291 Matching Results

Search Results

open access

An Analytical Study of the Suite for Violin and Piano (1935), Op. 6, by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

The Suite for Violin and Piano, Op. 6 is one of the least-known compositions by Benjamin Britten. It has been considered unfavorably by critics and scholars due to its puzzling mixture of tonal and post-tonal elements. However, this dissertation argues that the suite is composed with a clear tonal framework, and its unique mixed tonal-post-tonal language justifies an in-depth analysis. This analytical study utilizes a linear progression technique - the voice leading produced by passing tones an… more

Date: December 2023

Creator: Lee, Hanjun

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Are We Zwisch-ing Yet? An Examination of the Zwischenfach Voice Category and Selected Twenty-First Century American Arias

The German word Zwischenfach often refers to opera roles and singers whose voices lie between the categories of mezzo-soprano and soprano. While the term is not universally accepted as a voice category, Zwischenfach voices and roles are being discussed more openly and with more specificity in collegiate and professional circles. This document includes a discussion on the challenges of categorizing dramatic voices, mezzo-soprano voices, and those who could be considered Zwischenfach, taking into… more

Date: December 2023

Creator: Taylor, Hilary Grace

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Decoding Fantasy: An Analysis of Paquito D'Rivera's "Caribbean Berceuse" (2021)

Written for and featuring the Barcelona Clarinet Players, Caribbean Berceuse (2021) is Paquito D'Rivera's (b.1948) first composition for wind band. Along with idiosyncratic expectations of fusing jazz and classical elements according to D'Rivera's oeuvre, the title implies extramusical associations in the composition. This analysis demonstrates how extramusical associations interact with thematic development by using five codes of meaning from Roland Barthes's (1915–1980) S/Z (1970), which was … more

Date: December 2023

Creator: Truan, Robert Michael

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Harmonic Function in Rock: A Melodic Approach

This dissertation explores the influence of melody on harmonic function in pop and rock songs from around 1950 to the present. While authors define the term "function" in several ways, none consider melody in their explanations, and I contend that any discussion of harmonic function in rock must include melody. I offer a novel perspective on function by defining it through what I call tension-as-anticipation, and I define a "melodic function" that accounts for the sense of tension and relaxatio… more

Date: December 2023

Creator: Oliver, Matthew Ryan

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

The Idiomatic Techniques and Procedures of Composer Kevin Walczyk (b. 1964) that Define a Unique Musical Language

Award winning composer Kevin Walczyk's describes himself as a "musical storyteller," using all musical elements of structure, melody, harmony, and counterpoint to convey programmatic content. A variety of subjects are conveyed that include historical events, people, physical objects or locations, and literary texts. Deeper matters, such as spiritual themes, are also often incorporated in his music that enhance the musical program. The technical procedures employed—pertaining particularly to t… more

This item is restricted from view until July 1, 2024.

Date: December 2023

Creator: Wollam, Seth Frederick

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

A Pedagogical Analysis of "Seven Chinese Folk Songs" by Wanghua Chu

Wanghua Chu (b. 1941) is an outstanding Chinese composer and pianist, who has written extensively for piano. This dissertation offers a pedagogical analysis of Seven Chinese Folk Songs (1999), one of his most famous and well-regarded piano solo works. The present study has two broad and related aims: to introduce Wanghua Chu's Seven Chinese folk songs to a broader community of pianists outside of China; and to provide a pedagogical analysis so that pianists of a late-intermediate level and high… more

This item is restricted from view until January 1, 2025.

Date: December 2023

Creator: Chen, Zhaodong

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Saxophone Instruction by Women: Experiences of Achieving the Rank of Full Professor at Post-Secondary Institutions in the United States

Since the first saxophone professor at the Paris Conservatory in 1858, saxophone instruction has primarily been a male-dominated field. Numerous sources detail the experiences, lives, and influence of male post-secondary saxophone instructors. Women have made great strides in the performance and instruction of the saxophone at the post-secondary level, but sources discussing their lives and experiences are limited. Saxophone instruction at the post-secondary level in the United States began in … more

Date: December 2023

Creator: Heimann, Christa Marie

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

The Saxophone Meets Chinese Culture: A Guide to Works for Saxophone by Composer Zou Xiangping

Zou Xiangping is one of the most significant Chinese composers who writes music for the saxophone. These works, however, are not well-known in the classical saxophone repertoire. The purpose of this dissertation is to help international saxophonists develop an enlightened understanding and ultimately, performance of two selected pieces by Chinese composer Zou Xiangping (邹向平) (b. 1951), Images of Yalong River for Alto Saxophone and Piano (雅砻江印：为中音萨克斯管和钢琴) and Song of Chuanjiang River Boatman for… more

