Matching Items (9)
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- All Subjects: Performance
- All Subjects: Solo
- Creators: Rogers, Rodney
Description
The two solo violin works by Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) have been largely overlooked since their composition in the 1920s. These pieces are representative of Nielsen's mature style, combining elements of classical form (the Theme and Variations) as well as processes more commonly found in the twentieth century (through-composition and non-tonal harmonic language). This paper is designed to bring these long-neglected works to light and make them more approachable for violin students, teachers and performers. As Denmark's leading composer, Nielsen was well regarded in his lifetime, although his isolation from mainland Europe created obstacles in his path toward international fame. Rather than following trends in post-romantic music, he remained true to his own musical ideals. This choice often isolated him further during his career, but his unique blend of chromatic harmony, driving rhythms and juxtapositions of character captivates modern listeners. Although small in scope compared to his symphonies and other large works, the enthusiastic spirit and indomitable energy of the solo violin works reflect Nielsen's character at its best. Combining a high level of virtuosity with solid structural integrity, textural variety and musical interest, these works deserve a much more prominent place in the standard violin repertoire.
ContributorsVallier, Michelle Mitchell (Author) / McLin, Katherine (Thesis advisor) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Jiang, Danwen (Committee member) / Bailey, Wayne (Committee member) / Landschoot, Thomas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
New works for the bass clarinet as a solo instrument are uncommon. In the interest of expanding the repertoire of the bass clarinet, three new works for bass clarinet were commissioned from three different composers, all with different instrumentations. The resulting works are Industrial Strength for bass clarinet and piano by Kenji Bunch; Dark Embers for two bass clarinets by Theresa Martin; and Shovelhead for bass clarinet and interactive electronics by Steven Snowden. Although all three works feature the bass clarinet, they are all very different and pose unique challenges to the performer. To accompany these pieces, and as an aid to future performers, a performance practice guide has been included with recommendations for individuals who wish to perform these works. Included in the guide are recommended fingerings, practice techniques, and possible adjustments to the bass clarinet parts designed in collaboration with the composers that make the works more technically accessible. Accompanying this guide are full scores of all three works, a recording of them performed by the author, and a chart that contains recommended altissimo fingerings.
ContributorsMiracle, Matthew (Author) / Spring, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Gardner, Joshua (Committee member) / Holbrook, Amy (Committee member) / Micklich, Albie (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The purpose of this research paper is to discuss John Carter's Cantata, the musical development of this composition, and provide a brief history of this African American musician and composer. Presently, there exists very little research regarding Carter's life and compositions. From a musician's perspective, this paper discusses the challenges of singing and performing the Cantata for future performers and provides a reference for their preparation. This project also examines John Carter's musical style and analyzes the structure of the Cantata. African-American folk songs were an inspiration to Carter's compositions, especially this particular work. As an African-American, his life and background played a role in his inspiration of composition. With borrowed music, he reveals a basic truth about this period of American history; how the lives of slaves influenced in the development of this particular genre. Additionally, John Carter's style of composition is examined, including the application of jazz and modal scales in his Cantata. Performance practice is examined for both the singer and pianist in a way that best represents the composer's original and unique intent. From vocal safety to breath control, a singer may find several challenges when performing this eclectic piece. This paper provides a guide for singers. A brief overview of the pianist's role in the Cantata is also included. Characteristic words of the African-American vernacular found in Carter's Cantata are briefly discussed and identified (i.e. "them" vs. "dem"). It is essential that any performer, both beginning and advanced, should have a proper understanding of the concepts that Carter had so carefully crafted. This paper endeavors to provide a deeper sense of understanding to what Carter had intended for both the performer and the listener.
ContributorsNa, Bora (Author) / Britton, David (Thesis advisor) / Bush, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Campbell, Andrew (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This document is comprised of an arrangement and recording of Giuseppe Tartini’s “Devil’s Trill” Sonata for solo violin, and includes historical background, an exploration of Italian ornamentation, and a structural analysis. The original work was written for violin and basso continuo. The author was inspired to create this arrangement for solo violin based on accounts that Tartini liked to perform this work unaccompanied.
