Matching Items (13)
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- All Subjects: Violin
- All Subjects: Music History
- All Subjects: Sonatas (Violin and piano)--Analysis, appreciation.
- Creators: McLin, Katherine
Description
The two solo violin works by Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) have been largely overlooked since their composition in the 1920s. These pieces are representative of Nielsen's mature style, combining elements of classical form (the Theme and Variations) as well as processes more commonly found in the twentieth century (through-composition and non-tonal harmonic language). This paper is designed to bring these long-neglected works to light and make them more approachable for violin students, teachers and performers. As Denmark's leading composer, Nielsen was well regarded in his lifetime, although his isolation from mainland Europe created obstacles in his path toward international fame. Rather than following trends in post-romantic music, he remained true to his own musical ideals. This choice often isolated him further during his career, but his unique blend of chromatic harmony, driving rhythms and juxtapositions of character captivates modern listeners. Although small in scope compared to his symphonies and other large works, the enthusiastic spirit and indomitable energy of the solo violin works reflect Nielsen's character at its best. Combining a high level of virtuosity with solid structural integrity, textural variety and musical interest, these works deserve a much more prominent place in the standard violin repertoire.
ContributorsVallier, Michelle Mitchell (Author) / McLin, Katherine (Thesis advisor) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Jiang, Danwen (Committee member) / Bailey, Wayne (Committee member) / Landschoot, Thomas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
John Harbison is one of the most prominent composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He has made major contributions in all areas of classical music, including operas, symphonies, chamber music, choral works, and vocal pieces.Among his vast output is 'Four Songs of Solitude,' his only composition (to date) for solo violin. Though the piece is beautiful and reflective in nature, its inherent technical and musical difficulties present challenges to violinists preparing the piece. There is no published edition of 'Four Songs of Solitude' that includes bowings and fingerings, and violinists used to practicing and performing the études and repertoire of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries may have difficulty determining how to successfully navigate the music. This paper examines the piece in detail, providing an analytic description of the music and suggestions for practice. An interview with the composer yielded many insights into the structural and harmonic events of the songs, and the composer's interpretive suggestions are given alongside technical suggestions by the author. The solo violin has a centuries-long legacy, and some of the most performed repertoire exists in the medium. 'Four Songs of Solitude' is a demanding set of pieces that stands out in late twentieth-century violin music. Providing information about the piece directly from the composer and suggestions for practice and performance increases the accessibility of the work for violinists seeking to bring it to the concert stage.
ContributorsSchreffler, Sarah (Author) / McLin, Katherine (Thesis advisor) / Hill, Gary (Committee member) / Holbrook, Amy (Committee member) / Spring, Robert (Committee member) / Swartz, Jonathan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
In my path through both the academic and the professional music world, I have realized that violinists traditionally operate in a very limited role when it comes to pop music. Rarely are string players integral to a song, and rarely are they allowed to indulge in creativity or improvisation. This three-track EP explores the various roles and functions that both the violin and the 21st-century violinist can have, beyond the stereotypical string pads in ballads and non-rhythmic, chordal accompaniment. The first track explores the violin providing chordal and rhythmic foundation of a song, containing only vocals and a midi bass as non-violin elements. The second track investigates the importance of production skills and strings providing the melody for a groove based up-tempo electronic drop. The final track is a more traditional yet accessible composition for piano and string quartet, inspired by the work of Ólafur Arnalds and Max Richter, potentially viable for modern dance choreography. The process of writing, recording, and producing this EP served as my first legitimate foray into the professional songwriting world. It is a testament to my battle with, and a temporary victory over, toxic perfectionism. This is an affliction that befalls creators of all trades: the crippling fear of putting out something less than perfect resulting in nothing being put out at all. Finally, I have put something out, something I am solely responsible for, that represent my original creative work. This EP seeks to set a blueprint for the capabilities of modern string playing and modern string players often neglected in the modern popular music sphere. It is the culmination of all I have learned as a musician, technically, professionally, and emotionally.
ContributorsHerbst, Felix Benjamin (Author) / McLin, Katherine (Thesis director) / Peña, Samuel (Committee member) / School of Music (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
Description
ABSTRACTViolin sonatas composed by male composers of the romantic era are widely studied and performed, yet there is far less focus on pieces of that era composed by women. Much of the research on women’s music of the era is scattered and difficult to find. The creation of the Violin Sonatas by Women website (www.violinsonatasbywomen.com) is to educate, promote, and make accessible these deserving but overlooked composers and their works.
