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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- Creators: Barrett, The Honors College
- Status: Published
Description
Since the early 1990's, researchers have been looking at intersections between education and music. After a highly popular study correlating listening to Mozart to temporary increases in spatial reasoning, many other researchers tried to find a link between different musical genres and learning outcomes. Using three musical treatments (Pop, classical, silence), this study had subjects (N=34) complete a reading-based task whereupon they were tested on their comprehension. Using a suite of sensors, data was collected to analyze the participants' emotions and affect while they read from an educational psychology textbook. The present study has two major focuses: They detail whether (1) changes in musical condition affect learning outcomes and (2) whether changes in musical condition affect emotional outcomes. The popular conception that listening to classical music makes you smarter was proven false long ago, but there may actually be some merit to using music to assist one in studying. While there were no significant changes in test scores depending on musical condition; frustration levels were significantly lower for those who listened to classical instead of pop music.
ContributorsPaley, Benjamin Henry (Author) / Atkinson, Robert (Thesis director) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Biofeedback music is the integration of physiological signals with audible sound for aesthetic considerations, which an individual’s mental status corresponds to musical output. This project looks into how sounds can be drawn from the meditative and attentive states of the brain using the MindWave Mobile EEG biosensor from NeuroSky. With the MindWave and an Arduino microcontroller processor, sonic output is attained by inputting the data collected by the MindWave, and in real time, outputting code that deciphers it into user constructed sound output. The input is scaled from values 0 to 100, measuring the ‘attentive’ state of the mind by observing alpha waves, and distributing this information to the microcontroller. The output of sound comes from sourcing this into the Musical Instrument Shield and varying the musical tonality with different chords and delay of the notes. The manipulation of alpha states highlights the control or lack thereof for the performer and touches on the question of how much control over the output there really is, much like the experimentalist Alvin Lucier displayed with his concepts in brainwave music.
ContributorsQuach, Andrew Duc (Author) / Helms Tillery, Stephen (Thesis director) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Labyrinths is my Capstone/Honors Creative Project, blending my proclivity for music composition and the inspiring stories of Jorge Luis Borges. Originally, the project was outlined as a collection of five to eight songs named for and based on stories in Borges' collection Labyrinths, to be written, recorded, and performed by me. Over time other aspects were included, making me a director of a large-scale creative project which now included three other musicians and two artists. In this paper, I give a brief overview of Borges' life and the context surrounding his collection Labyrinths, an in-depth description of the project as a whole, liner notes for each song, credits, and three appendices. The liner notes are broken into four sections: a summary of the story, an analysis of the story and my interpretation of it (including my musical ideas for the resulting song), an effects list, and performance notes which include the text I read from each story in the performance and recordings. The first appendix is a collection of the sheet music scores for each song and the text document I used for the performance readings. The second appendix shows the art I was given permission to use, and how I modified them for my thesis. The third appendix contains my primary sources, secondary sources/suggested readings, and suggested websites and videos. Attached are the recordings of each song I made in Logic Pro 9, a video of the live performance, and an unedited audio recording of the same performance.
ContributorsVidean, Matthew Cutter (Author) / Stauffer, Sandra (Thesis director) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Downey, Ryan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
Prior to World War II, about 55,000 Jews were living in Prague, a very cosmopolitan and artistic city. They represented nearly twenty percent of the city’s population. By the end of the war, at least two-thirds of them had died in the Holocaust. The Nazis converted the small fortress town of Theresienstadt, near Prague, into a transport camp for Jews on their way to Auschwitz and other death camps. Theresienstadt was where the Nazis sent most Jewish Czech intellectuals, military veterans, artists, and members of the upper class who were well connected. It was also the camp they chose to present to the international community. For all of these reasons—Theresienstadt’s isolation, the demography of the inmates there, and the Nazis’ desire to use it to fool the international community—the Nazis allowed unparalleled self-administration and artistic freedoms.
Arguably the most noteworthy result was its flourishing musical community. Composers and performers who had worked together in Prague prior to the war were able to continue to do so freely in ways that Jewish people were not allowed anywhere else in occupied Europe. They kept the musicians in Theresienstadt—delaying their deportations to Auschwitz—longer than almost anyone else in the camp, until the threat of Soviet liberation was imminent. This thesis aims to explore the lives and works of four Theresienstadt composers: Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, and Hans Krása. All four of these artists were successful prior to the war, spent time in Theresienstadt, and were sent to Auschwitz on the same transport on October 16, 1944. Three of the four died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, and Klein was sent on to the Fürstengrube concentration camp, where he was shot and killed in January 1945. These composers and their music should be remembered, studied, and performed, not only for historical and moral reasons, but also for artistic ones. Their works represent some of the finest music in the German tradition written during this period. In conjunction with this paper, I have arranged Gideon Klein’s String Trio—one of the pieces profiled here—for saxophone quartet. Members of the Arizona State University saxophone studio will perform it twice in April. I hope that the performances will help make audiences aware of the strength of the music that came out of Theresienstadt, and reinforce the fact that it remains highly relevant. In this thesis, the composers’ careers before and during their time in Theresienstadt will be traced, as well as the measures they took to preserve their music, their interactions with each other, and their efforts to use hidden messages in their music. It is hoped that this document will help fill an important gap in the history of European music in the twentieth century.