The first three chapters focus on events from Tartini’s early life that influenced his compositional style. Chapters four and five provide an overview of Italian ornamentation, and explore five documents that were used to support decisions in creating the arrangement: Giovanni Luca Conforto’s The Joy of Ornamentation; Giuseppe Tartini’s Traité des Agréments de la Musique; Letter to Signora Maddalena Lombardini; Regole; and L’Arte dell Arco. Chapter six provides a structural analysis of the Sonata. The appendices illustrate the process of creating the arrangement.
The arrangement takes into consideration the composite of the original solo and basso continuo parts. In addition, a set of realized ornaments is provided on an ossia staff. The recording includes both the primary arrangement, presented in each initial section, as well as the realized ornaments, presented in each repeated section.
The first three chapters focus on events from Tartini’s early life that influenced his compositional style. Chapters four and five provide an overview of Italian ornamentation, and explore five documents that were used to support decisions in creating the arrangement: Giovanni Luca Conforto’s The Joy of Ornamentation; Giuseppe Tartini’s Traité des Agréments de la Musique; Letter to Signora Maddalena Lombardini; Regole; and L’Arte dell Arco. Chapter six provides a structural analysis of the Sonata. The appendices illustrate the process of creating the arrangement.
The arrangement takes into consideration the composite of the original solo and basso continuo parts. In addition, a set of realized ornaments is provided on an ossia staff. The recording includes both the primary arrangement, presented in each initial section, as well as the realized ornaments, presented in each repeated section.
Contributorsda Cruz Ribeiro e Rodrigues, Christiano E (Author) / Swartz, Jonathan (Thesis advisor) / Buck, Nancy (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
ABSTRACT
This research is focused on technology in the arts, social media, and the opera singer. Topics include recent performance trends, social media, marketing techniques, and creating a successful brand. This paper also focuses on how to leverage social media platforms build a digital persona, and create an engaged audience. The same techniques used by corporations and opera companies for their social media and marketing strategy can be leveraged to increase brand awareness, build a strong network, and may aid in generating new opportunities for the opera singer.
Key Words: Social Media, Opera Singer, Branding, Marketing, Technology
This research is focused on technology in the arts, social media, and the opera singer. Topics include recent performance trends, social media, marketing techniques, and creating a successful brand. This paper also focuses on how to leverage social media platforms build a digital persona, and create an engaged audience. The same techniques used by corporations and opera companies for their social media and marketing strategy can be leveraged to increase brand awareness, build a strong network, and may aid in generating new opportunities for the opera singer.
Key Words: Social Media, Opera Singer, Branding, Marketing, Technology
ContributorsJones, Jennifer E. (D.M.A.) (Author) / Kopta, Anne Elgar (Thesis advisor) / Mills, Robert (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Dreyfoos, Dale (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Since 1913, some of the world’s finest trumpeters have utilized the advantages of
specialized custom trumpets that can be played in multiple key centers through the operation of additional valves and slides. Merri Franquin (1848-1934), a leading trumpet teacher in twentieth-century Paris, patented two multiple-key trumpets: a four-piston- valve model that plays in the keys of C and D, and a five-piston-valve model that plays in the keys of A, B , C, and D. Thibouville-Lamy (1867-1969), a now-defunct French instrument company, built both models by adding extra valves and slides to three-valve C trumpets.
