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

Description: This paper provides an overview of the inspiration, research, and creative process involved in the composition of EverWind for orchestra and electronics. EverWind is based on field recordings from the American Southwest. The composition uses pitch material derived from spectral analysis of the recordings, and it incorporates a fixed media element using the field recordings that are then electronically manipulated to various degrees; this fixed media element is played alongside the orchestra. Th… more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Gerard, Garrison
Partner: UNT Libraries
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
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Gradual: A Sound-Based Composition for Tenor Saxophone and Fixed Electronics, with Critical Essay

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

Description: Audiovisual concatenative synthesis is an analysis-driven granular technique using a corpus of multimedia data to sequence audio and video streams on a microtemporal level. This text outlines my development of this technique as a tool for multimedia composition, using my work, Replica, as a case study. The paper illustrates how the concepts of granular structure, gesture capture, and replication are integral not only to the software but to the architecture of the composition. In doing so, machi… more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Thomas, Zach (Zachary R.)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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"Natural Disasters"

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

Description: This paper discusses technical and conceptual approaches to incorporate 3D spatial movement in electroacoustic music. The Ambisonic spatial audio format attempts to recreate a full sound field (with height information) and is currently a popular choice for 3D spatialization. While tools for Ambisonics are typically designed for the 2D computer screen and keyboard/mouse, virtual reality offers new opportunities to work with spatial audio in a 3D computer generated environment. An overview of my … more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Smith, Michael Sterling
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Cēgə Trouhèst

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

Description: Iconographs is such a composition in which mathematical techniques are brought to bear. Nine separate number series have been generated and carried out to 1024 units. These series are combined by addition to calculate a single number by taking the remainder after dividing the sum of the series by nine. This mod 9 reduction is used to choose a set of pitches. Iconographs is a composition for microcomputer and chamber orchestra written in proportional notation with 1024 time segments grouped into… more
Date: May 1982
Creator: Elliott, Don A. (Don Allen)
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

New York City: A Collage of Cultures

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

Extension

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

Description: This composition is a symphonic setting of three original poems within the confines of an expanded sonata-allegro form and is an approximately twenty-two minutes in duration. The three poems are designed with certain cyclic implications which are related formally to the recurrence of musical ideas. The main application of this plan is found in the duality of formal roles assigned to each of the three major sectional divisions of the work. This is an expanded sonata-allegro, but each section (ex… more
Date: May 1971
Creator: Underwood, William L. (William Lee), 1940-
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Grimaldi

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

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

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

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

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

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

Description: My recent compositions are situated within a postmodern theoretical framework. The heterogeneity of materials and hybridity of musical formation in these works are interpreted and contextualized within a personal reading of postmodern theories. The critical essay traces my aesthetics through a historical investigation into the definition of musical postmodernism. Through extensive citation and analysis of the writings of Julius T. Fraser, Italo Calvino, and Richard Rorty, the essay aims to prov… more
Date: December 2017
Creator: Bejo, Ermir
Partner: UNT Libraries
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War Is Kind

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

Description: Concertino consists of two movements, Paean and Dithyramb, either of which may be performed independently. Paean, a work of calm and majestic intensity, is characterized by a rhythmic pulse which is more consistently regular than that of the Dithyramb. Its three major sections form an arch, the final measures (mm. 87-95) returning to the material of the opening (mm. 1-14). The first section begins quietly, Maestoso ma sostenuto, in a very slow tempo. The activity and intensity increase until a … more
Date: August 1984
Creator: Schimmel, David M.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The English Walnut Joke: A Composition for Dramatic Soprano and Band

Description: The English Walnut Joke is a composition for concert band and dramatic soprano. The English Walnut Joke was based on a text of the same title by Alec Rowell and is divided into two movements with a total duration of approximately twenty-two minutes. The joke concerns itself with the dealings between a wood-chopper and a jongleur in medieval England and is related to the audience by a destitute factory worker (the dramatic soprano) in the early Industrial Age of that country.
Date: December 1980
Creator: Futterer, Kenneth Thomas
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Among the Voices Voiceless: Setting the Words of Samuel Beckett

Description: Among the Voices Voiceless is a composition for flute (doubling piccolo), clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), viola, cello, percussion, piano, and electronics, based on the poem "What would I do without this world faceless incurious" by Samuel Beckett. The piece is a setting for disembodied voice: the vocal part exists solely in the electronics. Having no physical body, the voice is obscured as the point of empathy for the audience. In addition, instrumental solos compete for focus during the wo… more
Date: August 2017
Creator: Lyszczarz, Joseph E.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Interactive Networks in Forgotten Lyres: Critical Analysis and Original Composition

Description: Forgotten Lyres is a musical response to Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem Mutability, which depicts the fragility and unpredictable nature of human life. Four independent chamber ensembles make up the performing forces of Forgotten Lyres; the musicians evoke the topics of Shelley's text as they interact and coordinate with one another according to a variety of paradigms and without the use of a conductor. This essay focuses on the approaches to coordination within and between ensembles, and the ways… more
Date: August 2017
Creator: Harenda, Timothy
Partner: UNT Libraries
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