Matching Items (17)
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- All Subjects: Music
- All Subjects: Theatre
- Creators: Yatso, Toby
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Description
Only in the world of acting can an individual be denied a job simply on the basis of their appearance, and in my thesis, I sought to explore alternatives to this through the concept of nontraditional casting and casting against "type", which included the presentation of a full-length production of the musical "Once on this Island" which I attempted to cast based on vocal quality and skill alone rather than taking physical characteristics into account. I researched the history and implementation of nontraditional casting, both in regards to race and other factors such as gender, socio-economic status, and disability. I also considered the legal and intellectual property challenges that nontraditional casting can pose. I concluded from this research that while nontraditional casting is only one solution to the problem, it still has a great deal of potential to create diversity in theater. For my own show, I held the initial auditions via audio recording, though the callback auditions were held in person so that I and my crew could appraise dance and acting ability. Though there were many challenges with our cast after this initial round of auditions, we were able to solidify our cast and continue through the rehearsal process. All things said, the show was very successful. It is my hope that those who were a part of the show, either as part of the production or the audience, are inspired to challenge the concept of typecasting in contemporary theater.
ContributorsBriggs, Timothy James (Author) / Yatso, Toby (Thesis director) / Dreyfoos, Dale (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
We endeavored to begin the process of writing a musical. We composed a total of three songs, 30 pages of script (non-consecutive) with an outline summarizing the remaining uncompleted pages, seven character summaries/analyses, and a reflection on the process and next steps, and presented them in a “Producer Pitch” format to our readers. In our paper we discuss the birth of inspiration for Girls And Boys—namely philosophical conflicts about the role of biology vs. society in gender identity and real, local events of public districts reevaluating their sex education program—as well as the challenges we experienced during the process and our intentions for continued work towards the completion of the material. In our written script we span the opening of the show to the climax through sporadically completed scenes, with the outline serving to fill in the blanks. In our music, we composed three pieces—a solo ballad, an ensemble number, and an emotional trio—that we converted into an audio file format, and performed live for a small audience. Ultimately, we seek to use the elevated drama of a musical to convince the audience that empathy is the truest, ageless, and genderless expression of humanity.
ContributorsDoering, Emilie (Co-author) / Moylan, Megan (Co-author) / Yatso, Toby (Thesis director) / Mills, Robert (Committee member) / Harper, Robert (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This thesis explores my experience in teaching a high school music class through composition. I detail pedagogical approaches that helped to shape my lesson planning including constructivism, informal learning, and project based learning. The music education theory is put into action in a real high school setting and I explain what happened: what worked, what didn't, and what can we learn from this?
ContributorsWhelihan, Brian Peter (Author) / Tobias, Evan (Thesis director) / Schildkret, David (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
E-Strings Academy (www.estringsacademy.wordpress.com) is a resource website intended for the beginning violinist, violist, cellist, and bassist. The mission of the website is to extend musical learning opportunities to students outside of the physical string classroom and to engage first-year string students in musical activities at home that supplement the instruction they receive in a school setting. The current website features five different areas for students to explore: lesson videos, tunes, listening activities, games, and resources. In each area, students have the opportunity to learn and reinforce musical concepts and skill sets that they will need in order to be successful in music, both in their first year of playing and beyond. I created E-Strings Academy with the intention that I use it with my own string students in my future teaching career. It is a flexible website that I will continue to revise, adapt, and enhance to best serve the needs of my students and enrich their musical learning outside of the classroom.
ContributorsCook, Christa Marie (Author) / Schmidt, Margaret (Thesis director) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Theory Jam is a series of online, education videos that teach music theory in a fun, engaging way. Our project is a response to the growing need for successful online education content. It incorporates strategies for creating effective educational video content and engages with contemporary debates in the field of music theory surrounding the purpose of a music theory education.
ContributorsCannatelli, Joshua Bryce (Co-author) / Daval, Charles Joseph (Co-author) / Miller, April (Thesis director) / Scott, Jason (Committee member) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
In modern music and theater education, there is a lack of basic understanding for the "rhythm" aspect in artistic performance. Through my upbringing in musical theater and the a cappella music world in my community, I realized there was an opportunity to fill the gap with teaching beatboxing. By applying vocal percussion to a theater or music curriculum, it would provide a new, creative outlet for young artists by allowing them to explore their capabilities in artistic performance as well as help them flex new muscles for diction and expression training. I created a vocal percussion "language", a basic notation system that would help students learn and retain their beatboxing training through an extra layer of communication and memorization. I conducted a two day Vocal Percussion Seminar where artists could come and learn about the history and origins of beatboxing, the basic sounds in beatboxing, proper warm-ups for building an individual's skills, how to write and practice vocal percussion notation, and practice vocal percussion performance with beatboxing technology. I created two worksheets as visual aids the workshop: A "Sounds of Beatboxing" worksheet identifying where certain beatboxing sounds occur in the mouth and a "Vocal Percussion Notation" worksheet that can be used as a visual aid for crafting and practicing beatboxing according to the notation guidelines. The intention of this seminar is to be a "Phase One", a version that can be updated and changed for future evolution in education styles and beatboxing knowledge. Despite challenges in attendance and circumstances, "Phase One" of the seminar was a success. In my final paper, I discuss my inspiration for the seminar, the rise of beatboxing's presence in theater, the trends of language and rhythm in artistic performance, the tools behind beatboxing, the application of the International Phonetic Alphabet and Knight-Thompson Speechwork, the workshop's development process, the results of the first phase of the seminar, my plan of action for the seminar's future. Everyone has the tools to generate a powerful and impactful performance, but it is how you use the tools to craft your final product.
