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- Genre: Masters Thesis
Description
Preservation Symphony is a short, multi-movement, orchestral composition that explores the versatility of the [016] pitch class set as the dominant unifying force of this cyclical work. The composition is scored for Piccolo, two Flutes, two Oboes, English Horn, two Clarinets, Bass Clarinet, full complement of Brass, Timpani, two Percussionists, and Strings. Movement one is in sonata form; the [016] set is used in structuring its overall formal scheme. The primary focus of the movement is on the tritone [0 6] as a replacement for the traditional tonic and dominant polarity. The movement features a driving force that alternates between pulse subdivisions of even sixteenth notes and sixteenth-note triplets. Movement two is in simple binary form with a central tonality of A. An English Horn solo functions as both the opening of the movement and a transition from the tonality of movement one (F) into the new tonal center of A. The unifying pitch class set [016] is used in this movement in a Phrygian context. Movement two has a contemplative and dark tone, which is in stark contrast to the outer movements. Movement three has a lighter, upbeat nature. The movement is in rondo form with its main theme written in a folk-like character. This movement returns to F as the central tonality, completing the overall tonal plan of the work. As in movement one, it explores the tritone polarity of F and B. The movement also revisits the chromatic mediant relationship found in the middle of movement two in the oboes. The pitch class set is now used in the context of a Lydian-Mixolydian (or acoustic) scale, from which both the central and secondary themes of the rondo are derived.
ContributorsKemp, Tyler (Composer) / Rogers, Rodney (Thesis advisor) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This composition was commissioned by the Orgelpark to be performed in Amsterdam in September 2011 during Gaudeamus Muziekweek. It will be performed by the vocal group VocaalLab Nederland. It is scored for four vocalists, organ, tanpura, and electronic sound. The work is a culmination of my studies in South Indian Carnatic rhythm, North Indian classical singing, and American minimalism. It is a meditation on the idea that the drone and pulse are micro/macro aspects of the same phenomenon of vibration. Cycles are created on the macroscale through a mathematically defined scale of harmonic/pitch relationships. Cycles are created on the microscale through the subdivision and addition of rhythmic pulses.
ContributorsAdler, Jacob (Composer) / Rockmaker, Jody (Thesis advisor) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Etezady, Roshanne, 1973- (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, musicologists have been delving into formerly inaccessible archives and publishing new research on Eastern Bloc composers. Much of the English-language scholarship, however, has focused on already well-known composers from Russia or Poland. In contrast, composers from smaller countries such as the Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia) have been neglected. In this thesis, I shed light on the new music scene in Czechoslovakia from 1948–1989, specifically during the period of “Normalization” (1969–1989).
The period of Normalization followed a cultural thaw, and beginning in 1969 the Czechoslovak government attempted to restore control. Many Czech and Slovak citizens kept their opinions private to avoid punishment, but some voiced their opinions and faced repression, while others chose to leave the country. In this thesis, I explore how two Czech composers, Marek Kopelent (b. 1932) and Petr Kotík (b. 1942) came to terms with writing music before and during the period of Normalization.
The period of Normalization followed a cultural thaw, and beginning in 1969 the Czechoslovak government attempted to restore control. Many Czech and Slovak citizens kept their opinions private to avoid punishment, but some voiced their opinions and faced repression, while others chose to leave the country. In this thesis, I explore how two Czech composers, Marek Kopelent (b. 1932) and Petr Kotík (b. 1942) came to terms with writing music before and during the period of Normalization.
ContributorsJohnson, Victoria K (Author) / Feisst, Sabine (Thesis advisor) / Oldani, Robert (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Rhythm is a work for percussion ensemble and narrator. The percussion ensemble includes five percussionists who each play multiple instruments. The narrator recites quotes from the book Meter as Rhythm by Dr. Christopher Hasty. The piece is in six parts with a short introduction (mm. 1-5). The structure is delineated by the quotes from Meter as Rhythm. The narrator describes an aspect of rhythm at the beginning of each section and the quote is sonically realized through the percussion ensemble.
This piece experiments with different timbres and rhythmic motives. Timbral variety is achieved through grouping instruments into woods, metals, and membranes and using combinations of those groups to delineate different sections and ideas. The rhythmic motives are based on the numbers 3, 5, and 7, and appear as rhythmic values, phrase lengths, and number of repetitions.