In the mid-1900s, top performers such as Roger Voisin, Armando Ghitalla, and David Hickman began using similar trumpets in performances and recordings. Regrettably, only a privileged few have had access to these instruments and the numerous advantages that they can provide. Thus, by reviewing and building upon current data on multiple-key trumpet design and performance, the author aims to unlock a vast potential for performance enhancement, waiting to be tapped by current and future trumpet performers.
specialized custom trumpets that can be played in multiple key centers through the operation of additional valves and slides. Merri Franquin (1848-1934), a leading trumpet teacher in twentieth-century Paris, patented two multiple-key trumpets: a four-piston- valve model that plays in the keys of C and D, and a five-piston-valve model that plays in the keys of A, B , C, and D. Thibouville-Lamy (1867-1969), a now-defunct French instrument company, built both models by adding extra valves and slides to three-valve C trumpets.
In the mid-1900s, top performers such as Roger Voisin, Armando Ghitalla, and David Hickman began using similar trumpets in performances and recordings. Regrettably, only a privileged few have had access to these instruments and the numerous advantages that they can provide. Thus, by reviewing and building upon current data on multiple-key trumpet design and performance, the author aims to unlock a vast potential for performance enhancement, waiting to be tapped by current and future trumpet performers.
ContributorsEwing, Bryan Christopher (Author) / Hickman, David (Thesis advisor) / Humphreys, Jere T (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Born in 1937, the Ukrainian-Russian composer Nikolai Kapustin has gradually gained recognition among Western music scholars and pianists by blending American jazz idioms into classical forms, such as concertos, sonatas, and preludes; recently he has become a very prominent composer. As one of the most prolific composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, he has composed over 160 works to date. Most of them are piano solo works. The uniqueness of his compositional philosophy is that he consistently treats the music language of jazz as a core element in all his output, while others might only use jazz idioms experimentally in their works.
Being an excellent pianist himself, Kapustin has recorded many of his own works, giving a firsthand reference for interpreting his piano music. Some of his most famous works, including the Variations, Op. 41, the Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40, and the 24 Preludes in Jazz Style, Op. 53 have been recorded by other prominent artists, such as Steven Osborne and Marc-Andre Hamelin.
Scholarly research on Kapustin’s piano works remains limited. Most of it is found in journal articles and dissertations. Unfortunately, all of them are focused on his early popular works. His more recent works from 2007-2013: the Six Little Pieces, Op. 133, Dialogue, Op. 148, Etude Courte mais Transcendante pour piano, Op. 149, Nobody Is Perfect, Op. 151, A Pianist In Jeopardy, Op. 152, and Wandering, Op. 153, have not yet been discussed in any scholarly writing.
In brief, the purpose of this study is to present a first recording of these six major solo works, and to examine them in a research paper. The paper discusses Kapustin’s consistent use of jazz elements in his recent works, addresses musical and technical concerns in their performance practice, and facilitates more extended study of these valuable but yet to be recorded works.
The paper consists of eight parts. The first part covers brief background information on the composer, as well as reviewing important jazz features, in order to more effectively analyze his stylistic language in the six compositions which are explored in the subsequent chapters including a conclusion.
Being an excellent pianist himself, Kapustin has recorded many of his own works, giving a firsthand reference for interpreting his piano music. Some of his most famous works, including the Variations, Op. 41, the Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40, and the 24 Preludes in Jazz Style, Op. 53 have been recorded by other prominent artists, such as Steven Osborne and Marc-Andre Hamelin.
Scholarly research on Kapustin’s piano works remains limited. Most of it is found in journal articles and dissertations. Unfortunately, all of them are focused on his early popular works. His more recent works from 2007-2013: the Six Little Pieces, Op. 133, Dialogue, Op. 148, Etude Courte mais Transcendante pour piano, Op. 149, Nobody Is Perfect, Op. 151, A Pianist In Jeopardy, Op. 152, and Wandering, Op. 153, have not yet been discussed in any scholarly writing.
In brief, the purpose of this study is to present a first recording of these six major solo works, and to examine them in a research paper. The paper discusses Kapustin’s consistent use of jazz elements in his recent works, addresses musical and technical concerns in their performance practice, and facilitates more extended study of these valuable but yet to be recorded works.
