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- Creators: Arizona State University
Description
This project features three new pieces for oboe commissioned from three different composers. Each piece explores styles and/or instrumentations that are less common in the current body of repertoire. These pieces are Scenes for Charlie by Bryan Kennard, Love’s Last Gift by Thomas Juneau, and But Joy Comes in the Morning by William Brusick. A performance guide has been included for each piece, providing tips and suggestions for musicians wanting to perform these pieces in the future. In addition to the performance guide, each composer answered a list of interview questions to provide background information and give insight into their compositional process. Accompanying this document are recordings performed by the author.
ContributorsSummers, Season (Author) / Schuring, Martin (Thesis advisor) / Gardner, Joshua (Committee member) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Organ culture of the late nineteenth century played an important role in the development of cities on the American Western Frontier. By 1869, the transcontinental railroad connected cities across the United States, enabling coast-to-coast travel and spawning a new tourist industry. Rail travelers stopping in Utah frequently visited the Tabernacle and were impressed by the organ, requesting to hear it played. The Salt Lake Tabernacle free daily organ recital program was initiated to meet that demand. This came at a critical time in the growth of the city as it sought to develop a positive image of itself. These organ recitals became a highlight of travelers’ journeys across the United States, shaping the image of Utah as a place of culture and refinement. Although free daily organ recital programs sprang up across the country during the early twentieth century, very few persisted for more than a decade. Today, the only two remaining continuous free daily organ recital series are given on the Salt Lake Tabernacle organ and on the Wanamaker organ in Philadelphia. Location, promotion, purpose, and programming were key factors vital to the early and continued success of the program. At a time when attendance is in decline for organ recitals, and indeed for all classical art music, the elements of this uniquely successful program may suggest new approaches for sharing organ music.
ContributorsHarris, Valerie (Author) / Marshall, Kimberly (Thesis advisor) / Saucier, Catherine (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
In this research project, I introduce to the reader Bongsunhwa Variations for Violin Solo by Young-Jo Lee. Lee’s work is based on the original melody Ae-Su by Nan-Pa Hong, which Hong then developed into the Korean art song Bongsunhwa. The evolution of this simple melody to an art song and later a virtuosic violin work is explored as well. A historical background of Korean-Western music and composers is provided in order to further understand the evolution of compositional techniques that led to Lee’s work. Additionally, I examine the historical context of Hong’s work and the meaning of the lyrics of Bongsunhwa. In this paper, I also explore how Ae-Su affects Bongsunhwa Variations for Violin Solo; in particular, how Lee transforms Hong’s Bongsunhwa to his musical style and uses contemporary Western violin techniques, rhythms, and modulations to express the original intent of the work. Finally, I provide a performance guide of Bongsunhwa Variations for Violin Solo for non-Korean musicians, comparing the original source material of Hong’s song and three verses to the three variations of Lee’s work and how the history and context of the work shape performances of the Bongsunhwa Variations for Violin Solo. Interviews I undertook over email with the composer inform much of the interpretative suggestions in the performance guide.
ContributorsDong, Shinhye (Author) / McLin, Katherine (Thesis advisor) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Solís, Ted (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
While Aleksandr Borodin enjoyed a varied career as a composer, he was a chemist by profession and made his living as such. Although his focus was primarily on academic life as a chemistry professor, his musical style still managed to evolve in remarkable ways: from a more Western-European style to the style of Russian nationalism of the late 19th century. While Borodin did compose early chamber works featuring the piano, during this stylistic shift, his chamber music output notably excluded the piano, as he switched his focus to string quartets. Additionally, he dedicated many of these later years to producing large-scale symphonic works and the opera Prince Igor. The purpose of this project is to address a lost opportunity: There is sadly no chamber music in Borodin’s mature style that features the piano. His masterpiece, Prince Igor, is the work of a mature composer, and Konchakovna’s Cavatina from the opera’s second act was chosen to serve as the basis for an arrangement for traditional piano trio: violin, cello, and piano. This aria for contralto is rare in that the themes and orchestration all are attributed to Borodin, while much of the rest of the opera was completed by other composers of the time.