The first section states a definition of rhythm and contains all timbres and motives contained within the composition. The piece then explores the relativity of time and is represented by drums changing the speed of their notes. The third section discusses rhythm as repetition and is illustrated by repetitive rhythmic motives. The text then features rhythm as a subjective human experience and is reflected through polyrhythms played between ensemble members. What follows is a description of meter as a temporal measurement that is unchanged by rhythmic activity. By bringing back previous motives, this section reveals that all of the motives work within the same meter. In the final section, the performers play various subdivisions of the beat to show different aspects of proportion by dividing the beat in several ways.
This piece experiments with different timbres and rhythmic motives. Timbral variety is achieved through grouping instruments into woods, metals, and membranes and using combinations of those groups to delineate different sections and ideas. The rhythmic motives are based on the numbers 3, 5, and 7, and appear as rhythmic values, phrase lengths, and number of repetitions.
The first section states a definition of rhythm and contains all timbres and motives contained within the composition. The piece then explores the relativity of time and is represented by drums changing the speed of their notes. The third section discusses rhythm as repetition and is illustrated by repetitive rhythmic motives. The text then features rhythm as a subjective human experience and is reflected through polyrhythms played between ensemble members. What follows is a description of meter as a temporal measurement that is unchanged by rhythmic activity. By bringing back previous motives, this section reveals that all of the motives work within the same meter. In the final section, the performers play various subdivisions of the beat to show different aspects of proportion by dividing the beat in several ways.
ContributorsBush, Zachary (Author) / Rockmaker, Jody (Thesis advisor) / Rodgers, Rodney (Committee member) / Suzuki, Kotoka (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
“OUT.” is a song cycle for bass and piano that follows the coming out process of a young homosexual who has been raised in a politically and religiously conservative corner of American culture. This character was taught from a very young age that anything or anyone of a queer nature was inherently wrong and should be avoided and scorned. The story arc captured in this seven-movement work is only a small portion of what the character ultimately goes through as they mature. This portion of their narrative has been isolated with the hope of embodying a queer character of strength, and this piece begins with the character knowing, understanding, and having already come to terms with their own sexuality. The story outlined in this song cycle is one of hardship that ultimately leads to triumph, as a demonstration that overcoming queer suppression is an achievable goal.
ContributorsGreenhalgh, Jedd (Author) / Suzuki, Kotoka (Thesis advisor) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Roumain, Daniel B (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
This work explores the blurring and eradication of boundaries – whether the boundaries are musical, social, cultural, linguistical, or political. I wanted to create a work that would explore the boundaries of my own dual identities, such as Mexican or American, or masculine or feminine, and that of my varied interests, such as popular, jazz, and European art music. After half a year of work, Sueño-Vibrant is the dazzling, whirlwind of a result (“vibrant” is pronounced just as it is in English).
I worked with poet Marco Piña because we share many similarities in our artistic philosophies, owing to our mutual identities as bilingual Chicanxs. Considering the poems themselves, for me, “Bastardized Spanglish Translations” reveals an individual recovering from the end of a romantic relationship, whereas “Night Song” is about the self-discovery of one’s identity. By pairing these two poems, I create a polarity between the texts themselves, to highlight that the shaping of identity is both an internal and external process.
In the cantata, we travel from the mourning and mysterious “Do My Eyes Lie” to the Mexican folk-styled “Ya me voy;” the arduous and painful “Ban Me From Balancing;” the indie- and jazz-inspired “Soon I’ll Be Home;” the introspective choral work “Night Song;” and the dissonant and disoriented “This Song Keeps Skipping.” I complete the work with “Adiós, Amor,” where these seemingly disparate feelings, genres, ideas, and identities are tied together and explored to fruition through a variety of styles and genres, from the salsa, to the opera chorus. With this work, I invite audiences to consider their own identities and those of others, and to embrace the social dissonances that happen both within us and around us.
I worked with poet Marco Piña because we share many similarities in our artistic philosophies, owing to our mutual identities as bilingual Chicanxs. Considering the poems themselves, for me, “Bastardized Spanglish Translations” reveals an individual recovering from the end of a romantic relationship, whereas “Night Song” is about the self-discovery of one’s identity. By pairing these two poems, I create a polarity between the texts themselves, to highlight that the shaping of identity is both an internal and external process.
In the cantata, we travel from the mourning and mysterious “Do My Eyes Lie” to the Mexican folk-styled “Ya me voy;” the arduous and painful “Ban Me From Balancing;” the indie- and jazz-inspired “Soon I’ll Be Home;” the introspective choral work “Night Song;” and the dissonant and disoriented “This Song Keeps Skipping.” I complete the work with “Adiós, Amor,” where these seemingly disparate feelings, genres, ideas, and identities are tied together and explored to fruition through a variety of styles and genres, from the salsa, to the opera chorus. With this work, I invite audiences to consider their own identities and those of others, and to embrace the social dissonances that happen both within us and around us.
