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The life of Jean-Michel Basquiat is often misinterpreted in artistic discourse. From a social justice perspective, Basquiat's work is not merely art. Despite the symbolism and subject matter open for analysis, Basquiat articulated the self in relation to nuances of race, socio-economy, and historical scripts based upon real relations and

The life of Jean-Michel Basquiat is often misinterpreted in artistic discourse. From a social justice perspective, Basquiat's work is not merely art. Despite the symbolism and subject matter open for analysis, Basquiat articulated the self in relation to nuances of race, socio-economy, and historical scripts based upon real relations and conditions. Of the genre of Neo-Expressionism without a disciplined schooling in art, Jean-Michel is categorized as 'primitive' in style and form, labeled the "first black artist." Beyond the art world's possessive confines and according to post-colonial aesthetics, Jean-Michel articulates the existence of a learning self. With a pedagogical lens, a process of becoming an "artist" deepened Basquiat's expressions of self in relation to a “white” art world, which typically restricted the artist to specific categories and definitional parameters.

While recognition of the "artist" highlights the limitations of 'public' and 'self' in pedagogy, learning of the self through Neo-Expressionism is contingent upon articulating a situated existence among particular "publics," with regard to time and place. Variable dimensions of recognition create a fragmented self with transitional 'stages' and a series of acute shifts re-establish the definitional boundaries of art, definers, and ultimately the self and “Other”. These shifts continuously create new margins of the avant-garde and the self is redefined by art and discourse to sustain capital inflow, thereby replicating the colonial nature of capitalism with regard to communication, material and discovery, and “Other”. The process eschews a realized finality while expression as a relational communication of the situated persona redefines one's identity and demarcates a value of the self.
ContributorsDiffie, Dillon (Author) / Lauderdale, Pat (Thesis advisor) / Vicenti Carpio, Myla (Committee member) / Swadener, Beth Blue (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
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Description
As one of the composers living in an era filled with innovations, Anatol Konstantinovich Lyadov (1855-1914) has been relatively ignored by scholars and pianists to date. He is an unusual composer with multiple characteristics: solitary but expressive, talented but indolent. His compositional style never lacked critics—especially with respect to

As one of the composers living in an era filled with innovations, Anatol Konstantinovich Lyadov (1855-1914) has been relatively ignored by scholars and pianists to date. He is an unusual composer with multiple characteristics: solitary but expressive, talented but indolent. His compositional style never lacked critics—especially with respect to his persistent preference of miniatures. Nonetheless, his piano works embody the breathtaking beauty of the composer’s independent musical ideas and colorful musical language. Compared with the flourishing, dazzling, and nationalized music from other composers living in the same era, these light, flowing musical pieces from Lyadov have irreplaceable value.

Through the study of these small-scale piano works, one finds important connections with the music of other renowned composers (e.g. Chopin and Scriabin), and the employment of traditional aspects such as Russian folk tones and fairy tales. Stylistically, Lyadov was a representative of 19th-century Romanticism; however, his compositional style changed during his late period (after 1900), presenting a unique use of dissonance.

The scholarly research on Lyadov’s piano works remains limited. Most of the related resources can be found only in the Russian music literature. No in-depth study or dissertation on the complete piano works of Lyadov could be located, and therefore my research paper is intended to provide useful information to piano performers and teachers, hopefully encouraging more study and performance of Lyadov’s piano works. Despite their lyrical melodies and deep emotion, these works are thus far relatively unpopular and unknown, with only a few played occasionally as encore pieces.
ContributorsZhang, Xiaoyu (Author) / Hamilton, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Creviston, Hannah (Committee member) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Meir, Baruch (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
This research paper examines Guillaume Lekeu's Sonata for Piano and Violin (1892) from the perspective of a collaborative pianist, providing historical background, an analysis of the work's musical structure, and performance practice insights. Each chapter offers the performer a deeper understanding of various aspects concerning the work, including an in-depth

This research paper examines Guillaume Lekeu's Sonata for Piano and Violin (1892) from the perspective of a collaborative pianist, providing historical background, an analysis of the work's musical structure, and performance practice insights. Each chapter offers the performer a deeper understanding of various aspects concerning the work, including an in-depth analysis of cyclical features used by Lekeu.

Lekeu was strongly influenced by his teacher, César Franck, and in particular by Franck's use of cyclic techniques, which profoundly impacted Lekeu's Sonata for Piano and Violin. The cyclic treatment, which includes cyclic themes, cyclic motives, and non-cyclic themes is discussed, enabling performers to achieve a relevant structural approach to this work. A performance guide includes practical advice for the interpretation and performance of the work, along with piano pedaling suggestions. The integration of these aspects enables a pianist to gain a better understanding and appreciation of Lekeu's Sonata for Piano and Violin.
ContributorsZhang, Dongfang (Author) / Ryan, Russell (Thesis advisor) / Campbell, Andrew (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Charles-Valentin Alkan’s Grande Sonate Op. 33 ‘Les quatre âges’ is a unique four-movement work for piano solo that programmatically represents a man’s life through four decades, passing from age 20 to 50, with each movement being progressively slower than the previous. Published in 1847, it was destined for obscurity

Charles-Valentin Alkan’s Grande Sonate Op. 33 ‘Les quatre âges’ is a unique four-movement work for piano solo that programmatically represents a man’s life through four decades, passing from age 20 to 50, with each movement being progressively slower than the previous. Published in 1847, it was destined for obscurity until it was rediscovered and premiered in 1973 by English pianist Ronald Smith. Its absence from the public’s reach can be attributed to multiple reasons including the reclusive nature of the composer during the time of composition and the societal issues surrounding the French Revolution of 1848.

