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- Creators: Arizona State University
- Creators: Holbrook, Amy
Description
Several contemporary clarinet works use Chinese folk music elements from different regions in new compositions to entice listener's and performer's appreciation of Chinese culture. However, to date, limited academic research on this topic exists. This research paper introduces six contemporary clarinet works by six Chinese composers: Qigang Chen's Morning Song, Yan Wang's Mu ma zhi ge (The Song of Grazing Horses), An-lun Huang's Capriccio for Clarinet and Strings Op. 41, Bijing Hu's The Sound of Pamir Clarinet Concerto, Mei-Mi Lan's Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra with Harp and Percussion, and Yu-Hui Chang's Three Fantasias for Solo Clarinet in B-flat. They are examined from different perspectives, including general structure, style, and rejuvenated folk music use. The focus of this research paper is to investigate the use of Chinese folk music in several works in collaboration with the composers. The author found that although contemporary composers use Chinese folk music differently in their works (i.e., some use melodies, others use harmony, while others use modes), each work celebrates the music and culture of the folk music on which the pieces are based. It is the author's hope to stimulate people's interest in music using Chinese folk music elements, and bring these lesser known works into the common clarinet repertoire.
ContributorsFeng, Chiao-Ting (Author) / Spring, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Gardner, Joshua (Committee member) / Micklich, Albie (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Schuring, Martin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
A common concern among musical performers in today'’s musical market pertains to their capacity to adapt to the constantly changing climate of the music business. This document focuses on one aspect of the development of a sustainable, entrepreneurship skill set: the production of a recording. While producing the recording Chocolates, the author examined and documented the multiplicity of skills encompassed with a recording project. The first part of the document includes a discussion of various aspects of the recording project, Chocolates, through an entrepreneurial lens, and an evaluation of the skill sets acquired through the recording process. Additionally, the inspiration and relevance behind the recording project and the process of collaboration between the two composers from whom I commissioned new compositions, Noah Taylor and James Grant, and myself is considered. Finally, I describe the recording and editing processes, including the planning involved within each process, how I achieved the final product, and the entrepreneurial skills involved. The second portion of this document examines a broad range of applications of entrepreneurship, marketing, and career management skills not only within the confines of this particular project, but also in relation to the overall sustainability of a twenty-–first century music-–performing career.
ContributorsStuckemeyer, Mary (Author) / Micklich, Albie (Thesis advisor) / Carpenter, Ellon (Committee member) / Hill, Gary (Committee member) / Schuring, Martin (Committee member) / Spring, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Despite the wealth of folk music traditions in Portugal and the importance of the clarinet in the music of bandas filarmonicas, it is uncommon to find works featuring the clarinet using Portuguese folk music elements. In the interest of expanding this type of repertoire, three new works were commissioned from three different composers. The resulting works are Seres Imaginarios 3 by Luis Cardoso; Delirio Barroco by Tiago Derrica; and Memória by Pedro Faria Gomes. In an effort to submit these new works for inclusion into mainstream performance literature, the author has recorded these works on compact disc. This document includes interview transcripts with each composer, providing first-person discussion of each composition, as well as detailed biographical information on each composer. To provide context, the author has included a brief discussion on Portuguese folk music, and in particular, the role that the clarinet plays in Portuguese folk music culture.
