Matching Items (41)
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- All Subjects: Music
- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
- Creators: DeMars, James
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
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
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
Bright Summer, a one-movement piece for orchestra, was composed in Arizona, and completed in February 2013. The piece is approximately twelve minutes long. The motivation for writing this piece was the death of my mother the year before, in 2012. The prevailing mood of this work is bright and pleasant, expressing my mother's cheerful personality when she was alive. It also portrays bright summer days which resemble my mother's spirit. Thus, soundscape plays an important role in this work. It depicts summer breeze, rustling sounds of leaves, and, to translate a Korean saying, "high blue skies." This soundscape opens the piece as well as closes it. In the middle section, the fast upbeat themes represent my mother's witty and optimistic personality. The piece also contains the presence of a hymn tune, The Love of God is Greater Far, which informs the motivic content and also functions as the climax of the piece. It was my mother's favorite hymn and we used to sing it together following her conversion to Christianity. The piece contains three main sections, which are held together by transitional material based on the soundscape and metric modulations. Unlike my earlier works, Bright Summer is tonal, with upper tertian harmonies prevailing throughout the piece. However, the opening and closing soundscapes do not have functional harmonies. For example, tertian chords appear and vanish silently, leaving behind some resonant sounds without any harmonic progression. Overall, the whole piece is reminiscent of my mother who lived a beautiful life.
ContributorsKim, JeeYeon (Composer) / DeMars, James (Thesis advisor) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Levy, Benjamin (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Jazz continues, into its second century, as one of the most important musics taught in public middle and high schools. Even so, research related to how students learn, especially in their earliest interactions with jazz culture, is limited. Weaving together interviews and observations of junior and senior high school jazz players and teachers, private studio instructors, current university students majoring in jazz, and university and college jazz faculty, I developed a composite sketch of a secondary school student learning to play jazz. Using arts-based educational research methods, including the use of narrative inquiry and literary non-fiction, the status of current jazz education and the experiences by novice jazz learners is explored. What emerges is a complex story of students and teachers negotiating the landscape of jazz in and out of early twenty-first century public schools. Suggestions for enhancing jazz experiences for all stakeholders follow, focusing on access and the preparation of future jazz teachers.
ContributorsKelly, Keith B (Author) / Stauffer, Sandra (Thesis advisor) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Kocour, Michael (Committee member) / Sullivan, Jill (Committee member) / Schmidt, Margaret (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
William Levi Dawson (1899-1990), director of the Tuskegee Institute Choir from 1931 to 1956, was one of the most important arrangers of Negro spirituals in the twentieth century. He is also remembered as an outstanding composer, conductor, speaker, and leader of festival choruses. His arrangements are still sung by choirs all over the world. Save a small number of dissertations and various articles, however, very little has been written about him. In fact, almost no significant writing has been undertaken utilizing the Dawson papers held at the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Books Library at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. This study utilizes that collection in examining four areas of Dawson's life: his work as a composer, his work as an arranger of Negro spirituals, his work as a choral conductor and music pedagogue, and his life as an African American man living in segregated times. Dawson is shown as a thoughtful, deliberate practitioner of his art who built his career with intention, and who, through his various activities, sought both to affirm the traditional music of his people and to transcend his era's problems with the definitions, associations, and prejudices attached to the term "race." Using a diverse selection of letters, notes, and speeches held in the archive, it is possible to develop a fuller, more nuanced portrait of Dawson. Through a thorough examination of a select few of these documents, his growth can be traced from a young composer living in Chicago, to a college choral director dealing with the realities of racial inequality in the mid-twentieth century, to a seasoned, respected elder in his field, endeavoring to pass on to others knowledge of the music he spent his life arranging and teaching.
ContributorsHuff, Vernon Edward (Author) / Schildkret, David (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born July 18, 1918 into the Madiba clan in Mvezo, Transkei, South Africa. Mandela was a lawyer by trade and a freedom fighter who envisioned freedom and equality for all South Africans regardless of race. In 1965, Mandela was imprisoned at Robben Island for twenty-seven years for treason and terrorist activities against the South African apartheid regime: he was assigned prison numbers 46664. In 1992, Mandela was released from prison and two years later not only became the first democratically elected president of South Africa, but also its first black president. "Madiba 46664" is an eight-minute chamber work scored for flute, oboe, clarinet in B-flat, and bassoon; vibraphone, and two percussionists; piano; violins, violas, and celli. The work blends traditional South African rhythms of the drumming culture with elements of Western harmony and form in contrasting textures of homophony, polyphony and antiphony. "Madiba 46664" utilizes Mandela's prison number, birthdate and age (at the time the composition process began in 2013) for the initial generation of meter, rhythm, harmony, melody, and form. The work also shares intercultural concepts that can be seen in the works of three contemporary African composers, South Africans Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph and Andile Khumalo, and Nigerian Ayo Oluranti. Each section represents a period of Mandela's life as a freedom fighter, a prisoner, and a president. The inspiration stems from the composer's discussions with Mandela soon after his release from prison and prior to his presidency. These lively discussions pertained to the state of traditional music in then apartheid South Africa and led to this creation. The conversations also played a role in the creative process.
