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Borrowing Culture: British Music Circulating Libraries and Domestic Musical Practice, 1853-1910 (open access)

Borrowing Culture: British Music Circulating Libraries and Domestic Musical Practice, 1853-1910

In Victorian Britain, music circulating libraries libraries operated by music publishers Novello & Co. and Augener & Co. supported upper- and upper-middle-class patrons in their pursuit of cultural capital that would help them perform their socioeconomic status. Studying these libraries in the context of domestic music-making reveals the economic and social impact of these libraries in the lives of amateur musicians and in the music publishing industry. An analysis of the account books in the Novello Business Archives demonstrates that the direct income that Novello & Co., Ltd.'s Universal Circulating Musical Library generated was negligible at best. Yet the fact that the library continued to be part of the business for over forty years indicates that Novello & Co., Ltd. found it to be profitable in some way. In this case, the library could have helped the publisher to attract customers through branding and advertising, in addition to informing publishing decisions by tracking demand. Catalogs for music circulating libraries, as well as for the publishers who owned them, contain lists of library and publisher inventory and pricing. Studying changes in these catalogs reveals how patrons' tastes changed over time. A case study of violin-piano duets in multiple catalogs confirms a …
Date: August 2020
Creator: Cooper, Amy Nicole
System: The UNT Digital Library
Looking through a Different Lens, Beyond Censorship: The American Reception of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (open access)

Looking through a Different Lens, Beyond Censorship: The American Reception of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District

The censorship of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District is a familiar story to musicologists, but reception of the opera is not frequently mentioned. Examining the reception of a work can bring a work's relative importance into focus. In this thesis, German literary and reception theorist Hans Robert Jauss's model of the horizon of expectations is applied to reviews of American productions of Lady Macbeth. Curiosity about communism following the Great Depression in 1930s, America and American music critics' knowledge that Soviet composers worked for the Soviet regime led to the belief that Lady Macbeth was officially approved export from the Soviet Union. When the article condemning the opera as a Western formalism appeared in the Soviet magazine, Pravda, Americans needed to adjust their understanding of Lady Macbeth as a socialist expression. Following the work's revival in San Francisco in 1981, the influence of Solomon Volkov's Testimony is prevalent in many reviews. Many reviewers use Volkov's narrative of Shostakovich as covert dissident of the Soviet Union to assert that the censorship of the opera was about the content of the plot and not the music. Following the Soviet rejection of the work, American critics tried to claim Shostakovich for the …
Date: August 2017
Creator: Cassell, Holly
System: The UNT Digital Library
Helen Kotas (1916-200): A Female Pioneer in Major US Orchestras (open access)

Helen Kotas (1916-200): A Female Pioneer in Major US Orchestras

Helen Kotas was an accomplished musician and teacher who helped open the door for women in major US orchestras. In 1941 the Chicago Symphony hired its first female brass musician, principal hornist Helen Kotas. With that daring move, she became a pioneer for her gender in the major orchestras of North America. Despite her many contributions to the musical community, Kotas's life has not been researched and documented. This paper looks at Helen Kotas's career as well as a glimpse at her life and personality. In addition to documenting her life, this dissertation attempts to show at least a portion of Kotas's philosophy of teaching and horn playing. She was an accomplished horn soloist and studied the literature extensively. Kotas performed in the Chicago Civic Orchestra, the Woman's Symphony Orchestra, and Leopold Stokowski's All-American Youth Orchestra. Kotas was hired by Fritz Reiner as third horn of the Pittsburgh Symphony. When Frederick Stock, conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, heard that Helen Kotas was going to Pittsburgh, he insisted that she audition for the CSO. Kotas auditioned on the Concerto for Horn by Richard Strauss and the concertmaster said, "Hire her!" She performed as principal horn with the orchestra until Artur …
Date: May 2011
Creator: Thayer, Heather Leweise
System: The UNT Digital Library
The "Philadelphia Sound": The Formative Years (1912-1920) (open access)

The "Philadelphia Sound": The Formative Years (1912-1920)