ContributorsFerreira, Wesley (Contributor) / Spring, Robert S (Thesis advisor) / Bailey, Wayne (Committee member) / Gardner, Joshua (Committee member) / Hill, Gary (Committee member) / Schuring, Martin (Committee member) / Solis, Theodore (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Owen Middleton (b. 1941) enjoys an established and growing reputation as a composer of classical guitar music, but his works for piano are comparatively little known. The close investigation offered here of Middleton's works for piano reveals the same impressive craftsmanship, compelling character, and innovative spirit found in his works for guitar. Indeed, the only significant thing Middleton's piano music currently lacks is the well-deserved attention of professional players and a wider audience. Middleton's piano music needs to be heard, not just discussed, so one of this document's purposes is to provide a recorded sample of his piano works. While the overall repertoire for solo piano is vast, and new works become established in that repertoire with increasing difficulty, Middleton's piano works have a significant potential to find their way into the concert hall as well as the private teaching studio. His solo piano music is highly effective, well suited to the instrument, and, perhaps most importantly, fresh sounding and truly original. His pedagogical works are of equal value. Middleton's piano music offers something for everyone: there one finds daring virtuosity, effusions of passion, intellectual force, colorful imagery, poetry, humor, and even a degree of idiomatic innovation. This study aims to reveal key aspects of the composer's musical style, especially his style of piano writing, and to provide pianists with helpful analytical, technical, and interpretive insights. These descriptions of the music are supported with recorded examples, selected from the works for solo piano written between 1962 and 1993: Sonata for Piano, Childhood Scenes, Katie's Collection, and Toccata for Piano. The complete scores of the recorded works are included in the appendix. A chapter briefly describing the piano pieces since 1993 concludes the study and invites the reader to further investigations of this unique and important body of work.
ContributorsMoreau, Barton Andrew (Author) / Hamilton, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Holbrook, Amy (Committee member) / Campbell, Andrew (Committee member) / Spring, Robert (Committee member) / Gardner, Joshua (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Although music is regarded as a universal language, it is rare to find musicians of different ages, ability levels, and backgrounds interacting with each other in collaborative performances. There is a dearth of mixed-ability-level wind band and string orchestra repertoire, and the few pieces that exist fail to celebrate the talents of the youngest and least-experienced performers. Composers writing music for school-age ensembles have also been excluded from the collaborative process, rarely communicating with the young musicians for whom they are writing.
This project introduced twenty-nine compositions into the wind band and string orchestra repertoire via a collaboration that engaged multiple constituencies. Students of wind and string instruments from Phoenix’s El Sistema-inspired Harmony Project and the Tijuana-based Niños de La Guadalupana Villa Del Campo worked together with students at Arizona State University and composers from Canada, Finland, and across the United States to learn and record concertos for novice-level soloists with intermediate-level accompaniment ensembles.
This project was influenced by the intergenerational ensembles common in Finnish music institutes. The author provides a document which includes a survey of the existing concerto repertoire for wind bands and previous intergenerational and multicultural studies in the field of music. The author then presents each of the mixed-ability concertos created and recorded in this project and offers biographical information on the composers. Finally, the author reflects upon qualitative surveys completed by the project’s participants.
Most the new concertos are available to the public. This music can be useful in the development and implementation of similar collaborations of musicians of all ages and abilities.
This project introduced twenty-nine compositions into the wind band and string orchestra repertoire via a collaboration that engaged multiple constituencies. Students of wind and string instruments from Phoenix’s El Sistema-inspired Harmony Project and the Tijuana-based Niños de La Guadalupana Villa Del Campo worked together with students at Arizona State University and composers from Canada, Finland, and across the United States to learn and record concertos for novice-level soloists with intermediate-level accompaniment ensembles.
This project was influenced by the intergenerational ensembles common in Finnish music institutes. The author provides a document which includes a survey of the existing concerto repertoire for wind bands and previous intergenerational and multicultural studies in the field of music. The author then presents each of the mixed-ability concertos created and recorded in this project and offers biographical information on the composers. Finally, the author reflects upon qualitative surveys completed by the project’s participants.
Most the new concertos are available to the public. This music can be useful in the development and implementation of similar collaborations of musicians of all ages and abilities.
ContributorsBrooks, Melanie Jane (Author) / Hill, Gary W. (Thesis advisor) / Caslor, Jason K (Thesis advisor) / Belgrave, Melita (Committee member) / Holbrook, Amy (Committee member) / Swoboda, Deanna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Born in 1937, the Ukrainian-Russian composer Nikolai Kapustin has gradually gained recognition among Western music scholars and pianists by blending American jazz idioms into classical forms, such as concertos, sonatas, and preludes; recently he has become a very prominent composer. As one of the most prolific composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, he has composed over 160 works to date. Most of them are piano solo works. The uniqueness of his compositional philosophy is that he consistently treats the music language of jazz as a core element in all his output, while others might only use jazz idioms experimentally in their works.
