Theses and dissertations

This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students. 

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Oboe Departures: A Recording Project Featuring Three New Works for Oboe

Description
This project features three new pieces for oboe commissioned from three different composers. Each piece explores styles and/or instrumentations that are less common in the current body of repertoire. These pieces are Scenes for Charlie by Bryan Kennard, Love’s Last Gift by Thomas Juneau, and But Joy Comes in the…

This project features three new pieces for oboe commissioned from three different composers. Each piece explores styles and/or instrumentations that are less common in the current body of repertoire. These pieces are Scenes for Charlie by Bryan Kennard, Love’s Last Gift by Thomas Juneau, and But Joy Comes in the Morning by William Brusick. A performance guide has been included for each piece, providing tips and suggestions for musicians wanting to perform these pieces in the future. In addition to the performance guide, each composer answered a list of interview questions to provide background information and give insight into their compositional process. Accompanying this document are recordings performed by the author.
ContributorsSummers, Season (Author) / Schuring, Martin (Thesis advisor) / Gardner, Joshua (Committee member) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
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Strength Through Conflict: Understanding Ruth Gipps, Her Musical Voice, & Her Contributions to Oboe Repertoire

Description
Ruth Gipps was an English composer, performer, and conductor whose unique experiences and opinions shaped her compositional output and the musical world around her. Gipps was a conflicted individual throughout her life, facing challenges as an outsider in almost every area of her professional life: child prodigy turned adult musician,…

Ruth Gipps was an English composer, performer, and conductor whose unique experiences and opinions shaped her compositional output and the musical world around her. Gipps was a conflicted individual throughout her life, facing challenges as an outsider in almost every area of her professional life: child prodigy turned adult musician, outspoken conservative English composer positioned against a new international style, and woman in a male-dominated space as an orchestral performer and conductor. Perhaps as a result of her many struggles, she developed internal dissonances between her beliefs, her words, and her actions. These inner conflicts, manifesting in her musical voice as well as her work as a conductor, greatly impacted her career and oeuvre. Despite her inner turmoil, Gipps was always passionately and unapologetically expressive of her personality and beliefs, refusing to compromise or change her behavior even when it negatively impacted her reputation and opportunities. It was this intensity and dedication that enabled her to positively impact musicians in her life, whom she deeply cared about, and to communicate with performers and listeners of her compositions. This document reviews the literature about Gipps, which includes two books by Jill Halstead as well as several dissertations. Information from these sources directly addressing Gipps as well as other pertinent literature is used to explore the disconnects and conflicts that characterized Gipps’s life and music. A discussion of four of Gipps’s oboe family works, Kensington Gardens Suite, op. 2 (1938), The Piper of Dreams, op. 12b (1940), Oboe Concerto in D minor, op. 20 (1941), and Threnody, op. 74 (1990), relates these impactful conflicts to Gipps’s unique musical voice and her contributions to oboe repertoire.
ContributorsDeMouy, Laura Anne (Author) / Schuring, Martin (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Buck, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022