Extended Techniques in Stanley Friedman's Solus for Unaccompanied Trumpet (open access)

Extended Techniques in Stanley Friedman's Solus for Unaccompanied Trumpet

This document examines the technical execution of extended techniques incorporated in the musical structure of Solus, and explores the benefits of introducing the work into the curriculum of a college level trumpet studio. Compositional style, form, technical accessibility, and pedagogical benefits are investigated in each of the four movements. An interview with the composer forms the foundation for the history of the composition as well as the genesis of some of the extended techniques and programmatic ideas.
Date: May 2008
Creator: Meredith, Scott
System: The UNT Digital Library
Comparison and Contrast of Performance Practice for the Tuba in Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 in D major, Op. 47, and Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 100 (open access)

Comparison and Contrast of Performance Practice for the Tuba in Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 in D major, Op. 47, and Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 100

Performance practice is a term familiar to serious musicians. For the performer, this means assimilating and applying all the education and training that has been pursued in a course of study. Performance practice entails many aspects such as development of the craft of performing on the instrument, comprehensive knowledge of pertinent literature, score study and listening to recordings, study of instruments of the period, notation and articulation practices of the time, and issues of tempo and dynamics. The orchestral literature of Eastern Europe, especially Germany and Russia, from the mid-nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century provides some of the most significant and musically challenging parts for the tuba. The works of Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, and Dmitri Shostakovich, along with their orchestral contemporaries, represents a significant portion of this literature. This study examines a seminal work in the orchestral genre from each of these three Russian composers. The role of the tuba in each work is discussed. Excerpts of the tuba part are examined in terms of performance issues such as range, rhythm, phrasing, and scoring. Comparisons and contrasts are drawn as to how each composer used the tuba and the effectiveness of the utilization.
Date: May 2006
Creator: Couch, Roy L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The influence of klezmer on twentieth-century solo and chamber concert music for clarinet: with three recitals of selected works of Manevich, Debussy, Horovitz, Milhaud, Martino, Mozart and others. (open access)

The influence of klezmer on twentieth-century solo and chamber concert music for clarinet: with three recitals of selected works of Manevich, Debussy, Horovitz, Milhaud, Martino, Mozart and others.

The secular music of the Eastern European Jews is known today as klezmer. Klezmer was the traditional instrumental celebratory music of Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews who eventually populated the Pale of Settlement, which encompassed modern-day Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus and Romania. Due to the rise of oppression and expulsion, many klezmer musicians or klezmorim immigrated to the United States between 1880 and the early 1920s. These musicians found work in klezmer bands and orchestras as well as Yiddish radio and theater. Some of the most influential klezmorim were clarinetists Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras who helped develop an American klezmer style. While the American style flourished, the popularity of pure klezmer began to diminish. As American-born Jews began to prefer the new sounds of big band and jazz, klezmer was considered old-fashioned and was in danger of becoming a lost art form. During the early 1970s, a reawakening study of klezmer developed. Henry Sapoznik, Lev Liberman and Andy Statman were instrumental in creating a klezmer revival in the United States. At the same time, Argentinean-born Israeli clarinetist Giora Feidman was popularizing klezmer in Europe. Klezmer had again become popular and the revival's impact on the concert hall was inevitable. Even though …
Date: December 2002
Creator: Card, Patricia Pierce
System: The UNT Digital Library
Carl Nielsen's Quintet for Winds, OP. 43: A Critical Edition, a Lecture Recital, Together with Three Recitals of Selected Works for Horn by Atterberg, Ries, Mozart, Rosetti, Musgrave, Larsson, and Others (open access)

Carl Nielsen's Quintet for Winds, OP. 43: A Critical Edition, a Lecture Recital, Together with Three Recitals of Selected Works for Horn by Atterberg, Ries, Mozart, Rosetti, Musgrave, Larsson, and Others

The purpose of this dissertation is to prepare and present a critical edition of Carl Nielsen's Quintet for Winds, Op. 43, a major work in the woodwind quintet repertoire. Written for the Copenhagen Wind Quintet in 1922, it is also considered a pivotal composition in Nielsen's artistic output. This treatise offers a brief biography of Carl Nielsen, documents the history and significance of the Quintet for Winds, Op. 43, and presents a critical edition that will enable more accurate performances of this important composition.
Date: December 1995
Creator: Spence, Marcia L. (Marcia Louise)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Effects of Free Play As an Instructional Tool on the Quality of Improvisation of First, Second, and Third Grade Children (open access)

The Effects of Free Play As an Instructional Tool on the Quality of Improvisation of First, Second, and Third Grade Children

To look at the effect of free play on the musical improvisations of first, second and third grade children, 108 children were randomly assigned to either a control or treatment group. Subjects were tested using a researcher-designed instrument to elicit an improvisatory response. The control group then received regular music instruction (120 minutes every 2 weeks) and the treatment group received regular music instruction in conjunction with musical free play (100 minutes of instruction and 20 minutes of free play every 2 weeks). The treatment lasted 14 weeks. At the end of the treatment, all students were tested with the same testing instrument used for the pre test. Videotapes of the improvisations were submitted to three independent judges to rate for quality on a 5-point Likert scale. The change in ratings between pre and post tests were analyzed with an analysis of variance to determine if there were significant differences between the control and treatment groups. The analysis of the data revealed no significant difference in the change of ratings between control and treatment groups for the group as a whole, or for any particular grade level within the total group.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Burger, Tammie L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Symphonic Fantasia  Han-Kook Oui Ja-Yeon (Nature in Korea): Score and Critical Commentary (open access)

Symphonic Fantasia Han-Kook Oui Ja-Yeon (Nature in Korea): Score and Critical Commentary

The Symphonic Fantasia Han-Kook oui Ja-Yeon (Nature in Korea ) is a single-movement orchestral piece, which is divided into 5 characteristic sections - each section has programmatic subtitles (Rocks, River, Sea, Wind, and Mountain) and its own idée fixe motive. The degree of texture (homophonic/polyphonic), dynamics (strong/weak), density (thick/thin), velocity (fast/slow), and orchestration (emphasizing various sections of the orchestra) is determined by depiction of the subtitles. The critical commentary of the Symphonic Fantasia Han-Kook oui Ja-Yeon (Nature in Korea ) includes a discussion of form, pitch content (melodic and harmonic), and texture of the piece. The commentary also includes a discussion of the use of programmatic subtitles (Rocks, River, Sea, Wind, and Mountain) and depiction of these concepts in the orchestration of the work. A comparison with other orchestral works is added for explanation and support of the composer's concept. Some of the other composers who are discussed in this paper include Richard Strauss (Alpine Symphony), Gustav Holst (The Planets), Frank Bridge (The Sea), Aaron Copland (Billy the Kid), and Joseph Klein (Pathways: Interior Shadows).
Date: August 2004
Creator: Han, Sang-Eun
System: The UNT Digital Library
Earth Ascending: A Composition in Three Movements for Female Voice, Electroacoustic Music, and Video (open access)

Earth Ascending: A Composition in Three Movements for Female Voice, Electroacoustic Music, and Video

Earth Ascending is a composition in three movements scored for female voice, electroacoustic music, and video. Composed in the Year 2000, Earth Ascending lasts approximately sixteen minutes and was created specifically for live performance in which all three elements combine to create a sonic and visual environment. As such, no single element has greater importance than any other, with each of the three performing forces assuming a foreground role at various times throughout the work. Earth Ascending is defined by a single poem written by contemporary female British poets Jeni Counzyn, Jehanne Mehta, and Cynthia Fuller. The movements are named according to the title of each poem: Earth-Body, Light-Body; Wringcliff Beach; and Pool. The movements are separated in performance by five seconds of silence and black on the video screen. The paper accompanying the score of Earth Ascending is divided into five chapters, each discussing in detail an element central to the composition itself. The Introduction presents background information, general ideas, and approaches undertaken when creating the work. Chapters 1 through 3 investigate in detail the content of the electroacoustic music, voice, and video. Chapter 4 discusses scoring techniques, revealing approaches and methods undertaken to solve issues relating to notation …
Date: August 2000
Creator: Lillios, Elainie
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Philosophy and an Approach to Teaching Non-professional-track Violin Students (open access)

A Philosophy and an Approach to Teaching Non-professional-track Violin Students

The aim of this dissertation is to lay the groundwork for an integrated approach to violin instruction for children who are not being groomed explicitly for professional careers as instrumentalists. The study presents a particular focus on the age of middle school children, in order to showcase a more specialized and definitive result of research without, however, distinguishing between advantages and limitations of different age groups of children who study music and learn to play the violin. My first goal is to craft a sample method of teaching with a premise that not all students studying music must or need to become professional musicians in their future. I promote an approach based on the premise that music has universal value available to all and that any kind of music education encourages the growth, personality development, and imagination of children. My second goal is to explore how music education functions in 21st century western culture. Research is based on teachings and methods established by Suzuki, Kodaly, Jaques-Dalcroze, and Orff, among others.
Date: May 2014
Creator: Bard-Schwarz, Anna Ewa
System: The UNT Digital Library
Jean Millet's L'Art de bien Chanter (1666): a Translation and Study (open access)

Jean Millet's L'Art de bien Chanter (1666): a Translation and Study

Jean Millet's L Art de bien chanter (1666), describes the air de cour and its ornamentation as it existed in France during the first half of the seventeenth century. This work, translated for the first time into English and transcribed into modern notation, and B6nigne de Bacilly's Remarques curieuses sur l'art de bien chanter (1668) are the only detailed treatises explaining vocal ornamentation during this period. To clarify his ornamentation method, Millet introduces terms referring to placement of agrements, though few performers used them. Millet expresses the old style, popular under Louis XIII, and the provincial view. Bacilly's treatise deals with the air de cour under Louis XIV, which had a more Italian flavor. He gives aesthetic principles aiding the performer in placing and selecting ornaments. Though Millet and Bacilly describe the same practice, striking differences exist between the two air de cour styles.
Date: May 1998
Creator: Thomas, Barbara E. (Barbara Elaine)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Exploring the Private Music Studio: Problems Faced by Teachers in Attempting to Quantify the Success of Teaching Theory in Private Lessons through One Method as Opposed to Another (open access)

Exploring the Private Music Studio: Problems Faced by Teachers in Attempting to Quantify the Success of Teaching Theory in Private Lessons through One Method as Opposed to Another

I present strategies and methods for teaching fundamentals of music theory in the context of the private music studio through a variety of techniques and research. Beginning with a background in educational psychology, examples of behaviorist and cognitive teaching models are presented, and how each applies to teaching music is explained. Two detailed examples of actual lessons are presented, coupled with musical examples, to describe both the process and the concepts that can be presented. A qualitative experiment based upon the learning styles of three music students and the effect of different teaching styles when teaching the same concept is presented and discussed in detail.
Date: August 2006
Creator: McKnight, Michael
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Texas Bandmasters Association: A Historical Study of Activities, Contributions, and Leadership (1920-1997) (open access)

The Texas Bandmasters Association: A Historical Study of Activities, Contributions, and Leadership (1920-1997)

The purpose of the study was to investigate the leadership role of the Texas Bandmasters Association (1920-1997) in the development of the band program in Texas. It sought to determine TBA's effect on the band movement in Texas, and ascertain how the TBA has contributed to the emphasis on performance focus that is associated with the Texas band tradition. In doing so, the study also provided information regarding the association's goals, purposes, activities, and contributions during the time period under investigation. The historical data for the study was compiled from documentary sources and personal interview. Documentary sources included minutes of meetings from 1920-1997, information contained in various periodicals including the Southwestern Musician combined with the Texas Music Educator, and a nearly complete set of clinic-convention programs. Historical data from past researchers, including several masters theses and doctoral dissertations, and tapes and transcripts of interviews conducted by past researchers, as well as interviews conducted by this researcher, were also utilized. Much of the historical data for the study was located at the Texas Music Educators Association archives, housed at the association headquarters in Austin, Texas. The researcher identified five periods of the association's history. In addition to developing a historical chronology, …
Date: May 2000
Creator: Shoop, Stephen Scott
System: The UNT Digital Library
String student self-efficacy and deliberate music practice: Examining string students' musical background characteristics, self-efficacy beliefs and practice behaviors. (open access)

String student self-efficacy and deliberate music practice: Examining string students' musical background characteristics, self-efficacy beliefs and practice behaviors.

This study examined the musical background characteristics, self-efficacy beliefs, and practice behaviors of string students auditioning for an all-region orchestra in one large South-Central district. Purposes of the study were: (1) to describe the musical backgrounds and self-efficacy beliefs of high school string students, (2) to measure the relationship between self-efficacy scores and performance achievement, and (3) to describe the practice behaviors and thoughts of high and low self-efficacy string students. Questionnaires were given to 101 high school string students; 65 competed in all-region orchestra. Descriptive data from the questionnaire revealed information such as how many took private lessons and that those who did tended to have a higher sense of perceived self-efficacy in relation to playing their string instruments. Other descriptive items asked questions such as whether or not students started in public school and how much they practiced outside of orchestra. The relationship of summed self-efficacy scores to a competition ranking was found to be statistically significant and inverse. For all string participants (n=65) Spearman's rho was, rs= -.37, (p=.001) with 14% of the variance explained (r2 =.14). This inverse relationship documents the linear trend for students with better rankings (lower ranking numbers) to also tend to have …
Date: August 2008
Creator: Cahill Clark, Jennifer L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Systematic Composition and Intuition in a Concerto for Organ and Orchestra (open access)

Systematic Composition and Intuition in a Concerto for Organ and Orchestra

Historically, composers have used methods in addition to inspiration in writing music. Regardless of the source materials they used, composers ultimately rely on their musical sensitivity to inform the compositional decision-making. Discuses the rotational aspects of decimals that are created from certain prime-number denominators, and focuses on the prime number 17. Shows how these decimals can be transformed by converting them to different number bases. Looks at the Golden Proportion and its use in creating formal structures. Examines compositional and aesthetic issues arising from using number series to generate the pitches, rhythms, and sections in the Concerto for Organ and Orchestra. This process of composition reveals musical gestures that may not have been discovered using more intuitively based approaches to composition. Shows how musical sensitivity was necessary in shaping the numerically derived material in order to create aesthetically satisfying music.
Date: August 2003
Creator: Worlton, James Timbrel
System: The UNT Digital Library
Cyclic Patterns in John Coltrane's Melodic Vocabulary as Influenced by Nicolas Slonimsky's  Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns: An Analysis of Selected Improvisations (open access)

Cyclic Patterns in John Coltrane's Melodic Vocabulary as Influenced by Nicolas Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns: An Analysis of Selected Improvisations

This study documents and analyzes cyclic patterns used as melodic vocabulary in John Coltrane's improvisations from compositions of 1965 to 1967. The analysis is categorized in two distinct sections. The first section analyzes melodic vocabulary that is derived from the cycle of descending major thirds progressions found in the compositions of 1959 to 1960. The second section analyzes melodic vocabulary that is derived from Nicolas Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns using the theoretical terminology incorporated in the treatise. Musical examples consist of patterns from the Thesaurus and excerpts from selected improvisations of John Coltrane as transcribed by Andrew White. Important scholarly contributions relevant to the subject by Carl Woideck, Lewis Porter, David Demsey, and Walt Weiskopf are included. Every effort has been made to cite interviews with musicians and commentaries by writers contemporary to that period of time with special emphasis on the important influence of Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and Ornette Coleman. Chapter headings include: Literature Review and Methodology; Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and Ornette Coleman: Converging Influences; Analysis: Coltrane's Major Thirds Harmonic Cycles Used as Melodic Vocabulary; Interval Cycles in Coltrane's Melodic Vocabulary Based on Patterns from Slonimsky's Thesaurus; Summary and Conclusion.
Date: August 2003
Creator: Bair, Jeff
System: The UNT Digital Library
Elatio: Praises and Prophecies (open access)

Elatio: Praises and Prophecies

ELATIO: Praises and Prophecies is an allegorical composition based upon a collection of carols, poetry and prose in selected verses, phrases and fragments from medieval Christian liturgy, the canonical Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and New Testament, and portions of various non-canonical Dead Sea Scroll texts. The languages used in the selections presented here are English, Medieval Latin, and transliterated Biblical Hebrew.
Date: December 1998
Creator: Job, Lynn R. (Lynn Renee)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dialogic Interactionism: the Construction of Self in the Secondary Choral Classroom. (open access)

Dialogic Interactionism: the Construction of Self in the Secondary Choral Classroom.

Examined in this hermeneutic phenomenological study is a transformation in the researcher's choral music teaching in which students' abilities to construct self emerged organically from interactions, or dialogues, that took place among and between the students, the teacher, and the music being studied. To allow for such interaction to emerge organically and meaningfully, students and teacher both shared in the power needed to construct a classroom environment in which the localized issues of the classroom and the specific contexts of students' lived histories were maintained and encouraged. This process of interaction, based upon dialogue among and between equal agents in the classroom, is described in the study as dialogic interactionism. In order to examine the concept of dialogic interactionism, three constructs upon which dialogic interactionism is based were developed and philosophically analyzed. They include the construction of self through the construction of self-knowledge; the localized reference system of the classroom, and the issue of power. Each construct is considered within the context of extant writings both in general education and music education philosophy. Following the analysis, a theoretical description of the dialogic interactive choral classroom is given as well a description of how such ideas might be realized in practice. …
Date: August 2004
Creator: Younse, Stuart
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Curricular Content of Elementary Music in China Between 1912 and 1982 (open access)

The Curricular Content of Elementary Music in China Between 1912 and 1982

The purpose of this study was to investigate the curricular content of elementary music in China between 1912 and 1982. The questions addressed were: (1) What changes in elementary music resulted from China's becoming a republic in 1912? (2) What changes in elementary music resulted from China's becoming a socialist country in 1949? (3) What changes in elementary music in the People's Republic of China resulted from the Anti—Rightist Struggle Movement in 1957? (4) What changes in elementary music in the People's Republic of China resulted from the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)? (5) Have changes occurred in elementary music in the People's Republic of China since the beginning of the reform movement in 1978? (6) Did any of the changes affect curricular goals, contents, methods, required materials, and instruction time allotted in a like manner, or did some of these components remain the same while others changed? (7) Were the changes important enough to attribute them to a changed political ideology? After translating all pertinent documents, the goals, contents, methods, materials, and time allotted for the elementary music curricula between 1912 and 1982 were listed and identified. Subsequently, the areas of focus within those categories as well as changes in focus …
Date: December 1989
Creator: Ma, Shuhui
System: The UNT Digital Library
Toward a Framework for a New Philosophy of Music Education:  Løgstrup  as Synergy Between the Platonic and the Aristotelian Perspectives in the Music Education Philosophies of Bennett Reimer and David Elliott (open access)

Toward a Framework for a New Philosophy of Music Education: Løgstrup as Synergy Between the Platonic and the Aristotelian Perspectives in the Music Education Philosophies of Bennett Reimer and David Elliott

In the domain of music education philosophy there are, at present, two foundational systems that purport to be self-contained philosophies of music education. These are music education as aesthetic education, often referred to as MEAE, espoused by Bennett Reimer, and the praxial philosophy of music education posited by David Elliott. The debate between these two philosophies has been contentious and has had the effect of fracturing the philosophical underpinning of the music profession in an irreconcilable way. It is the purpose of this dissertation to introduce a third voice, that of the Danish philosopher Knut Løgstrup, to serve as a synergy between the philosophies of Reimer and Elliott and lead toward a framework of thinking for music education philosophy. I assert that the philosophies of Reimer and Elliott represent a modern articulation of an ancient dialectic between Platonic and Aristotelian ideals. Thus, the Reimer philosophy has its foundation in Platonic thought and Elliott has embraced an Aristotelian philosophical perspective. Løgstrup's position provides a third fundamental viewpoint that includes both Platonic and Aristotelian thinking and can therefore provide a synergy for these two music education philosophies. He refers to his philosophy as an ontological ethics. As a methodological approach, I utilize …
Date: December 2006
Creator: Wheeler, T. Ray
System: The UNT Digital Library