Being an excellent pianist himself, Kapustin has recorded many of his own works, giving a firsthand reference for interpreting his piano music. Some of his most famous works, including the Variations, Op. 41, the Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40, and the 24 Preludes in Jazz Style, Op. 53 have been recorded by other prominent artists, such as Steven Osborne and Marc-Andre Hamelin.
Scholarly research on Kapustin’s piano works remains limited. Most of it is found in journal articles and dissertations. Unfortunately, all of them are focused on his early popular works. His more recent works from 2007-2013: the Six Little Pieces, Op. 133, Dialogue, Op. 148, Etude Courte mais Transcendante pour piano, Op. 149, Nobody Is Perfect, Op. 151, A Pianist In Jeopardy, Op. 152, and Wandering, Op. 153, have not yet been discussed in any scholarly writing.
In brief, the purpose of this study is to present a first recording of these six major solo works, and to examine them in a research paper. The paper discusses Kapustin’s consistent use of jazz elements in his recent works, addresses musical and technical concerns in their performance practice, and facilitates more extended study of these valuable but yet to be recorded works.
The paper consists of eight parts. The first part covers brief background information on the composer, as well as reviewing important jazz features, in order to more effectively analyze his stylistic language in the six compositions which are explored in the subsequent chapters including a conclusion.
Being an excellent pianist himself, Kapustin has recorded many of his own works, giving a firsthand reference for interpreting his piano music. Some of his most famous works, including the Variations, Op. 41, the Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40, and the 24 Preludes in Jazz Style, Op. 53 have been recorded by other prominent artists, such as Steven Osborne and Marc-Andre Hamelin.
Scholarly research on Kapustin’s piano works remains limited. Most of it is found in journal articles and dissertations. Unfortunately, all of them are focused on his early popular works. His more recent works from 2007-2013: the Six Little Pieces, Op. 133, Dialogue, Op. 148, Etude Courte mais Transcendante pour piano, Op. 149, Nobody Is Perfect, Op. 151, A Pianist In Jeopardy, Op. 152, and Wandering, Op. 153, have not yet been discussed in any scholarly writing.
In brief, the purpose of this study is to present a first recording of these six major solo works, and to examine them in a research paper. The paper discusses Kapustin’s consistent use of jazz elements in his recent works, addresses musical and technical concerns in their performance practice, and facilitates more extended study of these valuable but yet to be recorded works.
The paper consists of eight parts. The first part covers brief background information on the composer, as well as reviewing important jazz features, in order to more effectively analyze his stylistic language in the six compositions which are explored in the subsequent chapters including a conclusion.
ContributorsYe, Qingqing (Author) / Cosand, Walter (Thesis advisor) / Hamilton, Robert (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This document accompanies new recordings of four recent sonatas for trumpet and piano. The project’s objective is to promote these works, while providing a comprehensive resource for potential performers. The four sonatas were selected based on their appeal to modern audiences. Composers Brendan Collins, Luis Engelke, William Rowson, and Christoph Nils Thompson each represents a different country, and they offer significant contributions to the trumpet repertoire. Each sonata expertly features the trumpet by highlighting its lyricism, virtuosity, and ability to cross genres.
The accompanying document draws upon interviews with the four composers, which reveal insights into the compositional process and provide details that performers will find useful. This document also offers in-depth musical descriptions, allowing performers to enhance their understanding of each sonata. The principal component of the document is the performer’s guide: Advice is presented directly to the trumpet player that has been garnered from the composers’ interviews, study of the music, and the author’s thoughts on preparing the music. To help other young musicians better comprehend the recording process, the author’s own experience is detailed. Ultimately, this document provides a window into the lifespan of the four sonatas; from their initial composition through the various stages of studying and rehearsing, culminating with the experience of recording these works for the first time.
The accompanying document draws upon interviews with the four composers, which reveal insights into the compositional process and provide details that performers will find useful. This document also offers in-depth musical descriptions, allowing performers to enhance their understanding of each sonata. The principal component of the document is the performer’s guide: Advice is presented directly to the trumpet player that has been garnered from the composers’ interviews, study of the music, and the author’s thoughts on preparing the music. To help other young musicians better comprehend the recording process, the author’s own experience is detailed. Ultimately, this document provides a window into the lifespan of the four sonatas; from their initial composition through the various stages of studying and rehearsing, culminating with the experience of recording these works for the first time.