I have created two arrangements of this scene: a literal transcription that maintains the integrity of the original composition, in which the vocal line of the aria is given primarily to the violin, while the orchestral parts are divided between the cello and the piano, and a second arrangement that alters much of the piece for compositional variety, in the spirit of other arrangers such as Franz Liszt or Jascha Heifetz. In the second version, there are creative interpolations, countermelodies, harmonies, and new figuration to fully utilize the qualities of a piano trio. This paper explains the methods used in the creation of these arrangements, accompanied by examples from the score, and can serve as a model for other musicians who wish to create their own arrangements of pre-existing musical materials.
ContributorsArch, Nathan (Author) / Campbell, Andrew (Thesis advisor) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
This document serves as a comprehensive project centering on a new performing edition of Pierre Danican Philidor’s (1681-1731) Trio Suite No. 2 in E Minor of 1722, one of a collection of six trio suites presented to the French court, following a series of earlier, more well-known suites (1716-1718). The project itself contains a performance edition with a fully realized harpsichord part, a recording featuring entirely modern instruments in modern pitch with a special attention to period affect and style, and finally a written document contextualizing the Philidor family, the French court establishment, and helpful performance practice guidelines for musicians. The purpose of this project is: to both bring to light and make accessible the music of this member of the Philidor clan, to encourage a greater understanding of this family and their musical place in the French establishment, and to build a bridge between the specialization of Historically Informed Performance (HIP) and the modern instrumentalist, particularly conservatory students and professionals unfamiliar or uncomfortable with this material. Ideally, the result will be more frequent programming of French court chamber repertoire such as this work in non-specialist settings and venues. Such programming goals should not detract from HIP and the period instrument field, but rather help this music to expand in interest across a wider classical music audience, and thus by extension also expand interest in the historical performance movement.
ContributorsJohnson, Michael (Author) / Schuring, Martin (Thesis advisor) / Buck, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Schmelz, Peter J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
This dissertation is an account of the strategies that I employed in the compositionof three of my recent pieces: Situación #3, for flute (bass flute), clarinet (bass clarinet), piano, percussion, violin, cello, and electronics; Situación #2, for amplified acoustic guitar and two performers; and Between transparency and the invisible, for orchestra and electronics.
The first chapter, devoted to Situación #3 discusses the re-interpretation of memories and visual records with musical means. The second chapter focuses on Situación #2 and the issues of physicality and collaboration that originated the piece. The third chapter addresses Between transparency and the invisible and how it was informed by my experience contemplating visual art.
ContributorsZárate Flores, Carlos Angel (Author) / Navarro, Fernanda A (Thesis advisor) / Bolaños, Gabriel J (Committee member) / Paine, Garth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
In recent years, several Indigenous female artists have emerged in country music. Given that country music is closely associated with whiteness, it may seem an unexpected form of expression for Indigenous women. So, why and how do Indigenous women make country music? I argue that country music appeals to these women due to its adaptability as a genre and its propensity for telling stories. Additionally, I identify several distinct strategies that these women use to interact with the genre and approach their own music making. I support my argument through a series of analyses of three country songs by Indigenous female country singers: “All I See is Red (Ten Little Indians)” by Kelly Derrickson; “Pray Sister Pray” by Crystal Shawanda; and “Run Carly Run” by Jade Turner. Some of the strategies these artists employ disrupt norms of the genre, foregrounding these women’s Indigenous identity and activism, while other strategies more subtly exploit resonances between Indigenous concerns or cultural practices and aspects of country music to assert their position within the genre. My discussion of these strategies draws on theorizations of intertextuality, interdiscursivity, and positionality from linguistic anthropology. Examining the strategies Indigenous artists use and highlighting the agency they have in the creation of their music reveals not only how they take up the genre but also how they are reshaping it.