Thesis written by a student in the UNT Honors College discussing the development of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the early career of Leopold Stokowski.
Date: April 1999
Creator: Threlkeld, Candis
System: The UNT Digital Library
Les Hotteterre et les Chédeville: Three Biographical Sketches in Translation (open access)

Les Hotteterre et les Chédeville: Three Biographical Sketches in Translation

This paper traces the genealogy of the Hotteterre and the Chédeville families through a translation of three works by Jules Carlez, Ernest Thoinan, Nicolas Mauger. Carol Padgham Albrecht annotates these translations with biographical information and highlights the contributions of the instrument makers.
Date: December 1980
Creator: Albrecht, Carol Padgham
System: The UNT Digital Library
Hartley Wood Day: Inventor of Numeral Notation and Adversary of Lowell Mason (open access)

Hartley Wood Day: Inventor of Numeral Notation and Adversary of Lowell Mason

Ignorance of the basic principles of music reading was one of the primary obstacles to the improvement of congregational singing in nineteenth-century America. Six separate numeral notation systems arose to provide a simple way for the common man to learn the basic principles of music. Hartley Day developed his own numeral notation system and published six tune-books that enjoyed modest success in the New England area. This thesis examines Day's numeral notation system as it appeared in the Boston Numeral Harmony (1845), and the One-Line Psalmist (1849). It also studies Day's periodical, The Musical Visitor, in which he continually attacked Lowell Mason, possibly leading to Mason's dismissal as Superintendent of Music of Boston's public schools.
Date: December 1991
Creator: Carnes, Tara Barker
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Life and Music of Jacques-Christophe Naudot (open access)

The Life and Music of Jacques-Christophe Naudot

Favorable judgment of a work of art, or of a man, usually means that the work of art, or a record of the man, will be preserved for future generations to judge for themselves. An unfavorable judgment may result in a richly deserved obscurity or an irreplaceable loss, unless favorable circumstances combine to preserve the evidence for a more perspicacious generation. One can be forgiven if he distrusts history's judgment; mistakes which have been corrected are legion (the case of J. S. Bach comes most vividly to mind) and skepticism is warranted unless or until the facts are available for confirmation. It is difficult to explain the paucity of information about Jacques-Christophe Naudot, Not that he is another J. S. Bach; neither Fleury, who made the first serious effort to revive interest in his music in the early 1920's, nor Ruf, who has done much in this regard recently, nor this writer makes any such claim. He does not, however, deserve the obscurity that has been his lot. If his music is not always profound, it nevertheless has both intrinsic and historical value, and some of his works reveal considerable contrapuntal skill. It may be that Naudot stood in the …
Date: June 1970
Creator: Underwood, T. Jervis (Troy Jervis), 1932-
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Survey of the Research Literature on the Female High Voice (open access)

A Survey of the Research Literature on the Female High Voice

The location of the available research literature and its relationship to the pedagogy of the female high voice is the subject of this thesis. The nature and pedagogy of the female high voice are described in the first four chapters. The next two chapters discuss maintenance of the voice in conventional and experimental repertoire. Chapter seven is a summary of all the pedagogy. The last chapter is a comparison of the nature and the pedagogy of the female high voice with recommended areas for further research. For instance, more information is needed to understand the acoustic factors of vibrato, singer's formant, and high energy levels in the female high voice.
Date: December 1988
Creator: Stephen, Roberta M. (Roberta Mae)
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Comparison of Formal and Structural Principles in the Concerti Grossi of Corelli's Opus VI and Vivaldi's Opus III (open access)

A Comparison of Formal and Structural Principles in the Concerti Grossi of Corelli's Opus VI and Vivaldi's Opus III

The comparison of structural and formal traits in the concert grossi of Corelli's Opus VI and Vivaldi's Opus III will proceed in the following manner: first, the cycle as a whole will be taken up; next, the individual movements will be considered. Finally, in each instance of comparison, Corelli's music will be dealt with first.
Date: August 1968
Creator: Hart, Euclid August
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Survey of Musical Background and an Analysis of Mexican Piano Music 1928 to 1956 (open access)

A Survey of Musical Background and an Analysis of Mexican Piano Music 1928 to 1956