Arguably the most noteworthy result was its flourishing musical community. Composers and performers who had worked together in Prague prior to the war were able to continue to do so freely in ways that Jewish people were not allowed anywhere else in occupied Europe. They kept the musicians in Theresienstadt—delaying their deportations to Auschwitz—longer than almost anyone else in the camp, until the threat of Soviet liberation was imminent. This thesis aims to explore the lives and works of four Theresienstadt composers: Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, and Hans Krása. All four of these artists were successful prior to the war, spent time in Theresienstadt, and were sent to Auschwitz on the same transport on October 16, 1944. Three of the four died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, and Klein was sent on to the Fürstengrube concentration camp, where he was shot and killed in January 1945. These composers and their music should be remembered, studied, and performed, not only for historical and moral reasons, but also for artistic ones. Their works represent some of the finest music in the German tradition written during this period. In conjunction with this paper, I have arranged Gideon Klein’s String Trio—one of the pieces profiled here—for saxophone quartet. Members of the Arizona State University saxophone studio will perform it twice in April. I hope that the performances will help make audiences aware of the strength of the music that came out of Theresienstadt, and reinforce the fact that it remains highly relevant. In this thesis, the composers’ careers before and during their time in Theresienstadt will be traced, as well as the measures they took to preserve their music, their interactions with each other, and their efforts to use hidden messages in their music. It is hoped that this document will help fill an important gap in the history of European music in the twentieth century.
ContributorsSchwimmer, Jack Denmark (Author) / Creviston, Hannah (Thesis director) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Creviston, Christopher (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Throughout history, African-Americans have had to fight for their civil rights. There were many ways used to voice their opinions and advance the civil rights movement, including protests and marches. One very effective method was through music and the creation of jazz. Louis Armstrong was an innovator and major influence of jazz. His abilities as an artist were recognized by society, above his political position or class status.
The topic of my thesis is Louis Armstrong and his influence on society and the Civil Rights Movement. The intent is to demonstrate how Louis Armstrong aided the Civil Rights Movement by using his music to promote social justice and racial equality. The focus will be on the context of African-Americans, their social status, and rights from the early 1900s to the mid-1900s. I will connect this to important events in that time such as the fight against Jim Crow Laws and how Louis Armstrong played a role in ending segregation. He accomplished this by pushing the movement forward through speeches, fund-raising events, and his innovation of jazz. Armstrong’s gift was a form of swing jazz that advanced improvisation and emotion of music.
He was criticized for playing to segregated audiences and was thought to keep offensive stereotypes alive. However, Louis Armstrong battled against these conspiracies by performing fund-raising events and through public political stances against the oppression of African-Americans. As an example, he was outspoken about his disapproval of government and the public for their treatment of the nine African-American students enrolled at Little Rock. This resulted in the first time the school would be unsegregated between whites and blacks. Louis Armstrong worked hard in the fight against segregation and used his mastery of jazz to advance the civil rights movement. Finally, I will make a proposal as to how society can learn from Louis Armstrong and how to inspire new innovative forms of positively influencing society to help the less fortunate.
The topic of my thesis is Louis Armstrong and his influence on society and the Civil Rights Movement. The intent is to demonstrate how Louis Armstrong aided the Civil Rights Movement by using his music to promote social justice and racial equality. The focus will be on the context of African-Americans, their social status, and rights from the early 1900s to the mid-1900s. I will connect this to important events in that time such as the fight against Jim Crow Laws and how Louis Armstrong played a role in ending segregation. He accomplished this by pushing the movement forward through speeches, fund-raising events, and his innovation of jazz. Armstrong’s gift was a form of swing jazz that advanced improvisation and emotion of music.
He was criticized for playing to segregated audiences and was thought to keep offensive stereotypes alive. However, Louis Armstrong battled against these conspiracies by performing fund-raising events and through public political stances against the oppression of African-Americans. As an example, he was outspoken about his disapproval of government and the public for their treatment of the nine African-American students enrolled at Little Rock. This resulted in the first time the school would be unsegregated between whites and blacks. Louis Armstrong worked hard in the fight against segregation and used his mastery of jazz to advance the civil rights movement. Finally, I will make a proposal as to how society can learn from Louis Armstrong and how to inspire new innovative forms of positively influencing society to help the less fortunate.
ContributorsSchmerler, Cameron (Author) / Wells, Christopher (Thesis director) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
This paper is the culmination of my creative project for graduation from Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University. The creative portion of the project consisted of researching Québécois (or French-Canadian) composers and specifically finding music for flute and piano. I wished to find pieces that could prove valuable in expanding the standard flute repertoire. My goal with this project was to shed light on some fairly unknown and certainly under-played pieces for flute and piano by French-Canadian composers and learn those pieces for my senior recital on March 2, 2020. This summary of the research experience and the process of recital preparation is intended to be a guide for flutists who may work on these pieces in the future and musicians on any instrument who take on a similar project of introducing new pieces to their instrument’s existing repertory.
ContributorsRule, Renee Rejane (Author) / Buck, Elizabeth (Thesis director) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
DescriptionAcoustic Ecology is an undervalued field of study of the relationship between the environment and sound. This project aims to educate people on this topic and show people the importance by immersing them in virtual reality scenes. The scenes were created using VR180 content as well as 360° spatial audio.
ContributorsNeel, Jordan Tanner (Author) / LiKamWa, Robert (Thesis director) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Arts, Media and Engineering Sch T (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05