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Description
Delirium is a piece for large wind ensemble that synthesizes compositional techniques to generate unique juxtapositions of contrasting musical elements. The piece is about 8:30 long and uses the full complement of winds, brass, and percussion. Although the composition begins tonally, chromatic alterations gradually shift the melodic content outside of the tonal center. In addition to changes in the melody, octatonic, chromatic, and synthetic scales and quartal and quintal harmonies are progressively introduced throughout the piece to add color and create dissonance. Delirium contains four primary sections that are all related by chromatic mediant. The subdivisions of the first part create abrupt transitions between contrasting material, evocative of the symptoms of delirium. As each sub-section progresses, the A minor tonality of the opening gradually gives way to increased chromaticism and dissonance. The next area transitions to C minor and begins to feature octatonic scales, secundal harmonies, and chromatic flourishes more prominently. The full sound of the ensemble then drops to solo instruments in the third section, now in G# minor, where the elements of the previous section are built upon with the addition of synthetic scales and quartal harmonies. The last division, before the recapitulation of the opening material, provides a drastic change in atmosphere as the chromatic elements from before are removed and the tense sound of the quartal harmonies are replaced with quintal sonorities and a more tonal melody. The tonality of this final section is used to return to the opening material. After an incomplete recapitulation, the descending motive that is used throughout the piece, which can be found in measure 61 in the flutes, is inverted and layered by minor 3rds. This inverted figure builds to the same sonority found in measure138, before ending on an F# chord, a minor third away from the A minor tonal center of the opening and where the piece seems like it should end.
ContributorsBell, Jeremy, 1986- (Composer) / Rogers, Rodney (Thesis advisor) / Oldani, Robert (Committee member) / Levy, Benjamin (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
In the 1930s, with the rise of Nazism, many artists in Europe had to flee their homelands and sought refuge in the United States. Austrian composer Hanns Eisler who had risen to prominence as a significant composer during the Weimar era was among them. A Jew, an ardent Marxist and composer devoted to musical modernism, he had established himself as a writer of film music and Kampflieder, fighting songs, for the European workers' movement. After two visits of the United States in the mid-1930s, Eisler settled in America where he spent a decade (1938-1948), composed a considerable number of musical works, including important film scores, instrumental music and songs, and, in collaboration with Theodor W. Adorno, penned the influential treatise Composing for the Films. Yet despite his substantial contributions to American culture American scholarship on Eisler has remained sparse, perhaps due to his reputation as the "Karl Marx in Music." In this study I examine Eisler's American exile and argue that Eisler, through his roles as a musician and a teacher, actively sought to enrich American culture. I will present background for his exile years, a detailed overview of his American career as well as analyses and close readings of several of his American works, including three of his American film scores, Pete Roleum and His Cousins (1939), Hangmen Also Die (1943), and None But the Lonely Heart (1944), and the String Quartet (1940), Third Piano Sonata (1943), Woodbury Liederbüchlein (1941), and Hollywood Songbook (1942-7). This thesis builds upon unpublished correspondence and documents available only in special collections at the University of Southern California (USC), as well as film scores in archives at USC and the University of California, Los Angeles. It also draws on Eisler studies by such European scholars as Albrecht Betz, Jürgen Schebera, and Horst Weber, as well as on research of film music scholars Sally Bick and Claudia Gorbman. As there is little written on the particulars of Eisler's American years, this thesis presents new facts and new perspectives and aims at a better understanding of the artistic achievements of this composer.
ContributorsBoyd, Caleb (Author) / Feisst, Sabine (Thesis advisor) / Levy, Benjamin (Committee member) / Oldani, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
An eighteenth-century polychoral vespers service of José Gil Pérez: edition and historical context
Description
Compared to sacred choral music of the great Spanish composers of the Renaissance, church music of later Spanish composers is relatively ignored, despite the fact that many left behind a significant body of works worthy of scholarly investigation and performance. In fact, there is a paucity of information on eighteenth-century church music in Spain - music history books generally treat the subject in the briefest way. To correct this situation, scholars must delve into the large caches of unpublished works from this period, which lie dormant in the archives of religious institutions. Even contextualizing these works is difficult, because so much remains to be unearthed. To help fill the lacuna of knowledge about this repertoire, I will shed light on the music of maestro de capilla José Gil Pérez (1715-1762), who was active at the cathedral of Segorbe, Spain from 1745 until his death in 1762, by presenting an edition of one of his vespers services. This service is comprised of a magnificat and three psalms (nos. 116, 122, and 147). These works, transcribed from the composer's autograph housed in the Segorbe cathedral, and written for SAT/SATB chorus and organ, will serve as a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge concerning choral music of the Spanish late Baroque. It will be seen that despite Gil Pérez's innovative use of "theatrical" instruments in the Segorbe cathedral and "Italianisms" in his villancicos, his compositional style in Latin works was largely conservative, in keeping with the practice of most maestros in Spain at this time. In fact his oeuvre demonstrates varying influences, largely dependent upon the genre. To contextualize this composer and his works, I will provide background information regarding music in the Segorbe cathedral during the century in question, including trends and influences, as well as information on Gil Pérez himself.