ContributorsBaril, Alexis (Author) / Fossum, Dave (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Reed, Trevor (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
The purpose of this lecture-recital is to explore the Protestant Reformation’s effect on the lives of a selected number of composing organists who were active in the field of church music before, during, and after the Reformation. The organists were selected based on the prominence of their positions and the significance of their compositions in the history of the organ. The lecture thus focuses on their employment situations and the repertoire they created. Jan Pieterszoon Sweelick is one of the most extreme examples of changed employment due to the Reformation. Trained as a Catholic organist, and taking up his position at the Oude Kerk Amsterdam at the age of 19, Sweelinck was forced to adapt quickly when the city converted to Calvinism within that same year. He became the civic organist, playing daily recitals on the organ instead of liturgical music, which was prohibited by the Calvinists.
Because of his background in music and his compositional inclinations, Martin Luther created a liturgy that was much friendlier to musicians than was that of Calvin. Lutheranism fostered many fine organist-composers, culminating in the music of J.S. Bach. Early in the Reformation, Hans Kotter was fired from his position in Catholic Fribourg due to his Protestant leanings. Samuel Scheidt also suffered because of religious turmoil. He published three extraordinary volumes of organ music, entitled Tabulatura nova, in 1624, but the onset of the Thirty Years War cost him his employment. His final compositions are simple chorale harmonizations, reflecting the upheaval of the Reformation and the War. In Catholic Italy and Spain, where Reformers never gained a strong foothold, Marco Antonio Cavazzoni and Antonio de Cabezón were able to continue their work with little change.
Due to the nature of their work and instruments, organists stand at the nexus of religion, economics, politics, and art. This lecture-recital seeks to reveal these relationships following the Reformation. These significant organist-composers provide case studies for how the changing religious and political climates of the Reformation affected the work of organists and the music they composed.
ContributorsTucker, Julia (Author) / Marshall, Kimberly (Thesis advisor) / Saucier, Catherine (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Czech composer, Václav Tomášek (1774-1850) belongs to a generation of late classical composers overshadowed by their contemporaries like Mozart and Beethoven. However, Tomášek’s work both as a composer and a pedagogue was influential to the subsequent generation of Romantic composers, and his pieces are an important bridge between the late Classical period and early Romantic. More substantial attention has been paid to Tomášek’s vocal compositions in the English language literature. Tomášek’s Eclogues for piano are excellent representative works of this transition between classical and romantic. They employ classical formal models which are meant to recall Greco-Roman poetic origins and do not contain complex harmonic language. These pieces are not strictly ‘classical’ works and should be considered early character pieces for the piano. Indeed, later Romantic composers, like Franz Liszt, also used the Eclogue as a form, evoking a bucolic pastoralism. Tomášek’s Eclogues are therefore important early templates of this form and should be considered by pianists for inclusion on concert programs. This project provides performance suggestions along with the recording which have not been recorded before, help performers program these overlooked pieces.
ContributorsGou, Xiaoqian (Author) / Meir, Baruch (Thesis advisor) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has affected every aspect of society, including the performing arts. This study creates a historic record of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Navy Band Southwest (NBSW), located in San Diego, CA. It is an account of Navy Band Southwest’s journey under my direction as the Bandmaster and the transformation from live music performances to performances in the virtual environment from March 2020 until September 2021. The paper details safety protocols developed by the NBSW leadership team that were implemented following Center for Disease Control and Department of Defense overarching guidance. It also examines the process of development of recording techniques, both audio and video, as well as hardware used to create virtual band performances. Chapters cover NBSW operations pre-COVID, development of the virtual music-making process, and the creation of specific projects, including an original commission for wind band that was conceived, composed, rehearsed, and recorded entirely in a virtual environment. This paper aims to capture the perseverance and professionalism of U. S. Navy Sailors and how these musicians adapted to continue making music during forced isolation and quarantine. An archive of selected performances is included with this document.
ContributorsMansfield, Bruce John (Author) / Caslor, Jason (Thesis advisor) / Edwards, Bradley (Committee member) / Holbrook, Amy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021