The paper consists of eight parts. The first part covers brief background information on the composer, as well as reviewing important jazz features, in order to more effectively analyze his stylistic language in the six compositions which are explored in the subsequent chapters including a conclusion.
ContributorsYe, Qingqing (Author) / Cosand, Walter (Thesis advisor) / Hamilton, Robert (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Despite the growth of technology in music composition and performance, professional clarinetists maintain that air microphones are superior to piezoelectric pickups. Pickups offer increased mobility, isolation, and reduced feedback, but air microphones are used simply for the perceived sound quality. In this study a ported barrel pickup and a contact transducer pickup placed at various intervals on the clarinet were sampled and compared to a reference recording to determine how the sound differed for each method. In addition, the history of wind instrument pickups, the acoustics of the clarinet, and the basics of piezoelectricity were discussed to help examine the results. The pickups were examined in three ways: overall level in decibels, frequency cutoff, and overtone displacement. Through these results it was determined that the most accurate methods of clarinet pickup are the ported barrel pickup, contact transducers closer to the vibration of the reed such as the ligature or barrel surface, or a transducer placed at the end of the bell. These findings were consistent with the discussions regarding history, clarinet acoustics, and piezoelectricity. This study also produced a reference for the sounds associated with different pickup methods, as well as possible improvements for clarinet pickup design.
ContributorsEnglert, Patrick William (Author) / Spring, Robert S (Thesis advisor) / Gardner, Joshua T (Thesis advisor) / Caslor, Jason (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This fifteen-minute cyclical mass uses excerpts from the text of the Mass Ordinary and is laid out into five movements and across three different languages: Kyrie (Latin), Gloria (Chinese), Credo (English), Sanctus (Chinese), and Agnus Dei (Latin). Rather than following the tradition of celebrating devotion, this mass tells the story of the abuse of power in political and religious leadership. Movements sung in Latin represent the devout Christian base whose motives and inspiration remain pure and divine. The English movement, Credo, has been altered from the original and represents the manipulation and distortion of scripture, truth, and facts by self-serving leaders and politicians. Finally, Chinese movements represent those who are persecuted for their convictions and their identity.
The turmoil of the Chinese movements is characterized by atonality and fast tempos with contrasting, meditative, lyrical B sections. The outer Latin movements contain the familiar Kyrie and Agnus Dei texts in triple canon with the orchestra. The English middle movement is simultaneously familiar and awkward, with harmonies that almost function, under an altered Credo text. After an aria-like passage, the orchestra takes the “I believe” figure and manipulates it in a modal fugato, culminating in a climactic version of the main motive. A repeated double-dotted quarter note—sixteenth-note rhythm followed by a fast tremolo in the castanets make up the central “bangu motive.” This motive is derived from traditional Beijing Opera, in which the bangu is the principal percussion element. As a rhythmic motive, fragments of it appear in every movement and in several different instrument groups. These fragments undergo various transformations before a version of it arrives as the final Agnus Dei rhythmic figure.
The turmoil of the Chinese movements is characterized by atonality and fast tempos with contrasting, meditative, lyrical B sections. The outer Latin movements contain the familiar Kyrie and Agnus Dei texts in triple canon with the orchestra. The English middle movement is simultaneously familiar and awkward, with harmonies that almost function, under an altered Credo text. After an aria-like passage, the orchestra takes the “I believe” figure and manipulates it in a modal fugato, culminating in a climactic version of the main motive. A repeated double-dotted quarter note—sixteenth-note rhythm followed by a fast tremolo in the castanets make up the central “bangu motive.” This motive is derived from traditional Beijing Opera, in which the bangu is the principal percussion element. As a rhythmic motive, fragments of it appear in every movement and in several different instrument groups. These fragments undergo various transformations before a version of it arrives as the final Agnus Dei rhythmic figure.
ContributorsXu, Eric (Author) / Rogers, Rodney (Thesis advisor) / Suzuki, Kotoka (Committee member) / Meyer, Jeffery (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018