ContributorsGorton, William Paul (Author) / Feisst, Sabine (Thesis advisor) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Hill, Gary (Committee member) / Reber, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This study presents a conductor's guide to the Carpathian Concerto by Myroslav Skoryk. As a Deputy Head of the National Composers Association of Ukraine, a professor at the Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music and the Music Artistic Director of the National Opera of Ukraine, Skoryk continues to be active as a composer, teacher, and conductor. The Carpathian Concerto was composed in 1972 and was inspired by the culture and folklore of the west region of Ukraine, the Carpathian Mountains. Over the years the Carpathian Concerto has become standard repertoire for many symphony orchestras in the Ukraine. The author, himself from the Ukraine, performed this work in 2002, as a member of the Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra, with the composer present. That experience was the inspiration for this study. This guide is intended as a score study supplementary from a conductor to a conductor, to aid in preparing a performance of the paper. The commentary focuses on issue of conducting, suggestions for score study, suggestions for interpretation and instructions to performers in connection with the rhythm, intonation, balance and orchestra placement. Programming ideas conclude this project, with short program notes provided for each program, in which Carpathian Concerto would contribute toward building a "theme" concert.
ContributorsIvanov, Lev, D.M.A (Author) / Russell, Timothy (Thesis advisor) / Hill, Gary (Committee member) / Oldani, Robert (Committee member) / Reber, William (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The use of instrumental vibrato in certain periods of classical music performances has become a highly debated and often fiery topic. The scholars of yesterday had only a few sources with which to gain a better understanding of the definition, mechanics, employment, and prevalent attitudes of those coming before them. This project aims to develop the foundation to a better understanding of instrumental vibrato by compiling primary source material written before 1940 and secondary source material relevant to that period into an annotated bibliography. The source materials in this study were mainly comprised of treatises, tutors, method books, newspaper articles, and dictionaries. The instruments covered in this study included the violin family and relatives (viols, etc...), woodwinds (including recorder), members of the brass family, organ, other keyboard instruments, guitar/banjo/lute, theremin, and prototype
iche instruments (such as player pianos). This project investigated 309 historical documents, finding 258 contained writings about instrumental vibrato. Of those, 157 were presented as bibliographic annotations. The author found no consensus at any time in the history of Western art music between 1550-1940 that vibrato is wholly acceptable or wholly unacceptable.
iche instruments (such as player pianos). This project investigated 309 historical documents, finding 258 contained writings about instrumental vibrato. Of those, 157 were presented as bibliographic annotations. The author found no consensus at any time in the history of Western art music between 1550-1940 that vibrato is wholly acceptable or wholly unacceptable.
ContributorsVerville, Timothy David (Author) / Russell, Timothy (Thesis advisor) / Humphreys, Jere T (Committee member) / Oldani, Robert (Committee member) / Reber, William (Committee member) / Rotaru, Catalin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
ContributorsHendricks, Karen Louise (Performer) / Reber, William (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created1999-11-07
ContributorsOh, Mija (Performer) / Hakes, Roy (Performer) / Reber, William (Performer) / Koonce, Frank (Performer) / Reber, Margaret (Performer) / Flegg, Lynne Marie (Performer) / Greenup, Garth (Performer) / Kim, Doosook (Performer) / Hlavenka, Dasha (Performer) / Hoxie, Jonathan (Performer) / Jackson, Nicole (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created1993-04-02
ContributorsYin, Joyce (Performer) / Song, Peipei (Performer) / Kupitz, Emily (Performer) / DePuy, Ethan (Performer) / Mihajlovich, Lazo (Performer) / Reber, William (Conductor) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2013-04-07
ContributorsSmith, Henry Charles (Performer) / Lombardi, Eugene (Performer) / Strange, Richard E. (Richard Eugene) (Performer) / Hoffman, Michael (Performer) / Reber, William (Performer) / Jackson, Nicole-Pinnell (Performer) / Jackson, Bret (Performer) / Northcut, Timothy (Performer) / Hogg, James (Performer) / Henderson, David (Performer) / University Symphony Orchestra (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created1993-02-08