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Description
It is not a tremendous exaggeration to suggest the world almost ended on September
26, 1983. At the command center for the Soviet Union's Oko nuclear early warning
system a report came in stating that six hostile missiles were launched from the United
States. The commanding officer at the center, Stanislav Petrov, was convinced that the
missiles were a false alarm, and indeed the Oko system had malfunctioned. Petrov was
justified in reporting the attack to his superiors, which would have likely resulted in
retaliatory strikes from the Soviet Union, leading to nuclear war. This relatively obscure,
but immensely important moment in history is the inspiration for Alarm.
This work is not a direct retelling of Petrov's story, but a musical journey imagining the
many emotions this man must have been feeling. The piece is also not a look at the
Cold War politics surrounding the event, but a study of a choice, one of massive
consequences. The most significant element in Alarm is tension. The goal of the
opening statement of the piece, played by the brass, is to immediately transport the
listener into this world on the edge. This motive is developed throughout the work, and
serves as a binding agent as the music evolves. Another crucial element is the
oscillating staccato notes usually played by high-pitched instruments. This is implying
stress one might feel- whether it be an alarm going off or time running out. As the piece
seems to reach its breaking point just past the halfway mark, Petrov makes his choice.
The final part of the work is decidedly more peaceful, emphasized by the "Tranquillo"
and "Calmo" descriptors, but there is a consistent dark undertone to Alarm. Petrov's
story is bittersweet- he is a hero, but his accomplishments were swept under the rug by
Soviet leadership, humiliated by their nuclear system's failure. The near disaster in 1983
has barely been addressed by the world at large, even as the threat of nuclear war
seems to fade. When the next nuclear crisis arises, what choices will be made?
26, 1983. At the command center for the Soviet Union's Oko nuclear early warning
system a report came in stating that six hostile missiles were launched from the United
States. The commanding officer at the center, Stanislav Petrov, was convinced that the
missiles were a false alarm, and indeed the Oko system had malfunctioned. Petrov was
justified in reporting the attack to his superiors, which would have likely resulted in
retaliatory strikes from the Soviet Union, leading to nuclear war. This relatively obscure,
but immensely important moment in history is the inspiration for Alarm.
This work is not a direct retelling of Petrov's story, but a musical journey imagining the
many emotions this man must have been feeling. The piece is also not a look at the
Cold War politics surrounding the event, but a study of a choice, one of massive
consequences. The most significant element in Alarm is tension. The goal of the
opening statement of the piece, played by the brass, is to immediately transport the
listener into this world on the edge. This motive is developed throughout the work, and
serves as a binding agent as the music evolves. Another crucial element is the
oscillating staccato notes usually played by high-pitched instruments. This is implying
stress one might feel- whether it be an alarm going off or time running out. As the piece
seems to reach its breaking point just past the halfway mark, Petrov makes his choice.
The final part of the work is decidedly more peaceful, emphasized by the "Tranquillo"
and "Calmo" descriptors, but there is a consistent dark undertone to Alarm. Petrov's
story is bittersweet- he is a hero, but his accomplishments were swept under the rug by
Soviet leadership, humiliated by their nuclear system's failure. The near disaster in 1983
has barely been addressed by the world at large, even as the threat of nuclear war
seems to fade. When the next nuclear crisis arises, what choices will be made?
ContributorsArmetta, Daniel Michael (Author) / Rockmaker, Jody (Thesis advisor) / Temple, Alex (Committee member) / Bolanos, Gabriel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Patterns and Soundscapes explores the concept album format, popularized in the late 1960s and into modern times by artists such as the Who, Pink Floyd, and Frank Zappa. Specifically, I sought to adapt this format as a compositional process aimed towards the completion of a large-scale work that can be presented in album format and live performance. Further influenced by the concept album, I sought to create pieces consisting of similar musical techniques, motivic ideas, and harmonic language, so that each piece could be performed on its own or be combined as a multi-movement work.
I began writing this work in the spring of 2019, with “Colored Red Currents” for string quartet and “Conspiracy Wall” for two drum sets. After realizing that both pieces had a similar sound and style, I began to consider how they could function within an album format, and how they could also work together to form a large-scale musical work. I then decided that each subsequent piece, in addition to being composed of similar musical ideas, would be written in a manner that allowed for seamless transitions between the end of one and the beginning of another, and would also introduce the instrumentation making up the full ensemble in the last movement.
