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Solo lyra viol music of Tobias Hume (c. 1579-1645): Historical context and transcription for modern guitar.

Description: The seventeenth century in England produced a large and historically significant body of music for the viola da gamba played "lyra-way." Broadly defined, playing "lyra-way" on the viol meant playing from tablature notation in a polyphonic style. Most players of plucked strings such as lute and guitar are familiar with tablature and, as a result, have a decisive advantage when attempting to explore this music. Other factors that make lyra viol repertory potentially attractive to the modern gui… more
Date: August 2008
Creator: Amelkina-Vera, Olga
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The influence of Sister Helen Prejean on the life and work of Jake Heggie as seen in the song cycle The Deepest Desire: Four Meditations on Love.

Description: Jake Heggie, American art song and opera composer, began his association with Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ when he composed Dead Man Walking, an operatic adaptation of her memoirs. Though from two very different backgrounds, the two developed a deep friendship and spiritual bond that provided the impetus for further compositions dealing with spirituality. Heggie adapted Prejean's meditations as a text for his song cycle The Deepest Desire in 2002, producing what he considers to be his finest wor… more
Date: December 2008
Creator: Beasley, Rebecca Choate
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Georgy L'vovich Catoire: His Life and Music for Piano, with Special Emphasis on Poem: Second Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 20

Description: A Russian composer of French descent, Georgy L'vovich Catoire (also often spelled "Katuar") (1861-1926) is one of the most neglected composers of the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Catoire composed a number of piano pieces, most of which are chamber and solo works. These pieces are rarely studied or performed in the West. This study makes an attempt to fill this void. It thoroughly investigates Catoire's life, as well as looks into his genealogy, since his family was influen… more
Date: May 2008
Creator: Bolshakova, Natalia
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The improvisational language of Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen: A performance study.

Description: Thirteen original transcriptions and subsequent analysis of improvised solos performed by Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. The transcriptions are analyzed in three categories: harmonic vocabulary, technical devices, and motivic use. Pervasive harmonic and melodic themes are presented and compared with phrases from improvisers such as Sonny Rollins and Charlie Parker, as well as compositions by J.S. Bach and Johannes Brahms. Observations from the transcriptions regarding performance practice and t… more
Date: December 2008
Creator: Butterfield, Craig
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The skazki (fairy tales) of Nikolai Medtner: The evolution and characteristics of the genre with compositional and performance aspects of selected fairy tales.

Description: The compositional language of Russian composer-pianist Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) demonstrates an evolution of the traditional forms and harmony. Following the classical and romantic traditions, Medtner's compositional technique reveals his individual and original approaches to form and harmony. The unique architectonic in his works is achieved through particular tonal-harmonic juxtapositions of the sections, the frequent prevalence of the monothematic principle, the increased role of the deve… more
Date: August 2008
Creator: Chernaya-Oh, Ekaterina
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The employment of historically-informed performance practices in present-day tuba performances of two Italian baroque violoncello transcriptions.

Description: As several Italian baroque violoncello transcriptions have entered the standard performance repertory for both high school and collegiate tubists, and as numerous texts, articles, and baroque performance instruction courses have illuminated a new realm of performance possibilities, no published document has provided specific, thorough, and sample approaches to performance on the tuba of a given piece (or pieces) through a detailed application of materials found in any singular source or combina… more
Date: May 2008
Creator: Coker, Bradley Gene
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Birth of a Modern Concerto: An Explication of Musical Design and Intention in Journey: Concerto for Contrabass Tuba and Orchestra

Description: John Stevens was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and the Edward F. Schmidt Family Commissioning Fund to compose a concerto for its principal tubist, Gene Pokorny. The piece began with multiple conversations between composer and performer and from these meetings actualized the influences that shaped the work. The most important influences that the performer mentioned were his passions for American steam locomotives and the Three Stooges, both of which were used by Stevens … more
Date: May 2008
Creator: Daussat, David M.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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An Interpretive Analysis of George Antheil's Sonata for Trumpet and Piano

Description: American composer George Antheil's Sonata for Trumpet and Piano was written in 1951. This dissertation provides historical and theoretical information that gives insight into the interpretation of this sonata. Reasons why the piece deserves greater attention with respect to the standard twentieth century trumpet literature are also given. Antheil's music was influential in the development of classical music in the first half of the 20th century and, more specifically, contributed to the esta… more
Date: August 2008
Creator: Fenderson, Mark
Partner: UNT Libraries
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John Harbison's The Flight into Egypt: An Analysis for Performance