Presently, the Violin Sonatas by Women website serves as a resource with detailed information on twenty-five sonatas for violin and piano composed by fifteen European female composers of the romantic era. Provided on this site is biographical information on each composer and access to editions, manuscripts, and recordings. This resource also contains historical information, supplemental exercises and études, and other pedagogical notes. Composers are listed in order of birth date.
This site offers a robust, accurate, and accessible resource for students and professionals. It also provides knowledge, enhances understanding, and identifies technical challenges in the pieces that could be incorporated into teaching curricula and performance repertoires. Finally, it serves to provide long-overdue credit to these female composers by giving their work more recognition.
This study is an ongoing project with more editions and recordings added as they are produced. Presently, the main portion of this website includes advanced published works written from 1863 to 1917. This website will soon be expanded to offer information on violin sonatas composed by women of other eras and origins.
ContributorsAbbott, Sarah (Author) / Swartz, Jonathan (Thesis advisor) / McLin, Katherine (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
According to the profile of the World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, the Philippines consists over a hundred ethnolinguistic groups, twenty-seven of which were direct descendants of prehistoric settlers in the country. As a nation of diverse indigenous cultures, multiple precolonial rituals are practiced even after four centuries of Western occupation. Beside strong oral and written traditions, Filipino contemporary music contributed to the preservation of these indigenous societies. Filipino composers in the second half of the twentieth century and beyond were able to incorporate native musical concepts with Western compositional language, thereby producing a new style of contemporary music unique to the Philippines. This development did not only bring greater awareness of indigenous music to city-dwelling Filipinos, but also to the larger Western music community. While newer works from Western classical composers are performed frequently today, pieces for violin by contemporary Filipino composers are largely unknown. In this research paper the author aims to bring understanding of and visibility to Filipino contemporary music to the Western violin community through an in-depth analysis of two representative works for solo violin: Abot-Tanaw II (1984) by Filipino National Artist of Music Dr. Ramon Santos, and Darangun (1985) by award-winning composer Conrado Del Rosario.
The research paper will first explore a brief history of the Philippines and its relationship with Western classical music, from precolonial times to the twenty-first century. The succeeding chapters will be devoted to the in-depth study of the two solo violin works. After providing a biography of each composer, I will present the backgrounds and contexts of their respective works. Finally, the present author will provide thorough structural analyses of these pieces and interpretative suggestions to serve as a general performance guide for interested violinists. To gather substantial data for these chapters, the author collaborated with the composers through virtual personal interviews and electronic communication.
This research paper culminated in a lecture recital performed by the author on October 21, 2021 in Katzin Hall of the School of Music, Dance and Theater at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.
ContributorsSoberano, Ramon Alfonso Cobangbang (Author) / Jiang, Danwen (Thesis advisor) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / McLin, Katherine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Josh Oxford wrote the Luminous Mysteries Rosary Sonata in 2022 on commission from the violinist Esther Witherell. The piece continues in the Rosary Sonata tradition begun by Heinrich Biber while also incorporating contemporary composition styles and violin techniques, most notably the use of dynamic scordatura. The formidable challenges involved in realizing the written score make the provision of a performance guide with a semi-tablature notation of the violin part all but essential. This document serves as a guide to future performers of the Luminous Mysteries Rosary Sonata. The paper provides the historical background for its composition, supplies information from the composer regarding Biblical allusions in the piece, and suggests solutions to common technical difficulties. The appendix consists of the semi-tablature violin part with at-pitch notation from the composer and as-fingered notation from the author.
ContributorsWitherell, Esther (Author) / McLin, Katherine (Thesis advisor) / Meyer, Jeffery (Committee member) / Saucier, Catherine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024
Description
Hans Gál is arguably one of the most underrated, underperformed and forgotten composers of the twentieth century. Once a prolific composer in the 1920s and 1930s, Gál’s career was cut short by the Nazi regime in 1933 when he was fired, and his works banned due to his Jewish heritage. Following the Second World War, his music was relegated as obsolete, belonging to a bygone era. Hans Gál is a perfect example of the intransigence, superficiality, and discrimination of the evolving musical fashion, and his life-story speaks to the misfortunes and persecution of the Jewish people in the mid-twentieth century.
Consequently, Hans Gál is known today mainly as an educator, scholar, and editor of Brahms’s works, rather than as a composer, despite an impressive compositional output spanning over 70 years covering every major musical genre. Within his impressive oeuvre are several little-known gems of the violin repertoire, including the Sonata in D for Violin and Piano and Violin Concerto op. 39 among others. Scholarly writings on Gál and his music are unfortunately scarce, particularly such works exploring his violin music.
