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Hailstones and Birdcages for Wind Ensemble: Hailstones and Birdcages is a composition of approximately thirteen minutes' duration and is scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and english horn, three Eb clarinets, E clarinete, bass clarinet, two bassoons, two Eb alto saxophones, Bb tenor saxophone, three Bb trumpets, four F horns, three trombones, euphonium, two tubas, and three percussionists. Four instruments--one each of flute, oboe, Bb clarinet, and trombone--are used in concertante like fashion, and there are prominent solo passages for the first bassoon, as well. The work is a single movement in three sections, fast - slow - fast, with ritornello. and employs a free use of the total chromatic. Technically, the work is within the capabilities of an above-average high school or average college wind ensemble
Flames II: Thesis written by a student in the UNT Honors College discussing the authors composition of a musical piece called Flames II. He includes his influences, techniques, and sheet music.
The Sneetches: The Sneetches is a theater piece for children based on the Dr. Suess story The Sneetches (Random House, New York, 1961). It is scored for narrator, flute, B6 clarinet, bassoon, violins I & II, viola, and cello with optional staging. The staged version of The Sneetches requires two to six actors/dancers, appropriate scenery and props, and the active participation of children from the audience, preferably ages eight or under. The Sneetches is essentially through-composed. The overall form of the music is shaped primarily by the events portrayed in the narrative. Although individual subsections may have traditional forms, they should not be viewed as independent movements of a larger work, but rather as fragments of a whole.
Anthoni van Noordt: Historical and Analytical Analysis of His Tabulatuurboeck van Psalmen en Fantasyen of 1659: This dissertation presents a historical and analytical study of the organ works of Anthoni van Noordt. Van Noordt's Tabulatuurboeck is one of the most important music publications in mid-seventeenth-century Netherlands. It gives unique, valuable information on organ playing of its time. The process of discrete analysis has led to the identification and exploration of many details, such as extensive use of pedal, the reliance of the composer on rhetorical principals of composition, and his integration of the Italian and German principals of ensemble techniques. The dissertation is divided into three major parts. The first part contains chapters on van Noordt's biography based on available archival documents as well as a chapter on the organ and its role in seventeenth -century Amsterdam. The second part is solely dedicated to the Tabulatuurboeck examining the physical and technical features of the publication including the style of the publication, the letter and staff notation, hand positions, and rhetorical components. Finally, the third part studies the music and its peculiar characteristics with separate chapters on the variations and fantasias.
Carlo Milanuzzi's Quarto Scherzo and the Climate of Venetian Popular Music in the 1620s: Although music publishing in Italy was on the decline around the turn of the seventeenth century, Venice emerged as one of the most prolific publishing centers of secular song in Italy throughout the first three decades of the 1600s. Many Venetian song collections were printed with alfabeto, a chordal tablature designed to facilitate even the most untrained of musicians with the necessary tools for accompanying singers on the fashionable five-course Spanish guitar. Carlo Milanuzzi's Quarto Scherzo (1624) stands out among its contemporary Venetian song collections with alfabeto as an anthology of Venetian secular songs, including compositions by Miniscalchi, Berti, and Claudio and Francesco Monteverdi. Issues surrounding its publication, instrumentation, and musical and poetic style not only contribute to the understanding of Venetian Baroque monody, but also help to construe a repertory of vocal music with defining characteristics usually associated with popular music of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
The Influence of Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger's Death on Xaver Paul Thoma's Composition of Ich bin in Sehnsucht Eingehüllt: Sieben Lieder für Sopran und Klavier, A Lecture Recital Together with Three Recitals of Selected Works of O. Messiaen, G.F. Handel, A. Scarlatti, J.S. Bach, W. Latham, and Others: The aim of this study is to introduce the contemporary German composer, Xaver Paul Thoma, and his composition, Ich bin in Sehnsucht Eingehüllt on the poems of Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger. This study explores the possible reasons behind Thoma's decision to set the poems, as well as the circumstances and significance of the poets' life and poetry, made known through Thoma's composition. An analysis of each song is included, emphasizing especially the relationship between text and music.
Gustav Mahler's Kindertotenlieder: Subject and Textual Choices and Alterations of the Friedrich Rückert Poems, A Lecture Recital Together with Three Recitals of Selected Works of F. Schubert, J. Offenbach, G. Finzi, and F. Mendelssohn: The bulk of scholarly research and discussion of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder deals with musical concerns and analyses. This study explores the significance of Mahler's selection and use of the poetry of Friedrich Rückert and, in particular, the personal significance of the textual treatment to Mahler. A comparison of the original Rückert text with Mahler's and his textual alterations, as well as a literal translation of the text, is included. The results revealed through the process stated above provides the vocal performer of Gustav Mahler's Kindertotenlieder with a study and performance guide for the artist intent on a more complete textual understanding and delivery.
