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- All Subjects: Music
- Creators: Spring, Robert
Description
The repertoire of the saxophone has advanced significantly since its invention circa 1840. Performers are required to adapt to the demands of composers - many of whom are exploring new and unconventional sounds and techniques. Numerous texts exist to identify and explain these so-called "extended" techniques, but there are very few resources for the initial stages of performance. In order to offer performers a resource, the author of this text composed forty original etudes (or studies) that incorporate extended techniques in a variety of ways. After identifying common extended techniques that a performer might face, the author focused on four different ways each individual technique might appear in actual repertoire. The resulting work is entitled Pushing Boundaries: Forty Etudes on Extended Techniques. Each etude offers a practical approach to what is generally a single extended technique. Although this text is not pedagogical in the sense of identifying the mechanics and anatomical requirements of each technique, it does contain a performance analysis of each etude. This analysis identifies areas where performers might struggle and offers helpful suggestions. To this end, the etudes accompanied by performance analysis provide a paced, systematic approach to the mastery of each technique.
ContributorsMurphy, Patrick Joseph (Author) / Hill, Gary (Thesis advisor) / Spring, Robert (Committee member) / McAllister, Timothy (Committee member) / Micklich, Albie (Committee member) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Several contemporary clarinet works use Chinese folk music elements from different regions in new compositions to entice listener's and performer's appreciation of Chinese culture. However, to date, limited academic research on this topic exists. This research paper introduces six contemporary clarinet works by six Chinese composers: Qigang Chen's Morning Song, Yan Wang's Mu ma zhi ge (The Song of Grazing Horses), An-lun Huang's Capriccio for Clarinet and Strings Op. 41, Bijing Hu's The Sound of Pamir Clarinet Concerto, Mei-Mi Lan's Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra with Harp and Percussion, and Yu-Hui Chang's Three Fantasias for Solo Clarinet in B-flat. They are examined from different perspectives, including general structure, style, and rejuvenated folk music use. The focus of this research paper is to investigate the use of Chinese folk music in several works in collaboration with the composers. The author found that although contemporary composers use Chinese folk music differently in their works (i.e., some use melodies, others use harmony, while others use modes), each work celebrates the music and culture of the folk music on which the pieces are based. It is the author's hope to stimulate people's interest in music using Chinese folk music elements, and bring these lesser known works into the common clarinet repertoire.
ContributorsFeng, Chiao-Ting (Author) / Spring, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Gardner, Joshua (Committee member) / Micklich, Albie (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Schuring, Martin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This project sheds light on trombonist Andy Martin's improvisation and provides tools for further learning. A biographical sketch gives background on Martin, establishing him as a newer jazz master. Through the transcription and analysis of nine improvised solos, Martin's improvisational voice and vocabulary is deciphered and presented as a series of seven thematic hooks. These patterns, rhythms, and gestures are described, analyzed, and presented as examples of how each is used in the solos. The hooks are also set as application exercises for learning jazz style and improvisation. These exercises demonstrate how to use Martin's hooks as a means for furthering one's own improvisation. A full method for successful transcription is also presented, along with the printed transcriptions and their accompanying information sheets.
ContributorsWilkinson, Michael Scott (Author) / Ericson, John (Thesis advisor) / Kocour, Michael (Committee member) / Solis, Theodore (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This project features three new pieces for clarinet commissioned from three different composers. Two are for unaccompanied clarinet and one is for clarinet, bass clarinet, and laptop. These pieces are Storm's a Comin' by Chris Burton, Light and Shadows by Theresa Martin, and My Own Agenda by Robbie McCarthy. These three solos challenge the performer in various ways including complex rhythm, use of extended techniques such as growling, glissando, and multiphonics, and the incorporation of technology into a live performance. In addition to background information, a performance practice guide has also been included for each of the pieces. This guide provides recommendations and suggestions for future performers wishing to study and perform these works. Also included are transcripts of interviews done with each of the composers as well as full scores for each of the pieces. Accompanying this document are recordings of each of the three pieces, performed by the author.