ContributorsMabingnai, Collette Sipho (Composer) / DeMars, James (Thesis advisor) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Committee member) / Humphreys, Jere (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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
This study investigates ways in which music teachers make personal sense of their professional selves and their perceptions of their places within the broader landscape of music education relative to other types of music teachers in school and community settings. A social phenomenological framework based on the writing of Alfred Schutz was used to examine how participants constructed a sense of self in their social worlds and how they both shaped and were shaped by their social worlds. Eight music teachers participated in this study and represented differing types of music teaching careers, including: public school general music teaching and ensemble directing; independent studio teaching and teaching artistry; studio lessons, classes, and ensembles at community music centers; church ensemble directing; and other combinations of music teaching jobs throughout school and community settings. Data were collected from in-depth interviews, observations of the music teachers in their various teaching roles, and artifacts related to their music teaching positions. Research questions included: Who do the participants conceive of themselves to be as music professionals and music teachers; How do they construct and enact their professional selves, including their teaching selves; How is their construction of professional self, including teaching self, supported and sustained by interactions in their social worlds; and, What implications does this have for the music profession as a whole? After developing a professional portrait of each participant, analysis revealed an overall sense of professional self and various degrees of three role-taking selves: performing, teaching, and musical. Analysis also considered sense of self in relation to social worlds, including consociates, contemporaries, predecessors, and successors, and the extent to which performing, teaching, and musical selves were balanced, harmonized, or reconciled for each participant. Social worlds proved influential in terms of participants' support for sense of self. Participants who enacted the most harmonized, reconciled senses of self appeared to have a professional self that was grounded in a strong sense of musical self, enabling them to think and act flexibly. Participants whose professional selves were dominated by a strong sense of teaching or performing self seemed confined by the structures of their social world particular to teaching or performing, lacked a sense of musical self, and were less able to think and act flexibly. Findings suggest that active construction of consociate relationships throughout varied social worlds can support a balanced, reconciled conception of self, which informs teaching practice and furthers the ability to act in entrepreneurial ways.
ContributorsBucura, Elizabeth (Author) / Stauffer, Sandra (Thesis advisor) / Landes, Heather (Committee member) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Schmidt, Margaret (Committee member) / Sullivan, Jill (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This project presents eight harpsichord sonatas, 3, 5, 10, 12, 13, 18, 19, and 21, by Sebastián de Albero (1722-1756), arranged for the classical guitar. These pieces were chosen because of the success of other eighteenth-century Iberian harpsichord music that has been arranged for guitar, including works by composers such as Domenico Scarlatti, Carlos Seixas, and Antonio Soler. The popularity and enjoyment of Scarlatti's harpsichord sonatas on the guitar today was the inspiration for this project.
Historically, guitarists have used arrangements as a means to expand the guitar's repertoire. The late eighteenth century, especially, was a time in which the instrument was undergoing significant changes from being a five-course instrument into becoming the standard six single string instrument of today. Also, composer/guitarists at that time were beginning to abandon tablature in favor of modern staff notation. Because of these changes, the amount of music originally written for the guitar from this period that is suitable to be played on a modern instrument is limited.
I chose to focus on eight selected sonatas from Sebastián Albero's Treinta Sonatas para Clavicordio because of the influence of Domenico Scarlatti's harpsichord arrangements for solo guitar. It is intriguing to note that Albero and Scarlatti both held positions at the Spanish Royal Chapel for a number of years and, in this capacity, may have influenced one another in their musical compositions and style. Certain similarities are documented in this paper.
Since Scarlatti's music has been successfully arranged, and is popular to play on modern guitar, it is hoped that these sonatas by Albero may enjoy similar success.
Historically, guitarists have used arrangements as a means to expand the guitar's repertoire. The late eighteenth century, especially, was a time in which the instrument was undergoing significant changes from being a five-course instrument into becoming the standard six single string instrument of today. Also, composer/guitarists at that time were beginning to abandon tablature in favor of modern staff notation. Because of these changes, the amount of music originally written for the guitar from this period that is suitable to be played on a modern instrument is limited.
I chose to focus on eight selected sonatas from Sebastián Albero's Treinta Sonatas para Clavicordio because of the influence of Domenico Scarlatti's harpsichord arrangements for solo guitar. It is intriguing to note that Albero and Scarlatti both held positions at the Spanish Royal Chapel for a number of years and, in this capacity, may have influenced one another in their musical compositions and style. Certain similarities are documented in this paper.
Since Scarlatti's music has been successfully arranged, and is popular to play on modern guitar, it is hoped that these sonatas by Albero may enjoy similar success.
ContributorsSloyka, Erik Robert (Author) / Koonce, Frank (Thesis advisor) / McLin, Katherine (Committee member) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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