed a committee to evaluate the different harmonic systems available. A… more
Date: December 1982
Creator: George, David Neal
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Antoine Reicha's Theories of Musical Form

Description: Antoine Reicha stands as an important figure in the growing systematization of musical form. While Traite de melodie (1814) captures the essence of eighteenth-century concern with tonal movement and periodicity, Reicha's later ideas as represented in Traite de haute composition musicale (1824-26) anticipate descriptions of thematic organization characteristic of his nineteenth-century successors. Three important topics emerge as crucial elements: melody, thematic development, and schematic cate… more
Date: December 1989
Creator: McCachren, Jo Renee
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Aural Perception of Pitch-Class Set Relations: A Computer-Assisted Investigation

Description: Allen Forte's theory of pitch-class set structure has provided useful tools for discovering structural relationships in atonal music. As valuable as set—theoretic procedures are for composers and analysts, the extent to which set relationships are perceptible by the listener largely remains to be investigated. This study addresses the need for aural-perceptual considerations in analysis, reviews related research in music perception, and poses questions concerning the aural perceptibility of set… more
Date: May 1984
Creator: Millar, Jana Kubitza
Partner: UNT Libraries
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A Study of Root Motion in Passages Leading to Final Cadences in Selected Masses of the Late Sixteenth Century

Description: This study is concerned with the vertical combinations resulting from late sixteenth century cadential formulae and in passages immediately preceding these formulae. The investigation is limited to Masses dating from the last half of the sixteenth century and utilizes compositions from the following composers: Handl, Kerle, Lassus, Merulo, Monte, and Palestrina, Victoria. This study concludes that the progressions I-V-I and I-IV-I appear to be the only two root progressions receiving high enoug… more
Date: August 1979
Creator: Lindsey, David R.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Harmonic Interval of the Seventh in the Works of Representative Composers of Italian Madrigals, 1542-1614

Description: This study is an attempt to shed some light on the treatment of one dissonance—the seventh—in the works of the following composers: Cipriano de Rore (1516-1565); Philippe de Monte (1521-1603); Giaches de Wert (1535-1596); Luca Marenzio (1553-1599); Carlo Gesualdo (ca. 1560-1613); and Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). The purpose of this thesis is to discover (1) the frequency of occurrence of primary (relatively accented) sevenths and their inversions (^ chords, etc.) in a selection of each compo… more
Date: December 1976
Creator: Dowden, Ralph D.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Deconstructing Webern's Op 25, Drei Lieder: a Multidimensional Assessment

Description: Webern scholarship has not comprehensively examined op. 25, drei lieder. If the selection of text for op. 25 is viewed as one work in three movements they create a ternary form (A-B-A1). To show how this form is developed in the music the author creates a new analytical system based on Schoenberg's Grundgestalt which is defined by three basic ideas: symmetry, liquidation, and variation. The relationship between the voice and accompaniment and Webern's deliberate manipulation of the text is u… more
Date: August 2013
Creator: Morgeson, Paul Taylor
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Harmonic and Contrapuntal Techniques in the Late Keyboard Works of Cesar Franck

Description: This study examines the five late keyboard works of Cesar Franck: the Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue and the Prelude. Aria, and Finale for piano, and the three organ chorales. The study focuses on harmonic and contrapuntal techniques and their interrelationships, placing the discussion in the context of an analysis of the whole piece. The primary goal is to identify the salient characteristics of each piece; a secondary goal is to identify common harmonic and contrapuntal aspects of Franck's style. more
Date: May 1992
Creator: Cranford, Dennis R. (Dennis Ray)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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An Application of Grundgestalt Theory in the Late Chromatic Music of Chopin: a Study of his Last Three Polonaises