The Musica Practica of Bartolomeo Ramos de Pareia: A Critical Translation and Commentary: This dissertation contains the first complete Latin-English translation of one of the most controversial music theory treatises of the fifteenth-century: the Musica Practica (Bologna, 1942) of Bartolomeo Ramos de Pareia. its title as well as its content illustrate the Renaissance transformation from the abstract mathematical approach of "musica speculativa" to that of an emphasis upon the everyday demands of the practicing musician. Although Ramos provides traditional explanations of the modes, counterpoint, "musica ficta," and white mensural notation, his innovations in temperament, solmization, mutation, and the gamut set this treatise apart from other ffifteenth-century music treatises. Ramos's rejection of traditional Pythagorean-Boethian-Guidonian explanations, coupled with his strong polemic criticisms of the auctoritas, resulted in a treatise that remained at the center of heated debate well into the sixteenth century.
The Segmentation Process and its Influence on Structure in the Malheur Me Bat Masses of Obrecht and Josquin: This study examines in detail the various aspects of the segmentation process as applied by Obrecht and Josquin to the chanson Malheur me bat, especially the effect of this process on the structure of each composer's respective mass. Although musical aspects such as cadences and mode have varying degrees of influence on the structure of these two masses, the primary influence is the establishment of proportional relationships that occur as a result of the segmentation process. Sources of previous music research frequently point out that Obrecht's Mass utilizes both the Phrygian and Aeolian modes, while in Josquin's Mass the Phrygian mode is the firmly established mode throughout. Since segments in Obrecht's Mass are usually not connected to one another, strong cadences frequently occur at the end of the segments throughout. On the other hand, since the segments in Josquin's Mass are usually connected to one another, weak internal cadences frequently occur throughout, with strong cadences reserved for the end of sections.
A Performer's Analysis of Maurice Ravel's Chansons madécasses: A Lecture Recital, Together with Three Recitals of Selected Works of B. Britten, R. Schumann, S. Barber, T. Pasatieri, F. Poulenc, G. Verdi, T. Arne, and Others: In his song cycle, Chansons madécasses (1926), a chamber work for voice, piano, flute, and cello, Maurice Ravel combines twentieth-century musical experimentation and exoticism with the late nineteenth-century style characteristics present in the vocal elements and instrumentation. Because early twentieth-century music appears to be closely connected to modern concerns, performers may tend to dismiss the style and technique of the early twentieth century as simply "old-fashioned" rather than examine and consider those elements as resources and valuable tools for interpreting and presenting authentic performances. The focus of this research includes a discussion of the historical, social, and textual implications of the music and poetry; a formal musical analysis of the work, including comparisons of an early twentieth-century, mid-century, and late twentieth-century recordings with regard to the use of vibrato and portamento in the voice, cello, and flute; and an examination of Chansons madécasses for elements of authentic Malagasy music and poetry. The paper also suggests methodologies for performance practice which reflect the results of these analyses. The beginnings of the rejection of traditional form - harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic structures - found in the early part of the century began to free composers and performers to explore musical presentations that gain their power not only from startling and unexpected elements of exoticism and interpretation but also from their romantic roots, which spurred the desire for a raw, even melodramatic, emotionalism. Ravel, without sacrificing the integrity of his native language, is able to blend his text with his accompaniment in a way that uses both the poem and the music to advance the "plot" and emotion of the narration, producing what might be described as a near perfect union of form and theme, structure and idea.
Missa Papae Marcelli: A Comparative Analysis of the Kyrie and Gloria Movements of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and an Adaptation by Giovanni Francesco Anerio: Missa Papae Marcelli: A Comparative Analysis of the Kyrie and Gloria Movements of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and an Adaptation by Giovanni Francesco Anerio
Klangfarben, Rhythmic Displacement, and Economy of Means: A Theoretical Study of the Works of Thelonious Monk: The purpose of this study is to investigate the theoretical causes of the stylistic results of both compositions and spontaneous improvisations of jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. The specific topics chosen for analysis include Klangfarben (sound colors), rhythmic displacement (the relocation or complete removal of expected rhythmic events), and economy of means (the judicious use of silence, simplicity, and economy). All of the above topics are addressed with regard to the composer's original works, his selected renditions of works by other composers, and his improvisations. The musical examples appear in transcription form, as some of them are unpublished. The topics are introduced in the first chapter, and individually addressed in subsequent chapters.