The Revolution of 1910 in Mexico marked a great political and social upheaval. At the same time a recasting of Mexico's music occurred. Modern Mexican music is a unique combination of the influence inherited from Europe and the indigenous music of the country. This work attempts to trace the development of that combination. Chapter I gives a background of music in Mexico through Pre-Cortesian times, the colonial period and the operatic nineteenth century. Chapter II deals with the men who shaped present day music in Mexico. Chapter III is an analysis of selected twentieth century piano works. The analysis shows the tendencies of ten Mexican composers in their use of melody and rhythm. It includes a discussion of harmonic structure and tonality. The composers whose works were chosen for consideration in the analysis range from Manuel M. Ponce, considered the father of modern Mexican music, to Carlos Chavez, recognized as the outstanding exponent of music in Mexico today.
Date: June 1957
Creator: Slight, Charlotte Frances
System: The UNT Digital Library
The British Museum Manuscript Additional 35087: A Transcription of the French, Italian, and Latin Compositions with Concordance and Commentary (open access)

The British Museum Manuscript Additional 35087: A Transcription of the French, Italian, and Latin Compositions with Concordance and Commentary

The London British Museum Manuscript Additional 35087, hereafter referred to as London Add. 35087, is an important parchment manuscript in large octavo choirbook arrangement from the beginning of the sixteenth century. Its measurements are 19.4 x 29.3 centimeters. The manuscript contains ninety-five folios and one stub where a leaf has been torn out (f. 4).1 The last composition in the manuscript is incomplete, which indicates that one leaf is lacking at the end (f. 96). Two sets of foliation are shown: the original Roman and a more recent Arabic. Both are placed in the upper right hand corner of folio recto. The sets agree in folios 4-93. Folios 1 and 2 show no Roman figures now; folio 3 has "ii," and therefore the missing leaf probably had "iii." The Arabic numbering does not account for this missing leaf. This folio might have been assigned "4," but this number is given on the next complete leaf to coincide with the Roman "iiii." At the end, by mistake, folio 94 has "xciii" and folio 95 has "xciiii."
Date: August 1967
Creator: McMurtry, William M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Influence of the Tongue on Vocal Production (open access)

The Influence of the Tongue on Vocal Production

The purpose of this study is to assemble information needed to assess, understand and hopefully correct muscular hyperfunction that is related to tongue tension in singing and speech which inhibit freely, efficiently, and comfortably produced beautiful singing. This text will include a definition of freely produced, fully resonating tone for beautiful singing, major components of vocal technique, physiology related to singing and speech production, hyperfunctions associated with tongue tension, tongue involvement in the articulation of the four major singing languages, and will present exercises for training the muscles of coordination in a manner conducive to singing and speech.
Date: May 2002
Creator: Lindberg-Kransmo, Maria
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Schenkerian Analysis of Beethoven's E Minor Piano Sonata, Opus 90 (open access)

A Schenkerian Analysis of Beethoven's E Minor Piano Sonata, Opus 90

This thesis examines the history and origins of Beethoven's E minor Piano Sonata and examines the possibility of the programmatic conception of the work. Dedicated to Beethoven's friend Count Moritz Lichnowsky, the sonata may have been inspired by the Count's illicit affair with his future wife, the singer and actress Josefa Stummer. Providing a thorough Schenkerian analysis of both movements, the inner harmonic structure of the composition is revealed and explained. The author also investigates and details the unpublished original analyses of the composition by Heinrich Schenker, Erika Elias, and Hans Weisse. Both English and German language sources are incorporated into a comprehensive examination of Beethoven's Piano Sonata, op. 90.
Date: May 2010
Creator: Treber, Stefan L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Sound-Poetry of the Instability of Reality: Mimesis and the Reality Effect in Music, Literature, and Visual Art (open access)

The Sound-Poetry of the Instability of Reality: Mimesis and the Reality Effect in Music, Literature, and Visual Art

