This paper analyzes the piano compositions of Sergei Prokofieff and identifies four elements evident in the literature: classicism, innovation, toccata, and lyricism. Elisabeth Euwer Roberts traces the history of his works and the evidence of these elements in them.

It shall be the purpose of the writer to prepare program material appropriate for school use which will interest, instruct and contribute toward mutual understanding of both the Latin-American and Anglo-American child. This program material has been incorporated into ten musical plays, the themes, dances and songs of which have been gleaned from a great amount of reading material, stories related by Mexican people, legends told by pioneer Anglo residents of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and ideas that have been presented by students. It is the purpose of the writer to organize this material into plays which may be of service to any teacher who intends to present a program, in the intermediate grades, dealing with some phase of Latin and Anglo-American relations.

The rhythmic analyses (derived from the rhythm tables of Chapter II) reveal: 1. Walton used rhythms sparingly. 2. Walton's rhythms constitute an evolutionary state of re-creation, i. e., Walton's rhythms are in empathy with each other. The harmonic analyses (derived from the harmonic fluctuation tables of Chapter II) reveal: 1. The most frequent chords of any classification occur in groups III and IV (chords of the highest tension). 2. The most frequent dissonant interval used is that of the major seventh.

One of the greatest mysteries in the history of music is the castrato singers of the Baroque era. Castration has existed for many thousands of years, but for the first time in history, it was used for artistic purposes. Who were these men who seemingly gave up their masculinity for the sake of music? By examining the time period and circumstances in which these musicians lived, an answer may be found. Exploring the economic, social, and political structure of the 17th and 18th centuries may reveal the mindset behind such a strange yet accepted practice. The in-depth study of their lives and careers will help lift the veil of mystery that surrounds them. Was their physical sacrifice a blessing or a curse? Was it worth it?

This thesis provides a brief history of opera as well as analysis of the operas of Giuseppe Verdi.

In music, the term verismo usually refers to a realistic or naturalistic movement in Italian operas of the late nineteenth century. From the dawn of Italian opera four features have been manifested--umanita (humanism), sincerity (sincerity), passione (passion), effetto (not only theatrical effect but the supreme dramatic moment). The elements of verismo are among the characteristics present in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi where they reached a zenith of development. It is upon these veristic aspects, as identified in the second chapter, that the operas Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci were based. Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, and La Traviata richly exhibit these elements of verismo which have been identified in the fourth chapter.

This paper investigates Henri Murger's novel, Scenes de la Vie de Bohème, as a model for the opera composed by Giacomo Puccini La Bohème. Colleen Hughes Mallette discusses the historical background of the works and examines the music and story.

Honors thesis written by a student in the UNT Honors College discussing West Side Story, its history, its contributors, and the innovative musical numbers therein.

This study outlines the history of and development of Russian music, leading into the song cycles of Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky.

The Sixth, Seventh, and E Piano Sonatas of Prokofiev illustrate the composer's more mature style. In these works there is a definite return to the classic forms and contrapuntal devices which have been called Neo-classicism. Prokofiev, himself, has said that form is one of the basic elements of his style. It is the purpose of this thesis to discover the' formal organization and make a comparison of these sonatas with the works of Beethoven and his contemporaries.

This paper discusses the nature and significance of the baritone title roles in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi. These operas include Nabucco, Macbeth, Rigoletto, Simon Boccanegra, and Falstaff. Jewel William Hobbins explore the evolution of vocal roles and asserts that Verdi highly prized dramatic skill in his performers.

This thesis contributes analyses of two works by Mexican composers: Rayo nocturnal (1989) by Victor Rasgado (b. 1959), and the Cuarteto da do (1988) by Juan Trigos (b. 1965). Although composed according to structuralist principles, a postmodern interpretation is offered. The analytical method applied is based on Allen Forte's set theory, including rhythmic and timbral dimensions that are integral to the conceptions of these works. A survey of modernism and postmodernism in twentieth-century Mexico serves to place these works in their cultural context.

Music plays an important role in Mexican funeral ceremonies, acting as a vehicle for men to acceptably express emotions of bereavement. As an important symbol of mexicanidad (Mexicanness), mariachi music is often used in traditional Catholic funerals, ritualizing grief equally as a mourning of loss and a celebration of the life of a deceased person. Although a form of popular music, mariachi's secular songs go through a process of sacralization, becoming meaningful sites for experiencing grief. As a musical expression of Mexico's idealized gender norms mariachi opens an aesthetic sphere for masculine grief to be expressed, experienced, and socialized in an acceptable form. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the musical mediation of masculine grief, experienced and ritualized within funeral ceremonies, and observed through an ethnographic study of Mexican immigrant communities.