Description: The late chromatic music of Chopin is often difficult to analyze, particularly with a system of Roman numerals. The study examines Schoenberg's Grundgestalt concept as a strategy for explaining Chopin's chromatic musical style. Two short Chopin works, Nocturne in E-flat major. Op. 9, No. 2, and Etude in E major, Op. 10, No. 3, serve as models in which the analytic method is formulated. Root analysis, in the manner of eighteenth-century theorist Simon Sechter, is utilized to facilitate harmonic … more
Date: December 1994
Creator: Spicer, Mark Joseph
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Tonal Perspectives in the Selected Piano Preludes of Shostakovich (Op.34: nos.1, 3, 6, 14, and 24): an Analytical Study

Description: This study is an investigation of tonal structures in selected preludes of Shostakovich's Op.34. Explanations and analytic perspectives provide support of tonality oriented interpretation for the compositions which often appear to be "atonal." Chapter One is divided into (1) historical perspectives of the prelude as form, and (2) Summary of Shostakovich's life and work. Chapter Two contains a historical background of (1) the development of Shostakovich's compositional styles, emphasizing his ea… more
Date: August 1994
Creator: Lee, Tze Fung Alfred
Partner: UNT Libraries
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A Phenomenology of Music Analysis

Description: Many of the early writings and lectures of the German phenomenological philosopher Martin Heidegger involve investigations into the question of Being. An important part of these investigations is his examination of how we go about the everyday business of existing--doing our jobs, dealing with things in our environment, working through problems, thinking, talking--and what our ways of operating in these everyday activities tell us about our Being in general. Musicians have their own everyday mu… more
Date: December 1995
Creator: Anderson, Andrew E. (Andrew Edwin)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Arvo Pärt and Three Types of His Tintinnabuli Technique

Description: Arvo Pärt, an Estonian composer, was born in 1935. Most of the works at the beginning of his career were for piano in the neo-classical style. After that, he turned his interest to serial music and continued creating works with serial techniques throughout the 1960s. After his "self-imposed silence" period (during the years 1968-1976), Pärt emerged with a new musical style, which he called tintinnabuli. Although, this technique was influenced by music from the medieval period, the texture and f… more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Kongwattananon, Oranit
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Toward a Descriptive Eidetics of Atonality: a Phenomenological Analysis of Webern Op 3, No 1

Description: David Lewin, in his 1986 article “Music Theory, Phenomenology, and Modes of Perception,” offers a promising methodological approach for the analysis of tonal music from a phenomenological perspective. Lewin’s phenomenological method has a propensity to render seemingly contradictory readings in such a way that their respective validities can be preserved by articulating them within differentiated contexts. Expanding upon Lewin’s phenomenological work with analyzing tonal music, I propose that a… more
Date: August 2012
Creator: Schnitzius, Michael P.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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“A Metaphor for the Impossibility of Togetherness”: Expansion Processes in Gubaidulina’s First String Quartet

Description: This thesis illustrates how I hear processes of expansion organizing musical materials in the First String Quartet. By employing a flexible approach to expansion and developing models of wedge and additive expansions beyond the bounds of specific voice-leading or rhythmic augmentation procedures, expansion processes can be understood in each of the varied episodes of the quartet. Gubaidulina’s use of expansion processes, embodied organically in pitch, rhythm, form, and physical space, unifies t… more
Date: August 2012
Creator: Stroud, Cara
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Jacques Ibert: an Analytical Study of Three Movements From Histoires

Description: Although many biographical studies are available on Jacques Ibert, few contain significant analytical commentary. In this study I examine three movements from Ibert’s Histoires for piano which was composed between 1920 and 1921 and was premiered in 1923. The three movements are “La menuese de tortues d’or,” “Le petit âne blanc,” and “La marchande d’eau fraîche.” I primarily use Schenkerian analysis to identify characteristics of Ibert’s compositional language. Significant aspects of impressio… more
Date: August 2012
Creator: Waldroup, William Allan
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Formal Devices of Trance and House Music: Breakdowns, Buildups, and Anthems

Description: Trance and house music are sub-genres within the genre of electronic dance music. The form of breakdown, buildup and anthem is the main driving force behind trance and house music. This thesis analyzes transcriptions from 22 trance and house songs in order to establish and define new terminology for formal devices used within the breakdown, buildup and anthem sections of the music.
Date: December 2011
Creator: Iler, Devin
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Functions of Quotations in Steven Stucky's Oratorio August 4, 1964 and Their Placements within the Context of a Quotation Continuum: Cultural, Commentary, Remembrance, and Unity