Imagined Sounds: Their Role in the Strict and Free Compositional Practice of Anton Bruckner: The present study develops a dynamic model of strict and free composition that views them as relative to a specific historical context. The dynamic view espoused here regards free embellishments of an earlier compositional generation as becoming the models for a strict compositional theory in a later one. From the newly established strict compositional models, succeeding generations of composers produce new free embellishments. The first part of the study develops the dynamic conception of a continuously emerging strict composition as the context necessary for understanding Anton Bruckner's compositional methodology with respect to the harmonic instruction of his teacher, Simon Sechter. In other words, I view Sechter's harmonic theories as a strict compositional platform for Bruckner's free compositional applications. Many theoretical treatises of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries such as those by Christoph Bernhard, Johann Philipp Kirnberger and Sechter acknowledged that strict composition must provide the structural framework for free composition. The above procedure becomes a manner of justifying a free embellishment since a "theorist" can demonstrate or assert the steps necessary to connect it with an accepted model from a contrapuntal or harmonic theory. The present study demonstrates that the justification relationship is a necessary component for understanding any theory as a strict/free one. By examining Sechter as a strict methodology for Bruckner, we can view the free applications that the latter develops. Bruckner's own theoretical documents-the marginalia in his personal copy of Sechter's Die Grundsätze der musikalischen Komposition and his lecture notes, Vorlesungen über Harmonie und Kontrapunkt an der Universität Wien, taken by Ernst Schwanzara-provide extensions and elaborations to Sechter's theories. In addition, theorists sympathetic to Sechter's approach and Bruckner's personal students provide further material for understanding Bruckner's free application of Sechter's strict harmonic perspective. The study uses my own observations, as well as the extensions indicated above, …
Form in Popular Song, 1990-2009: Through an examination of 402 songs that charted in the top 20 of the Billboard year-end charts between the years 1990 and 2009, this dissertation builds upon previous research in form of popular song by addressing the following questions: 1) How might formal sections be identified through melody, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, and text? 2) How do these sections function and relate to one another and to the song as a whole? 3) How do these sections, and the resulting formal structures, relate to what has been described by previous theorists as normative? 4) What new norms and trends can be observed in popular song forms since 1990? Although many popular songs since 1990 do follow well-established forms, some songwriters and producers change and vary these forms. AAA strophic form, AABA form, Verse-Chorus form, Verse-Chorus with Prechorus and/or Postchorus sections, Verse-Chorus-Bridge form, “Other, with a Chorus” and “Other, without a Chorus” forms are addressed. An increasing number of the songs in each of the above listed forms are based on a repeating harmonic progression or no harmonic progression at all. In such songs, the traditional method of identifying sections and section-functions through harmonic analysis is less useful as an analytical tool, and other musical elements (melody, rhythm, instrumentation, and text) are as important, if not even more so, in determining the form of songs in the sample.
Te Deum: Te Deum is a single movement work for chorus and orchestra. It employs an ensemble comprising the complement of string, woodwind, and brass instruments typically available in a small symphony orchestra with an expanded percussion section. The choral forces are in proportional relation to the instrumental forces are in proportional relation to the instrumental forces and it is sung in the original Latin. The intended performance time is approximately 18 minutes. Temporal aspects of the work are characterized by three contrasting sections. The slow and solemn opening section is given to long stretches of silence sparsely punctuated by low drums. The remainder of the work is texturally more dense and employs a much quicker tempo. A steady core pulse is also a key feature, with attention given to avoiding any regular metrical implications by use offset accents, non-consecutive identical phrase lengths, and a slow harmonic rhythm.
Claude Bolling’s Toot Suite for Trumpet and Jazz Piano: a Performance Guide: Claude Bolling’s Toot Suite for Trumpet and Jazz Piano that was premiered by French virtuoso trumpeter Maurice Andre in 1980 is an important work in the trumpet repertoire. At present, there is limited research regarding Toot Suite. Almost all of the six movements within Toot Suite are performed on a different instrument: C trumpet for Allegre, Eb trumpet for Mystique, Bb cornet for Rag-Polka, Bb piccolo trumpet for Marche, Bb flugelhorn for Vesperale and Bb piccolo for Spirituelle. Chapter 1 examines the life and musical background of the composer. It also exposes the history surrounding the origin of Toot Suite. Chapter 2 discusses the musical influences of the composer that are found in Toot Suite. Chapter 3 provides an analysis of existing studio recordings. Chapter 4 offers specific suggestions regarding preparation and performance of Toot Suite. Chapters 5 and 6 conclude the guide with interviews with the composer and prominent trumpet performers and pedagogues that have recorded and/or have performed Toot Suite live.
Harmony and Structure in Richard Strauss's Macbeth: This study begins with a discussion of step theory. Included in this discussion is the basis of chord succession, the idea of fundamental representation, and the uses of reinterpretation technique. These concepts are then used to demonstrate the continuity and logic of the harmonic language found in Strauss's Macbeth.
Schoenberg, Polyphony, and Mode : A Reception of the Composer's Twelve-tone Method in American Publications, c. 1925-1950: Although Schoenberg viewed his twelve-tone method as an extension of the Germanic musical evolution from Bach to Brahms, one group of writers in America identified twelve-tone antecedents with Medieval and Renaissance polyphony. Such a correlation of Schoenberg's practice with this textural orientation of the past was part of a larger movement (what I term "neopolyphony") recognizing twentieth-century musical developments as the genesis of a polyphonic epoch reviving both the technical and aesthetic concerns of the former era. With Schoenberg's practice applied to this analogical context, other writers (Hill, Krenek, Perle) advanced certain modal theories based in various degrees on the internal organization and functional role of the Church modes.