ContributorsRodriguez, Kristian Silviano (Author) / Rockmaker, Jody (Thesis advisor) / Suzuki, Kotoka (Committee member) / Wells, Christopher (Committee member) / Schildkret, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Major is a work for trumpet and piano. It is composed in the romantic tradition and is thirty minutes in length. Trumpet chamber repertoire has increased dramatically in the past century, but few new works are representative of the harmonic language or extended forms of the late romantic tradition.
The first movement, “Allegro con spirito,” is in sonata form with fantasy qualities allowing the exposition to meld with the development. The primary theme in 3/4 meter develops a neighbor-tone motive; in contrast, the second theme in 4/4 (in the same tempo) is more lyric in nature. In the development, the juxtaposition of these themes provides changing meters and opportunity for dramatic tension.
The bold and metric nature of the first movement is contrasted with the slow, more lyric second movement, “Dolce e sensibile,” (Sweet and sensitive, pg. 22). This movement in E-flat major is in sonata form and encourages a more expressive, rubato interpretation. The second theme of the first movement shares a similar falling gesture as the themes of the second movement, but are different in their expressive qualities.
The third movement (“Grave et lento”) is played attacca and begins with a transition from the ideas of the second movement (pg. 30). The dissonant harmonies and low register of the piano solo create an ominous atmosphere which mutates to the bold nature of the first movement. The remainder of the third movement is a seven-part Rondo. The primary theme (m. 20, pg. 31) is derived from a theme from the development of the first movement (m. 210, pg. 12). The C section of the rondo (m. 118, pg. 40) develops the opening theme of the third movement and leads to the primary theme in B-flat major. The final A section of the rondo is piu mosso with the primary theme in a compound meter providing a coda for the entire work.
The first movement, “Allegro con spirito,” is in sonata form with fantasy qualities allowing the exposition to meld with the development. The primary theme in 3/4 meter develops a neighbor-tone motive; in contrast, the second theme in 4/4 (in the same tempo) is more lyric in nature. In the development, the juxtaposition of these themes provides changing meters and opportunity for dramatic tension.
The bold and metric nature of the first movement is contrasted with the slow, more lyric second movement, “Dolce e sensibile,” (Sweet and sensitive, pg. 22). This movement in E-flat major is in sonata form and encourages a more expressive, rubato interpretation. The second theme of the first movement shares a similar falling gesture as the themes of the second movement, but are different in their expressive qualities.
The third movement (“Grave et lento”) is played attacca and begins with a transition from the ideas of the second movement (pg. 30). The dissonant harmonies and low register of the piano solo create an ominous atmosphere which mutates to the bold nature of the first movement. The remainder of the third movement is a seven-part Rondo. The primary theme (m. 20, pg. 31) is derived from a theme from the development of the first movement (m. 210, pg. 12). The C section of the rondo (m. 118, pg. 40) develops the opening theme of the third movement and leads to the primary theme in B-flat major. The final A section of the rondo is piu mosso with the primary theme in a compound meter providing a coda for the entire work.
ContributorsBrand, Spencer Paul (Author) / DeMars, James (Thesis advisor) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Rodney, Rogers (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Bruegel is a four movement composition inspired by the paintings and engravings of Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569). It is scored for Bass Clarinet in Bb, Electric Guitar, One Percussionist (Glockenspiel, Woodblock, Snare, Kick Drum, and Brake Drums), Piano and String Quartet. Each movement explores a painting or engraving from Bruegel’s catalog of works and attempts to embody each piece of art through the use of certain compositional techniques.
The Cripples (Movement I) explores layered rhythms and disjunct melodic fragments which play on the idea of Bruegel’s painting of crippled men trampling over each other and stumbling. Small moments of balance are found throughout only to be lost. Patience (Movement II) is based on an early engraving of Bruegel, which depicts a lone woman who represents a virtue, in this case patience, surrounded by sin and vices. Juxtaposed textures are presented with patience eventually finding itself victorious to temptation. Children’s Games (Movement III) explores a painting which depicts a large number of children playing a plethora of different games. The movement uses graphic notation and plays with the idea of games to create a compositional “game” for the ensemble. Big Fish Eat Little Fish (Movement IV) depicts a large fish eating several smaller fish. A process is introduced which plays on the idea of increasing density and lasts for the bulk of the movement.
