Matching Items (40)
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- All Subjects: Music
- Creators: DeMars, James
Description
The C.G. Conn instrument manufacturing company is known as one of the most successful and innovative band instrument manufacturers in the history of the United States. Many of C.G. Conn's instrument product lines have undergone significant changes throughout the company's history, especially in the brass family. The C.G. Conn tuba product lines are no exception to this company's extraordinary success, and have been significantly redesigned since the company began manufacturing these instruments in circa 1880. This research project investigates the tuba product lines that C.G. Conn manufactured between 1880 and 1940. C.G. Conn designed six different tuba product lines during this timeframe, including an unnamed tuba product line with Stölzel valves, the Wonder Valve line, the New American line, the Wonder Model line, the 20-J, and the 22-J instrumental product lines. These tuba product lines have been investigated using extant publications and patent information because the majority of C.G. Conn's internal records prior to 1970 have been lost. In addition to investigating each of C.G. Conn's early tuba product lines, this project also explores the particularly anomalous design in the top-action valve apparatus of the Conn Wonder Model tuba product line. This anomalous design was implemented in the all of C.G. Conn's top-action tuba and tuba-like product lines from circa 1890-1940. This author's measurements of period instruments and analysis of data taken from these measurements indicates that this anomalous top-action valve apparatus design utilized interchangeable parts with other front-action C.G. Conn tuba product lines.
ContributorsEarll, David Michael (Author) / Swoboda, Deanna (Thesis advisor) / Ericson, John (Committee member) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Yeo, Douglas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
THE PEACOCK FLIES SOUTHEAST is a work for Qudi and orchestra inspired by an ancient Chinese love story of the same title. The Qudi is also known as the "Chinese bamboo flute." It is similar to the Western piccolo. However, it has open tone holes with greater ability to bend pitches. The Qudi sounds one octave above the written music with arrange from A4 to G7.
ContributorsLi, Wanchen (Composer) (Composer) / DeMars, James (Thesis advisor) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Hackbarth, Glenn (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
The purpose of this research is to assemble a collection of Russian Art song repertoire selected for beginner level training, with an exposition of the criteria for their appropriateness as teaching pieces. This examination defines the scope of vocal, technical, language and interpretive abilities required for the performance of Russian Art song literature. It also establishes the need for a pedagogical approach that is free from Eurocentric cultural biases against Russian language and culture. Intended as a reference for teachers and students to simplify the introduction of Russian Art song into the repertoire of the advanced secondary or beginning undergraduate student, it includes a discussion of learning priorities and challenges particular to native English speakers relative to successful Russian language lyric diction assimilation, with solutions. This study is designed to furnish material for a published edition of songs in the appropriate transpositions for high, medium and low voice including word-for- word and sense translations with IPA transcriptions, along with program notes for each piece. Repertoire is selected from the works of Alyab'yev, Gurilyov, Varlamov, Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky, as well as a few folk songs. The repertoire is grouped by difficulty and accompanied by English translations, interpretive analyses of the Russian Language poetry, and International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions modified for lyric diction. The degrees of difficulty are determined by vocal registration demands, word lengths and rhythmical text setting, as well as the incidences of unfamiliar phonological processes and complex consonant clusters occurring in the text. A scope and sequence chart is included, supplemented with learning objectives and teaching strategies, which organizes the repertoire according the order in which the pieces are to be taught. A palatalization guide is provided, to provide solutions for common pronunciation problems. Included in the appendices are listings of additional recommended Russian art song titles and recommended listening and viewing.
ContributorsDavis, Alexis Brandeis (Author) / May, Judy (Thesis advisor) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Kopta, Anne Elgar (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
A systematic approach to composition has been used by a variety of composers to control an assortment of musical elements in their pieces. This paper begins with a brief survey of some of the important systematic approaches that composers have employed in their compositions, devoting particular attention to Pierre Boulez's Structures Ia . The purpose of this survey is to examine several systematic approaches to composition by prominent composers and their philosophy in adopting this type of approach. The next section of the paper introduces my own systematic approach to composition: the Take-Away System. The third provides several musical applications of the system, citing my work, Octulus for two pianos, as an example. The appendix details theorems and observations within the system for further study.