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: 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 theoretical principles. The thesis concludes with an analysis of Alban Berg's Warm die Lüfte from his Op. 2 collection that focuses on the prolongation of a referential sonority that forms the background of the song. The analysis highlights the most significant analytical techniques and theoretical concepts explored in the survey and codifies them in a generally applicable method of post-tonal prolongational analysis.
Scriabin: A New Theory of Harmony and Structure: The thesis speculates upon the source of Scriabin's pitch selection in several of his atonal works, concluding that Scriabin's "principle" stems from his own "mystic chord," its inversion at the major third, and the transposition of these two chords at the tritone. These four chords share the same invariant harmonic basis, Scriabin's characteristic French-sixth sonority. The quartet of chords combine to form two nine-note scales, each containing as a subset the octatonic scale. The thesis demonstrates how Scriabin composed his works in harmonic blocks, utilizing only the notes from these scales. The thesis traces Scriabin's atonal style back to his tonal period. His fascination with tritone adjacencies and relationships is discussed, and serves to support the theory. Other harmonic and linear theories are discussed. Also, the thesis shows how Scriabin used these scales structurally in his works.
A.B. Marx's Concept of Rondo and Sonata: A Critical Evaluation of His Explanations of Musical Form: The third volume of A.B. Marx's theory treatise Die Lehre von der musikalischen Komposition is discussed. His definitions of rondo and sonata formal types are demonstrated in the first chapter in addition to the manner of their derivation through a developmental process originating in the Liedform. Musical examples chosen by Marx are examined in chapter two. These examples, taken from Mozart's and Beethoven's piano works, are evaluated in relation to Marx's definitions of the various types of form. The third chapter is concerned with the progression from microstructure to macrostructure and the functional interrelation of the parts to the whole. In addition, Marx's opinion on musical form is compared with perspectives of philosophers from his time period and the immediate past.
The Lessons of Arnold Schoenberg in Teaching the Musikalische Gedanke: Arnold Schoenberg's teaching career spanned over fifty years and included experiences in Austria, Germany, and the United States. Schoenberg's teaching assistant, Leonard Stein, transcribed Schoenberg's class lectures at UCLA from 1936 to 1944. Most of these notes resulted in publications that provide pedagogical examples of combined elements from Schoenberg's European years of teaching with his years of teaching in America. There are also class notes from Schoenberg's later lectures that have gone unexamined. These notes contain substantial examples of Schoenberg's later theories with analyses of masterworks that have never been published. Both the class notes and the subsequent publications reveal Schoenberg's comprehensive approach to understanding the presentation of the Gedanke or musical idea. In his later classes especially, Schoenberg demonstrated a method of analyzing musical compositions using illustrations of elements of the Grundgestalt or "basic shape," which contains the technical aspects of the musical parts. Through an examination of his published and unpublished manuscripts, this study will demonstrate Schoenberg's commitment to a comprehensive approach to teaching. Schoenberg's heritage of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music theory is evident in his Harmonielehre and in his other European writings. The latter include Zusammenhang, Kontrapunkt, Instrumentation, Formenlehre (ZKIF), and Der musikalische Gedanke und die Logik, Technik, und Kunst seiner Darstellung (the Gedanke manuscripts), written over the course of several years from the 1920s to the early 1930s. After emigrating to the United States in 1933, Schoenberg immediately began teaching and writing in an attempt to arrive at a comprehensive approach to his pedagogy. The remainder of Schoenberg's textbook publications, with the exception of Models for Beginners in Composition, were left unfinished, were edited primarily by Leonard Stein and published after Schoenberg's death in 1951. Preliminary Exercises in Counterpoint, Fundamentals of Musical Composition, and Structural Functions of Harmony complete his ouevre of theory publications. An examination …
Tonality and Harmonic Motion in Copland's Appalachian Spring: In Appalachian Spring, Aaron Copland creates a unique tonal environment. Although often considered a tonal work, it contains many non-functional progressions and techniques that belie common-practice norms. The entire first movement, and sections of other movements contain no harmonic motion, in part because tonic and dominant chords sound together as a single sonority. In other movements, harmonic motion, in part because tonic and dominant chords sound together as a single sonority. In other movements, harmonic motion is increased by shifts to third-related keys, and non-functional progressions. Also, the variations on the melody "Simple Gifts" never employ common-practice techniques. Through the free use of materials, Copland creates an individualistic example of tonality in twentieth-century music.