The Cripples (Movement I) explores layered rhythms and disjunct melodic fragments which play on the idea of Bruegel’s painting of crippled men trampling over each other and stumbling. Small moments of balance are found throughout only to be lost. Patience (Movement II) is based on an early engraving of Bruegel, which depicts a lone woman who represents a virtue, in this case patience, surrounded by sin and vices. Juxtaposed textures are presented with patience eventually finding itself victorious to temptation. Children’s Games (Movement III) explores a painting which depicts a large number of children playing a plethora of different games. The movement uses graphic notation and plays with the idea of games to create a compositional “game” for the ensemble. Big Fish Eat Little Fish (Movement IV) depicts a large fish eating several smaller fish. A process is introduced which plays on the idea of increasing density and lasts for the bulk of the movement.
ContributorsVillalta, Kevin (Author) / Rogers, Rodney (Thesis advisor) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Suzuki, Kotoka (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
In a Mirror Dimly… is an autobiographical work that follows my mental development from my teen years into my mid-20s and offers a way forward into the future. First comes legalism: a canon, which represents a rule-based thought process. Next is freedom and individuality: indeterminate methods and textures. Finally, the piece concludes with unity and wholeness, using quoted and composed hymns in chorale settings. The conceptual content is taken from Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, a story of a Hindu man’s life through the development of his own ideology into Buddhism. He begins by following the rules of his faith obsessively, then he decides that the rules themselves don’t matter as much as the spirit behind them, and finally he begins to see the interconnectedness of nature through the flow of a river and gains a fuller picture of all that is. I have also included an anxiety motif which begins as an interruption or nuisance; it then takes over in the form of a panic attack but is quelled by a hymn: “Be Still My Soul,” with text written by Katharina von Schlegel set to the tune of Sibelius’ Finlandia. Finally, the anxiety is contained and molded to help the overall texture rather than disrupting it. The anxiety is never truly eradicated, but it is transformed.
ContributorsChesney, Jacob Andrew (Author) / Temple, Alex (Thesis advisor) / Bolanos, Gabriel (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
A New Home is a multi-movement musical composition written for a chamber orchestra of flute, oboe, clarinet in B-flat, bassoon, horn in F, trumpet in C, trombone, bass trombone, percussion (1), pianoforte, and strings. The duration of the entire piece is approximately fourteen minutes (movement 1: four minutes; mvt. 2: four minutes and thirty seconds; mvt. 3: five minutes and thirty seconds). As an exercise in compositional experimentation, some of the musical techniques explored throughout the piece are harmonic planing or parallelism, ostinati, modality, chromatic dissonance, thematic transformation, mixed meter, and syncopation, as well as issues of orchestral blend, balance, and color.
The first movement, ironically titled “Don’t Panic,” highlights my initial anxieties on experimentation by creating hectic textures. The movement is structured around two main alternating sections of chromatic, chordal dissonance with more modal, melodic syncopation in addition to a developmental section, but a sense of rhythmic groove is prominent throughout. The second movement, “Still Here,” is a darker, more sensitive music as it explores various settings of its main thematic material interspersed with march-like episodes and a related secondary theme. The themes are organized around a diatonic scale that omits one pitch to comprise a six-note scale. The third movement, “Change of State,” recalls the modality and rhythmic liveliness of the first movement, and it bears a thematic relationship to the second movement. Much of the material also revolves around scales and mediant relationships to comprise an opening theme, a groove section, and an ethereal, glassy texture which ends the movement. Essentially, the piece closes with a calmer music in contrast to the brute force that opened the piece.
The first movement, ironically titled “Don’t Panic,” highlights my initial anxieties on experimentation by creating hectic textures. The movement is structured around two main alternating sections of chromatic, chordal dissonance with more modal, melodic syncopation in addition to a developmental section, but a sense of rhythmic groove is prominent throughout. The second movement, “Still Here,” is a darker, more sensitive music as it explores various settings of its main thematic material interspersed with march-like episodes and a related secondary theme. The themes are organized around a diatonic scale that omits one pitch to comprise a six-note scale. The third movement, “Change of State,” recalls the modality and rhythmic liveliness of the first movement, and it bears a thematic relationship to the second movement. Much of the material also revolves around scales and mediant relationships to comprise an opening theme, a groove section, and an ethereal, glassy texture which ends the movement. Essentially, the piece closes with a calmer music in contrast to the brute force that opened the piece.
ContributorsJones, Zachary William (Author) / Rogers, Rodney (Thesis advisor) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016