ContributorsVaughan, Melissa Lynn (Author) / Spring, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Micklich, Albie (Committee member) / Gardner, Joshua (Committee member) / Hill, Gary (Committee member) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
A common concern among musical performers in today'’s musical market pertains to their capacity to adapt to the constantly changing climate of the music business. This document focuses on one aspect of the development of a sustainable, entrepreneurship skill set: the production of a recording. While producing the recording Chocolates, the author examined and documented the multiplicity of skills encompassed with a recording project. The first part of the document includes a discussion of various aspects of the recording project, Chocolates, through an entrepreneurial lens, and an evaluation of the skill sets acquired through the recording process. Additionally, the inspiration and relevance behind the recording project and the process of collaboration between the two composers from whom I commissioned new compositions, Noah Taylor and James Grant, and myself is considered. Finally, I describe the recording and editing processes, including the planning involved within each process, how I achieved the final product, and the entrepreneurial skills involved. The second portion of this document examines a broad range of applications of entrepreneurship, marketing, and career management skills not only within the confines of this particular project, but also in relation to the overall sustainability of a twenty-–first century music-–performing career.
ContributorsStuckemeyer, Mary (Author) / Micklich, Albie (Thesis advisor) / Carpenter, Ellon (Committee member) / Hill, Gary (Committee member) / Schuring, Martin (Committee member) / Spring, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Libby Larsen is one of the most performed and acclaimed composers today. She is a spirited, compelling, and sensitive composer whose music enhances the poetry of America's most prominent authors. Notable among her works are song cycles for soprano based on the poetry of female writers, among them novelist and poet Willa Cather (1873-1947). Larsen has produced two song cycles on works from Cather's substantial output of fiction: one based on Cather's short story, "Eric Hermannson's Soul," titled Margaret Songs: Three Songs from Willa Cather (1996); and later, My Antonia (2000), based on Cather's novel of the same title. In Margaret Songs, Cather's poetry and short stories--specifically the character of Margaret Elliot--combine with Larsen's unique compositional style to create a surprising collaboration. This study explores how Larsen in these songs delves into the emotional and psychological depths of Margaret's character, not fully formed by Cather. It is only through Larsen's music and Cather's poetry that Margaret's journey through self-discovery and love become fully realized. This song cycle is a glimpse through the eyes of two prominent female artists on the societal pressures placed upon Margaret's character, many of which still resonate with women in today's culture. This study examines the work Margaret Songs by discussing Willa Cather, her musical influences, and the conditions surrounding the writing of "Eric Hermannson's Soul." It looks also into Cather's influence on Libby Larsen and the commission leading to Margaret Songs. Finally, a description of the musical, dramatic, and textual content of the songs completes this interpretation of the interactions of Willa Cather, Libby Larsen, and the character of Margaret Elliot.
ContributorsMcLain, Christi Marie (Author) / FitzPatrick, Carole (Thesis advisor) / Dreyfoos, Dale (Committee member) / Holbrook, Amy (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Arnold Schoenberg's 1908-09 song cycle, Das Buch der hängenden Gärten [The Book of the Hanging Gardens], opus 15, represents one of his most decisive early steps into the realm of musical modernism. In the midst of personal and artistic crises, Schoenberg set texts by Stefan George in a style he called "pantonality," and described his composition as radically new. Though stylistically progressive, however, Schoenberg's musical achievement had certain ideologically conservative roots: the composer numbered among turn-of-the-century Viennese artists and thinkers whose opposition to the conventional and the popular--in favor of artistic autonomy and creativity--concealed a reactionary misogyny. A critical reading of Hanging Gardens through the lens of gender reveals that Schoenberg, like many of his contemporaries, incorporated strong frauenfeindlich [anti-women] elements into his work, through his modernist account of artistic creativity, his choice of texts, and his musical settings. Although elements of Hanging Gardens' atonal music suggest that Schoenberg valued gendered-feminine principles in his compositional style, a closer analysis of the work's musical language shows an intact masculinist hegemony. Through his deployment of uncanny tonal reminiscences, underlying tonal gestures, and closed forms in Hanging Gardens, Schoenberg ensures that the feminine-associated "excesses" of atonality remain under masculine control. This study draws upon the critical musicology of Susan McClary while arguing that Schoenberg's music is socially contingent, affected by the gender biases of his social and literary milieux. It addresses likely influences on Schoenberg's worldview including the philosophy of Otto Weininger, Freudian psychoanalysis, and a complex web of personal relationships. Finally, this analysis highlights the relevance of Schoenberg's world and its constructions of gender to modern performance practice, and argues that performers must consider interrelated historical, textual, and musical factors when interpreting Hanging Gardens in new contexts.