ContributorsRhiner, Jennie Lynn (Author) / Yatso, Toby (Thesis director) / Espinosa, Micha (Committee member) / School of Music (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
This thesis explores the various reasons that Broadway musicals fail, or "flop". It goes into detail on several musicals of different genres, and explains what their shortcomings were, whether it be a less-than-perfect book, a weak score, or a production team that was not experienced in the skills that it takes to put together a musical. It discusses how long the shows ran for, or if they ever made it into a Broadway house. It looks at what the audience reception was like for each show, and whether the shows were a success with the tough critics of Broadway. In addition to this, I have recorded several of my peers performing songs from the musicals I have discussed in the written portion of this thesis. This helps to educate an audience on what it would have been like for one of the flop's real performances. The videos also do a wonderful job of communicating what the show sounds like, and how it can make an audience feel or react. Lastly, it gives more insight into why the musicals they are from failed to thrive in front of a Broadway audience. Through my research, I have discovered that creating a musical is possibly one of the most difficult feats a team of creative people can accomplish. There are countless reasons for failure in these shows, but overall, I feel that every failure had something to offer, and because of that, are surely worth celebrating.
ContributorsUrias-Ramonett, Sedona Lee (Author) / Yatso, Toby (Thesis director) / Dreyfoos, Dale (Committee member) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Due to increasing lack of resources and funding for budding student musicians, it is often not possible for this demographic to create, record, and produce their original music in the same high-budget studio environment in which music has been traditionally made. The objective of this project is to explore alternatives which are more accessible to young independent musicians and reveal the most cost-efficient routes to obtain a high-quality result. To make this comparison, the group created budget recordings of their original music in a bedroom in true DIY fashion, and then recorded the same songs in a professional music studio using the best music and recording equipment available. The DIY recordings were mixed and mastered by the group members themselves, as well as separately by a professional audio engineer. The studio recordings were also mixed and mastered by a professional audio engineer, resulting in three final products with varying costs and quality. Ultimately, the group found that without mixing and mastering experience, it is very difficult to achieve high quality results. With the same budget recorded tracks, the group found that quality of the final product vastly increased when a professional audio engineer mixed and mastered the tracks. As far as the quality of the result, the studio recorded tracks were by far the best. Not only was the quality of the sounds from the high-end music and recording equipment much higher, the band had more freedom to be creative without the responsibility of simultaneously serving as recording engineers as was the case in the low budget recordings. The group concluded that this project was highly successful and demonstrated that high quality results could be obtained on a budget. The DIY recording techniques used in this project prove that independent musicians without access to expensive equipment and resources can still produce high quality music at the cost of more effort to serve as audio engineers in addition to musicians. However, recording in a studio with the help of a producer and professional audio engineers affords creative freedom and an increase in sound quality that is simply not possible to reproduce without the equipment and expertise that money can buy.
ContributorsBonk, Alan (Co-author) / Dhuyvetter, Nicholas Alan (Co-author) / Wickham, Kevin (Co-author) / Tobias, Evan (Thesis director) / Swoboda, Deanna (Committee member) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The result of hundreds of hours of work is a few minutes of music. I am mechanical engineering student with a passion for music. The objective of this creative project was to learn as much as I could about music theory, composition, orchestration, notation, recording, and mixing, and to create some music of my own. I learned a great deal in my two semesters of work. My music was focused on small ensembles of strings and piano. I created over ten hours of musical audio sketches and produced notation for four pieces for the piano and strings. The finished scores fit together with similar tones and textures, all sharing a minor tonality. The first piece, "Little Machine," is a simple, methodical piano piece created in the style of second species counterpoint. The second piece, "Searching" is a duet between a piano and a cello. For most of the piece, the two instruments share a rhythmic sense of mutual independence, yet neither part can exist without the either. "Something Lost" is a piano solo written with a variety of sections and a unifying idea that pervades through the piece. Finally, "3 Strings & Piano" is a melancholy adagio written for the piano, two cellos, and a double bass. Overall, this project has helped to prepare me for a lifetime of continued learning and composition. In the future I will continue to write music, and I hope to specifically learn more about the tools and techniques used by professionals in the industry so that I can find more efficient ways to produce my own music.
ContributorsSchichtel, Jacob (Author) / Stauffer, Sandra (Thesis director) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
"EP \u2014 Kyan Palmer" is a compilation of three songs, "Hit List," "Queen Cobra," and "Burn Mona Lisa" all written and recorded by Barrett student, Kyan Palmer. The project explores the process involved in creating recorded music and exposes the vulnerability and self-reflection in writing a song. The following depicts the thought process that came about in the creation of each song from the lyrics, to the vocals, to the production. This paper depicts a journal-like writing style outlining the various events that took place while creating EP \u2014 Kyan Palmer. The bulk of this Thesis/Creative Project was the written, produced, and recorded music attached in the appendix. With that said, the following document is intended to be reflective rather than scholarly and acts as an accompaniment to the audio recordings and video entries.
ContributorsPalmer, Kyan (Author) / Swoboda, Deanna (Thesis director) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05