Matching Items (98)
Description
ABSTRACTViolin sonatas composed by male composers of the romantic era are widely studied and performed, yet there is far less focus on pieces of that era composed by women. Much of the research on women’s music of the era is scattered and difficult to find. The creation of the Violin Sonatas by Women website (www.violinsonatasbywomen.com) is to educate, promote, and make accessible these deserving but overlooked composers and their works.
Presently, the Violin Sonatas by Women website serves as a resource with detailed information on twenty-five sonatas for violin and piano composed by fifteen European female composers of the romantic era. Provided on this site is biographical information on each composer and access to editions, manuscripts, and recordings. This resource also contains historical information, supplemental exercises and études, and other pedagogical notes. Composers are listed in order of birth date.
This site offers a robust, accurate, and accessible resource for students and professionals. It also provides knowledge, enhances understanding, and identifies technical challenges in the pieces that could be incorporated into teaching curricula and performance repertoires. Finally, it serves to provide long-overdue credit to these female composers by giving their work more recognition.
This study is an ongoing project with more editions and recordings added as they are produced. Presently, the main portion of this website includes advanced published works written from 1863 to 1917. This website will soon be expanded to offer information on violin sonatas composed by women of other eras and origins.
ContributorsAbbott, Sarah (Author) / Swartz, Jonathan (Thesis advisor) / McLin, Katherine (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
This research project investigates the way in which Paul Hindemith expresses musical and extramusical ideas during his early compositional period through an analysis of the fourteen movements of his work for solo piano, In einer Nacht... Träume und Erlebnisse, op. 15 (In One Night… Dreams and Experiences). Op. 15 is a set of character movements composed in 1917-1919 and unified into a cohesive, singular work through extramusical connections and a common harmonic language. Hindemith depicted the night as a mystery unfolding in a series of descriptive and untitled miniatures displaying a thrilling journey into the unknown. The set reflects Hindemith’s unique chromatic compositional language in the late 1910s, and his interests in Expressionism, early forms, and popular elements such as jazz. However, due to its delayed publication, op. 15 remains an underestimated work and deserves closer attention.This paper describes the work’s creation, problems it faced in its reception and dissemination, and offers a brief literature review related to the set. The second chapter places op. 15 in the context of Hindemith’s early development as a composer (up to 1920) and his hallmark compositional styles. The most substantial portion of the research is an analytical description of the fourteen movements. Each chapter offers an overview of a movement’s general character followed by detailed depictions of musical or extramusical elements. It is hoped that this text will ultimately aid performers in creating a more accurate and musically cohesive performance. In a brief conclusion, the common elements between movements are reemphasized, again drawing the performer’s attention to each movement as a part of the longer narrative. Scholarship on this set provides opportunities for a better understanding of Hindemith’s early music.
ContributorsLu, Yi (Author) / Hamilton, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Meir, Baruch (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
The music of Claude Debussy has its own language. It is challenging for performers who are not familiar with Debussy’s musical style to produce the subtle tone colors or understand the proper atmosphere. There are many scholars, researchers, and pianists who have shown interest in Debussy’s piano music and who provided critical comments and interpretive suggestions. However, the work Pour le piano has varied interpretive suggestions given the consistent presence of the work in popular piano repertoire. This document creates a closer interpretation of Debussy’s piano music, specifically the three movements of Pour le piano, for enthusiastic music students and professionals. The focus of this work is to guide performance and interpretive aspects. A brief introduction of Debussy’s life reveals historical and contemporary influences on Pour le Piano. A closer look at compositional models which form the basis of Pour le piano, helps one recognize these compositional characteristics and correctly create a particular performance atmosphere. This analysis is followed by performance suggestions for fingerings, pedaling, how to isolate difficult passagework, and interpretive suggestions based on two recordings by Magda Tagliaferro and Caio Pagano. A more comprehensive understanding of Pour le piano not only leads to correct performances, but also wider proliferation and study of this piece among pianists
ContributorsPaesaroch, Puripat (Author) / Pagano, Caio (Thesis advisor) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Hamilton, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Fingerboard study is an essential component of the college guitar curriculum. A Course on Guitar Fingerboard Melody and Harmony is a method to acquire and integrate fundamental music vocabulary for the guitar performer, interpreter, improvisor, and composer, the end goal being mastery of musical vocabulary to enable artistic freedom and creative depth. This class design facilitates a solid foundation of fundamental components and provides a framework for further study and integration. It offers a concise yet intense course that consolidates, codifies, explores, and applies scale, interval, and chord vocabulary through interpretive, compositional, and improvisational engagement. This project aspires to contribute to the discipline of guitar, its canon, and its pedagogy. This programmed curriculum offers a comprehensive one-year, two-semester, college-level course on fundamental music vocabulary on the guitar fretboard. Its design facilitates a solid foundation for fundamental musical components, equips the student with a working scale and chord vocabulary, reveals how vocabulary is generated on any fretted instrument, and provides a framework for further study and integration. Semester one facilitates in-depth scale and interval study, while semester two investigates triads and seventh chords, reflecting one, two, three, and four voices textures. Each unit contains lessons, assignments, and integration activities. This document provides both teacher edition, units one through four, and student workbook, units five through eight.