The Concerto for Bassoon by Andrzej Panufnik is a valuable addition to bassoon literature. It provides a rare opportunity for the bassoon soloist to perform a piece which is strongly programmatic. The purpose of this document is to examine the historical and theoretical context of the Concerto for Bassoon with special emphasis drawn to Panufnik's understanding of religion in connection with Polish national identity and the national struggle for democratic independence galvanized by the murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko in 1984. Panufnik's relationship with the Polish communist regime, both prior to and after his 1954 defection to England, is explored at length. Each of these aspects informed Panufnik's compositional approach and the expressive qualities inherent in the Concerto for Bassoon. The Concerto for Bassoon was commissioned by the Polanki Society of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and was premiered by the Milwaukee Chamber Players, with Robert Thompson as the soloist. While Panufnik intended the piece to serve as a protest against the repression of the Soviet government in Poland, the U. S. context of the commission and premiere is also examined. Additionally, the original manuscript and subsequent piano reduction are compared. Although the Concerto for Bassoon has been subject to formal analysis by …

The purpose of this study, ve to analyze the stylistic characteristics in the unaccompanied music of one twentieth century composer, Francis Poulenc, in order to discover the choral problems which would confront choruses and conductors as they performed his music. It is hoped that this study will not only enable choral conductors to better understand, interpret, and appreciate the music of Poulenc, but also will serve as a guide toward the investigation of other twentieth century composers and their works.

Sangpuy Katatepan Mavaliyw is a Taiwanese Aboriginal pop artist of the Pinuyumayan ethnic group. His albums have been acclaimed by Aboriginal listeners and Han-Taiwanese mainstream music critics for capturing the traditional Aboriginal sound and evoking the presence of the ancestors. In this thesis, I explore why Sangpuy's songs are understood to evoke ancestral spirit imaginary using a semiotic approach. I compare his music to traditional Pinuyumayan music such as pa'ira'iraw and shamanic songs to demonstrate how he uses similar musical gestures to evoke the sense of ancestral spirits. Other sonic elements such as the inclusion of the soundscape of a Pinuyumayan village provides a direct link to the lived experiences of the Pinuyumayan. I also position Sangpuy's music in the broader context of nationalism in Taiwan and how Sangpuy uses his music to negotiate Aboriginal issues such as land rights and environmentalism. Through this analysis, I demonstrate how Taiwanese Aborigines are incorporating their Indigenous ideology into popular music to carve out a space for themselves in Taiwanese society and garner more support for Indigenous rights in Taiwan.

This study looks at Jehan Alain's music itself. However, it does not propose to analyze every bar of every composition but rather to point out certain melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic traits that are peculiar to this composer's style. It will also set forth facts concerning Alain's registrations and other items of special interest to organists. Upon such investigation an attempt will be made to reach a critical evaluation of Alain as a composer for the organ.

Inasmuch as this investigator can determine, no major study has been done concerning music's relation to the "isms" selected for this discussion. The contemporary interest in the movements themselves has been so widespread that the documentation of them, in scattered accounts, is enormous. It is disappointing that these records provide little or no information about the musical aspects of the movements; the graphic and literary accounts, on the other hand, have been accorded generous treatments. Since futurism, cubism, and surrealism, in their origins, were oriented toward the visual and literary arts, it is not surprising that these two aspects would receive the greatest amount of attention. The meager attention to music and the distortion of its role in the movements, as has largely been the case, has created an artistic imbalance, This writer's efforts have been directed toward an exhaustive search for factors which have, in some way or other, linked music with these movements. Musical futurism has been the easiest to identify, although its underlying theories are not always clear, since the futurists, in explaining their theories, were not always convincing, perhaps even to themselves. This writer's main attempt has been to interpret ideas that were frequently vague and …

In this study, the Anton Webern's music is considered in two groups: that which was written before Webern adopted the twelve-tone technique, Opp 1-16, and that written in the twelve-tone technique, Opp. 17-31. This division is not intended to represent an attempt at periodization of Webern's music, for the changes of style in Op. 17 are not that significant. But the fact that Webern employed the twelve-tone technique in all the works he wrote after Op. 16 makes this a natural point of division for a study of this sort. Besides the music of Webern, two peripheral areas are included in this study. No attempt has been made at an exhaustive biography of Webern, but facts relative to his life, and impressions about the person are presented. Also, to create a proper perspective for the study of Webern's which existed during the time that Webern lived and composed, is presented.

The purpose of this study was to develop a commercial singing guide that could be used as an aid in teaching selected elements of commercial singing. It addressed itself specifically to the following problems: determining how the selected elements of the commercial vocal style are produced, developing a guide for teaching the production of this vocal style to trained and untrained singers and evaluating the effectiveness of the guide.

This dissertation contextualizes Brahms's vocal quartets within a largely forgotten discourse about Hausmusik that flourished in German-speaking lands in the second half of the nineteenth century. In numerous texts about Hausmusik from ca. 1848-1900, authors conceived the genre as an aesthetically and politically conservative expression of German identity and connected its accessible style to an ideal of social cohesion in the pre-industrial age. Similar issues of national identity and musical style arise in the reception of Brahms's quartets, which, I contend, was informed by the works' generic status as Hausmusik. Critics either praised Brahms's works for their simple, folk-like style or disparaged their complexity, artifice, and foreignness. Ultimately, I argue, Brahms sought to elevate the genre of Hausmusik in his vocal quartets by integrating aesthetic and cultural values associated with this genre with a more sophisticated musical style. The works' stylistic and generic ambiguity and the disparity in critics' responses reveal competing aesthetic, political, and cultural world views immediately before and after German unification. Chapter 2 shows how discourse about Hausmusik constructed German identity in the private sphere by promoting a folk-like aesthetic and accessible musical style over the perceived cosmopolitanism and commercialism of Salonmusik and other repertoires. Chapter 3 …