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open access

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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

"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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

The Extended Lydian Locrian Theory of Harmony

Description: The extended Lydian Locrian theory of harmony (ELL) is a system of analyzing harmonies and progressions according to their position along a vast spectrum of colors. The musical premise is that chords and progressions spanning upwards around the circle of fifths sound brighter, whereas chords and progressions spanning downwards around the circle of fifths sound darker. This simple premise gives rise to a complex but unified system of harmonic structures and relations, a system which provides a … more
Date: May 2022
Creator: Bandy, Chris
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

"Femininity: Ownership and Power": A Multimedia Exhibition

Description: This thesis is a critical analysis and creative commentary providing research and insight into my 150-minute multimedia exhibition, "Femininity: Ownership and Power," that premiered October 23, 2021. All of my research, composition, and collaboration efforts seek to recontextualize the semiotics of ‘femininity' through ownership and empowerment from varying intersections and identities. The titles of the eight works composed and premiered as part of the exhibition include: a beautiful reckoning… more
Date: December 2021
Creator: Brown, Aleyna M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

The Full Armor of God

Description: The Full Armor of God is a musical composition based on the apostle Paul's comparison in Ephesians 6:10-20 between armor for physical combat and armor for spiritual warfare. The instrumentation consists of the following: oboe/English horn, bassoon, two violins, viola, cello, and bass. Texts on Roman armor as well as commentaries and sermons on the scriptures were consulted for the basis of the musical materials. The piece combines imagery and historical associations with abstract renderings of … more
Date: August 1997
Creator: Lawrence, Nicholas A. (Nicholas Alan)
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation

"The Harbour of Incense": An Original Composition in Three Movements

Description: This paper presents an overview of the concepts and strategies in the original composition, The Harbour of Incense, a cycle of three movements for different groups of instruments. Each movement addresses an aspect of the musical cultures of Hong Kong. The first movement Taan Go for Harp Solo explores the sound world of the folk genre saltwater song; the second movement Jat1 Wun2 Sai3 Ngau4 Naam5 Min6 for Flute and Piano highlights the musicality of Cantonese language; the third movement Daa Zaa… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Tse, Nok Kiu
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

"Idle Flux": A Composer/Choreographer Collaboration

Description: The following thesis documents the collaboration process behind Idle Flux, a collaboration between Samuel A. Montgomery, a graduate composer at University of North Texas, and Emily Jensen, a graduate choreographer at Texas Woman's University. Comprising an 18-minute stereo fixed media composition and choreography for seven dancers, Idle Flux seeks to challenge the traditional spatial relationship between audience members and performers through restructuring seating and stage arrangements while … more
Date: May 2023
Creator: Montgomery, Samuel A.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Loose Id for Orchestra

Description: Loose Id, scored for orchestra (piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B-flat, B-flat contrabass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in B-flat, 2 trombones, 1 bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion (3 parts), violin I, violin II, viola, violoncello, and contrabass), is an abstract realization in sound of the energy of the Id. Unleashed, without the counterbalance of Ego or Superego, the Id generates unbridled instinctual energy, resulting in an orgiastic frenzy. … more
Date: August 1996
Creator: Bryant, Steven 1972-
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Making Sense of Things

Description: Making Sense of Things is a piece composed through consideration of the relationship between music, meaning, and materiality. The piece, written for voice, flute, percussion, and live electronics, explores topics of the "sensible" and "nonsensical" in music, moving through a variety of sonic episodes that feature different notational approaches, electronic textures, technical instrumental practice, and theatrical elements in order to explore a variety of expressive possibilities while unified a… more
Date: May 2021
Creator: Fox, West
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

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-
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

A Multi-Dimensional Approach towards Understanding Music Notation through Cognition

Description: Composition has been conceptualized as a method for communicating a way of thinking (i.e., cognition) from composers to performers and audience members. Music notation, or how music is represented in a visual format, becomes the vehicle through which such cognition is communicated. In the past, research on notation has been approached either categorically or as a taxonomy, where it is placed into separate categories based primarily on visual elements, including its symbols, conventions, and pra… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Leinbach, Cade
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

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-
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

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-
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

"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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

The Practice of Content-Driven Composition for Instrument and Computer

Description: Two compositions, live electronic music for instrument and computer, have been analyzed in the essay to reflect one of my aesthetics principles, content-driven composition, and the solutions that the I have applied to solve the problems which have occurred in practice. By content-driven, I mean that compositional process, material, mood, and affect are expressions of content drawn from visual art, literature, nature, religion, traditional aesthetics and other non-musical sources. During the jou… more
Date: May 2022
Creator: Shen, Qi
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

"Rainpiece": A Modular Work for Flute, Harp, Viola, and Live Electronics

Description: Rainpiece is a composition for flute, viola, harp, and computer, cyclic and open in form, and inviting collaborative improvisation by instrumentalists and computer operator together. It is also a study of water, from torrential downpours and bubbling springs to rivers and waterfalls. The movement of water through the phases of the water cycle is the central metaphor guiding the cyclic and theoretically endless structure of the work. Rainpiece is also a model of community, collaboration, and abo… more
Date: July 2023
Creator: Tempio, Madeline Grace
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

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.)
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Transient Delete: Original Composition with a Critical Examination of the Compositional Process and a Survey of Digital Technology in Opera

Description: This paper explores various technologies available to the modern composer and utilized in recent modern opera, providing creative approaches to producing aural, visual, and theatrical performance environments. It also explores my own use of digital technology in Transient Delete. Transient Delete is a digital miniature-opera that explores different aspects of a community of post-human cyborgs. The story follows Iméra, a newly converted cyborg as she acclimates herself to this new cybernetic exi… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Shirey, Benjamin, 1985-
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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