Students of A Course on Guitar Fingerboard Melody and Harmony can expect dramatic strides in their understanding of musical vocabulary, its applications, and their abilities to associate and engage in real-time interpretative, compositional, and improvisational contexts. Fingerboard knowledge greatly enhances sight reading skills and enables the interpreter to find fingerings that express the rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic character of any particular musical gesture, and consequently, an entire composition. Guitar composers will be most effective when they know the possibilities and parameters of musical vocabulary on the instrument. Often, the study of vocabulary can inform and expand a composer's sonic palette and conception. For improvisers, fingerboard comprehension allows access to any interval, scale, arpeggio, or voicing the ear desires, regardless of where they happen to find themselves on the instrument in that unique moment.
ContributorsZweig, Phillip (Author) / Kim, Ji Leon (Thesis advisor) / Swartz, Jonathan (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Among various kinds of piano repertoire in history, the piano repertoire for the left hand alone is a very special category. Though left-hand piano works have the same high artistic value as other piano repertoires, they have been largely ignored and are rarely performed or even played by pianists. Since the 19th century, more and more composers have written music for the left hand, and there are over one thousand pieces composed for the left hand alone, including original solo works, transcriptions, chamber music, and concertos. I had never studied any left-hand repertoires and had minimal knowledge about these pieces before I sustained an injury to my right hand. After intentionally learning, practicing, and performing some left-hand works, I felt like I had been opened up to an entirely new world. I strongly believe that studying those works is essential and provides many benefits for pianists to develop left-hand technique. This research document will be divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 will be an introduction, with brief background information on piano music for the left hand, and an explanation of why composers wrote such works. The history of the development of left-hand compositions, a list of important left-hand pieces, and composers, as well as pianists who influenced the development of left-hand piano composition, will be discussed. In Chapter 2, I will explore five selected left-hand works that are rarely played, including Wanghua Chu’s Prelude for the Left Hand (Man Jiang Hong), Frank Bridge’s Three Improvisations for the Left Hand, H. 134, Max Reger’s 4 Spezialstudien, WoO III/13, Paul Wittgenstein’s “Meditation” and “Du bist die Ruh” from his School for the Left Hand, vol. 3. Providing background information on each composer and composition and identifying the difficulty level of each piece. Using examples from the score, I will focus on the musical and technical challenges involved in learning these works and provide my suggestions for their performance. Chapter 3 will offer advice about how to start learning and playing left-hand works, drawing from my own experience. Chapter 4 will conclude by summarizing information from previous chapters.