Date: December 2023

Creator: Zhang, Cehuai

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Sonorous Andean Landscapes: A Performance Guide for Guevara Ochoa's "Yaraví, Danza y Huayno" (n.d) and Vivanco's "Fantasía Andina" (c. 1988)

Peruvian composers Armando Guevara Ochoa (1926–2013) and César Vivanco (b. 1949) borrow and transplant musical elements from Andean folk tradition into their compositions for the modern classical flute. Guevara Ochoa's Yaraví, Danza y Huayno and Vivanco's Fantasía Andina are solo flute pieces rooted in Peruvian folklore traditions and Andean instrumental performance. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide flutists with technical and interpretative guidance in preparing these pieces. Yar… more

Date: December 2023

Creator: Romo Bocanegra, Jossecarlo

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

"To Swim In Air Forever Tooloud Laughcrying"

This thesis' focal presentable object – to swim in air – is a mythosystem comprising six iteratively malleable experiential systems of intermedial musical and visual performance works composed by myself between the years 2018 and 2023. Conceived through the lens of Jennifer Walshe's New Discipline, created within my practice cycle's nodal context, and connected by a sub/conscious structure of perceptual timbre, the mythosystem and its parts form the centerpiece of this discussion of context, pr… more

Date: December 2023

Creator: Fristensky, Louise Anne

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Utility Trombone Playing: A Practical Method for Students to Achieve Mastery of Alto, Tenor and Bass Trombone

With the importance of versatility in freelance work in the world of trombone performance, along with increased competition for that work, the need for players to play alto, tenor, and bass trombones to a high level of proficiency has become more and more crucial. This, coupled with the growing number of orchestras looking to hire musicians who are highly competent on all three instruments means that university professors need to be able to teach all three instruments. This evolution of the job… more

Date: December 2023

Creator: Owner, Timothy Michael

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

Music from the Hilltop: Organs and Organists at Southern Methodist University

In Music from the Hilltop, Benjamin A. Kolodziej studies three significant academic musical figures to weave a narrative that not only details the role musical studies played in the development of Southern Methodist University but also relates a history of church music and pipe organs in Dallas, Texas. Bertha Stevens Cassidy (1876–1959), the first organ professor and the only woman on the faculty of the new university, established herself as a leader and veritable dean of the church music commu… more

Access: Restricted to UNT Community Members. Login required if off-campus.

Date: October 2023

Creator: Kolodziej, Benjamin A.

Item Type: Book

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Accessibility and Pedagogical Value in Virtuosic American Trombone Solo Literature: A Performance Guide to "Divertimento for Trombone and Band" (2012) by Jack Stamp

This dissertation is an examination of Divertimento for Solo Trombone and Wind Band by renowned wind band composer and conductor Jack Stamp. The result of this study is the illumination of a 21st-century composition for solo trombone and band that is made accessible for future performers, accomplished by constructing original musical exercises that are influenced by current trombone pedagogical materials that have either been edited, annotated or created by current performers and pedagogues s… more

Date: July 2023

Creator: Umholtz, Jeremiah L.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Connecting "Ray Brown's Bass Method" (1963) to "We Get Requests" (1964): A Comparative Analysis

This research serves two main purposes: to create an analyzed edition of Ray Brown's bass lines from the Oscar Peterson Trio's 1964 recording We Get Requests, and to better understand Brown's lines through the lens of Ray Brown's Bass Method. This comparative analysis identifies significant events in the recorded music that closely relate to or resemble exercises from the book. By analyzing the music from the lens of Ray Brown's Bass Method, performers, students, and educators will gain a stron… more

Date: July 2023

Creator: Hitt, Eric

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

"Music for the End of the World": Sound, Nature, and the Anthropocene

In this document, I discuss the creative process of a piece for instruments, electronics, and video titled Music for the End of the World in the context of the Anthropocene and music's relationship with it. The document is divided into two parts: Part I, divided into three chapters, is a critical essay and Part II, the score for Music for the End of the World. In the first two chapters, I present the conceptual basis for the creation of the piece and discuss relevant musical references. In the … more

Date: July 2023

Creator: Macedo de Castro Lima, Marcel

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

A Pedagogical Guide to the Twenty-Four Preludes for Piano, Op.67 (1814), by Johann Nepomuk Hummel

