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The Snare Drum as a Solo Concert Instrument: An In-Depth Study of Works by Milton Babbitt, John Cage, Dan Senn, and Stuart Saunders Smith, Together with Three Recitals of Selected Works by Keiko Abe, Daniel Levitan, Askell Masson, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Others

Description: This dissertation discusses the potential of the snare drum as a solo concert instrument. Four pieces from a collection entitled The Noble Snare are used for demonstration ("Homily" by Milton Babbitt, "Composed Improvisation for Snare Drum" by John Cage, "Peeping Tom" by Dan Senn, and "The Noble Snare" by Stuart Saunders Smith). In the absence of many traditional musical devices (i.e. melody and harmony), alternative means of expression are used by the composer. Each piece is discussed with re… more
Date: December 2004
Creator: Baker, Jason Colby
Partner: UNT Libraries
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A Study of Selected Clarinet Music of Brian Israel

Description: It is the goal of this document to bring to the attention of the public the compositions of Brian Israel, an American Jewish composer who died of leukemia in 1986 at the age of 35. This document contains a biography of the composer, information on where to obtain the scores, texts to the poems of Kenneth Patchen, as well as a study of three, selected clarinet works, which trace his compositional development. The Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, a neo-classical work, is representative of his early… more
Date: August 2004
Creator: Cifelli, Cheryl
Partner: UNT Libraries
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A Historical Survey of the Euphonium and Its Future in Non-Traditional Ensembles Together with Three Recitals of Selected Works by Jan Bach, Neal Corwell, Vladimir Cosma, and Others

Description: The euphonium has been a respected member of military bands, brass bands, and civilian concert (wind) bands since its invention in 1843. These bands were very visible to the public, and often performed popular music of the day. Since then, the euphonium has had occasional use in orchestral works, jazz, and in brass chamber groups as well. However, by the middle of the 20th century, its traditional use as an instrument of the wind band resulted in a prevailing attitude of the music world toward … more
Date: May 2004
Creator: Cottrell, Jeffrey S.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Luciano Berio's Sequenza III: The Use of Vocal Gesture and the Genre of the Mad Scene

Description: Sequenza III was written in the mid -1960s and is widely available for study and performance, but how can this work be defined? Is it a series of sounds, or phonemes, or the anxious mutterings of a woman? Is it performance art or an operatic mad scene? Sequenza III could be all of these or something else entirely. Writing about my method of preparation will work to allay some of my own and other performer's fears about attempting this unusual repertory. Very little in this piece is actually … more
Date: August 2004
Creator: Edwards, Patti Yvonne
Partner: UNT Libraries
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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

Description: 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 e… more
Date: May 2004
Creator: Ellis, Diana Lea
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Op. 34: Evidence of Arnold Schoenberg's Musikalische Gedanke

Description: 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 aes… more
Date: May 2004
Creator: Fukuchi, Hidetoshi
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Symphonic Fantasia Han-Kook Oui Ja-Yeon (Nature in Korea): Score and Critical Commentary

Description: The Symphonic Fantasia Han-Kook oui Ja-Yeon (Nature in Korea ) is a single-movement orchestral piece, which is divided into 5 characteristic sections - each section has programmatic subtitles (Rocks, River, Sea, Wind, and Mountain) and its own idée fixe motive. The degree of texture (homophonic/polyphonic), dynamics (strong/weak), density (thick/thin), velocity (fast/slow), and orchestration (emphasizing various sections of the orchestra) is determined by depiction of the subtitles. The c… more
Date: August 2004
Creator: Han, Sang-Eun
Partner: UNT Libraries
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An Investigation of the Traditional Cante Jondo as the Inspiration for the Song Cycle Five Poems of Garcia Lorca by Elisenda Fabregas

Description: The traditional cante jondo is a song unique to Andalusia as it developed from the "mosaic" of cultures that have inhabited its borders, including Arabs, Jews and Gypsies. The genre expresses the history of the region, reveals the typography of the landscape and cries the tears of its people. "Deep song," the translation for cante jondo, is the forerunner of the flamenco, but it is a communication of a dark soul rather than an exuberant entertainment. The original folk idiom is a medium less… more
Date: May 2004
Creator: Hobbs, Mary Etta
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Op.43; Analysis and Discourse

Description: This dissertation on Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Op.43 is divided into four parts: 1) historical background and the state of the sources, 2) analysis, 3) semantic issues related to analysis (discourse), and 4) performance and analysis. The analytical study, which constitutes the main body of this research, demonstrates how Rachmaninoff organically produces the variations in relation to the theme, designs the large-scale tonal and formal organization, and unifies the theme a… more
Date: May 2004
Creator: Kang, Heejung
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Voice and Genre in Beethoven's Deux Grandes Sonates pour le Clavecin ou Piano-Forte avec un Violoncelle obligé, Op. 5