ContributorsGinger, Kerry Anne (Author) / FitzPatrick, Carole (Thesis advisor) / Dreyfoos, Dale (Committee member) / Mook, Richard (Committee member) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The teaching of singing remained remarkably stable until, at the end of the twentieth century, advances in the understanding of voice science stimulated dramatic changes in approach to vocal pedagogy. Previously, the technology needed to accurately measure physiologic change within the larynx and breath-support musculature during the process of singing simply did not exist. Any prior application of scientific study to the voice was based primarily upon auditory evaluation, rather than objective data accumulation and assessment. After a centuries-long history, within a span of twenty years, vocal pedagogy evolved from an approach solely derived from subjective, auditory evidence to an application grounded in scientific data. By means of analysis of significant publications by Richard Miller, Robert Sataloff, and Ingo Titze, as well as articles from The Journal of Singing and The Journal of Voice, I establish a baseline of scientific knowledge and pedagogic practice ca. 1980. Analysis and comparison of a timeline of advancement in scientific insight and the discussion of science in pedagogical texts, 1980-2000, reveal the extent to which voice teachers have dramatically changed their method of instruction. I posit that voice pedagogy has undergone a fundamental change, from telling the student only what to do, via auditory demonstration and visual imagery, to validating with scientific data how and why students should change their vocal approach. The consequence of this dramatic pedagogic evolution has produced singers who comprehend more fully the science of their art.
ContributorsVelarde, Rachel (Author) / Doan, Jerry (Thesis advisor) / Campbell, Andrew (Committee member) / Solis, Theodore (Committee member) / Elgar Kopta, Anne (Committee member) / Britton, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Japanese literature of the Heian Era (794-1185) abounds with references to musical instruments and episodes of performance. This thesis provides some insight into that music by translating sections of the "Wakana II" (Spring Shoots II) chapter of the early 11th-century novel Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji). It explains the musical references and shows how, in the context of the novel, musical performance, musical teaching, and interpersonal relationships were inextricably intertwined. Detailed appendices provide background on traditional Japanese musical instruments, musical theory, and related subjects.
ContributorsBotway, Lloyd (Author) / Creamer, John (Thesis advisor) / Chambers, Anthony (Committee member) / Solis, Theodore (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Numerous orchestral reductions for piano are plagued by cumbersome passages that impede pianists from delivering phrases with flow and elegance. The vocal works of George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) and Richard Wagner (1813–1883) are among the more unwieldy of these. While arrangers of the piano vocal scores by these two composers admirably include as much orchestration as possible, their efforts often result in writing that is not idiomatic for the piano. The frustrating difficulties in the orchestral reductions of Handel’s “Empio, dirò, tu sei” (Giulio Cesare), his Messiah chorus “For unto us a child is born” as well as Wagner’s aria “Du bist der Lenz” (Die Walküre) all plead for a new, fresh arrangement for the working pianist. Concerning itself with the formation of one’s hands, stamina preservation, and the need to give proper support to the singers, this paper makes examples of these three pieces to document and justify the steps and techniques one may take to customize both these and any variety of orchestral reductions. With great emphasis on the methodology of rewriting operatic and choral orchestral reductions, this document presents newly arranged note–for–note piano vocal scores of the above arias and chorus. By customizing and rewriting complex scores, our partners benefit by singing above the identical accompaniment every time. It is the intent that the collaborative pianist can apply these methods to future rewrites, with the result of producing scores that are conducive to proper technique and flow.
ContributorsPeterman, Jeremy Patrick (Author) / Campbell, Andrew (Thesis advisor) / FitzPatrick, Carole (Committee member) / Oldani, Robert (Committee member) / Reber, William (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012