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.
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.
An increase in population and need to protect the planet has created many initiatives and research goals in developing alternatives methods of fueling. Federal and state policies have provided a push for industries to find ways to of reducing their impact on the environment while maintaining competitiveness. In the sector of alternative fuels, large policies such as the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) in the United States are making goals to reduce vehicular fuel from coal and oil, and focus on alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. Along with the RFS and other federal policies, states are introducing independent initiatives to promote the use of alternative fuels.
Research has shown that other crops besides corn can feasibly be used to produce ethanol for fuel use. One of the major crops of interest currently is switchgrass (Panicum Virgatum L.) because of its ability to grow under a variety of weather conditions and soil types. Switchgrass does not require as much maintenance as corn and is a perennial grass that can have high yielding fields for up to 9 years.
This report focuses on the impacts from using switchgrass-derived ethanol to meet the state of Arizona’s policy to have government fleet vehicles operating on alternative fuels. The study uses a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach to evaluate 22 million gallons of ethanol produced in Arizona and stored at fueling stations for use. Impacts in land use, global warming, and water quality are evaluated using software tools and databases in Ecoinvent and Simapro.
The results of the study indicate that the cultivation and harvest phase of the process will contribute the most to negative environmental impacts. According to the study, application of heavy nutrient fertilizer and the machinery needed for the additional agriculture have the potential to contribute over 36 million moles of hydrogen and 89 million CTU eq. to the air, soil, and water.
This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of these piano works, considering structural, rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic elements. In particular, the paper examines Bergsma and Weingarden’s work through the technique of word painting in order to illuminate the relationship between the biblical text and music. Key findings include that Bergsma’s Tangents contains dissonant harmonies and irregular rhythms to reflect the agony of people on the biblical Judgement day, while the use of tonality reflects God’s love in other parts. Similarly, Weingarden uses an illustrative style of word painting in Triptych to closely reflect this biblical narrative and scene through the combination of some twelve-tone techniques with chromaticism. These works present a high degree of pianistic and musical elaboration that incorporates twentieth-century compositional techniques, and this paper argues that they merit more attention for recitals by college-level and professional pianists. This paper begins with an introduction which provides the methodological approach used in the paper and a biography of each composer. It then progresses to an analysis of Bergsma’s Tangents, followed by an analysis of Weingarden’s Triptych.