This paper uses the concept of mimesis to clarify the debate concerning the representation of reality in music. Specifically, this study defines the audio reality effect and the three main practices of realism as a way of understanding mimetic practices in multiple artistic media, in particular regarding the multimedia works of the "Landscape series." After addressing the historical debates concerning mimesis, this study develops a framework for the understanding of mimesis in sound by addressing the writings of Weiss, Baudrillard, Barthes, Deleuze, and Prendergast and by examining mimetic practices in 19th-century European painting and multimedia performance works. The audio reality effect is proposed as a meaningful translation of Roland Barthes' literary reality effect to the sonic realm. The main trends of realist practice are applied to electroacoustic music and soundscape composition using the works and writings of Emmerson, Truax, Wishart, Risset, Riddell, Smalley, Murray Schafer, Fischman, Young, and Field. Lastly, this study mimetically analyzes "2 seconds / b minor / wave" by Michael Pisaro and Taku Sugimoto and the works of the "Landscape series" in order to demonstrate the relevance of mimesis for understanding current musical practice.
Date: May 2016
Creator: Underriner, Chaz, 1987-
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Voice of the Composer: Theory and Practice in the Works of Pietro Pontio, Volume 1 (open access)

The Voice of the Composer: Theory and Practice in the Works of Pietro Pontio, Volume 1

The life, music, and theoretical writings of Pietro Pontio (1532-1596) yield considerable insight into questions of theory and practice in the late sixteenth century. The dissertation places Pontio within his musical and cultural milieu, and assesses his role as both theorist and composer. Volume Two presents an annotated works list for Pontio's compositions, transcriptions of archival documents used in the study, and transcriptions of representative musical compositions.
Date: December 1989
Creator: Murray, Russell Eugene
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Oboe in Early American Music, 1600-1861 (open access)

The Oboe in Early American Music, 1600-1861

There are no records to substantiate that one of the passengers on the Mayflower brought an oboe with him in 1620, but diaries, journals, and newspaper articles document its presence and utilization in the United States a few years after that date. A reference to musical instruments occurs in the inventories of the goods of two neighboring New Hampshire "plantations" taken approximately ten years after they were originally settled. At "Newitchwanicke, ld of Julie, 1633. . . in the Great House, 15 recorders and hoeboys" were listed, while "at Pascattaquack 2d Julie, 1633," one day later, there were no less than "hoeboys and recorders 26" and "1 drume"!1 By 1635 New Hampshire had 56 oboes and recorders alone. 2
Date: June 1970
Creator: Rager, Brenda Marie
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Keyboard Ricercare in the Baroque Era: Volume 1 (open access)

The Keyboard Ricercare in the Baroque Era: Volume 1

This study seeks to examine the history of the ricercare, specifically in the baroque era. In this work, all types of keyboard compositions that utilize imitative counterpoint have been examined. Late baroque fugues have been examined to determine which characteristics of the earlier ricercare remained in general use and which specific compositions contain elements causing them to resemble strongly the parent form.
Date: August 1963
Creator: Douglass, Robert S. (Robert Satterfield), 1919-
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Horn at the Paris Conservatoire and its Morceaux de Concours to 1996 (open access)

The Horn at the Paris Conservatoire and its Morceaux de Concours to 1996

A work concerning the history of the Paris Conservatoire and music education in France. Follows the development of the horn and its correlation with the French school of horn playing. Includes biographic information on the horn professors of the Conservatoire through 1997, as well as a comprehensive list of the morceaux de concours for horn, 1795-1996.
Date: August 1997
Creator: Rekward, Susan J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Manuel M. Ponce: A critical study of his Concierto Romántico for piano and orchestra. (open access)

Manuel M. Ponce: A critical study of his Concierto Romántico for piano and orchestra.