Description: John Harbison's status as a significant contemporary American composer is confirmed by his numerous appointments, honorary degrees, and awards. He is the recipient of nearly every major composition award, with works performed by major orchestras and in important opera houses spanning the world. This paper examines in detail Harbison's most acclaimed choral work, the 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning The Flight into Egypt. This study of the score is a "conductor's analysis," offering a musical guide … more
Date: May 2008
Creator: Galante, Brian Edward, 1974-
Partner: UNT Libraries
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An Analysis of Joseph Schwantner's Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra

Description: This analysis of Schwantner's Concerto is focused primarily on the pitch organization within the work, using terminology and concepts borrowed from those designed by Allen Forte in The Structure of Atonal Music. Discussion of pitch sets, their use, their derivation, their intervallic content, and their evolution throughout the piece are discussed. Additional discussion regarding Schwantner's style, orchestration techniques, textural manipulation with regard to form, are also discussed. Sources … more
Date: December 2008
Creator: Hart, Shawn Michael
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Anthoni van Noordt: Historical and Analytical Analysis of His Tabulatuurboeck van Psalmen en Fantasyen of 1659

Description: 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 in… more
Date: May 2008
Creator: Javadova-Spitzberg, Jamila
Partner: UNT Libraries
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A Structural Analysis and Selected Aspects of Performance of Gazebo Dances for Piano Four Hands by John Corigliano

Description: The purpose of the study is to present a formal analysis of the musical style and performance issues of the original version, for four hands piano, of Gazebo Dances, composed by John Coriglaino (b. 1938), a major American contemporary composer. Corigliano and his compositions have been performed by many performers and scholars over the several years. Gazebo Dances for piano four hands was composed in 1972. Gazebo Dances consists of four movements and was dedicated to his close friends: a dance… more
Date: August 2008
Creator: Kim, Do Young
Partner: UNT Libraries
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A Performer's Guide to George Crumb's Makrokosmos IV (Celestial Mechanics)

Description: George Crumb (b.1929)'s Makrokosmos is recognized as one of the masterpieces of twentieth century piano writing. Inexplicably, volume four of Makrokosmos, Crumb's only four-hand piano piece, is rarely studied by Crumb scholars. According to Crumb's program notes, his Makrokosmos is meant to be a hybrid of piano and orchestral sound. Crumb devised a list of signs and abbreviated letters to explain his specific instructions to the performers. The pianists who plan to perform Makrokosmos need to… more
Date: August 2008
Creator: Kim, Hyangmee
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Rhythmic structure in the music of Jean Guillou: "Agni-Ignis" from Hyperion (1988).

Description: In 1988, Jean Guillou composed Hyperion on a commission from the French oil company, Société Nationale Elf Aquitaine, to celebrate its discovery of oil. He developed this theme of fire using his imagination, European philosophical concepts, and various myths. As with Messiaen, rhythm becomes a significant element in Guillou's organ music to convey a heightened dramatic story of an exaltation of fire and to represent the fourth movement of "Agni-Ignis." For aspects of rhythmic structure, I dev… more
Date: August 2008
Creator: Lee, Ju Yeon
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Extended Techniques in Stanley Friedman's Solus for Unaccompanied Trumpet

Description: This document examines the technical execution of extended techniques incorporated in the musical structure of Solus, and explores the benefits of introducing the work into the curriculum of a college level trumpet studio. Compositional style, form, technical accessibility, and pedagogical benefits are investigated in each of the four movements. An interview with the composer forms the foundation for the history of the composition as well as the genesis of some of the extended techniques and pr… more
Date: May 2008
Creator: Meredith, Scott
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Saxophone Music of Frederick Fox: An Annotated Bibliography with an Analysis of S.A.X. for Solo Alto Saxophone and Saxophone Quartet

Description: Frederick Fox's contributions to contemporary music are substantial, including eighty-three compositions written between 1966 and 1998. These include pieces for orchestra, wind ensemble, choir, solo instruments, and a variety of chamber ensembles. This study serves as a complete annotated bibliography of Frederick Fox's eight compositions which feature the saxophone in a prominent role, all of which were written between 1979 and 1998. They include a piece for unaccompanied solo alto saxophone, … more
Date: December 2008
Creator: Miller, Gregory E.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Scenen aus Goethes Faust: A performer's analysis.