Description: This paper examines the generic aspect of Beethoven's Opus 5 Cello Sonatas (1796) from structuralist and post-structuralist perspectives, and explores the works from these viewpoints in order to gain insights into how the sonatas function as autonomous musical texts rather than historiographic documents of Beethoven's biography or transitional contributions in the development of the genre of the solo sonata as it was later cultivated. The insights offered by these perspectives argue for a recon… more
Date: May 2004
Creator: Kim, Jungsun
Partner: UNT Libraries
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UNRAVEL: Acoustic and Electronic Resynthesis

Description: UNRAVEL, a work for alto saxophone and interactive electronics. Examines works for saxophone and electro-acoustic music. Analyzes modes of interactivity using Robert Rowe's guidelines, with sonogram, score, and programming examples. Investigates hybrid serial-parallel signal-processing networks, and their potential for timbral transformations. Explores compositional working methods, particularly as related to electro-acoustic music.
Date: August 2004
Creator: McCulloch, Peter
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Prayers of Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication: A Composition for Soprano and Chamber Ensemble

Description: This paper examines the relationship between text and music in Prayers of Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication - a four-movement composition, fourteen minutes in length, for soprano, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, violin, double bass, and percussion. The text of the composition is taken from the Psalms and The Book of Common Prayer. The names and themes of the movements follow an ancient pattern for prayer identified by the acronym, A.C.T.S. Compositional consideration… more
Date: August 2004
Creator: Monroe, Deborah J.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Sibelius's Seventh Symphony: Genesis, Design, Structure, and Meaning

Description: This study explores Sibelius's last and, perhaps, most enigmatic Symphony from historical (source-critical), Schenkerian, and transtextual perspectives. Through a detailed study of its genesis, musical architecture, and meaning, the author maintains that the Seventh, its composer, and its generative process, can best be understood as a series of verges: conceptual points of interaction between two or more forces. Verges between Sibelius's nature mysticism and the dramatic biographical circumsta… more
Date: May 2004
Creator: Pavlak, F. William
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Reconstructing Convention: Ensemble Forms in the Operas of Jules Massenet

Description: Over the last quarter-century, scholars have taken a unified approach in discussing form in Italian and French opera of the nineteenth century. This approach centers around the four-part aria and duet form begun by Bellini, codified by Rossini, modified by Verdi, and dissolved by Puccini. A similar trajectory can be seen in French opera in the works of Meyerbeer, Gounod, and Massenet; however, only Meyerbeer and Gounod have received significant critical attention. This is in part due to Mass… more
Date: December 2004
Creator: Straughn, Gregory
Partner: UNT Libraries
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An Analysis of the Genesis of Motive, Rhythm, and Pitch in the First Movement of the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion by Béla Bartók.

Description: This dissertation presents evidence that Béla Bartók created his masterwork, the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (1937), in a very complex period of his life. Since it was a mature piece, Bartók utilized typically "Bartókian" compositional techniques and styles. His ethnomusicological studies were also influential factors in the creation of the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. We can be witness to how different the first draft was to the published version; the minor and major change… more
Date: May 2004
Creator: Ujj-Hilliard, Emöke
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Secret Art of Science: An Aural-Based Analysis of Jonty Harrison's Acousmatic Work "Pair/Impair"

Description: This paper observes the problems that impede meaningful analysis of form and structure in modern music, specifically electronic music. The premise of this research is to present methods, tools and practice for analyzing music whose visual interpretation, if any, do not represent the aural result of the composition. The means for suggesting a method are derived from documented observations in aural psychology, as well as composers' writings about musical perception. The result is an analytic mod… more
Date: August 2004
Creator: Vega, Henry
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Camille Saint-Säens' Piano Concerto No. 5 in F Major, Opus 103: An Analytical Study of Form, Compositional Techniques, and a Performance Perspective

Description: The majority of books about Saint-Säens cover his life, compositions, contemporaries, and French music in general. Although his life is well documented, most sources present only brief analyses of his works; there is not one single comprehensive and exhaustive study of the Piano Concerto in F Major, Opus 103, available in the current literature. This study aims at filling the gap by providing other musicians interested in performing this piece with an initial study-guide. The research for this … more
Date: December 2004
Creator: Yoo, Seung Won
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Dialogic Interactionism: the Construction of Self in the Secondary Choral Classroom.

Description: Examined in this hermeneutic phenomenological study is a transformation in the researcher's choral music teaching in which students' abilities to construct self emerged organically from interactions, or dialogues, that took place among and between the students, the teacher, and the music being studied. To allow for such interaction to emerge organically and meaningfully, students and teacher both shared in the power needed to construct a classroom environment in which the localized issues of th… more
Date: August 2004
Creator: Younse, Stuart
Partner: UNT Libraries
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