Loose Id for Orchestra: 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. Distinct from a state of dementia, this piece represents a thoroughly lucid and intentional rampage of self-indulgence. The accompanying essay examines the underlying structural principles of Loose Id, focusing on how they aid the creation of the overall experience of the piece. Particular attention is given to the concepts of linearity and nonlinearity and their roles in different levels of creative and listening processes.
Musical Borrowing: Referential Treatment in American Popular Music: This thesis examines the relationships between popular contemporary musical styles and classic-era art music. Analysis of pop-rock songs, and their referential treatment in art rock, classical music, and society will be examined. Pop-rock musicians borrow from the masters of the past and from each other. Rock guitarists such as Eddie Van Halen employ a virtuosic technique suggestive of Liszt and Paganini. The group Rush borrowed freely from opera seria. Frank Zappa referenced contemporary musicians as well as classical techniques. Referential treatment in popular music and the recent advancements in technology, have challenged copyright law. How these treatments and technologies affect copyright legislators and musicians will be discussed.
Elements of Shamanic Mythology in E. T. A. Hoffman's Romantic Conception of Music: The musicians in E. T. A. Hoffmann's tales and essays demonstrate traits remarkably similar to those of shamans. Hoffmann uses the same imagery to describe the journey of the composer into the "realm of dreams," where he receives inspiration, as the shaman uses to describe the spirit world to which he journeys via music. Hoffmann was a major force in changing the 18th-century view of music as an "innocent luxury" to the 19th-century idea of music as a higher art. As a German Romantic,author, he subscribed to the idea championed by the Schlegels that true poetry is based on myth. In this thesis, Hoffmann's writings are compared with shamanic mythology to demonstrate a similarity beyond mere coincidence, without drawing conclusions about influence.
Harmonic Organization in Aaron Copland's Piano Quartet: This thesis presents an analysis of Copland's first major serial work, the Quartet for Piano and Strings (1950), using pitch-class set theory and tonal analytical techniques.
Tonal Perspectives in the Selected Piano Preludes of Shostakovich (Op.34: nos.1, 3, 6, 14, and 24): an Analytical Study: 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 early style of piano composition, and (2) the impact of his "Lady Macbeth," the crisis and its influence on later works. Chapter Three deals with the problems of and analytical approaches in the study of the selected preludes.
The Creation of a Performance Edition of the Georg Christoph Wagenseil Concerto for Trombone with Attention Given to the Surviving Manuscripts and Primary Sources of Performance Practice from the Middle of the Eighteenth Century: The Concerto for Trombone, written in 1763 by Georg Christoph Wagenseil, is a piece in 2 movements for alto trombone and chamber orchestra. The orchestration consists of 2 parts for violin, 1 part for viola, cello and string bass, 2 French horn parts and 2 parts for flute. It is the first concerto form solo work for the alto trombone and was written during a time when wide use of this instrument had been diminished from centuries past. The Concerto for Trombone helped mark the beginning of a time when the musical expressiveness of the trombone began to be noticed in chamber genres where such attention had been lacking in previous decades. Chapter 2 examines the life and musical background of the composer. Chapter 3 discusses the history surrounding the possible origin of the Concerto and its performance history. Chapter 4 provides analytical insights into the construction and format of the piece. Chapter 5 details the creation of an urtext edition of the Concerto. Chapter 6 concludes this document with a performer's guide to the work based on the urtext edition of the solo trombone part to create the performance edition. This performance edition of the work includes historically informed solutions to the problematic technical elements of ornaments. The final section of the chapter makes suggestions regarding the preparation and performance of a historically informed version of the Concerto for Trombone.
Op. 34: Evidence of Arnold Schoenberg's Musikalische Gedanke: Composition for Arnold Schoenberg is a comprehensible presentation of a musical idea (musikalische Gedanke); the totality of a piece represents the idea. For tonal works, he defines Gedanke as a process of resolving the "tonal relation" or "tonal problem." Contrary to the numerous tonal examples illustrating the notion of Gedanke, Schoenberg hardly expounds on the Gedanke principle for his atonal and twelve-tone repertoires. This study reevaluates Schoenberg's compositional philosophy and aesthetics including Gedanke, comprehensibility, Grundgestalt, and developing variation in light of his compositional practices in Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene, Op. 34. Although Schoenberg denies the existence of a tonal problem and hierarchy among pitches in twelve-tone compositions, the registral placement found in Op. 34 indicates certain functionality assigned to each pitch-class, producing a sense of "departure and return." The approach here elucidates the "idea" of Op. 34, in which the large-scale formal organization unfolds through contextually emphasized tonal relations. This study also explores Schoenberg's concept of the multi-dimensional presentation of a musical idea. Even though Schoenberg's discussion of musical coherence is usually limited to the immediate musical surface, I believe that he was also aware of an extended realization of foreground motives in the sense of Heinrich Schenker's "concealed motivic repetition." This analysis of Op. 34 demonstrates how the enlargement of a surface motive facilitates an understanding of the relation between the parts and the whole, which is perceived as the totality of Gedanke.