Description: The oratorio August 4, 1964 is a twelve-movement work for orchestra, chorus, and four soloists written by Steven Stucky. The premise for the libretto, adapted by Gene Scheer, is the confluence of two events during one day (August 4, 1964) in the life of Lyndon B. Johnson. Although the main idea of the libretto focuses on these two events of this one day, many cultural references of the 1960's in general can be found as well, such as quotations from the well-known song "We Shall Overcome." Stu… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Davenport, Jennifer Tish
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Key to Unlocking the Secret Window

Description: David Koepp's Secret Window was released by Columbia Pictures in 2004. The film's score was written by Philip Glass and Geoff Zanelli. This thesis analyzes transcriptions from six scenes within the film in conjunction with movie stills from those scenes in an attempt to explain how the film score functions.
Date: December 2010
Creator: McConnell, Sarah E.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Hugo Wolf's Interpretation of Paul Heyse's Texts: An Examination of Selected Songs from the Italienisches Liederbuch

Description: In a Romantic song cycle or songbook, songs tend to share many common ideas because they are used to set to the poems from one collection written or collected by one author. Many composers designed the same motivic or structural elements to a group of songs for unity, and sometimes they made chronological narratives for the series of poems. Music theorists have tried to find out a way of giving a sense of unity or narrative to the songs in a song cycle or songbook by analyzing its musical langu… more
Date: December 2010
Creator: Shin, Dong Jin
Partner: UNT Libraries
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From Outward Appearance to Inner Reality: A Reading of Aaron Copland's Inscape

Description: About 8.3% of individuals diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (DM) are diagnosed with comorbid depression, a higher rate than the general adult population. This project examined the differences of depression symptoms experienced between diabetic and matched non-diabetic individuals and the relationship of daily activity and nutrition behaviors with depression between these groups. The 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) was utilized to assess: depression symptoms, d… more
Date: December 2010
Creator: Ensign, Jeffrey S.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Gewesener Magdeburgische Musicus: An Examination into the Stylistic Characteristics of Heinrich Grimm's Eight-Voice Motet, Unser Leben Wehret Siebenzig Jahr'

Description: Although Magdeburg cantor Heinrich Grimm was frequently listed among prominent musical figures of the early seventeenth century such as Heinrich Schütz, Johann Hermann Schein, and Michael Praetorius in music lexica through the nineteenth century, he has almost disappeared from modern scholarship. However, a resurgence in Grimm studies has begun in recent years, especially in the areas of biographical study and compositional output. In this study, I examine the yet unexplored music-analytic pers… more
Date: December 2010
Creator: Dobbs, Benjamin Michael
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Prolongation in Post-Tonal Music: A Survey of Analytical Techniques and Theoretical Concepts with an Analysis of Alban Berg's Op. 2, No. 4, Warm Die Lüfte

Description: Prolongation in post-tonal music is a topic that music theorists have engaged for several decades now. The problems of applying Schenkerian analytical techniques to post-tonal music are numerous and have invited several adaptations of the method. The bulk of the thesis offers a survey of prolongational analyses of post-tonal music. Analyses of theorists such as Felix Salzer, Allen Forte, Joseph Straus, Edward Laufer, and Olli Väisälä are examined in order to reveal their various underlying theo… more
Date: December 2010
Creator: Huff, David, 1976-
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Alberto Ginastera and the Guitar Chord: An Analytical Study

Description: The guitar chord (a sonority based on the open strings of the guitar) is one of Alberto Ginastera's compositional trademarks. The use of the guitar chord expands throughout forty years, creating a common link between different compositional stages and techniques. Chapters I and II provide the historical and technical background on Ginastera's life, oeuvre and scholar research. Chapter IV explores the origins of the guitar chord and compares it to similar specific sonorities used by different co… more
Date: December 2010
Creator: Gaviria, Carlos A.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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