ContributorsHuang, Anruo (Author) / Meir, Baruch (Thesis advisor) / Pagano, Caio (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Piano education in China is a complex phenomenon shaped over the past century by many factors: China’s rich history of musical traditions, the influence of missionary piano teachers, the establishment of government-formed music conservatories, rapid changes in a political top-down approach, and the contributions of Russian piano teachers. Globalization and China’s rising economic status in the last four and a half decades have led to more Chinese pianists studying abroad and bringing their education back home. Once a foreign import, the piano is now played by more children in China than anywhere else in the world, and young Chinese pianists are frequently recognized on the world’s most competitive stages. As musicians compete on a global scale and international exchanges grow, understanding piano education in China becomes increasingly important.Three renowned teachers shape today’s piano education in China: Dr. Zhe Tang (唐哲) at Shanghai Conservatory, Dr. Ling Zhao (赵聆) at Central Conservatory, and Dr. Vivian Li (李穗荣) at Xinghai Conservatory. After studying in both China and the West, they train some of China’s best young pianists who are recognized on the world’s most competitive stages. This paper shares the teaching methods and philosophies of Tang, Zhao, and Li through comprehensive interviews and lesson observations. It aims to enhance the teaching and performance of pianists, while offering valuable insights into piano education in China.
The document explores Tang’s methods to inspire characters in the music and achieve balance in timing and sound, Zhao’s techniques to position and move the hands and fingers for effortless control, and Li’s approaches to manipulate natural arm weight to create a variety of tones and sounds. Their teaching presents useful ideas for how to effectively communicate music and guide students to become passionate and independent musicians. Techniques taught by Zhao and Li—such as the finger standing stably on the key, grabbing with the hand, and differing approaches to the high finger technique—encourage pianists to investigate the function of different body parts, the interconnectedness of tension and relaxation, where strength should come from, and how to best support weight with ease. Additionally, Tang, Zhao, and Li describe the unique aspects of piano education in China.
ContributorsBurton, Natalie (Author) / Creviston, Hannah (Thesis advisor) / Meir, Baruch (Thesis advisor) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
The importance of interactive electronic devices in the twenty-first century is a quickly expanding one, and the field of music technology is not exempt from this. Most traditional acoustic instruments pose challenges for individuals lacking fine motor skills, coordination, or grip strength. The author has responded to this issue as they experience it by developing a programmable interactive instrument system using a Mugic Motion System hardware, which includes a gyroscopic sensor, and Max/MSP, a visual programming environment which allows for customizable musical engagement for a variety of user types and requirements. This thesis explores the potential of interactive electronic devices to revolutionize the field of music as well as their potential in larger immersive environments, allowing creativity to reach a wider range of people regardless of physical limitations. The use of interactive sensor devices presents a not yet completely explored path for creating forms of sonic and multimedia interaction to a degree that has not yet become standard within either the musical field nor the emerging field of immersive environments and storytelling. The implications of a more fleshed out sensor-based system extend beyond the sound potential explored within this paper, and could allow interaction with visual aspects and motion based interactive art installations. This technology can also be applied as part of larger interactive systems, such as those found in theme parks and other large interactive attraction spaces. The author offers a novel approach to the democratization of music by leveraging the potential of interactive electronic devices for a population traditionally overlooked in music.
ContributorsMeconiates, Stacia (Author) / Temple, Alex (Thesis advisor) / Paine, Garth (Committee member) / Cechanowicz, Laura (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
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
This presentation explores the processes of writing and producing the original musical "Subplots," debuted in August 2022. Through composition and music direction lenses, this presentation outlines the creative journey from conception to performance, highlighting the process of collaborating with a librettist, performers, and production team members. This thesis was completed under the direction of Dr. Jody Rockmaker and Dr. Alex Temple; all materials are copyrighted by Anthony Procopio and Sara Matin.
ContributorsProcopio, Anthony (Author) / Rockmaker, Jody (Thesis director) / Temple, Alex (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music, Dance and Theatre (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description
This paper is an in-depth analysis of the symphonic piece titled Subconsciousness for symphony orchestra that was composed during the summer of 2021. This document will explain the conceptual ideas and compositional processes involved in its creation. This document was written as a resource for musicians, music theorist, composers, and public interested in the creative process used to compose the piece. Much of this work was inspired by the writings of Carl Gustav Jung that explore dreams and how the unconscious mind plays an important role in developing these dreams. In addition, this paper shows how Jung’s ideas are manifested in the music, providing arguments that demonstrate how both psychology and music are correlated in the development of the piece.
ContributorsTaborda Higuita, Daniel Felipe (Author) / Rockmaker, Jody (Thesis advisor) / Bolanos, Gabriel (Committee member) / Temple, Alex (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022