This work begins with the sparkling and rapid string quartet, “Colored Red Currents,” then moves to the energetic and groove based “Conspiracy Wall” for two drum sets, the meditative “Interlude” for solo viola and electronics, and the quick and mechanical “Beat Frequency” for alto saxophone, bass clarinet, and electronics. The work ends with “ALL IN,” where the full ensemble is finally formed, and all of the patterns and soundscapes come together to form a bombastic and wild finale.
I began writing this work in the spring of 2019, with “Colored Red Currents” for string quartet and “Conspiracy Wall” for two drum sets. After realizing that both pieces had a similar sound and style, I began to consider how they could function within an album format, and how they could also work together to form a large-scale musical work. I then decided that each subsequent piece, in addition to being composed of similar musical ideas, would be written in a manner that allowed for seamless transitions between the end of one and the beginning of another, and would also introduce the instrumentation making up the full ensemble in the last movement.
This work begins with the sparkling and rapid string quartet, “Colored Red Currents,” then moves to the energetic and groove based “Conspiracy Wall” for two drum sets, the meditative “Interlude” for solo viola and electronics, and the quick and mechanical “Beat Frequency” for alto saxophone, bass clarinet, and electronics. The work ends with “ALL IN,” where the full ensemble is finally formed, and all of the patterns and soundscapes come together to form a bombastic and wild finale.
ContributorsGrossman, Brendan Patrick (Author) / Rockmaker, Jody (Thesis advisor) / Norby, Christopher (Thesis advisor) / Bolanos, Gabriel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Pacific Suite (2016) is a four-movement work for solo piano composed by the author of this paper, Holly Kordahl, that incorporates elements of several musical idioms, including Impressionism, tintinnabuli (as in the music of Arvo Pärt), post-modernism, minimalism and improvisation. This Doctorate of Musical Arts project consists of a descriptive paper, analysis, score and recording. The piece features varying levels of performer independence and improvisation along with notated music. Each movement is named after a different environment of the Pacific Ocean: Great Barrier Reef, Mariana Trench, Sunlit Zone, and Bikini Atoll.
Pacific Suite is engaging to mature pianists and accessible to students. The score of Pacific Suite is a blank canvas in some ways; almost all dynamics, tempi, pedaling, and fingerings are to be determined by the performer. The first movement, Great Barrier Reef, presents different musical vignettes. The second movement, Mariana Trench, requires the performer to improvise extensively while following provided instructions. The third movement, Sunlit Zone, asks the performer to improvise on a theme of Debussy. The final movement, Bikini Atoll, illustrates events of nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll in the 1940s.
Pacific Suite is engaging to mature pianists and accessible to students. The score of Pacific Suite is a blank canvas in some ways; almost all dynamics, tempi, pedaling, and fingerings are to be determined by the performer. The first movement, Great Barrier Reef, presents different musical vignettes. The second movement, Mariana Trench, requires the performer to improvise extensively while following provided instructions. The third movement, Sunlit Zone, asks the performer to improvise on a theme of Debussy. The final movement, Bikini Atoll, illustrates events of nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll in the 1940s.
ContributorsKordahl, Holly (Author) / Meir, Baruch (Thesis advisor) / Bolanos, Gabriel (Committee member) / Campbell, Andrew (Committee member) / Hamilton, Robert (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Noting a lack of solo repertoire for two popular keyboard percussion instruments, the glockenspiel and xylophone, I set out to bring the two instruments up to a level where both could be recognized as vehicles for solo performance. I decided to collaborate with three composers who are not percussionists: Nick Bentz (fitful machinery for solo glockenspiel and fixed media), Ashlee Busch (Elements for solo xylophone and crotales), and Hunter Long (We’ve always had time on our side for solo xylophone and percussion ensemble). By collaborating with these three young composers, I hope to elevate the stature of these underutilized percussion instruments. This document provides information about each composer, the commissioning process, and examinations of each work. In addition, I will discuss some of the challenges of working with non-percussionist composers, issues on performance practice, and my solutions to those challenges.