The Concierto Romántico for Piano and Orchestra is one of Manuel M. Ponce's outstanding compositional accomplishments from his Romantic period, reflecting both the state of Mexican music at the turn of the 20th century, and his early nationalist tendencies. However, it remains the only concerto in Ponce's output in need of a more comprehensive analysis. This treatise focuses on a global investigative that examines descriptive and analytic references to the work, as well as a comparison and clarification of the existing score sources. An analytical and stylistic musical study using conventional theoretical techniques leads to a musicological interpretation of the work's extra-musical meaning, based on close assessments of Ponce's compositional practice and social principles.
Date: August 2007
Creator: Vázquez, Carlos Balam
System: The UNT Digital Library
Artistic Vibrato and Tremolo: A Survey of the Literature (open access)

Artistic Vibrato and Tremolo: A Survey of the Literature

This investigation surveys pertinent literature, from 1917 to 1982 inclusive, regarding artistic vibrato and tremolo in singing. The contents are subdivided into individual investigative reports by various vocal researchers. Due to mounting confusion within the amassed literature, the need for systematic organization and evaluation is evident. Misunderstandings within the context of the literature and misnomers within the terminology require clarification and resolution. The evaluation intends to produce a proper perspective on vibrato and tremolo, eradicating some of the confusion surrounding the terms. Artistic vibrato is recognized as a desirable component in Western vocal music. In contrast, tremolo is deemed a deviant vibrato, i.e., a vibrato which deviates from artistic norms. The study attempts to clarify the distinguishing traits of these two vocal phenomena.
Date: August 1983
Creator: McLane, Marian L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Quantitative Approach to the History of Music Binder's Volumes (1820–1900) (open access)

A Quantitative Approach to the History of Music Binder's Volumes (1820–1900)

Music binder's volumes, or collections of sheet music typically bound by women in the nineteenth century, constitute an informative and underutilized set of historical artifacts. Each binder's volume can be viewed as a Spotify playlist frozen in time. An individual volume contains more than just the volume's individual pieces; it also holds the marginalia, the choices women made on what to include in a binder, and information on where and how music was produced. This dissertation examines music binder's volumes quantitatively, processing information found in binder's volumes by using the MARC and other cataloguing data to construct a relational database. I engage with broad questions of music publishing and consumption and provide a method to contextualize qualitative results on a larger scale. In doing so, I make two distinct contributions to music research and the digital humanities. First, this project offers a clear path for engaging with music binder's volumes and material history of nineteenth-century America in ways that scholars have rarely engaged in prior to this point. I highlight how data analysis provides new framings for binder's volumes and for sheet music consumption both at the song-level and at larger levels of the data. Second, and more broadly, this …
Date: December 2022
Creator: Anderson, Brian K
System: The UNT Digital Library
A History of the Clarinet and its Music from 1600 to 1800 (open access)

A History of the Clarinet and its Music from 1600 to 1800

It is the purpose of this thesis to present a study of music written for the clarinet during the period from 1600 to 1800. The first part is a history of the clarinet showing the stages of development of the instrument from its early predecessors to its present form. Part one also explains the acoustics of the clarinet and its actual invention. The second part deals with composers and their music for the clarinet. No attempt is made to include all music written for the instrument during the prescribed period; rather, the writer's intention is to include chiefly those works by composers whose musics has proven to be outstanding in clarinet literature or interesting historically. The order in which the works themselves are taken up is chronological, by composers, with comment on their styles as to form, harmonic content, melodic content, rhythmic content, problems in phrasing, or any other general technical problem. All of these elements are illustrated with examples taken from the music.
Date: August 1964
Creator: Kireilis, Ramon
System: The UNT Digital Library
Sounding the Ancestors: Sangpuy Katatepan Mavaliyw and the Ancestral Spirit Imaginary (open access)

Sounding the Ancestors: Sangpuy Katatepan Mavaliyw and the Ancestral Spirit Imaginary

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.
Date: December 2020
Creator: Chen, Yang T.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Bass Trombone and Its Use in Selected Works of Smetana, Borodin, Tchaikovsky, and Dvorak (open access)

The Bass Trombone and Its Use in Selected Works of Smetana, Borodin, Tchaikovsky, and Dvorak

The selected works by the composers studied in this thesis might well stand as illustrative of the normal development of the use of the bass trombone near the close of the nineteenth century. Although notable progress was made by the cited composers in increasing the bass trombone's usefulness in the orchestra, each composer also continued to use the bass trombone as it had been used in previous years, such as in doubling bass parts, harmonic backgrounds, and for strong rhythmic punctuations.
Date: August 1969
Creator: Kesting, Gary Walther
System: The UNT Digital Library