However, recent years have seen an increased interest in resurrecting the music of Gál. Recordings of his major works as well as research of his music have furthered the awareness and understating of this forgotten composer’s music. In my document, I will continue the path of recent rediscovery and celebration of this unsung hero of twentieth-century post-Romanticism with an in-depth look at his Sonata in D for Violin and Piano (1933). A light-hearted, accessible and unpretentious work, the Sonata in D distinguishes itself in the violin-piano sonata repertoire of the interwar period by its witty, clear use of form and motivic/thematic unity in the vein of the great Viennese masters. Gál’s take on traditional idioms such as tonality, coupled with masterful use of the implication/realization process, create a highly original and noteworthy style, that renders the Sonata in D an immediately appealing work for performers and listeners alike.
Consequently, Hans Gál is known today mainly as an educator, scholar, and editor of Brahms’s works, rather than as a composer, despite an impressive compositional output spanning over 70 years covering every major musical genre. Within his impressive oeuvre are several little-known gems of the violin repertoire, including the Sonata in D for Violin and Piano and Violin Concerto op. 39 among others. Scholarly writings on Gál and his music are unfortunately scarce, particularly such works exploring his violin music.
However, recent years have seen an increased interest in resurrecting the music of Gál. Recordings of his major works as well as research of his music have furthered the awareness and understating of this forgotten composer’s music. In my document, I will continue the path of recent rediscovery and celebration of this unsung hero of twentieth-century post-Romanticism with an in-depth look at his Sonata in D for Violin and Piano (1933). A light-hearted, accessible and unpretentious work, the Sonata in D distinguishes itself in the violin-piano sonata repertoire of the interwar period by its witty, clear use of form and motivic/thematic unity in the vein of the great Viennese masters. Gál’s take on traditional idioms such as tonality, coupled with masterful use of the implication/realization process, create a highly original and noteworthy style, that renders the Sonata in D an immediately appealing work for performers and listeners alike.
ContributorsGebe, Vladimir, 1987- (Author) / McLin, Katherine (Thesis advisor) / Carpenter, Ellon (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Samuel Máynez Prince (1886-1966), was a prolific and important Mexican musician. Prince’s musical style followed the trends of the nineteenth-century salon music genre. His compositions include lullabies, songs, dances, marches, mazurkas, waltzes, and revolutionary anthems. Prince’s social status and performances in the famed Café Colón in Mexico City increased his popularity among high-ranking political figures during the time of the Mexican Revolution as well as his status in the Mexican music scene.
Unfortunately there is virtually no existing scholarship on Prince and even basic information regarding his life and works is not readily available. The lack of organization of the manuscript scores and the absence of dates of his works has further pushed the composer into obscurity. An investigation therefore was necessary in order to explore the neglected aspects of the life and works of Prince as a violinist and composer. This document is the result of such an investigation by including extensive new biographical information, as well as the first musical analysis and edition of the complete recovered works for violin and piano.
In order to fill the gaps present in the limited biographical information regarding Prince’s life, investigative research was conducted in Mexico City. Information was drawn from archives of the composer’s grandchildren, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Conservatorio Nacional de Música de México, and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional. The surviving relatives provided first-hand details on events in the composer’s life; one also offered the researcher access to their personal archive including, important life documents, photographs, programs from concert performances, and manuscript scores of the compositions. Establishing connections with the relatives also led the researcher to examining the violins owned and used by the late violinist/composer.
This oral history approach led to new and updated information, including the revival of previously unpublished music for violin and piano. These works are here compiled in an edition that will give students, teachers, and music-lovers access to this unknown repertoire. Finally, this research seeks to promote the beauty and nuances of Mexican salon music, and the complete works for violin and piano of Samuel Máynez Prince in particular.
Unfortunately there is virtually no existing scholarship on Prince and even basic information regarding his life and works is not readily available. The lack of organization of the manuscript scores and the absence of dates of his works has further pushed the composer into obscurity. An investigation therefore was necessary in order to explore the neglected aspects of the life and works of Prince as a violinist and composer. This document is the result of such an investigation by including extensive new biographical information, as well as the first musical analysis and edition of the complete recovered works for violin and piano.
