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Harmony and Structure in Richard Strauss's Macbeth

Description: 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.
Date: August 1996
Creator: Bills, Danny C.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Theory and Practice in the Traditional Chinese Music: Observations and Analysis

Description: 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 … more
Date: December 1994
Creator: Huang, Hsun-Pin
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Paul Hindemith and Neue Sachlichkeit: Zeitoper in the Weimar Republic

Description: 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.
Date: May 1992
Creator: Kresge, Kristine Helene
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Schoenberg, Polyphony, and Mode : A Reception of the Composer's Twelve-tone Method in American Publications, c. 1925-1950

Description: 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 aest… more
Date: August 1995
Creator: Finnegan, Sean Justin
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Carlo Milanuzzi's Quarto Scherzo and the Climate of Venetian Popular Music in the 1620s

Description: 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 Sc… more
Date: August 2001
Creator: Gavito, Cory Michael
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Sonata for Piano (1963) by Sergei Michailovich Slonimsky: Musical Analysis and Discussion on Interpretation and Performance

Description: 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 … more
Date: May 2002
Creator: Fitenko, Nikita
Partner: UNT Libraries
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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

Description: 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.
Date: August 2002
Creator: Rushing, JemmiLou Rye
Partner: UNT Libraries
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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

Description: 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 a… more
Date: August 2002
Creator: Rushing, Randal
Partner: UNT Libraries
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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

Description: 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 repertoir… more
Date: December 2002
Creator: Powell, Edwin C.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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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

Description: 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 theo… more
Date: December 2010
Creator: Huff, David, 1976-
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Musica Practica of Bartolomeo Ramos de Pareia: A Critical Translation and Commentary

Description: 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,… more
Date: May 1992
Creator: Fose, Luanne Eris
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Segmentation Process and its Influence on Structure in the Malheur Me Bat Masses of Obrecht and Josquin

Description: 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 previo… more
Date: December 2002
Creator: Jarzombek, Ralph
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Beyond the Human Voice: Francis Poulenc's Psychological Drama La Voix humaine (1958)

Description: 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 musi… more
Date: May 2000
Creator: Beard, Cynthia C.
Partner: UNT Libraries

Keyboard Innovation: Harry Partch's Contributions

Description: "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 … more
Access: Restricted to UNT Community Members. Login required if off-campus.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Koh,Wee Lay
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Guilielmus Revealed: the Coherence, Dating, and Authorship of "De Preceptis Artis Musice"

Description: 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 Guillaum… more
Date: December 1992
Creator: Hamrick, David (David Russell)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Lessons of Arnold Schoenberg in Teaching the Musikalische Gedanke

Description: 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 ha… more
Date: May 2009
Creator: Conlon, Colleen Marie
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Jasmine's Secret: Narrative Cantata for Five Solo Voices, Narrator, and Orchestra

Description: 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.
Date: December 1994
Creator: Alley, Candace P.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Tonality and Harmonic Motion in Copland's Appalachian Spring

Description: 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 m… more
Date: December 1993
Creator: Rober, Russell Todd
Partner: UNT Libraries
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An Argument for the Reassessment of Stravinsky's Early Serial Compositions

Description: 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 musica… more
Date: December 1995
Creator: Hughes, Timothy Stephen
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Keyboard Percussion Trios of Toru Takemitsu and Toshi Ichiyanagi, a Lecture Recital, together with Three Recitals of Selected Works of Cahn, Maslanka, Miki, Miyoshi, Ptaszynska, Schultz, Wesley-Smith, and Others

Description: The purpose of this study is to examine the various signatures of compositional style as manifested in the keyboard percussion trios Rain Tree by Toru Takemitsu and Wind Trace by Toshi Ichiyanagi. Significant personal interaction between the aforementioned Japanese composers and American composer John Cage justifies an investigation of his influence on their compositional styles. Toru Takemitsu is currently one of the most prolific Japanese composers. In 1981, Takemitsu composed the percussion … more
Date: August 1995
Creator: Finnie, Jimmy W. (Jimmy Wayne)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel : A Bridge between Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms

Description: 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 fath… more
Date: December 1997
Creator: Tarpenning, Emily
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Dramatic Aspects of Thea Musgrave's Narcissus for Solo Flute and Digital Delay (1987) : With Three Recitals of Selected Works by Bach, Feld, Debussy, Persichetti, Berio, Varese, Mozart, Roussel, and Others

Description: An examination of the compositional style, subject matter, and use of technology as found in Thea Musgrave's 1987 composition Narcissus for solo flute and digital delay. Includes a short history of Musgrave's formal training, an overview of her creative output, and a discussion of the evolution of her compositional style from her studies with Boulanger in Paris to the present with special emphasis on her dramatic-abstract concept and her forays into post-modernism. Provides insight into Musgrav… more
Date: May 1996
Creator: Boyd, Diane, 1967-
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Three Motivic Topics in Beethoven's Piano Quintet, Op. 16

Description: 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 in… more
Date: August 1995
Creator: Gratton, J. Brian (John Brian)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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