Matching Items (20)
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- Creators: Kocour, Michael
Description
The purpose of this project is to create a useful tool for musicians that utilizes the harmonic content of their playing to recommend new, relevant chords to play. This is done by training various Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) on the lead sheets of 100 different jazz standards. A total of 200 unique datasets were produced and tested, resulting in the prediction of nearly 51 million chords. A note-prediction accuracy of 82.1% and a chord-prediction accuracy of 34.5% were achieved across all datasets. Methods of data representation that were rooted in valid music theory frameworks were found to increase the efficacy of harmonic prediction by up to 6%. Optimal LSTM input sizes were also determined for each method of data representation.
ContributorsRangaswami, Sriram Madhav (Author) / Lalitha, Sankar (Thesis director) / Jayasuriya, Suren (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
My proposed project is an educational application that will seek to simplify the<br/>process of internalizing the chord symbols most commonly seen by those learning<br/>musical improvisation. The application will operate like a game, encouraging the<br/>user to identify chord tones within time limits and award points for successfully<br/>doing so.
ContributorsOwens, Kevin Bradyn (Author) / Balasooriya, Janaka (Thesis director) / Nakamura, Mutsumi (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
ContributorsPerkins, Bill (Performer) / Concert Jazz Orchestra (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created1994-03-08
Description
Using two interviews with local Phoenix professional chamber musicians, this document aims to compare their experiences across musical styles to find common ground and understand the value of chamber music as a professional and educational tool.
ContributorsGrahmann, Robert (Author) / Libman, Jeffrey (Thesis director) / Compitello, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music, Dance and Theatre (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description
This project aims to produce repertoire that will help bridge the gap between classical music and jazz, particularly focusing on some of the obstacles that female classical saxophonists face when playing jazz. By commissioning six new works for saxophone and piano written by female jazz composers, this project facilitates an entry-level experience with improvised materials that will help break down this barrier for interested saxophonists. The compositions are From A to Z: Two Women’s Journeys by Ayn Inserto, Sunlit Dream by Annie Booth, Taking Flight by Katelyn Vincent, Des-Dunes by Sam Spear, Jogo by Yoko Suzuki, and Impromptu by Aida De Moya. For each work, this project provides recordings, performance guides, improvisation guides, biographical contents, and program notes. I hope to encourage young female saxophonists to explore their interests in jazz without fear or reservation through performance of these pieces.
ContributorsZelenak, Kristen (Author) / Creviston, Christopher (Thesis advisor) / Kocour, Michael (Committee member) / Saucier, Catherine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
This paper highlights a method for jazz transcription, comprehension, and practice to be implemented primarily in applied saxophone instruction with undergraduate students. The purpose is the identify and mend the divide between jazz and classical that appears in academia. This divide is one that came about by necessity in the saxophone’s relative youth in the academic world as it found solid footing in conservatories around the world. A literature review establishes the current state of dialogue between both jazz and classical in the academic saxophone community, including the current state of crossover scholarship that discusses the interaction between multiple genres. This review investigates what serves as pedagogical material in an aural discipline like jazz. A thorough approach to transcription is crucial change to the standard practice of jazz transcription typically employed in applied saxophone studios. This approach takes the focus away from the product and places it on the process. This process is demonstrated through a transcription and deconstruction of Charlie Parker’s “Cheryl.” Though this approach is presented through the perspective of a saxophonist, this process can be applied to any number of instrumental disciplines seeking to understand jazz transcription and improvisation more fully.
ContributorsFeher, Patrick Francis (Author) / Creviston, Christopher (Thesis advisor) / Kocour, Michael (Committee member) / Libman, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Caslor, Jason (Committee member) / Wells, Christi Jay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
William “Count” Basie (1904-1984) is one of the most beloved and imitated figures in American music. His name has long been ubiquitous among jazz scholars, critics, and practitioners. Basie’s sparse, minimalistic piano idiolect is immediately recognizable, and the 4/4 swing aesthetic of his Kansas City-born jazz orchestra is a cornerstone of the big band idiom. “Stories and Significations” critically examines prevailing narratives about Basie’s biography and musical output, many of which have not been substantively reconsidered since the 1980s. Through an interdisciplinary synthesis of methods ranging from Afrodiasporic modes of musical analysis, archival research, critical historiography, and African American literary theory, this project serves to enrich Basie’s legacy while also critiquing the mythology surrounding it. By signifying on the traditional “Life and Music” paradigm of jazz biography, in “Stories and Significations” I use preexisting scholarly and critical discourses as points of departure for critique while also offering scholars and practitioners new ways to write, talk, and think about Basie. In doing so, I bring Basie, the stories of his life, and the Significations in his music into the rich scholarly discourse of the New Jazz Studies that has added such valuable depth and detail to the legacies of numerous other figures in jazz history such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Miles Davis.
ContributorsDavis, Jayson Owen (Author) / Wells, Christi J (Thesis advisor) / Kocour, Michael (Committee member) / Saucier, Catherine (Committee member) / Schmelz, Peter (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
The Vocal Jazz ensemble, a uniquely American choral form, has grown and flourished in the past half century largely through the efforts of professionals and educators throughout the collegiate music community. This document provides historical data as presented through live and published interviews with key individuals involved in the early development of collegiate Vocal Jazz, as well as those who continue this effort currently. It also offers a study of the most influential creative forces that provided the spark for everyone else's fire. A frank discussion on the obstacles encountered and overcome is central to the overall theme of this research into a genre that has moved from a marginalized afterthought to a legitimate, more widely accepted art form. In addition to the perspective provided to future generations of educators in this field, this document also discusses the role of collegiate music academia in preserving and promoting the Vocal Jazz ensemble. The discussion relies on recent data showing the benefits of Vocal Jazz training and the need for authenticity towards its universal integration into college and university vocal performance and music education training.
