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CYOA is a prototype of an iPhone application that produces a single, generative, musical work. This document details some of the thoughts and practices that informed its design, and specifically addresses the overlap between application structure and musical form. The concept of composed instruments is introduced and briefly discussed, some features of video game design that relate to this project are considered, and some specifics of hardware implementation are addressed.
ContributorsPeterson, Julian (Author) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Thesis advisor) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Levy, Benjamin (Committee member) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Three Meditations on the Philosophy of Boethius is a musical piece for guitar, piano interior, and computer. Each of the three movements, or meditations, reflects one level of music according to the medieval philosopher Boethius: Musica Mundana, Musica Humana, and Musica Instrumentalis. From spatial aspects, through the human element, to letting sound evolve freely, different movements revolve around different sounds and sound producing techniques.
ContributorsDori, Gil (Contributor) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Thesis advisor) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Instrument design is intrinsic to multiple percussion solo performance preparation, from formulating a physical layout of instruments that best suit each work's technical requirements to fabricating unique instruments to fulfill each composer's sonic specifications. Several works in the multiple percussion repertoire require setups comprised partly or entirely of performer-built instruments. Given that performers have varying degrees of expertise with instrument design and construction, the specialized instruments created do not necessarily meet the level of care with which many of the masterworks in the percussion field were created. Even with the many articles, books, and other publications regarding the instrument design issues of specific works, solo percussion literature is so varied that many set-ups are created using a set of nebulous guidelines. Developing solutions to the problems inherent in multiple percussion instrument design is clearly a continuing effort. Instrument and setup design within selected works for solo multiple percussion is the focus of this document and will be addressed through specific examples from literature commonly performed on concert stages and educational institutions. The scope of this document is limited to the widely applicable design issues of three pieces: Maki Ishii's Thirteen Drums: for Percussion Solo, Op. 66 (1985), David Lang's The Anvil The Chorus: for Percussion Solo (1991), and Steve Reich's Music for Pieces of Wood: for claves (1973). The set-up designs for these pieces suggested by the author are largely the focus for which other material in this document is preparatory.
ContributorsColeman, Matthew (Author) / Smith, Jeffrey B. (Thesis advisor) / Sunkett, Mark (Committee member) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra was conceived in February of 2013, and conceptually it is my attempt to fuse personal expressions of jazz and classical music into one fully realized statement. It is a three movement work (fast, slow, fast) for 2 fl., 2 ob., 2 cl., bsn., 2 hrn., 2 tpt., tbn., pno., perc., str. (6,4,2,2,1). The work is approximately 27 minutes in duration. The first movement of the Concerto is written in a fluid sonata form. A fugato begins where the second theme would normally appear, and the second theme does not fully appear until near the end of the solo piano section. The result is that the second theme when finally revealed is so reminiscent of the history of jazz and classical synthesis that it does not sound completely new, and in fact is a return of something that was heard before, but only hinted at in this piece. The second movement is a kind of deconstructive set of variations, with a specific theme and harmonic pattern implied throughout the movement. However, the full theme is not disclosed until the final variation. The variations are interrupted by moments of pure rhythmic music, containing harmony made up of major chords with an added fourth, defying resolution, and dissolving each time back into a new variation. The third movement is in rondo form, using rhythmic and harmonic influences from jazz. The percussion plays a substantial role in this movement, acting as a counterpoint to the piano part throughout. This movement and the piece concludes with an extended coda, inspired indirectly by the simple complexities of an improvisational piano solo, building in complexity as the concerto draws to a close.
ContributorsSneider, Elliot (Author) / Rogers, Rodney (Thesis advisor) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Committee member) / Solis, Theodore (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Christopher Caliendo is a guitarist/composer who has written for a variety of performance mediums. His works been performed on international concert stages and recorded for film and television media. His compositions have garnered him the Henry Mancini Award for Film Composition, the Artin Arslanian Scholarship for Humanities, and the Peabody Grant for Scholarship. He has also received two commissions from the Vatican in 1992 and 1995. In 1988, he received an Emmy nomination for his work with the television series Paradise. The purpose of this project is to present a study of selected clarinet works by Christopher Caliendo: The Tango Concerto No. 1 is a three-movement work that Caliendo arranged for clarinet and piano in 2010, The Little Gypsy was written for solo clarinet, and Jal, Ven a mis Brazos, Amanacer, La Milonga, Acariciame, Amor Perdido, Caliente, Impulso, and Passione comprise a series of nine guitar/clarinet duos that were composed or arranged between 2009 and 2010. The document is comprised of a brief description of the career and compositions of Christopher Caliendo, a performer's guide to the selected works, a track listing for the performance recording, and a list of Caliendo's other clarinet and chamber music compositions that are intended for the concert stage. It is the hope of the author that this project can generate more interest in Christopher Caliendo's clarinet repertoire throughout the clarinet community.
ContributorsQuamo, Jeff (Author) / Spring, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Gardner, Joshua (Thesis advisor) / Kocour, Michael (Committee member) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Committee member) / Schuring, Martin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
I am interested in performance that includes multiple artistic media. I am looking for a way to communicate with other artists that can clearly express the meaning of an artistic gesture that they can interpret for their medium. I wish to make transmedia performance art with a meaning that is clear to an audience. That meaning can be abstract. Sometimes we call art "abstract" to imply that it has no perceivable meaning. However, everything has meaning. Even if a piece of art does not have narrative meaning, we can still perceive a structure. That is thanks to our imagination. Imagination is our way of making sense of our experience. I believe that if I can identify some of the imaginative structures through which I perceive and understand my own work, I can use those structures to annotate or organize scores for improvised performance pieces. I am interested in how we understand art. One theory of understanding, which comes from Mark Johnson, involves "image schemata." Image schemata (sing. schema) are basic, abstract structures that we develop based on what we perceive from our physical interactions with the environment. We project these structures that come from a physical domain onto the mental domain. Johnson calls this process "metaphorical projection," and he calls our ability to do this "imagination." By metaphorically projecting image schemata from one domain to another, we form meaning of our experiences, and thus contribute to our understanding of the world. I believe that I can use image schemata to explain the meanings inherent in the art I make and to explain the connections in meaning between one artistic medium to another. I wish to apply this in a transmedia performance setting. First, I will analyze previous transmedia works in terms of image schemata. Second, I will make a score using image schemata for an improvised performance. Third, I will reflect on the results of attempting to rehearse that score.