Much of Alkan’s music has a reputation for being nearly unplayable because of its complexity and the extremely high level of technical facility a pianist must possess in order to perform it convincingly. Aside from its performance length of nearly an hour, there are many technical issues that prevent Alkan’s Grande Sonate from being performed more frequently. This paper is an exploration of some of these performance and technical issues for consideration by pianists interested in solving the riddle of performing Alkan’s Grande Sonate.

The findings explored are based in part on the author’s experience in performing the complete Grande Sonate in recital, as well as on extant research into Alkan’s life and the interpretation and performance of his works. The paper concludes with an appendix and link to the author’s live performance of the work, another appendix renotating the fugato from Quasi-Faust, and a third appendix providing extensive fingering and voice redistribution for Les enfans [sic] from 40 ans.
ContributorsHillmann, Joshua Lester (Author) / Meir, Baruch (Thesis advisor) / Pagano, Caio (Committee member) / Hamilton, Robert (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
How fast is evolution? In this dissertation I document a profound change that occurred around the middle of the 20th century in the way that ecologists conceptualized the temporal and spatial scales of adaptive evolution, through the lens of British plant ecologist Anthony David Bradshaw (1926–2008). In the early 1960s,

How fast is evolution? In this dissertation I document a profound change that occurred around the middle of the 20th century in the way that ecologists conceptualized the temporal and spatial scales of adaptive evolution, through the lens of British plant ecologist Anthony David Bradshaw (1926–2008). In the early 1960s, one prominent ecologist distinguished what he called “ecological time”—around ten generations—from “evolutionary time”— around half of a million years. For most ecologists working in the first half of the 20th century, evolution by natural selection was indeed a slow and plodding process, tangible in its products but not in its processes, and inconsequential for explaining most ecological phenomena. During the 1960s, however, many ecologists began to see evolution as potentially rapid and observable. Natural selection moved from the distant past—a remote explanans for both extant biological diversity and paleontological phenomena—to a measurable, quantifiable mechanism molding populations in real time.

The idea that adaptive evolution could be rapid and highly localized was a significant enabling condition for the emergence of ecological genetics in the second half of the 20th century. Most of what historians know about that conceptual shift and the rise of ecological genetics centers on the work of Oxford zoologist E. B. Ford and his students on polymorphism in Lepidotera, especially industrial melanism in Biston betularia. I argue that ecological genetics in Britain was not the brainchild of an infamous patriarch (Ford), but rather the outgrowth of a long tradition of pastureland research at plant breeding stations in Scotland and Wales, part of a discipline known as “genecology” or “experimental taxonomy.” Bradshaw’s investigative activities between 1948 and 1968 were an outgrowth of the specific brand of plant genecology practiced at the Welsh and Scottish Plant Breeding stations. Bradshaw generated evidence that plant populations with negligible reproductive isolation—separated by just a few meters—could diverge and adapt to contrasting environmental conditions in just a few generations. In Bradshaw’s research one can observe the crystallization of a new concept of rapid adaptive evolution, and the methodological and conceptual transformation of genecology into ecological genetics.
ContributorsPeirson, Bruce Richard Erick (Author) / Laubichler, Manfred D (Thesis advisor) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Creath, Richard (Committee member) / Collins, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra created the character of Don Quixote in his book El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha, published in 1605. Since its creation, stories from the book have been reimagined in art, in literature and in music. Frequently, Cervantes – the man and author – and

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra created the character of Don Quixote in his book El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha, published in 1605. Since its creation, stories from the book have been reimagined in art, in literature and in music. Frequently, Cervantes – the man and author – and Quixote – the novel’s protagonist and hero – have been inextricably linked in character. Subsequent adaptors of the novel have been influenced by this connection: composers Jules Massenet (1842-1912), Jacques Ibert (1890-1962) and Mitch Leigh (1928-2014) all wrote their own versions of the Quixote saga. Though their approaches to the story are varied, the basic characteristics of it remain: Love, Life and Dreams. Those themes are reflected in the old knight’s death scene in each of their respective works. Here, the lives of the adaptors are briefly discussed and a dramatic and musical (Schenkerian), analysis of Quixote’s last hours are presented.
ContributorsKim, Se Hoon (Author) / Britton, David (Thesis advisor) / Reber, William (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
ABSTRACT:

The research for this paper is intended to introduce the reader to many of the influential trumpet performers and pedagogues in East Asian countries and territories along the Western Pacific Ocean Rim, including China, Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea,

ABSTRACT:

The research for this paper is intended to introduce the reader to many of the influential trumpet performers and pedagogues in East Asian countries and territories along the Western Pacific Ocean Rim, including China, Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan (R.O.C.), Thailand, and Vietnam.

Shao-Chun Tsai, the author of this research paper, finds it important for musicians to recognize that they are often influenced by other musicians in addition to their own efforts and self-discovery of who they are as artists. The author is a trumpeter and pianist from Taiwan, and would like to acknowledge the many outstanding trumpet players from Asia that have made important contributions to the discipline of trumpet playing. Unfortunately, there are very limited English resources available for the recognition of these pioneers, and as such they are often unknown to the general public and even to aspiring musicians. By gathering a collection of biographies, the author’s goal is to shed greater light on the rich trumpet playing and pedagogy heritage and influence in this region.

The research information contained within was primarily gathered through personal interviews conducted by the author in order to ensure that the most up-to-date and accurate information was collected for the project. This project studies nine regions and includes thirty-seven trumpeters deemed to be influential by the author, who has invested her best efforts to acquire the most in-depth and current facts obtainable. The author hopes that the stories behind each of these successful musicians will stimulate trumpeters of all ages and inspire them to pursue their own development and goals in music.
ContributorsTsai, Shao-Chun (Author) / Hickman, David R. (Thesis advisor) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Swoboda, Deanna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016