ContributorsKlein, Garrett Lane (Author) / Hickman, David R (Thesis advisor) / Holbrook, Amy K (Committee member) / Hill, Gary W. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
The symphonies of Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911) constitute an essential element of the orchestral repertory; they are therefore essential for young conductors to understand and for instrumentalists to play. Yet they are impractical in many school situations because they call for large orchestras. One solution to this problem is for the conductor to study the original, full version of the works as Mahler composed them, but to consider performing one of the reduced instrumentations now available. A smaller-scale version provides an opportunity for both the conductor and the instrumentalists to confront the challenges of performing Mahler's music and to explore Mahler's musical language and style in a more manageable setting.
This project focuses on Mahler's Fourth Symphony, which is available in two reduced orchestrations: one by Erwin Stein made in 1921 and another by Klaus Simon from 2007. This paper is part of a larger project that includes a lecture-recital with commentary and a performance of the symphony in the more recent Simon arrangement (documented on video). It presents some background on Mahler's Fourth Symphony and compares the two reduced instrumentations to Mahler's original and to one another. Taken together, the parts of this project demonstrate an approach to learning and performing Mahler's music in a more accessible and practical setting for student conductors.
This project focuses on Mahler's Fourth Symphony, which is available in two reduced orchestrations: one by Erwin Stein made in 1921 and another by Klaus Simon from 2007. This paper is part of a larger project that includes a lecture-recital with commentary and a performance of the symphony in the more recent Simon arrangement (documented on video). It presents some background on Mahler's Fourth Symphony and compares the two reduced instrumentations to Mahler's original and to one another. Taken together, the parts of this project demonstrate an approach to learning and performing Mahler's music in a more accessible and practical setting for student conductors.
ContributorsKwon, JungHwan (Author) / Schildkret, David (Thesis advisor) / Caslor, Jason (Committee member) / Oldani, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
This project includes a recording and performance guide for three newly commissioned pieces for the clarinet. The first piece, shimmer, was written by Grant Jahn and is for B-flat clarinet and electronics. The second piece, Paragon, is for B-flat clarinet and piano and was composed by Dr. Theresa Martin. The third and final piece, Duality in the Eye of a Bovine, was written by Kurt Mehlenbacher and is for B-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, and piano. In addition to the performance guide, this document also includes background information and program notes for the compositions, as well as composer biographical information, a list of other works featuring the clarinet by each composer, and transcripts of composer and performer interviews. This document is accompanied by a recording of the three pieces.
ContributorsPoupard, Caitlin Marie (Author) / Spring, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Gardner, Joshua (Thesis advisor) / Hill, Gary (Committee member) / Oldani, Robert (Committee member) / Schuring, Martin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
This dissertation focuses on seven solo piano works written by contemporary Chinese-American composer Chen Yi. It is presented in the form of a recording project, with a written analysis of each recorded composition. The seven recorded pieces are Variations on "Awariguli", Duo Ye, Guessing, Two Chinese bagatelles: Yu Diao and Small Beijing Gong, Ba Ban, Singing in the Mountain, and Ji-Dong-Nuo. They were written between 1978 and 2005, presenting a wide range of Chen Yi's compositional style. The written portion consists of five chapters. After the introductory chapter, a sketch of Chen Yi's life is presented in Chapter Two. This chapter specifically uncovers Chen Yi's deep roots of Chinese traditional and folk music through her experiences during the Cultural Revolution. Chapter Three analyzes each of the seven pieces. Through formal structure realization, motivic analysis, and folk music implication, the author discovers the blend of Chinese and Western cultures throughout Chen Yi's music. Chapter Four discusses the performance aspect of these compositions through the author's recording experience. In this chapter, the author provides background information as well as suggestions on specific performance practice. The last chapter summarizes the entire dissertation.
ContributorsFeeken, Qing Nadia (Author) / Meir, Baruch (Thesis advisor) / Carpenter, Ellon (Committee member) / Cosand, Walter (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012