ContributorsLevy, Luis Alejandro (Author) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Committee member) / Ingalls, Todd (Committee member) / Ziegler, Christian (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Since 1999, a small group of groundbreaking orchestral works for turntables and orchestra has surfaced on the concert stage. These compositions explore the possibilities of the turntables and invite an intriguing fusion of musical cultures of the classically trained musician and the hip-hop DJ. Since DJ turntablists typically follow an improvised tradition and do not read music, the composer must find an effective means of notating the turntables and collaborate with the turntablist in the execution of the work. As interest in turntables composition grows, there is a need for discussion and a compositional guide with advice based on present day works. In effort to contribute a guide for turntablism composition, my research includes a historical and composer perspective that discusses turntables techniques, operation of the equipment, digital technology, hip-hop background, history of the instrument, and works of the past and present with musical excerpts pertaining to the notation and use of the turntables. Specific sources include: RPM by Nicole Lizée, Concerto for Trumpet, Turntables, and Orchestra by Paul Leary, Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra by Gabriel Prokofiev, and Stephen Webber's turntable method book The Art of the DJ Turntable Technique. Interviews with composers Prokofiev, Lizée, and Leary have provided important primary source information regarding their experience with turntablism composition and performance. Unrelated to the above research and attached as an appendix, my composition Andrew's Ritual for Bedtime for chamber orchestra is a single movement for choreographed dance that depicts a mother preparing her energetic young son for bed. The title references the nightly rituals parents undertake in order to prepare their children for bedtime.
ContributorsOuper, Jeffrey Thomas (Author) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Thesis advisor) / Standley, Eileen (Committee member) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This document highlights the increased involvement of “ college boys ” or “ white college boys ” - better-educated middle-class white and light-skinned persons - in steelbands in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Following an introductory overview of the demography of Trinidad and Tobago, the history of Carnival, and the interregnum of the temporary instruments used between the ban of indigenous drums in the 1880s and the invention of the steelpan at the end of the 1930s, this document will examine the history and membership of these college boy bands, with particular emphasis on the Hit Paraders. Two factors that highlight the vital role played by these college boy steelbands are discussed: commercial sponsorship of bands, and support that bands received from the People's National Movement Party. A detailed timeline of steelpan invention and innovations is also included.
ContributorsDeLamater, Elizabeth (Author) / Smith, Jeffery B (Thesis advisor) / Sunkett, Mark (Committee member) / Bush, Jeff (Committee member) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Committee member) / Solís, Ted (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Bohuslav Martinù (1890-1959) was a prolific composer who wrote nearly 100 works for piano. His highly imaginative and eclectic style blends elements of the Baroque, Impressionism, Twentieth-century idioms and Czech folk music. His music is fresh and appealing to the listener, yet it remains intriguing as to how all the elements are combined in a cohesive manner. Martinù himself provides clues to his compositional process. He believed in pure musical expression and the intensity of the musical idea, without the need for extra-musical or programmatic connotations. He espoused holistic and organic views toward musical perception and composition, at times referring to a work as an "organism." This study examines Martinù's piano style in light of his many diverse influences and personal philosophy. The first portion of this paper discusses Martinù's overall style through several piano miniatures written throughout his career. It takes into consideration the composer's personal background, musical influences and aesthetic convictions. The second portion focuses specifically on Martinù's first large-scale work for piano, the Fantasie et Toccata, H. 281. Written during a time in which Martinù was black-listed by the Nazis and forced to flee Europe, this piece bears witness to the chaotic events of WWII through its complexity and intensity of character. The discussion and analysis of the Fantasie et Toccata intends to serve as a guide to interpretation for the performer or listener and also seeks to promote the piano music of Bohuslav Martinù to a wider audience.
ContributorsCrane-Waleczek, Jennifer (Author) / Hamilton, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Committee member) / Meyer Thompson, Janice (Committee member) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Campbell, Andrew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The marimba has garnered increased attention in percussion performance over the past thirty years. Literature for beginners through professionals in a multitude of styles have been written. With the ever-growing number of marimbists since the 1980's there has been a high demand for new works. Numerous pieces were created through commissions: composers contracted to write music by individuals, institutions, and consortia. Three primary types of marimba solo music were written: unaccompanied solos, concerti, and marimba solos with electronic accompaniment. Since electronic music is relatively new in marimba performance, there is very little information published regarding this topic. Only a handful of well-known compositions in this genre have been widely performed, and a great number of existing works are unfamiliar to the percussion world. The goal of this study is to generate an overview of electronic music in marimba performance by compiling a chronological catalog of compositions written for solo marimba with electronics. In addition, this study wishes to promote this genre of solo marimba music through the commission, performance, examination, and recording of a new work for marimba and electronics. It is the author's wish to bring this topic to percussionists' attention, and to enrich the marimba solo literature by both exploring existing literature and encouraging the commissioning and performance of marimba music.
ContributorsChen, Yi-Chia (Author) / Smith, J.B. (Thesis advisor) / Bush, Jeffery (Committee member) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Committee member) / Hill, Gary (Committee member) / Sunkett, Mark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011