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837) was a leading composer, virtuoso pianist, and well-known pedagogue during the late Classical and early Romantic periods. His music was important and frequently performed during his lifetime, but his piano preludes, Op. 67, seem to have been completely forgotten. These preludes reflect the traditional use of the prelude, with many traditional piano techniques. The influence of Hummel's Op. 67 on the next generations is clearly shown in the similarities in their … more

Date: July 2023

Creator: Liang, Haoyue

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

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

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: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Resonant Ecologies: Exploring Interrelationships between Ecological Disciplines and Music Composition

The histories of acoustic ecology, field recording, and soundscape composition are intertwined. This combination of disciplines has lead to the potential for powerful insights, but an over-emphasis on music composition using recorded sound has to led to some problematic tendencies in the study of soundscapes. I begin by tracing the development of acoustic ecology and related disciplines, leading to a proposal for a practice of acoustic ecology that centers the study of all sounds from an ecolog… more

Date: July 2023

Creator: Gerard, Garrison C.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

"Shanai Awaz": A Performance Guide and Piano Reduction of John Mayer's Oboe Concerto

John Mayer (1929-2004) was a British Indian composer and violinist. Despite his contributions to bringing Indian music to the West and his large output of works, the majority of his compositions remain largely unknown. This document focuses on Mayer's only oboe concerto, Shanai Awaz, which translates to "Sound of the Shanai" in Hindi. It is representative of his fusion of Indian and Western techniques. The performance guide helps the oboist navigate the fusion elements of the piece. Because no … more

Date: July 2023

Creator: Merchant, Natasha K.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

"Utterances": Approaching a New Acousmatic Praxis

This dissertation is a thorough examination of the problems modern composers of electronic music face when writing or discussing acousmatic music as derived from Pierre Schaeffer. By taking a close examination of Schaeffer's own writings on the subjects of reduced listening and acousmatic sounds, I illustrate the difficulties and inconsistencies in Schaeffer's philosophy and the problems that his reliance on Husserl's phenomenology creates. Further examination of criticisms of Husserl from Derr… more

Date: July 2023

Creator: Smith, Jonathan Andrew

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

12 Études Caractéristiques, Opus 2, by Adolf von Henselt: A Pedagogical Guide with Practical Exercises on Selected Etudes

Adolf von Henselt (1814–1889) was one of the most renowned German pianists and composers of his day. The majority of his compositions are for the piano, one of his most successful being the set of Piano Études, Op. 2. It consists of twelve etudes, each of which is designed for developing a particular technique. Henselt's etudes are as demanding as Chopin's and Liszt's, so this pedagogical guide is designed for advanced-level students. Henselt uses many finger extensions and stretches larger tha… more

Date: May 2023

Creator: Kim, Hyunsuk

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

An Analysis of Federico Alvarez del Toro's Marimba Concerto "El Espiritu de la Tierra"

In this paper, I analyze the musical content in Federico Alvarez del Toro's marimba concerto El Espiritu de la Tierra. This dissertation represents my analysis of features I hear in the composition, and does not reflect the composer's original compositional process. Commissioned by the governor of Chiapas, the piece was composed in collaboration with internationally renowned marimba virtuoso Zeferino Nandayapa and premiered in 1984 with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Mexico City at Festival Cerv… more

Date: May 2023

Creator: Hastings, Tyree

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Antonio María Valencia's "Dúo en forma de sonata": An International Approach to Colombian National Music

Antonio María Valencia (1902-1952) was one of the leading Colombian composers, pianists, and educators of his generation. His Dúo en forma de sonata (1926) for violin and piano serves as an early example of the composer's aesthetic. According to the programmatic description he sent to his mother, the Dúo depicts Valencia's "indelible impressions" of his homeland. Through structural and harmonic analysis, I examine the piece in relation to the composer's informal programmatic description. The an… more

Date: May 2023

Creator: Villamil Gómez, Diego Esteban

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Blurring the Boundaries of Chinese and Western Musical Language: A Harmonic and Form Analysis of Chen Qigang's "La joie de la souffrance" (2017) in Reference to the Compositional Influence of Olivier Messiaen

Chen Qigang (b. 1951) is one of today's most representative and prolific Chinese composers. His works are regarded as setting a standard of excellence among Chinese composers in the twenty-first century. Like many Chinese composers of his generation, Chen combines in his works the traits of both Chinese traditional music and Western musical language. La joie de la souffrance (The Joy of Suffering) for violin and orchestra, composed for the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition … more

Date: May 2023

Creator: Xiong, Hanbin

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries