Organization and Production of an Original Musical Playlet, A May Comedy (open access)

Organization and Production of an Original Musical Playlet, A May Comedy

The purpose in writing this thesis is to describe program material for a musical performance to be presented by the public school music classes of the Stephenville Public Schools, Grades IV to VIII, and the means taken to further musical growth on the part of several hundred children through participation in this program. Most musical plays provide for only a small number of main characters and only one chorus. To fit the need of classes in this particular school, a large cast is necessary, and also a play in which several different groups or choruses may participate. To illustrate this need for program material in the public school music classes, this musical playlet, "A May Comedy", was written, and the details of its presentation given.
Date: August 1948
Creator: Heptinstall, Bobbie B.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Love is the Answer: a Creative Thesis Production Combining Multi-Media and Oral Interpretation (open access)

Love is the Answer: a Creative Thesis Production Combining Multi-Media and Oral Interpretation

The problem of this thesis in creative production is concerned with the use of multi-media in an oral interpretation program so as not to obscure the author's message. The production attempted to utilize literature chosen to represent a basic theme and present it with selected media so that a positive response is evoked from the audience. The study also attempts to show, through example, that a program of oral interpretation using multi-media can sustain audience interest for a full evening of entertainment. An attempt is also made to show that multi-media need not be in constant use, that some literature can best utilize the "subtractive theory" which intensifies the message by deleting a majority of media.
Date: August 1971
Creator: Lane, Todd K.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Integrating Body and Mind Awareness into the Pedagogy of Expiratory Breathing, Large Intervallic Leaps, and Altissimo Production when Performing the Alto Saxophone (open access)

Integrating Body and Mind Awareness into the Pedagogy of Expiratory Breathing, Large Intervallic Leaps, and Altissimo Production when Performing the Alto Saxophone

Specific movements within the pelvic floor, abdomen, diaphragm, ribs, and spine are show to be associated with either inspiration or expiration when playing the alto saxophone. These movements support tone production during the performance of large intervallic leaps and altissimo register notes. During expiratory breath, specific vocal-tract formations and movements are show to be adaptive with either the higher and lower registers. Anatomical areas studied include the glottis, larynx, pharynx, velum and soft palate, tongue arch, and tongue proximity to the reed. Flouroscopy and endoscopic research by Watkins, Pattnoede, and Jordheim challenge common pedagogical advice for palm-key and altissimo register notes such as using a high tongue arch, fast air and the "ee" vowel. Literature by historical and even current pedagogues do not clarify their use of the terms "larynx" or "throat." In the context of their writing those terms could ambiguously mean oropharynx, laryngopharynx, glottis, neck muscles or vertical position of larynx. Mental tension, fear, and negative inner dialogue are shown to cause reflexive and tension-based movement. These issues negatively impact the formation and direction of adaptive vocal-tract movements for large ascending intervallic leaps and altissimo-register note production. Repeated failure by a student can provoke negative self-talk as well …
Date: December 2022
Creator: Kelley, Brandon Matthew
System: The UNT Digital Library
K-, L-, and M-Shell X-Ray Production Cross Sections for Beryllium, Aluminum and Argon Ions Incident Upon Selected Elements (open access)

K-, L-, and M-Shell X-Ray Production Cross Sections for Beryllium, Aluminum and Argon Ions Incident Upon Selected Elements

Incident 0.5 to 2.5 MeV charged particle beams were used to ionize the inner-shells of selected targets and study their subsequent emission of characteristic x-rays. ⁹Be⁺ ions were used to examine K-shell x-ray production from thin F, Na, Al, Si, P, Cl, and K targets, L-shell x-ray production from thin Cu, An, Ge, Br, Zr and Ag targets, and M-shell x-ray production from thin Pr, Nd, Eu, Dy, Ho, Hf, W, Au, Pb and Bi targets. L-shell x-ray production cross sections were also measured for ²⁷Al⁺ ions incident upon Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Zr, and Pd targets. M-shell x-ray production cross sections were measure for ²⁷Al⁺ and ⁴⁰Ar⁺ ions incident upon Pr, Nd, Gd, Dy, Lu, Hf, Au, Pb, Bi, and U targets. These measurements were performed using the 2.5 MV Van de Graaff accelerator at North Texas State University. The x-rays were detected with a Si(Li) detector whose efficiency was determined by fitting a theoretical photon absorption curve to experimentally measure values. The x-ray yields were normalized to the simultaneously measured Rutherford backscattered (RBS) yields which resulted in an x-ray production cross section per incident ion. The RBS spectrum was obtained using a standard surface barrier detector calibrated for …
Date: December 1986
Creator: Price, Jack Lewis
System: The UNT Digital Library
Prison Productions: Textiles and Other Military Supplies from State Penitentiaries in the Trans-Mississippi Theater during the American Civil War (open access)

Prison Productions: Textiles and Other Military Supplies from State Penitentiaries in the Trans-Mississippi Theater during the American Civil War

This thesis examines the state penitentiaries of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas that became sources of wartime supplies during the Civil War. A shortage of industry in the southwest forced the Confederacy to use all manufactories efficiently. Penitentiary workshops and textile mills supplied a variety of cloth, wood, and iron products, but have received minimal attention in studies of logistics. Penitentiary textile mills became the largest domestic supplier of cloth to Confederate quartermasters, aid societies, citizens, slaves, and indigent families. This study examines how penitentiary workshops converted to wartime production and determines their contribution to the Confederate war effort. The identification of those who produced, purchased, distributed, and used penitentiary goods will enhance our knowledge of overall Confederate supply.
Date: August 2011
Creator: Derbes, Brett J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Development of the Textile Industry in Texas (open access)

The Development of the Textile Industry in Texas

"At the present time the textile industry in Texas is seeking to normalize itself after running at a peak production for the last ten years. It is one of the most competitive of our industries. The mills in Texas have always had to compete with the large mills located in the Eastern states, which have many advantages over the Texas mills. ... It has been only recently since the manufacture of synthetic fibers began in Texas, and it has not yet been fully completed. At the present time only the ingredients for synthetic fibers are produced in Texas. ... Cotton and wool manufacturing may develop gradually, but in the field of synthetics appears the greatest opportunity for a future textile industry in Texas."
Date: June 1950
Creator: Droze, Wilmon H.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Best Medicine (open access)

The Best Medicine

The Best Medicine is an animated documentary that explores the true stories behind the live performances of stand-up comedians. The film juxtaposes live stand-up performances with candid interview footage combined with animation and illustration. Three subjects– Michael Burd, Casey Stoddard, and Jacob Kubon– discuss alcoholism, childhood abuse, and sexual anxiety, respectively. Their candid, intimate interviews reveal personal information, creating a new context with which to understand live stand-up comedy performance. This illustrates themes of finding humor in dark or painful circumstances and the cathartic nature writing and performance.
Date: May 2015
Creator: Lechler, Ron
System: The UNT Digital Library
China Run (open access)

China Run

China Run is a 92 1/2 minute documentary film which portrays an ultramarathon runner's record-setting 2,125 mile run across China in 53 days, starting at the Great Wall north of Beijing and concluding in Guangjhou (Canton). It is a story of the difficulties, both physical and emotional, suffered by the runner, as well as the story of his encounters with the people of China.
Date: December 1986
Creator: Grant, Michael E. (Michael Edward)
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Historical Analysis of the Theatre at Tsa La Gi (open access)

An Historical Analysis of the Theatre at Tsa La Gi

This study is an examination of the theatre project at Tsa La Gi, a Cherokee cultural center in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The thesis is organized into three areas: the drama, the theatre design, and the production techniques. Chapter I reports the process of the formulation of Trail of Tears and analyzes its success. Chapter II describes and interprets the process of the design of the physical theatre. Chapter III reports the techniques used in play production at Tsa La Gi and interprets their effects. Chapter IV presents conclusions about the success of the theatre project. This report accepts evidence that the theatre project at Tsa La Gi is a highly successful one, both economically and artistically.
Date: August 1974
Creator: McMahan, Barbara M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Practical Astronomy (open access)

Practical Astronomy

This dissertation is a collection of poems preceded by a critical preface. The preface considers Anthony’s Hecht’s long poem, “The Venetian Vespers,” and the ways in which the temporally unsettled situation of the poem’s speaker parallels a problem facing narrative-meditative poets. The preface is divided into two main sections that explore divisions of this larger conflict. The first discusses the origins and effects of the speaker’s uprootedness in time, and the ways in which he tries to both combat and embrace this dislocation by temporarily losing himself in the immediacy of observing visual art. In this section I connect the dilemma of the speaker, who wishes to escape his memory by focusing outwards, to the dilemma of a representational poet who, despite his position towards the past, must necessarily confront or recollect memories and emotions in order to create authentic descriptions or characters. The second section focuses on the production and appreciation of artistic works (both visual and literary) and how the meaning, production and appreciation of beauty are inseparable from its existence within the physical limits of time. Here I discuss the significance of Hecht’s character who is surrounded with beauty yet describes himself as a person who only …
Date: August 2012
Creator: Woodard, Chelsea S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
"image"/ "i" / "nation": A Theory and Practice of Becoming an A/r/tographer (open access)

"image"/ "i" / "nation": A Theory and Practice of Becoming an A/r/tographer

One can argue that embracing technological models may produce students who are illiterate in the "proper" methods of communication. With rapid technological change, some fear traditions in their "original" form may be lost. Practices such as trying to recapture the artist's intent should be abandoned as a way of opening up literacy discourse to multiple narratives. Failing to critically explore the possibilities of emerging models of thinking, teaching, and learning in a technological culture can produce a loss equal to the loss of tradition. An a/r/tographer works toward a fluid practice between the domains of artist, researcher, and teacher in order to negotiate emerging forms of visual/tactile/auditory communication which include the body as a networked organism situated recursively within the larger structure of society. This study occurred during two separate semesters of an art education course for pre-service elementary teachers. Through interaction with hypermedia, social networking, installation art, and mash-ups, the teacher and students became artists, researchers, and teachers in a community of practice. A new form of teaching practice was envisioned that opens the possibility for both collective and individual understandings in the formation of curricula. A set of guiding principles was invented through practice as a way of …
Date: August 2010
Creator: Sutherlin, Matthew Evans
System: The UNT Digital Library

From Stockyards to Defense Plants, the Transformation of a City: Fort Worth, Texas, and World War II

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
World War II represented a watershed event in the history of the United States and affected political, economic, and social systems at all levels. In particular, the war unleashed forces that caused rapid industrialization, immigration, and urbanization in two regions, the South and the West. This study examines one community's place in that experience as those forces forever altered the city of Fort Worth, Texas. Prior to World War II, Fort Worth's economy revolved around cattle, food-processing, and oil, industries that depended largely on an unskilled labor force. The Fort Worth Stockyards laid claim to the single largest workforce in the city, while manufacturing lagged far behind. After an aggressive campaign waged by city civic and business leaders, Fort Worth acquired a Consolidated Aircraft Corporation assembly plant in early 1941. The presence of that facility initiated an economic transformation that resulted in a major shift away from agriculture and toward manufacturing, particularly the aviation industry. The Consolidated plant sparked industrial development, triggered an influx of newcomers, trained a skilled workforce, and stimulated an economic recovery that lifted the city out of the Depression-era doldrums. When hostilities ended and the United States entered the Cold War period, Consolidated and the adjacent …
Date: December 2003
Creator: Pinkney, Kathryn Currie
System: The UNT Digital Library
Tone Parallels in Music for Film: The Compositional Works of Terence Blanchard in the Diegetic Universe and a New Work for Studio Orchestra by Brian Horton (open access)

Tone Parallels in Music for Film: The Compositional Works of Terence Blanchard in the Diegetic Universe and a New Work for Studio Orchestra by Brian Horton

This research investigates the culturally programmatic symbolism of jazz music in film. I explore this concept through critical analysis of composer Terence Blanchard's original score for Malcolm X directed by Spike Lee (1992). I view Blanchard's music as representing a non-diegetic tone parallel that musically narrates several authentic characteristics of African-American life, culture, and the human condition as depicted in Lee's film. Blanchard's score embodies a broad spectrum of musical influences that reshape Hollywood's historically limited, and often misappropiated perceptions of jazz music within African-American culture. By combining stylistic traits of jazz and classical idioms, Blanchard reinvents the sonic soundscape in which musical expression and the black experience are represented on the big screen. My new work––Black Magic––is a musical response to the research found within this study. The through-composed piece is written in three movements for a studio orchestra. It is an homage to the musical, cultural, and entertainment contributions of African-Americans in the magical realm of Hollywood cinema.
Date: August 2017
Creator: Horton, Brian (Saxophonist)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The History and Development of Vibrato Among Classical Saxophonists: A Lecture Recital Together with Three Recitals of Selected Works of A. Desenclos, L. Robert, J. Ibert, K. Husa, B. Heiden, R. Schumann and Others (open access)

The History and Development of Vibrato Among Classical Saxophonists: A Lecture Recital Together with Three Recitals of Selected Works of A. Desenclos, L. Robert, J. Ibert, K. Husa, B. Heiden, R. Schumann and Others

This study examines the history and development of vibrato among classical saxophonists as well as briefly summarizes the history of vibrato in general from its origins on string instruments, the voice and other wind instruments. An analysis of recordings of early saxophonists shows the approximate time period of incorporation of vibrato on the saxophone and the influences of performers and musical styles on its development. Pedagogical methods of performing vibrato on the saxophone are included as well as a discussion of saxophone vibrato styles. An exploration of vibrato as an expressive musical device is provided along with conclusions drawn concerning performance practice implications.
Date: December 1986
Creator: Lamar, Jacquelyn B. (Jacquelyn Brown)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Down and Out: a Novel (open access)

Down and Out: a Novel

A creative dissertation consisting of two parts: a novel and a critical preface. The critical preface, titled “Novel without Falsehood” deals directly with David Shields’s Reality Hunger, touching on issues of reality as it pertains to truth, writing, fiction, and contemporary culture. The novel is entitled Down and Out and follows the fortunes of a small town in Arkansas before, during, and after its sole source of employment ceases to exist.
Date: May 2015
Creator: Briseño, J. Andrew
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Flora and Fauna in Eighteenth-Century Colonial Mexican Casta Paintings

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
The primary objective of this thesis is to identify patterns of appearance among the flora and fauna of selected eighteenth-century New Spanish casta paintings. The objectives of the thesis are to determine what types of flora and fauna are present within selected casta paintings, whether the flora and fauna's provenance is Spanish or Mexican and whether there are any potential associations of particular flora and fauna with the races being depicted in the same composition. I focus my flora and fauna research on three sets of casta paintings produced between 1750 and 1800: Miguel Cabrera's 1763 series, José Joaquín Magón's 1770 casta paintings, and Andrés de Islas' 1774 sequence. Although the paintings fall into the same genre and within a period of a little over a decade, they nevertheless offer different visions of New Spain's natural bounty and include objects designed to satisfy Europe's interest in the exotic.
Date: May 2006
Creator: Torres, Anita Jacinta
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Social and Economic History of the El Paso Area (open access)

A Social and Economic History of the El Paso Area

This thesis shows the social and economic history of the El Paso area from the time of Spanish settlers through present day.
Date: June 1947
Creator: Box, Dorothy Mae
System: The UNT Digital Library
Livestock Legacy: A History of the Fort Worth Stockyards Company 1893-1982 (open access)

Livestock Legacy: A History of the Fort Worth Stockyards Company 1893-1982

This dissertation outlines the creation and history of the Fort Worth Stockyards Company from its conception to the time of this dissertation's publication. The Fort Worth Stockyards Company was created by Greenleif W. Simpson and Louville V. Niles. This company would soon cement Fort Worth as the premier livestock producer in America, soon surpassing Chicago.
Date: August 1982
Creator: Pate, J'Nell L.
System: The UNT Digital Library

An Investigation of Multiple Articulation as Applied to Saxophone Literature and Its Performance: An Historical and Pedagogical Approach

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Multiple articulation is a technique that is becoming commonplace in the saxophone literature. This study provides a detailed explanation of how produce the technique. Its application to saxophone literature is explored with musical examples and commentary by the author. A compilation of pedagogical viewpoints regarding multiple articulation from educators spanning the last century is provided.
Date: May 2019
Creator: Reséndez, Joey (José Luís)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Faunal Exploitation during the Depopulation of the Mesa Verde Region (A. D. 1300): A Case Study of Goodman Point Pueblo (5MT604) (open access)

Faunal Exploitation during the Depopulation of the Mesa Verde Region (A. D. 1300): A Case Study of Goodman Point Pueblo (5MT604)

This analysis of faunal remains from Goodman Point Pueblo (5MT604), a large village occupied just before the ancestral Puebloans permanently left southwestern Colorado at the end of the thirteenth century, explores the effect of dietary stress during abandonment in the Four Corners region. As archaeologists, we interpret what these former cultures were like and what resources they used through what they left behind. By specifically looking at faunal remains, or remains from food resources, environmental change and dietary stress can be assessed. Identifications of taxa identified at Goodman Point are made explicit via a systematic paleontology. This is followed by site-level taxonomic abundances and spatial analysis. Then, effects of technological innovations, environmental change, and sample quality are examined as alternate explanations of shifts in foraging efficiency, particularly related to animal hunting. Analyzing why and if the availability of faunal resources changes over time helps to clarify why the ancestral Puebloans left southwestern Colorado.
Date: August 2011
Creator: Hoffman, Amy Susan
System: The UNT Digital Library
Resource Intensification of Small Game Use at Goodman Point, Southwestern Colorado (open access)

Resource Intensification of Small Game Use at Goodman Point, Southwestern Colorado

This analysis of faunal remains from eleven archaeological sites in the northern San Juan region, extensively occupied by the Ancestral Pueblo people until they leave the region by AD 1300, explores the effects of resource intensification of small wild and domestic resources leading up to this regional depopulation. By examining multiple lines of evidence, in addition to faunal abundance, causal factors are identified to address changes in abundances through time. In particular, age- and sex-based mortality are examined for lagomorphs (jackrabbits and cottontails) and domesticated turkey, respectively, to test hypotheses generated using the prey and patch choice models. Analyses of these resources follow a systematic paleontology which provides explicit identifications made of five sites from a large study area, Goodman Point Pueblo Unit. These data are integrated with those from large village sites from the encompassing central Mesa Verde region. The results of both analyses help clarify why the Ancestral Pueblo people left southwestern Colorado. During the final twenty-year occupation period, the results of this study support a shift from reliance on turkey husbandry to intense exploitation of locally available garden resources (i.e. cottontails).
Date: December 2014
Creator: Ellyson, Laura Jean
System: The UNT Digital Library
Discriminative Stimulus Properties of Cocaine: Tolerance and Cross-Tolerance Characteristics (open access)

Discriminative Stimulus Properties of Cocaine: Tolerance and Cross-Tolerance Characteristics

Rats were trained to discriminate an injection of cocaine, 5.0 mg/kg, from an injection of saline, using a two-lever choice paradigm: one lever was correct after cocaine injection, the other lever was correct after a saline injection. After training, cocaine and methamphetamine were generalized to the cocaine lever, but phenethylamine (PEA) was only partially generalized. Cocaine was injected every 8 hrs, 20.0 mg/kg, and the discriminability of 5.0 mg/kg was tested every other day. Redetermination of the cocaine generalization curve after 6 days of chronic administration showed a shift to the right, from an ED50 of 4.1 mg/kg in the pre-chronic condition to 10.0 mg/kg. Tolerance did not develop to the behavioral effects of cocaine, measured by time to the first reinforcement and response rate. There was cross-tolerance to methamphetamine; however, no evidence for cross-tolerance to PEA was obtained. Following the acquisition of tolerance, chronic administration of cocaine was terminated, and the discriminability of 5.0 mg/kg was tested every other day for loss of tolerance. After 8 days the ED50 returned to 5.0 mg/kg.
Date: May 1985
Creator: Wood, Douglas M. (Douglas Michael)
System: The UNT Digital Library

Animals-as-Trope in the Selected Fiction of Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
In this dissertation, I show how 20th century African-American women writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison utilize animals-as-trope in order to illustrate the writers' humanity and literary vision. In the texts that I have selected, I have found that animals-as-trope functions in two important ways: the first function of animal as trope is a pragmatic one, which serves to express the humanity of African Americans; and the second function of animal tropes in African-American women's fiction is relational and expresses these writers' "ethic of caring" that stems from their folk and womanist world view. Found primarily in slave narratives and in domestic fiction of the 19th and early 20th centuries, pragmatic animal metaphors and/or similes provide direct analogies between the treatment of African-Americans and animals. Here, these writers often engage in rhetoric that challenges pro-slavery apologists, who attempted to disprove the humanity of African-Americans by portraying them as animals fit to be enslaved. Animals, therefore, become the metaphor of both the abolitionist and the slavery apologist for all that is not human. The second function of animals-as-trope in the fiction of African-American women writers goes beyond the pragmatic goal of proving African-Americans's common humanity, even …
Date: August 1999
Creator: Erickson, Stacy M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Occupational Influences on the Folklore of Graford, Texas (open access)

Occupational Influences on the Folklore of Graford, Texas

This study was basically concerned with the effect of occupation on the folklore of the people of Graford, Texas. The people interviewed in that area of North Central Texas were divided into three major occupational groups: ranchers, farmers, and farmer-laborers. At least two members from each of the occupational groups were interviewed; and these interviews revealed that their folklore included folktales, superstitions-remedies, songs, and customs, The customs included household, recreation, school, and church customs. Each informant's folklore was recorded directly as it was related. Then the information was placed in the appropriate categories of folklore. Finally, an analysis of the folklore from the standpoint of the informants occupation was completed. The findings indicated that the various occupations did influence each informant's folklore.
Date: May 1975
Creator: Conlee, Anita
System: The UNT Digital Library