Sounds Themselves: Intersections of Serialism and Musique Concrète in Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Elektronische Studie I": In the summer of 1953, Karlheinz Stockhausen began composing his first piece of elektronische Musik at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk Studio for Electronic Music in Cologne. Up to that point, Stockhausen's only experience with electroacoustic music was his time spent at the Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française the previous year, where he assisted Pierre Schaeffer and composed a piece of musique concrète. An early case study in the marriage of serial aesthetics and electroacoustic techniques, Studie I is a rigorously organized work that reflects Stockhausen's compositional philosophy of a unified structural principle in which all musical materials and parametric values are generated by and arranged according to a single governing series. In spite of this meticulously wrought serial structure, Studie I displays features that are the consequences of the realities of electronic sound production either imposing on the sonic result, or altering the compositional plan entirely. I use a three-part approach to my analysis of Studie I by examining Stockhausen's serial system, the electroacoustic studio techniques in use in 1953, and the original recorded realization through spectrographic analysis. Using this methodology, I expose the blurring of the supposed divide between elektronische Musik and musique concrète by exploring the features that lie between the serial plan and the technical processes Stockhausen used to realize Studie I.
The Aesthetics of Minimalist Music and a Schenkerian-Oriented Analysis of the First Movement "Opening" of Philip Glass' Glassworks: Philip Glass' Glassworks (1981) is a six-movement composition for two flutes, two soprano saxophones/clarinets, two tenor saxophones/bass clarinets, two French horns, violas, cellos, and the DX7 electric piano. Glassworks consists of six movements titled "Opening," "Floe," "Island," "Rubric," "Facades," and "Closing." This thesis covers the first movement "Opening." Repetition in musical minimalism confronts traditional prescriptive codes of tonal music and post-tonal music. While challenging the traditional codes, repetition in musical minimalism established new codes for listening to minimal music. This thesis explores the implications of these ideas.
Algorithmic Music Analysis: a Case Study of a Prelude From David Cope’s “From Darkness, Light”: The use of algorithms in compositional practice has been in use for centuries. With the advent of computers, formalized procedures have become an important part of computer music. David Cope is an American composer that has pioneered systems that make use of artificial intelligence programming techniques. In this dissertation one of David Cope’s compositions that was generated with one of his processes is examined in detail. A general timeline of algorithmic compositional practice is outlined from a historical perspective, and realized in the Common Lisp programming language as a musicological tool. David Cope’s compositional output is summarized with an explanation of what types of systems he has utilized in the analyses of other composers’ music, and the composition of his own music. Twentieth century analyses techniques are formalized within Common Lisp as algorithmic analyses tools. The tools are then combined with techniques developed within other computational music analyses tools, and applied toward the analysis of Cope’s prelude. A traditional music theory analysis of the composition is provided, and outcomes of computational analyses augment the traditional analysis. The outcome of the computational analyses, or algorithmic analyses, is represented in statistical data, and corresponding probabilities. From the resulting data sets part of a machine-learning technique algorithm devises semantic networks. The semantic networks represent chord succession and voice leading rules that underlie the framework of Cope’s prelude.
Theory and Practice in the Traditional Chinese Music: Observations and Analysis: Chinese music has one of the longest histories of development of all music cultures of the world. A system of music (theory) was formulated, in its unique way, but is differed fundamentally from its occidental counterpart. The discussion of this thesis focuses on the following two aspects: (1) the observations on those musical and non-musical factors, which had conditioned the course of development of Chinese music and (2) the analysis of selected examples to summarize the tonal structures and modal patterns, particularly, on the modal and modulatory analysis. A comparison of similarities and differences on melodic gesture between Chinese and Western tonal practice is also included in this study.
Andrejs Jurjāns as Symbol of Latvian Identity: Native Folk Songs in his Large-Scale Symphonic Works: This thesis presents a study of Andrejs Jurjāns' significant symphonic works as informed by a native musicologist, Professor Jānis Torgāns, and illuminates Jurjāns' role within the cosmopolitan framework of nationalism in music.
Sonata for Piano (1963) by Sergei Michailovich Slonimsky: Musical Analysis and Discussion on Interpretation and Performance: The essay begins with the overview of Russian-Soviet piano music from the second half of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century. Then, biographical information about Sergei Slonimsky and an overview of his major compositions is provided. The majority of the paper focuses on Slonimsky's Sonata for Piano (1963). A brief discussion of the Sonata's compositional history is followed by the formal analysis of the overall structure of the work. Slonimsky's original principle of organization of the music is emphasized: the system of constant interrelation of the main thematic material combined with elements of the sonata-allegro form. In the analysis of the harmonic language of the piece, the composer's extensive use of Russian folk elements such as diatonic melodies, sigh motives, parallel triads, and simultaneous use of the lower third with the major triad is pointed out. The rest of the paper focuses on issues of interpretation and performance. Special notice is given to the problem of incorporating a percussive type of playing with the elements of folk cantilena singing. The paper concludes with the history of Sonata's performances and a discussion of current recordings.