ContributorsKusuma, Egha (Author) / Compitello, Michael (Thesis advisor) / Smith, J.B. (Committee member) / Bolanos, Gabriel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
CONCERTO GROSSO is a 15-minute three-movement piece composed for an 11-instrument ensembleand electronics which is performed by an additional performer. The aim of this piece is to expresses my
interpretation of classical Egyptian and contemporary Western musical idioms through the methods of both live
orchestration and electronic processing. The relationship between the acoustic instruments and the electronics is meant to sound as if the electronicpart is a live processing of each acoustic instrument in real time, but in reality the processing does not occur live,
and has been prepared prior to the performance by a recording of each individual instrumental part which has been
made in advance. These recordings are processed and prepared into cues which are then triggered by an
individual performer on a synthesizer. CONCERTO GROSSO explores the generation of new timbers, textures and tuning systems out of theacoustic material performed by the instruments through the use of electronic processing. Through the alteration of
timbres, the instruments can be altered to sound similar to native Egyptian and other-wordly instruments. The
alteration of textures results from the duplication of one instrument into a choir of that instrument, which can either
be aligned vertically or offset by small durations to create a brief nebula of sound. Finally, non-western tuning
systems such as the Arabic "Maqamat" are generated through the processing of pitch in order to create intervals
such as neutral seconds, which are not in the common practice technique of the instruments of the ensemble.
ContributorsFarag, Mohamed-Aly (Author) / Bolanos, Gabriel (Thesis advisor) / Temple, Alex (Committee member) / Jiang, Danwen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
There are as many different approaches to artistic collaboration theory as there are authors who have created them. This paper postulates that collaboration is a stage of the artistic co-creative group-work process. Theories of collaboration were examined to isolate verbiage used in various attempted definitions of artistic collaboration. Two theories were selected to serve as a joint model for the creation and maintenance of a collaboration stage during the artistic co-creative group-work process including a derived series of conditions required for a co-creative initial stage to qualify as collaboration. Those conditions were then applied to five collaborative situations to determine if each situation had established a collaboration stage, how that establishment occurred, if that collaborative atmosphere was maintained over the life of the co-creative process, how the presentational outcome of the group-work was affected by the presence or lack of a collaboration stage, and finally this collaborator’s general reactions to the process.
ContributorsBusch, Ashlee T (Author) / Bolanos, Gabriel (Thesis advisor) / Knowles, Kristina (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Temporal Creative Entanglement and the Composer’s Search for a Unique Voice is about some of the creative challenges inherent in the composing process. Creative entanglement is when a composer gets caught up—entangled—in the creative process and it tarnishes their sense of how to appropriately assemble the formal structure of a piece. The word temporal means that I’m focusing on how a lot of creative entanglement happens because of process / product disparities related to time. Process / product disparity is the term I use to describe the enormous differences between the experience of composing and the experience of hearing the premiere of a work. And, I bring up the composer’s search for a unique voice because composers are especially vulnerable to creative entanglement when they are trying to write in a new style. I try to identify some different ways a composer can become entangled by discussing some specific ways that people subconsciously process music (musical expectations and information flow). I draw on the works of David Huron, Fred Lerdahl, and John Sloboda, among others, to paint a picture of the different mental processes that occur during composing and listening. I discuss how schematic, veridical, and dynamic expectations work in the mind of composer and the listener, and how these relate to creative entanglement. I also discuss how the conception of large-scale form fits into this topic. In the conclusion, I offer some thoughts on approaching composing from the perspective of creative entanglement. To close, I offer a perspective about artistic satisfaction and composing.
ContributorsClay, William (Author) / Bolanos, Gabriel (Thesis advisor) / Temple, Alex (Committee member) / Knowles, Kristina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
ABSTRACT This project is comprised of two main components, a paper, and audiovisual composition (two-channel audio, single-channel video). The composition takes the beginning thematic elements from the book of Genesis and transitions to a robotic teleology (the transhuman being merged with technology). For the transhumanist, taking control of the evolutionary process both in speed and in trajectory is the ultimate goal.The composition, Queue R is narrative and tripartite in structure, having a beginning, middle, and end. However, a more in-depth analysis of the piece will yield smaller parts and extractions. Although the composition is programmatic, many of the visual and aural gestures lean towards an abstract aesthetic.
