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- Creators: Arizona State University
Description
As clarinet compositions created by Taiwanese composers have not been widely discussed and published in academia, this research paper examines three unaccompanied clarinet works by three Taiwanese composers: Ballade by Hsiao-Wen Tseng, Chin Thoughts III by Ling-Huei Tsai, and Pointe de Flame by Chia-Lin Pan, all commissioned by the author in 2007. This research also includes a compact disc with recordings of these works, aiming to document the creativity of Taiwanese composers. This research paper examines these three commissioned works by analyzing their overall musical styles, notations, formal structures, rhythmical and melodic materials, unconventional clarinet techniques as well as the influence of Chinese musical elements. The analysis reveals the distinctive characteristic of each piece. Moreover, the author provides composers' insights and performance guides to help interested readers practice these pieces. To further understand how the composers create these pieces by drawing upon different life experiences, the paper also includes information about their backgrounds, program notes, lists of compositions, and music examples for reference. The author found that collaborating with these composers helped to establish a closer composer-performer relationship in interpreting the music. It is hoped that this compact disc recording will help make Taiwanese composers' clarinet works more accessible to a wider audience. Moreover, this research paper hopes to generate more interest in performing and appreciating music composed by Taiwanese composers.
ContributorsChuang, Yenting (Author) / Spring, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Schuring, Martin (Committee member) / Campbell, Andrew (Committee member) / Jiang, Danwen (Committee member) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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
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
The purpose of this project was to: (1) describe a brief history of Salvation Army works for euphonium and piano that are relevant to the larger euphonium repertoire, and (2) produce a professional-quality compact disc recording of these works for study and reference. Part I of this project is an annotated bibliography discussing selected works for euphonium and piano written exclusively by Salvation Army composers. Each bibliographic entry is accompanied by a brief annotation, including information on each composer, hymn tunes used in each work, and difficulties encountered in performance. Part II of this project consists of a professional-level recording of these works. The recording and bibliography is intended to serve as a reference guide for students and teachers of Salvation Army euphonium literature, and is also intended to serve as a pedagogical tool utilized in the development of high school and university-level euphonium students. Five solos and one duet with piano accompaniment were selected for this project, works that represent a wide variety of Salvation Army compositional styles. The works also cover a wide range of technical and musical challenges, and are appropriate for study by both undergraduate and graduate students of music. All of the works are currently in publication as of this writing. The following works are included in this project: "The Song of the Brother" by Erik Leidzén, "Ransomed" by George Marshall, "Ochills" by Ernest Rance, "The Better World" by Norman Bearcroft, "Symphonic Rhapsody for Euphonium" by Edward Gregson, and "Timepiece" by Norman Bearcroft.
ContributorsDraper, Andrew (Author) / Pilafian, Samuel (Thesis advisor) / Hickman, David (Committee member) / Mook, Richard (Committee member) / Humphreys, Jere (Committee member) / Hill, Gary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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 is comprised of an arrangement and recording of Giuseppe Tartini’s “Devil’s Trill” Sonata for solo violin, and includes historical background, an exploration of Italian ornamentation, and a structural analysis. The original work was written for violin and basso continuo. The author was inspired to create this arrangement for solo violin based on accounts that Tartini liked to perform this work unaccompanied.
The first three chapters focus on events from Tartini’s early life that influenced his compositional style. Chapters four and five provide an overview of Italian ornamentation, and explore five documents that were used to support decisions in creating the arrangement: Giovanni Luca Conforto’s The Joy of Ornamentation; Giuseppe Tartini’s Traité des Agréments de la Musique; Letter to Signora Maddalena Lombardini; Regole; and L’Arte dell Arco. Chapter six provides a structural analysis of the Sonata. The appendices illustrate the process of creating the arrangement.
The arrangement takes into consideration the composite of the original solo and basso continuo parts. In addition, a set of realized ornaments is provided on an ossia staff. The recording includes both the primary arrangement, presented in each initial section, as well as the realized ornaments, presented in each repeated section.
The first three chapters focus on events from Tartini’s early life that influenced his compositional style. Chapters four and five provide an overview of Italian ornamentation, and explore five documents that were used to support decisions in creating the arrangement: Giovanni Luca Conforto’s The Joy of Ornamentation; Giuseppe Tartini’s Traité des Agréments de la Musique; Letter to Signora Maddalena Lombardini; Regole; and L’Arte dell Arco. Chapter six provides a structural analysis of the Sonata. The appendices illustrate the process of creating the arrangement.
The arrangement takes into consideration the composite of the original solo and basso continuo parts. In addition, a set of realized ornaments is provided on an ossia staff. The recording includes both the primary arrangement, presented in each initial section, as well as the realized ornaments, presented in each repeated section.
Contributorsda Cruz Ribeiro e Rodrigues, Christiano E (Author) / Swartz, Jonathan (Thesis advisor) / Buck, Nancy (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
This fifteen-minute cyclical mass uses excerpts from the text of the Mass Ordinary and is laid out into five movements and across three different languages: Kyrie (Latin), Gloria (Chinese), Credo (English), Sanctus (Chinese), and Agnus Dei (Latin). Rather than following the tradition of celebrating devotion, this mass tells the story of the abuse of power in political and religious leadership. Movements sung in Latin represent the devout Christian base whose motives and inspiration remain pure and divine. The English movement, Credo, has been altered from the original and represents the manipulation and distortion of scripture, truth, and facts by self-serving leaders and politicians. Finally, Chinese movements represent those who are persecuted for their convictions and their identity.
The turmoil of the Chinese movements is characterized by atonality and fast tempos with contrasting, meditative, lyrical B sections. The outer Latin movements contain the familiar Kyrie and Agnus Dei texts in triple canon with the orchestra. The English middle movement is simultaneously familiar and awkward, with harmonies that almost function, under an altered Credo text. After an aria-like passage, the orchestra takes the “I believe” figure and manipulates it in a modal fugato, culminating in a climactic version of the main motive. A repeated double-dotted quarter note—sixteenth-note rhythm followed by a fast tremolo in the castanets make up the central “bangu motive.” This motive is derived from traditional Beijing Opera, in which the bangu is the principal percussion element. As a rhythmic motive, fragments of it appear in every movement and in several different instrument groups. These fragments undergo various transformations before a version of it arrives as the final Agnus Dei rhythmic figure.
The turmoil of the Chinese movements is characterized by atonality and fast tempos with contrasting, meditative, lyrical B sections. The outer Latin movements contain the familiar Kyrie and Agnus Dei texts in triple canon with the orchestra. The English middle movement is simultaneously familiar and awkward, with harmonies that almost function, under an altered Credo text. After an aria-like passage, the orchestra takes the “I believe” figure and manipulates it in a modal fugato, culminating in a climactic version of the main motive. A repeated double-dotted quarter note—sixteenth-note rhythm followed by a fast tremolo in the castanets make up the central “bangu motive.” This motive is derived from traditional Beijing Opera, in which the bangu is the principal percussion element. As a rhythmic motive, fragments of it appear in every movement and in several different instrument groups. These fragments undergo various transformations before a version of it arrives as the final Agnus Dei rhythmic figure.
ContributorsXu, Eric (Author) / Rogers, Rodney (Thesis advisor) / Suzuki, Kotoka (Committee member) / Meyer, Jeffery (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018