In order to fill the gaps present in the limited biographical information regarding Prince’s life, investigative research was conducted in Mexico City. Information was drawn from archives of the composer’s grandchildren, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Conservatorio Nacional de Música de México, and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional. The surviving relatives provided first-hand details on events in the composer’s life; one also offered the researcher access to their personal archive including, important life documents, photographs, programs from concert performances, and manuscript scores of the compositions. Establishing connections with the relatives also led the researcher to examining the violins owned and used by the late violinist/composer.
This oral history approach led to new and updated information, including the revival of previously unpublished music for violin and piano. These works are here compiled in an edition that will give students, teachers, and music-lovers access to this unknown repertoire. Finally, this research seeks to promote the beauty and nuances of Mexican salon music, and the complete works for violin and piano of Samuel Máynez Prince in particular.
ContributorsEkenes, Spencer Arvin (Author) / McLin, Katherine (Thesis advisor) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Jiang, Danwen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
One of the most notable composers of the twentieth century, Krzysztof Penderecki played a vital role in the development of new sonorities and compositional movements in the latter half of the century. Penderecki wrote two sonatas for violin and piano, one in his student days in 1953 and the second in the twilight of his career in 1999. Given the almost fifty years that separate the two works, these sonatas provide valuable insight to Penderecki’s development as a composer over the course of his career as well as give evidence that his own unique compositional style was in place at a very early age. Despite the large span of time between the completions of these two great works, these sonatas share many commonalities. With regards to key aspects such as form, tonality, rhythm, texture, articulation, and more, this paper will analyze and compare the two works to define the ways in which they are similar as well as the ways in which they differ.
ContributorsRamchandani, Micah David (Author) / McLin, Katherine (Thesis advisor) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Landschoot, Thomas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Mark O'Connor's Fiddle concerto: Texas style fiddling, classical violin, and American string playing
Description
ABSTRACT
Classical violin playing and American fiddle music have traditionally been seen as separate musical worlds. Classical violinists practice and study long hours to master a standard repertoire of concertos and sonatas from the Western European school of art music. Fiddlers pride themselves on a rich tradition passed down through generations of informal jam sessions and innovation through improvisation. Mark O'Connor's Fiddle Concerto, premiered in 1993, sounds like a contradiction at first: a quintessential classical form combined with traditional fiddle playing. Examination of the Fiddle Concerto will show that the piece contains classical and fiddle-style elements simultaneously, creating an effective hybrid of the two styles. This document will explore how the history of the classical violin concerto and American fiddle music converge in Mark O'Connor's Fiddle Concerto. To gain an understanding of O'Connor's composition process, I submitted to him a list of questions, via email, in the summer of 2016. O'Connor’s responses provide a unique insight into the genesis of the Fiddle Concerto and his vision for musical compositions that originate from multiple genres. Chapter four of this document will discuss the melodic themes, formal makeup, and techniques presented in the Fiddle Concerto and show how both classical and fiddle elements coexist in the piece. The result of the mix is an exciting work that appeals to a broad audience of music lovers. The final chapter of this document will explore the growing repertoire of music created by cross-pollinating from different styles to create a new style, including selected O'Connor compositions completed since the Fiddle Concerto, as well as similar works by other composers who combined classical elements with other musical styles.
Classical violin playing and American fiddle music have traditionally been seen as separate musical worlds. Classical violinists practice and study long hours to master a standard repertoire of concertos and sonatas from the Western European school of art music. Fiddlers pride themselves on a rich tradition passed down through generations of informal jam sessions and innovation through improvisation. Mark O'Connor's Fiddle Concerto, premiered in 1993, sounds like a contradiction at first: a quintessential classical form combined with traditional fiddle playing. Examination of the Fiddle Concerto will show that the piece contains classical and fiddle-style elements simultaneously, creating an effective hybrid of the two styles. This document will explore how the history of the classical violin concerto and American fiddle music converge in Mark O'Connor's Fiddle Concerto. To gain an understanding of O'Connor's composition process, I submitted to him a list of questions, via email, in the summer of 2016. O'Connor’s responses provide a unique insight into the genesis of the Fiddle Concerto and his vision for musical compositions that originate from multiple genres. Chapter four of this document will discuss the melodic themes, formal makeup, and techniques presented in the Fiddle Concerto and show how both classical and fiddle elements coexist in the piece. The result of the mix is an exciting work that appeals to a broad audience of music lovers. The final chapter of this document will explore the growing repertoire of music created by cross-pollinating from different styles to create a new style, including selected O'Connor compositions completed since the Fiddle Concerto, as well as similar works by other composers who combined classical elements with other musical styles.
ContributorsYoungblood, Beth (Violinist) (Author) / Jiang, Danwen (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / McLin, Katherine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016