Bandanna, An Opera by Daron Aric Hagen with Libretto by Paul Muldoon, Commissioned by the College Band Directors National Association: The Origins of an Artwork with a Glimpse at its Musical Character Development: All information for this study was obtained by original source documents, interviews with the principal participants and the personal observations of the writer. A complete transcript of interviews with Daron Aric Hagen Michael Haithcockand Robert De Simone are included as appendices. In1961 the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) created its commissioning project for the purpose of contracting prominent composers to contribute works of high quality to the growing wind repertoire. Recently, CBDNA commissioned works that sought to collaborate with other disciplines within the artistic community. These collaborative works added new depth to the wind repertoire and helped advance the genre to new levels of prominence. CBDNA commissioned Daron Aric Hagen to write an opera using winds in the pit. He titled the work Bandanna, based on Shakespeare's Othello. Hagen contracted Paul Muldoon to write the libretto. A consortium of 79 member schools contributed to the project. A total of $100,000.00 was paid to the composer. The Director of Bands at Baylor University conducted the premiere performance of Bandanna during the 1999 CBDNA convention on 25 February 1999. Hagen assigned instrumental, thematic and harmonic attributes to each character. There are literally thousands of interactions between these elements that weave a tight pattern of organic unity into the entire work, making it exceptionally rich with symbolism and innuendo. Though still in its infancy, the uniqueness of this work both in the manner in which it came into being and through its artistic merits are fascinating. Only the future will determine whether Bandanna has true longevity or will fade into the background as a historical curiosity.
Keyboard Innovation: Harry Partch's Contributions: "Harry Partch's Keyboard Innovation" is a computer-assisted demonstration that introduces the tuning system used primarily by the twentieth-century American composer, Harry Partch. The multimedia product was developed in Director 6.0, and it includes sound and video clips from CDs and videocassettes of Partch's works produced by Phillip Blackburn and distributed by the American Composers Forum. The content of the demonstration involves a 43-tone microtonal tuning system and its application in the music literature. This demonstration will discuss the chronological order in which these prototypes were developed and also includes samples of the tuning of notes in Partch's scale that the novice can experiment with interactively. These tones were synthesized using the Csound scores shown in Appendix B. Materials for this demonstration are based on Harry Partch's Genesis of a Music.
Guilielmus Revealed: the Coherence, Dating, and Authorship of "De Preceptis Artis Musice": De preceptis is considered a major source of information on the origins of fauxbourdon, despite its being regarded as a disorganized compilation of multiple authorship, uncertain date, and unknown provenance. Internal cross-reference and writing mannerisms, however, show it to be a compilation of a single author's writings. Comparison of its pedagogical content to that of other theory treatises suggests that it was written c. 1500, not the accepted c. 1480. Evidence also indicates that Guillaume Garnier, a Flemish associate of Tinctoris and Gaffurius working in Italy, was its author. De preceptis ought to be considered a source, not for the origins of fauxbourdon, but for its reception-history, evidenced by the centrality of the parallel-consonance duet in Guilielmus's composition formulas, many of which resemble the frottola.
An Argument for the Reassessment of Stravinsky's Early Serial Compositions: Between 1952 and 1957, Igor Stravinsky surprised the world of music by gradually incorporating serialism into his style of composition. Although Stravinsky still used the neo-classical trait of making strong references to the music of earlier periods, musical analyses of this transitional period have focused on serial aspects to the exclusion of anachronistic elements. Evidence of Stravinsky's possible use of musical structures adapted from earlier times is found in his consistent use of musical figures that are closely related to the cadences of the late Medieval and Renaissance eras. By fully addressing these neo-classical traits in future analyses, music theorists will gain an additional perspective, which is helpful in understanding the music of Stravinsky's transitional period.
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel : A Bridge between Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms: This thesis is a study of four compositions written by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, older sister of Felix Mendelssohn. Her music is compared with four pieces composed by Felix. This study shows that Fanny was a gifted and creative composer, even surpassing Felix and predating Brahms with her compositional ideas and progressive uses of harmony. Despite her excellent education and recognition among those who knew her well, she did not publicize her talent in any way because of pressure from her father, Abraham, and Felix to stay within the prescribed societal confines of wife and mother.
Three Motivic Topics in Beethoven's Piano Quintet, Op. 16: The first movement of the Piano Quintet, Op. 16 of Ludwig van Beethoven works out three significant motivic "topics": a chromatically filled-in second, appearing first as 5 - #5 - 6 (Bb - B - C in Eb major); the emphasis om the submediant, both as vi in Eb major and as the tonal region of C minor; and the melodic interval of the sixth, which, when inverted to become a descending third, determines the structure of tonal regions at crucial points in the movement. These three motivic topics are introduced in the opening measures of the piece and are subsequently unfolded throughout the movement; the focus of the thesis will be to trace the unfolding of these three topics.