Description: Robert Schumann's dramatic music remains, for the most part, undiscovered and therefore performed infrequently. Genoveva, Das Paradies und die Peri, Manfred, and Scenen aus Goethes Faust are comprised of some of Schumann's most beautiful music from his last stylistic period. Schumann envisioned a national German opera that had a complete union of text and music and a plot based upon the supernatural and mythical German legends. His lofty aspiration was to raise the dramatic music of his time to… more
Date: August 2008
Creator: Paoletti Jr., Karl
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Unpublished Works for Clarinet by Alexander Grechaninov: Preparing a Performance Edition of the Sonata No. 1 for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 161

Description: Alexander Grechaninov was one of the most important composers of the late Russian Romantic School. By the second half of the twentieth century he remained one of the few living composers who continued the traditions of the great Russian Romantic masters, such as Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. He is primarily known for his liturgical works, which are truly masterpieces of this genre. Because many of his instrumental works remain unpublished, particularly the chamber works, they continue to be … more
Date: August 2008
Creator: Perevertailenko, Dmytro Olexandrovich
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Mozartean Gesture and Rhetoric in Hummel's Concerto for Trumpet

Description: Hummel's Concerto for Trumpet (Concerto a Tromba principale) is overtly operatic and is stylistically reminiscent of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Using the methodology of Leonard Ratner and Wye J. Allanbrook, it is possible to explore gesture and rhetoric in Hummel's Concerto for Trumpet and Mozart's Don Giovanni, and achieve a deeper understanding of the stylistic similarities shared between the two works. In the third movement, dance is the most significant link to Don Giovanni. In the second move… more
Date: May 2008
Creator: Phillips, Edward
Partner: UNT Libraries
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History and Current State of Performance of the Literature for Solo Trombone and Organ

Description: More than 200 compositions have been written for solo trombone and organ since the nineteenth century, including contributions from notable composers such as Franz Liszt, Gustav Holst, Gardner Read, Petr Eben, and Jan Koetsier. This repertoire represents a significant part of the solo literature for the trombone, but it is largely unknown to both trombonists and organists. The purpose of this document is to provide a historical perspective of this literature from the nineteenth century to the … more
Date: August 2008
Creator: Pinson, Jr., Donald Lynn
Partner: UNT Libraries
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An Analysis and Performance Guide to William Lovelock's Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra

Description: This paper investigates the usage of traditional compositional techniques on Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra by William Lovelock. (1899-1986) Like many other twentieth-century composers for trumpet Lovelock wrote in a romantic style using traditional forms. As a composer, Lovelock is largely under-appreciated. This paper explains Lovelock's compositional techniques and provides performers with a guide to help prepare the piece for performance.
Date: December 2008
Creator: Place, Logan
Partner: UNT Libraries
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An Analysis of Form and Tonality in Arnold Cooke's Sonata for Oboe and Piano (1957)

Description: Arnold Cooke composed many works for oboe including two sonatas, a concerto and several pieces for chamber ensembles; however, his works are rarely performed. Through the analysis of form and tonality in his first oboe sonata, Cooke's musical style and influences become apparent. His musical style was primarily influenced by his teacher, Paul Hindemith, and can be characterized by traditional forms with the contemporary use of quartal harmonies and a variety of tertian sonorities. Cooke wrote m… more
Date: May 2008
Creator: Polk, Kristin Marie
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Career and Legacy of Hornist Joseph Eger: His Solo Career, Recordings, and Arrangements

Description: This study documents the career of Joseph Eger (b. 1920), who had a short but remarkable playing career in the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. Eger toured the United States and Britain as a soloist with his own group, even trading tours with the legendary British hornist, Dennis Brain. He recorded a brilliant solo album, transcribed or arranged several solos for horn, and premiered compositions now standard in the horn repertoire. He served as Principal Horn of the New York Philharmonic, Los Ange… more
Date: May 2008
Creator: Pritchett, Kathleen S.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Choral Resonance: Re-Examining Concepts of Tone and Unification.

Description: Resonant singing creates possibilities with dynamic shading, subtlety of phrasing, and rich vibrant tone that astonishes listeners. Choral singing that employs resonance as a fundamental ensemble virtue yields impressive results that lend themselves well to the varying demands of any choral score. Fortunately, choruses of every level can benefit from an increased understanding of the basic principles of resonance in the singing voice. Research on issues of upper partial energy and … more
Date: August 2008
Creator: Quist, Amanda Renee
Partner: UNT Libraries
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