The paper will discuss various tenets of Christianity and Transhumanism, including religious motifs, philosophical aspects, oppositional and congruent features between the two. Ray Kurzweil’s “The Six Epochs of Evolution,” is used as a reference and launching point for Transhuman teleology and is discussed later in the paper. Lastly, the paper will discuss how the artwork engages with Transhumanism and Christianity, and end with a discussion of some aspects the compositional process.
Finally, the title of the piece, Queue R, refers to a line, a queue which leads to a Robotic existence, that is, an existence where the human being and technology merge. Also, Queue R refers to the present state of technology, a QR code being a scannable (machine readable) code which contains information about a product or item being scanned.
The video may be found at the link to the channel of the composer, and will list all audiovisual compositions. Click (or copy/paste into browser) on the video titled Queue R: Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzOhPCwYGjJud92RLG_UQpQ or direct link: https://youtu.be/7ogR0Vb1-pA .
ContributorsHernandez, Brian (Author) / Bolanos, Gabriel (Thesis advisor) / Temple, Alex (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Frank Zappa considered “The Adventures of Greggery Peccary” hismasterpiece. It contains every aspect of his melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic language. These techniques include: folk-influenced songs, quartal melodies, asymmetric meters, speech-influenced rhythms, octave-displaced chromaticism, “conceptual continuity,” and creative studio techniques. He considers these aspects and weighs them against each other to maintain a sense of balance on both a micro- and macroscopic scale.
The first chapter of this dissertation explores the events that led up to the creation of the composition. A chronology of historical events precedes a synopsis of the piece’s narrative. The second chapter examines a rehearsal tape from March of 1972, which was released posthumously, that contains the song that will eventually become the fourth movement of the piece: “The New Brown Clouds.” That song, as well as others on the recording, contains several examples of Zappa’s musical vocabulary. These excerpts are also included in the two albums that were released and are also heard in Zappa’s magnum opus.
The third and fourth chapters examine the first version of “The Adventures of Greggery Peccary.” The third chapter focuses on musical analysis and identifying key components of Zappa’s compositional style. The fourth chapter talks about he Grand Wazoo’s tour, the Petit Wazoo tour a month later, and the subsequent tour in 1973. Zappa wrote new music for these tours, and those pieces became part of the large revision that is discussed in chapter 5.
The sixth chapter examines the recording process, locations, and the innovative techniques Zappa uses in the studio. Every time he released a recording of the composition, there was always a notable revision— including shortly before his death in 1993. Finally, the Ensemble Modern’s posthumous recording of “The Adventures of Greggery Peccary” is also scrutinized.
ContributorsOxford, Josh (Author) / Temple, Alex (Thesis advisor) / Meyer, Jeffery (Committee member) / Bolanos, Gabriel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Eurocentrism in early 20th-century music history in Latin America demonstrates political and racial preferences that placed foreign art music over local music making practices. After the Mexican Revolution (roughly 1910–20), Mexican political and cultural leaders pushed for a “universal” aesthetic in their nation’s art music, implicitly devaluing musical references to Indigenous cultures. This contradicts the era’s indigenist cultural revolution popularized as an “Aztec Renaissance” that celebrated Mexico’s renewed notion of mestizaje (European-Indigenous racial mixture) in music and art. The Mexican elite turned to foreign intellectuals such as Adolfo Salazar (1890–1958), the Spanish-born composer and music critic who came to Mexico as an exile in 1939, to link Mexico’s postcolonial culture with the intellectual inheritance of Europe.This thesis offers discursive analysis of Salazar’s writings in the context of his Mexican years, revealing subtexts of Spanish racial and cultural superiority that indirectly served the elitist agendas of Mexican diplomats and musical tastemakers such as Carlos Chávez (1899–1978). Salazar’s hegemonic legacy in Spanish-language musicology has often been left unquestioned and therefore I assess his influence alongside the development of a music-historical paradigm that defined 20th-century Mexican art music as an international phenomenon. I argue that Salazar’s Spanish-oriented music history established dominance over musicmaking practices in Mexico through demeaning allusions to mestizaje and social hierarchies within musical nationalism. By considering Salazar’s role in Mexican musical nationalism, my thesis reveals how Eurocentric music history writing coincided with colonialist Mexican politics, legitimizing foreign intellectualism over local cultural processes.
ContributorsHeyen, Adam David (Author) / Feisst, Sabine (Thesis advisor) / Bolanos, Gabriel (Committee member) / Saikia, Yasmin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022