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- All Subjects: Music
- All Subjects: Music Therapy
- Creators: School of Music
Description
Clarinet multiphonics have become increasingly popular among composers since they were first introduced in the 1950s. However, it is a topic poorly understood by both performers and composers, which sometimes leads to the use of acoustically impossible multiphonics in compositions. Producing multiphonics requires precise manipulations of embouchure force, air pressure, and tongue position. These three factors are invisible to the naked eye during clarinet performance, leading to many conflicting theories about multiphonic production strategies, often based on subjective perception of the performer. This study attempts to observe the latter factor—tongue motion—during multiphonic production in situ using ultrasound. Additionally, a multiphonic catalog containing 604 dyad multiphonics was compiled as part of this study. The author hypothesized that nearly all, if not all, of the multiphonics can be produced using one of four primary production strategies. The four production strategies are: (A) lowering the back of the tongue while sustaining the upper note; (B) raising the back of the tongue while sustaining the upper note; (C) changing the tongue position to that of the lower note while sustaining the upper note; and (D) raising the root of the tongue (a sensation similar to constricting the throat) while sustaining the upper note. To distill production strategies into four primary categories, the author documented his perceived tongue motion over twenty repetitions of playing every multiphonic in the catalog. These perceptions were then confirmed or corrected through ultrasound investigation sessions after every five repetitions. The production strategies detailed in this study are only for finding the correct voicing to produce the multiphonics. The catalog compiled during this study is organized using two different organizational systems: the first uses the traditional method of organizing by pitch; the second uses a fingering-based system to facilitate the ease of finding multiphonics in question, since notated pitches of multiphonics often differ between sources.
ContributorsLiang, Jack Yi Jing (Author) / Gardner, Joshua (Thesis advisor) / Spring, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Caslor, Jason (Committee member) / Creviston, Christopher (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Despite the growth of technology in music composition and performance, professional clarinetists maintain that air microphones are superior to piezoelectric pickups. Pickups offer increased mobility, isolation, and reduced feedback, but air microphones are used simply for the perceived sound quality. In this study a ported barrel pickup and a contact transducer pickup placed at various intervals on the clarinet were sampled and compared to a reference recording to determine how the sound differed for each method. In addition, the history of wind instrument pickups, the acoustics of the clarinet, and the basics of piezoelectricity were discussed to help examine the results. The pickups were examined in three ways: overall level in decibels, frequency cutoff, and overtone displacement. Through these results it was determined that the most accurate methods of clarinet pickup are the ported barrel pickup, contact transducers closer to the vibration of the reed such as the ligature or barrel surface, or a transducer placed at the end of the bell. These findings were consistent with the discussions regarding history, clarinet acoustics, and piezoelectricity. This study also produced a reference for the sounds associated with different pickup methods, as well as possible improvements for clarinet pickup design.
ContributorsEnglert, Patrick William (Author) / Spring, Robert S (Thesis advisor) / Gardner, Joshua T (Thesis advisor) / Caslor, Jason (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Video conferencing applications, such as Skype, have long been used in classroom settings. Although musicians have been conducting online lessons for years, and institutions such as the Berklee School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music offer online music classes, scholarly research concerning online video conferencing music lessons is limited. Most studies of video conferencing lessons are based on subjective answers, making it difficult to yield conclusive results. As such, the only basis to evaluate the efficacy of video conferencing lessons are those from opinions. This study offers quantitative research on online video conferencing lessons. Between September and December 2017, 22 cello students from Muscatine High School received weekly private online lessons. Students filled out surveys using a Likert scale to rate these lessons and how they felt video and audio quality affected them. Students also received in-person lessons during October 23 or 24 to compare this experience to online lessons. The responses collected throughout the semester were compiled and sorted to reveal data trends. Using information derived from the data, this study concludes that online video conferencing lessons were less productive than in-person lessons but were still effective. In addition, average lesson ratings improved significantly after meeting in-person. In conclusion, this study found that online private lessons are feasible for high school students.
ContributorsPark, Yeil (Author) / Landschoot, Thomas (Thesis advisor) / Caslor, Jason (Thesis advisor) / Campbell, Andrew (Committee member) / Holbrook, Amy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Hungarian composer, Miklós Rózsa, is primarily known for his career as a film composer, but he wrote over forty-five pieces for the concert hall. The most famous of these works, Theme, Variations, and Finale, was composed in 1933 and premiered the following year, ushering in a long history of performances throughout Europe and abroad in the 1930s and 1940s. This document serves as a guide for performers of Theme, Variations, and Finale by offering biographical information about Rózsa, the compositional history and performance history of the work and recorded legacy, details about its two versions, and a detailed analysis of the score. This document also clarifies important details about the work's performance history, which have previously been recorded inaccurately.
ContributorsAlpizar, Mark Daniel (Author) / Meyer, Jeffery (Thesis advisor) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Spring, Robert (Committee member) / Caslor, Jason (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
It wasn’t long after the Chicago Opera Company postponed staging The Love for Three Oranges in December of 1919 that Prokofiev decided to create The Fiery Angel. In November of the same year he was reading Valery Bryusov’s novel, “The Fiery Angel.” At the same time he was establishing a closer relationship with his future wife, Lina Codina. For various reasons the composition of The Fiery Angel endured over many years. In April of 1920 at the Metropolitan Opera, none of his three operas - The Gambler, The Love for Three Oranges, and The Fiery Angel - were accepted for staging. He received no additional support from his colleagues Sergi Diaghilev, Igor Stravinsky, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and Pierre Souvchinsky, who did not care for the subject of Bryusov’s plot. Despite his unsuccessful attempts to have the work premiered, he continued working and moved from the U.S. to Europe, where he continued to compose, finishing the first edition of The Fiery Angel. He married Lina Codina in 1923. Several years later, while posing for portrait artist Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, the composer learned about the mysteries of a love triangle between Bryusov, Andrey Bely and Nina Petrovskaya. It was then that Prokofiev’s characters took shape, reflecting the conflicting relationships in Bryusov’s real life and characters from the novel, as well as themes from Prokofiev’s own life.