ContributorsAmerind, Gregory (Author) / Kocour, Michael (Thesis advisor) / Carpenter, Ellon (Committee member) / Britton, David (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Throughout history, African-Americans have had to fight for their civil rights. There were many ways used to voice their opinions and advance the civil rights movement, including protests and marches. One very effective method was through music and the creation of jazz. Louis Armstrong was an innovator and major influence of jazz. His abilities as an artist were recognized by society, above his political position or class status.
The topic of my thesis is Louis Armstrong and his influence on society and the Civil Rights Movement. The intent is to demonstrate how Louis Armstrong aided the Civil Rights Movement by using his music to promote social justice and racial equality. The focus will be on the context of African-Americans, their social status, and rights from the early 1900s to the mid-1900s. I will connect this to important events in that time such as the fight against Jim Crow Laws and how Louis Armstrong played a role in ending segregation. He accomplished this by pushing the movement forward through speeches, fund-raising events, and his innovation of jazz. Armstrong’s gift was a form of swing jazz that advanced improvisation and emotion of music.
He was criticized for playing to segregated audiences and was thought to keep offensive stereotypes alive. However, Louis Armstrong battled against these conspiracies by performing fund-raising events and through public political stances against the oppression of African-Americans. As an example, he was outspoken about his disapproval of government and the public for their treatment of the nine African-American students enrolled at Little Rock. This resulted in the first time the school would be unsegregated between whites and blacks. Louis Armstrong worked hard in the fight against segregation and used his mastery of jazz to advance the civil rights movement. Finally, I will make a proposal as to how society can learn from Louis Armstrong and how to inspire new innovative forms of positively influencing society to help the less fortunate.
The topic of my thesis is Louis Armstrong and his influence on society and the Civil Rights Movement. The intent is to demonstrate how Louis Armstrong aided the Civil Rights Movement by using his music to promote social justice and racial equality. The focus will be on the context of African-Americans, their social status, and rights from the early 1900s to the mid-1900s. I will connect this to important events in that time such as the fight against Jim Crow Laws and how Louis Armstrong played a role in ending segregation. He accomplished this by pushing the movement forward through speeches, fund-raising events, and his innovation of jazz. Armstrong’s gift was a form of swing jazz that advanced improvisation and emotion of music.
He was criticized for playing to segregated audiences and was thought to keep offensive stereotypes alive. However, Louis Armstrong battled against these conspiracies by performing fund-raising events and through public political stances against the oppression of African-Americans. As an example, he was outspoken about his disapproval of government and the public for their treatment of the nine African-American students enrolled at Little Rock. This resulted in the first time the school would be unsegregated between whites and blacks. Louis Armstrong worked hard in the fight against segregation and used his mastery of jazz to advance the civil rights movement. Finally, I will make a proposal as to how society can learn from Louis Armstrong and how to inspire new innovative forms of positively influencing society to help the less fortunate.
ContributorsSchmerler, Cameron (Author) / Wells, Christopher (Thesis director) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
With this thesis, I have set out to answer two fundamental questions within music: does music mean anything, and should music mean anything? In answering those questions, I also set out to create a creative project that would implement these ideas: an original concept album of music that is programmatic in nature and incorporates motivic composition, jazz improvisation, lyrics, extra-musical audio and more all in the service of telling a narrative, a story, through music. I have done research into understanding music as a language, finding that this language is primarily communicative and recreational, rather than representational, of meaning. As well, I discuss the various different ways that music composers from Wagner to Williams have created narrative meaning in their works, using examples of leitmotif and other devices, as well as tracing the contextual associations of meaning that occurs when music is perceived in certain contexts. Furthermore, I discuss the dialogue between absolute and programmatic music, and also talk about the role of jazz improvisation in adding meaning to works.
For the second part of my thesis I talk about how I came to create the creative project aspect. I discuss how and why I designed the narrative that I did, and also analyzed the music I have created to illustrate how I implemented the various methods of musical storytelling that I detail in the first part of the paper. Lastly, I discuss my plans for publication and release of the creative project.
The third part of this thesis is a sample of the creative project. There is a version of the narrative that goes along with the creative project, as well as one of the eight pieces of original music on the creative project, entitled Journey.
Overall, I found that music does have meaning, it is just meaning that society ascribes to it based off of artistic intent and context, and as to whether music should mean anything, I believe that this is a question best left to be answered on an individual basis. Music can be whatever it wants to be.
For the second part of my thesis I talk about how I came to create the creative project aspect. I discuss how and why I designed the narrative that I did, and also analyzed the music I have created to illustrate how I implemented the various methods of musical storytelling that I detail in the first part of the paper. Lastly, I discuss my plans for publication and release of the creative project.
The third part of this thesis is a sample of the creative project. There is a version of the narrative that goes along with the creative project, as well as one of the eight pieces of original music on the creative project, entitled Journey.
Overall, I found that music does have meaning, it is just meaning that society ascribes to it based off of artistic intent and context, and as to whether music should mean anything, I believe that this is a question best left to be answered on an individual basis. Music can be whatever it wants to be.
ContributorsPrice, Alexander (Author) / Gilfillan, Daniel (Thesis director) / Kocour, Michael (Committee member) / Libman, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05