ContributorsHarbin, Doug (Author) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Thesis advisor) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Etezady, Roshanne, 1973- (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Dr. Jerold D. Ottley's twenty-five years leading the Mormon Tabernacle Choir resulted in many distinguished awards and recognitions for the ensemble. Included among these are two Platinum and three Gold records from the Recording Industry Association of America, an Emmy from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and two Freedom Foundation Awards for service to the country. He conducted the Choir at two presidential inaugurations, Ronald Reagan's in 1981 and George H. W. Bush's in 1989, as well as performances at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics Gala. He presided over eleven international tours to twenty-six countries and crisscrossed the United States for engagements in nearly every region of the country. Despite the awards, commendations, and increased recognition of the Choir, Ottley's greatest contributions were largely internal to the organization. Jerold Ottley is a skilled music educator, administrator, and emissary. Application of these proficiencies while at the helm of the Choir, led to what are, arguably, his three largest contributions: 1) as educator, he instituted in-service training for choir members, raising the level of their individual musicianship, thereby improving the technical level of the entire Choir; 2) as administrator, Ottley created policies and procedures that resulted in a more disciplined, refined ensemble; and 3) as emissary, he raised the ensemble's reputation among the general public and with music professionals. For the general public, he significantly broadened the Choir's repertoire and traveled frequently thereby reaching a wider audience. He secured greater respect among music professionals by inviting many of them to work directly with the Choir. The results were unparalleled. Ottley's twenty-five year tenure with the Choir is reflected in broader audiences, increased professional acceptance, added organizational discipline, and unprecedented musical proficiency. It is a notable legacy for a man who reportedly never felt comfortable as director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
ContributorsArchibald, Lyle Jay (Author) / Gentry, Gregory (Thesis advisor) / Britton, David (Committee member) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Doan, Jerry (Committee member) / Solis, Theodore (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Many of the works of Dominick Argento have been researched and analyzed, but his choral work Evensong: Of Love and Angels s has received limited attention thus far. Written in memoriam for his wife Carolyn Bailey Argento, Evensong draws its musical material from her initials C.B.A. These letters, translated into note names, form a conspicuous head motive that is present in each movement of the work, and it serves multiple functions: as a melodic feature, as the foundation for a twelve-tone row, and as a harmonic base. This paper provides an overview of the work's conception with specific relation to Argento's biographical details, compositional style, and work habits; a brief review of the critical reception of the work; and a succinct analysis of the form and cyclical materials found in each movement.
ContributorsPage, Carrie Leigh, 1980- (Author) / Rogers, Rodney (Thesis advisor) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Levy, Benjamin (Committee member) / Oldani, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Everyday Arias for soprano and orchestra was composed largely in Arizona and completed in February 2011. The text was taken from a small collection of the composer's own poetry referencing her memories of life in rural Mississippi. Everyday Arias endeavors to elevate these prosaic experiences and settings to art, expressing the everyday as beautiful and worthy of artistic treatment. The primary compositional model for this work was Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915, but other influences included Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Benjamin Britten, and Dominick Argento. Barber's and Argento's musical treatment of prose style seemed particularly appropriate to the goals of Everyday Arias. Ives and Copland used hymn tunes both to evoke certain associations of worship and as sources of interesting material. The vocal writing of all five composers was influential, but the orchestration techniques for winds are largely a product of studying Ives and Argento, while many string gestures are more obviously tied to Britten and - more historically - Debussy.The primary motive that weaves through the work features an ascending major second followed by a descending perfect fourth, in a long-short-long rhythmic pattern. As a melodic fragment, the motive is often inverted to a descending-ascending pattern, or distorted slightly by expanding the second interval to a perfect fifth, or used in retrograde. The motive was derived from the first measure of the melody "Toplady" (1830) by Thomas Hastings, better known as the hymn "Rock of Ages." In the first movement, the motive is used most frequently in sequences. The second movement treats the motive as a melodic element and as a unit in ostinati. The final movement humorously transforms it into a syncopated gesture to evoke ragtime.
ContributorsPage, Carrie Leigh (Composer) / Rogers, Rodney (Thesis advisor) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Levy, Benjamin (Committee member) / Oldani, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This DMA project (in piano performance) consists of a concerto composed for trumpet and piano duo with orchestra and an analytical document that accompanies it. The text portion of this paper discusses the different compositional aspects of Rapsodia Camaleónica, including instrumentation, form, influences and the performers' perspective. The work is scored for a medium-sized orchestra: 2 flutes (flute 2 double piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, horn, trombone, bass trombone, 4 percussionists (timpani, snare drum, crash cymbals, suspended cymbal, castanets, güiro or carrasca, shekere, whip, xylophone, triangle, pandeiro, tam-tam, wood blocks, 2 congas, glockenspiel, 3 tom-toms, bass drum) and strings. It is written in one multi-sectional movement with a duration of approximately twenty-three minutes. The full score is attached as an appendix. The influences in Rapsodia Camaleónica range from the western classical tradition to world music to urban dance music, all of which fuse together in a work that blends this eclectic mix into a unified whole. This composition is intended as an addition to the piano concerto repertoire from Latin America, which includes compositions by Carlos Chávez, Manuel María Ponce (both Mexican), Alberto Ginastera (Argentinian), Camargo Guarnieri and Heitor Villa-Lobos (both Brazilian). It is the composer's desire to add a Colombian piece of universal appeal to this list.
ContributorsArias-Esguerra, Mauricio (Author) / Meir, Baruch I (Thesis advisor) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Hamilton, Robert (Committee member) / Pagano, Caio (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This paper investigates the origins of the piano recital as invented by Franz Liszt, presents varying strategies for program design, and compares Liszt's application of the format with current trends. In addition it examines the concepts of program music, musical ekphrasis, and Gesamtkunstwerk and proposes a new multimedia piano concert format in which music combines with the mediums of literature and the visual arts; Picturing Rachmaninoff, and Picturing Ravel provide two recent examples of this format.
ContributorsCook, Stephen Barry (Author) / Hamilton, Robert (Thesis advisor) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Pagano, Caio (Committee member) / Cosand, Walter (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012