This paper will discuss Prokofiev’s third opera, The Fiery Angel. In addition to brief biographical, character, and plot information, topics will include issues Prokofiev encountered with creating the libretto, the relationship between his real-life love triangle and that depicted in the opera, and the impact Prokofiev’s ever-evolving relationship with religion and the occult had on the work.
This paper will discuss Prokofiev’s third opera, The Fiery Angel. In addition to brief biographical, character, and plot information, topics will include issues Prokofiev encountered with creating the libretto, the relationship between his real-life love triangle and that depicted in the opera, and the impact Prokofiev’s ever-evolving relationship with religion and the occult had on the work.
ContributorsNikolovski, Vanja (Author) / DeMaris, Brian (Thesis advisor) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Dreyfoos, Dale (Committee member) / Caslor, Jason (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
The saxophone is privileged to have a wide variety of repertoire from contemporary composers. Due to its invention in the later half of the nineteenth century, it has no repertoire written by baroque composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach. There are several published arrangements of Bach’s three solo violin partitas including that of Ronald Caravan and Raaf Hekkema. These collections either do not present every movement of each of these three partitas, or they do not present them in their original keys. An advantage to arranging these works in their original keys is that saxophonists have the opportunity to learn more about the works by playing along with recordings of great violinists such as Itzhak Perlman and Hilary Hahn, something that would be very difficult to do if they were not in the original keys. In Ronald Caravan’s Bach for Solo Saxophone, Caravan includes a collection of many unaccompanied works by Bach for saxophone but does not include all of the movements from the three partitas and they are not in the original keys that Bach wrote for. In Raaf Hekkema’s Bach for Saxophone, Hekkema arranges the entirety of the three partitas, however they are not set in the original keys that Bach wrote for. In addition to these points, those collections do not provide information of the life of J.S. Bach, baroque performance practice, mechanics of the baroque violin, baroque dances, and advice on going about the mechanics of these pieces from a saxophonist’s perspective. This information is very useful to a young saxophonist who is trying to fully understand and perform Bach’s three solo violin partitas.
ContributorsSalazar, Nathan John (Author) / Creviston, Christopher (Thesis director) / Saucier, Catherine (Committee member) / School of Music (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
This creative project explores the concept of how music is like a language and how, as a teacher, I plan to enforce this concept through my teaching. The aim of this project is to highlight the importance of completing research and acquiring knowledge of aspects, such as the composer's life, historical background and literary references, when learning a piece of music. Through this project, I address connections between the brain and music pertaining to memorization, the components of language, the similarities between language and music, the role of the teacher and the development of a "toolbox" of knowledge for studying a piece of music. I present my own research on Schumann's Novelette Op. 21, No. 8 in f-sharp minor as well as my own experiences of learning the piece to demonstrate an example of the process and discoveries I hope my students will make in their own studies of repertoire.
ContributorsLee, Kara Jia-Shan (Author) / Pagano, Caio (Thesis director) / Creviston, Hannah (Committee member) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
The music business has constantly evolved since its inception. Sheet music was the first physical form of music sold and was influenced by innovations in printing technology. Recorded music came about in the late 1800s and early 1900s, with Thomas Edison pioneering the phonograph record. Technology shifted from records to 8-tracks to cassettes, and finally, digital audio, which revolutionized the entire industry. Compact discs (CDs) skyrocketed in popularity during the 1990s and early 2000s, but so did file-sharing. To combat piracy, record labels began selling and streaming music online. Music sales have plummeted in all formats. Streaming reigns as the most popular form of music distribution, but it produces a mere fraction of the revenue traditional albums once did. The loss affects all those in the industry, especially the artists, who see an average of only $23.40 for every $1000 in music sold. But technology has allowed the independent artist to record and distribute their music to the world for little cost compared to their major label predecessors. Many wonder if the music industry is dead, but as with any other technological change in history, the adaptors and innovators will survive.
ContributorsDamiano, Alec (Author) / Swoboda, Deanna (Thesis director) / Whyte, Rutger (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor)
Created2015-05
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
This theoretical inquiry is a response to the apparent need for resources on providing music therapy for LGBTQ adolescents, a population facing systematic oppression in their respective homes and communities. Since there are no published research studies on actual clinical work with this population, I investigated the literature of queer theory, an interdisciplinary field that destabilizes sexual categories and challenges the concept of normal and fixed identities, and applied its theoretical concepts to develop music therapy interventions. I was especially influenced by the ideas of foundational queer theorists Michel Foucault, Eve Sedgwick, and Judith Butler, among others. Their perspectives can advance how music therapists currently approach working with this population and interpret music therapy experiences with LGBTQ clients. The theoretical insights of these fields can be applied to impact the LGBTQ movement for social justice by empowering queer youth using music within a therapeutic environment. This interdisciplinary project incorporates queer theory with music therapy theory to develop evidence-based interventions and open up new perspectives in music therapy practice with LGBTQ clients.
ContributorsBain, Candice Lanell (Author) / Crowe, Barbara (Thesis director) / Grzanka, Patrick (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2014-12