Mahler's Tristan, A Documentary Study of Reception: Conductors are oftern associated with a specific body of work in their repertoy. Gustav Mahler's conducting repertory contained some major Wagnerian works, including Tristan und Isolde. Mahler's first performance of Tristan took place during his tenure at the Stadttheater in Hamburg (1891-1897). It remained an integral part of his repertory through his tenure at the Vienna Hofoper (1897-1907), and was one of eight works he conducted at New York's Metropolitan Opera (1907-1910). This study includes a brief history of Mahler's education and a description of his conducting style characteristics. It traces the reception of Mahler's production of Tristan from Hamburg to New York, and focuses on his performances at the Hofoper and at the Metropolitan Opera. Sources used to determine performance changes he made include letters, personal reminiscences of friends and critics, and newspaper and journal reviews.
Formal Devices of Trance and House Music: Breakdowns, Buildups, and Anthems: 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.
“A Metaphor for the Impossibility of Togetherness”: Expansion Processes in Gubaidulina’s First String Quartet: 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 the episodic materials of the First String Quartet and provides an inevitable conclusion to the work’s loose narrative.
Beyond the Human Voice: Francis Poulenc's Psychological Drama La Voix humaine (1958): Francis Poulenc's one-character opera La Voix humaine (1958), a setting of the homonymous play by Jean Cocteau, explores the psychological complexities of an unnamed woman as she experiences the end of a romantic relationship. During the forty-minute work, she sings in a declamatory manner into a telephone, which serves as a sign of the unrevealed man at the other end. Poulenc uses musical motives to underscore the woman's changing emotional states as she recalls her past relationship. The musical dramaturgy in this work resignifies Debussy's impressionist symbolism by collapsing devices used in Pelléas et Mélisande in a language that shifts between octatonicism, chromaticism, harmonic and melodic whole tone passages, and diatonicism. This late work recontextualizes elements in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites (1953-56), and the end of the opera provides a theme for his Sonate pour Clarinet et Piano(1962), as Poulenc reflects on his youthful encounters with Cocteau, Erik Satie, and Les Six.
Jasmine's Secret: Narrative Cantata for Five Solo Voices, Narrator, and Orchestra: Since Jasmine's Secret contains elements of cantata and follows a dramatic story or program, the work may be classified as a narrative or dramatic story or program, the work may be classified as a narrative or dramatic cantata employing five solo voices, narrator and orchestra. This work attempts a revival of these two genres as a combined entity due to the decreased popularity of both cantata and programmatic music in the 20th century.
Iconographic Analysis of the Armadillo and Cosmic Imagery within Art Associated with the Armadillo World Headquarters, 1970 - 1980: This thesis draws upon recent, art historical scholarship in iconography and semiotics to identify and analyze key images in an iconographic program associated with murals, paintings, and posters related to the Austin, Texas music venue, the Armadillo World Headquarters, 1970-1980. Resources include South Austin Museum of Popular Culture, the Center for American History at the University of Texas, Austin, personal communications, and publications concerning the artists, music and history of Austin and the Armadillo World Headquarters. There are five chapters as follows: Introduction, History of the Armadillo World Headquarters, Analysis of the Armadillo Mural and Freddie King Painting, Analysis of Posters for the Grand Opening and the Michael Murphey Cosmic Cowboy Concert, and Conclusion.
Václav Philomathes’ Musicorum Libri Quattuor (1512): Translation, Commentary, and Contextualization: The Czech-born music theorist, Václav Philomathes, wrote the Musicorum libri quattuor in 1512 while attending the University of Vienna. This didactic treatise became one of the most widely published theory treatise of its time with 26 copies of five editions remaining today and covers the topics of Gregorian chant practice, Solmization, Mensural Notation, Choir Practice and Conducting, and Four-voice Counterpoint. Of particular note, is the section on choir practice and conducting, of which there is no equivalent prior example extant today. This dissertation provides a Latin-English translation of Philomathes’s work, as well as produces a critical commentary and comparison of the five editions while positioning the editions within the context of the musico-theoretical background of early-to-mid-16th century scholarship in Central Europe.
Paul Hindemith and Neue Sachlichkeit: Zeitoper in the Weimar Republic: The focus of this study will be the impact of Neue Sachlichkeit on Zeitoper, specifically its influence upon Hindemith's operatic output. The purpose of this paper is not to.subject these works to detailed musical analysis, but rather to place Hindemith's Zeitopern in historical perspective, examining how they were influenced by and mirrored the aesthetic atmosphere of the Weimar Republic.

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