The purpose of this study was to investigate the bands of the armies of the Confederate States of America. This study features appendices of libraries and archives collections visited in ten states and Washington D.C., and covers all known Confederate bands. Some scholars have erroneously concluded that this indicated a lack of available primary source materials that few Confederate bands served the duration of the war. The study features appendices of libraries and archives collections visited in ten states and Washington, D.C., and covers all known Confederate bands. There were approximately 155 bands and 2,400 bandsmen in the service of the Confederate armies. Forty bands surrendered at Appomattox and many others not listed on final muster rolls were found to have served through the war. While most Confederate musicians and bandsmen were white, many black musicians were regularly enlisted soldiers who provided the same services. A chapter is devoted to the contributions of black Confederate musicians.

The purpose of this study was to investigate selected landmark events in the historical development of the Texas Music Educators Association, 1938-1980, and the decisions which influenced their outcomes. A polling of twenty former presidents of TMEA selected the following landmark events that helped to shape the history of TMEA: (1) the change from a band organization to a music educators organization in 1938, (2) the University Interscholastic League takeover of contests in 1947, and (3) TMEA's separation from the Music Educators National Conference in 1976. In addition to developing a historical chronology from documentary sources, in-depth interviews were conducted with actual participants in these landmark events. The interviews utilized comparable questions, in order to identify decision-making patterns, while also capturing the atmosphere and visceral context of TMEA history. Literature from the social science disciplines on organizational decision—making was explored for help in understanding what happened, how, and why. In all three events the final decision was strongly influenced by factors external to the TMEA. The strong power position held by school administrators was evident in both the first and second events, while reinforcement from actively lobbying choral directors was also a factor in the first event only. The strong …

The research problems of this dissertation were: 1) A description of the perceived value of music in light of political undercurrents in Boston prior to and during the years under investigation, and 2) the profile of the constituency of the Boston School Committee and Committee on Music in 1837 and 1845. Questions addressed the effect of religious and moral concerns of the day on the decision by the School Committee in 1837 to try music in the curriculum, and the possible effect of religious politics on Lowell Mason's dismissal from the schools in 1845. In the minds of mid-nineteenth century Bostonians, religious and moral values were intrinsic to the very nature of music. Key members on the School Committee portrayed music as being spiritual yet nonsectarian in its influence. Therefore, the findings suggest that music was believed to provide common ground between opposing and diverse religious sects. Reasons given for Mason's dismissal by John Sargent, a member of the Committee on Music, showed parallels to H. W. Day's accusations in the press a year earlier that Mason had managed his position in a sectarian manner. Sargent's background supports the theory that religious politics were at work in Mason's dismissal. Although …

The purpose of this study was to compare major theories of laryngeal vibration. The basic hypothesis of the study was that the differences and similarities between the major theories of laryngeal vibration could be made evident and clear through a comparative study. It was assumed that there are two or more theories of laryngeal vibration and that all the major theories of laryngeal vibration from 1945 to the present have been described in written form in English.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of guided musical analysis and guided attention to textual understanding on the speed of solo memorization by selected university vocal students. The guided musical analysis consisted of instruction to a subject regarding the melodic elements, rhythmic elements, phraseology, form, and key relationships of the experimental songs. The guided attention to textual understanding consisted of instruction to a subject regarding the meaning and phraseology of the experimental song texts. Subjects were required to rhythmically scan the texts in a declamatory manner. It was concluded that the three conditions of memorization were equally effective. Memorization rates were not significantly altered by historical period of song. Differences in memorization rates appeared to parallel the subjects' academic performances and their performances on the Drake Musical Aptitude Tests. Findings of this study indicated that future memorization experiments should be conducted with larger samples of subjects of a single sex who are music majors.

The purpose of this study was to provide, through systematic investigation, empirical data to support or reject the assumption that auditory stimulation by discrete pitches evokes consistent muscle responses in the extrinsic laryngeal muscles. The study was an electromyographic investigation of specific upper and lower extrinsic laryngeal muscles as stimulated by two specific pitch stimuli. The responses were evoked by auditory stimulation, without vocalization. From these findings, it was concluded that a direct relationship exists between specific pitch stimuli and specific extrinsic laryngeal muscle responses. It was concluded that these responses likely exist in the general population.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the multi-sensory responses of children to symbolizing musical sound through speech rhythm patterns. Speech rhythm patterns consist of the number of syllables and the stress/nonstress relationships of these syllables in a word or a phrase. The research problems were (1) to determine children's responses to speech rhythm patterns according to the differential sensory modes used; (2) to determine the children's responses to speech rhythm patterns by age, and (3) to compare children's responses to speech rhythm patterns by age and sensory modes.

The study's purpose was to describe selected laryngeal activity of brass-wind players during the performance of selected musical exercises. Research problems included the observation and description of three internal areas of activity of ten trumpeters as they performed each exercise. Specific areas of observation were 1) movement of the epiglottis during the performance of each exercise, 2) movement of the vocal folds/arytenoid cartilage which includes changes in the size of the glottis during the performance of each prescribed exercise, and 3) movement of the thyroid cartilage during the performance of each prescribed exercise. Musical exercises performed by each of the subjects included a sound volume change, use of vibrato, single-tonguing, step-wise descending and ascending slurs, descending and ascending lip slurs, register change, and a descending chromatic scale. In addition, each subject performed an excerpt from the second movement of the Haydn Trumpet Concerto. Data were collected through direct observation of subject performances and then described using three different means. Data analyses revealed a prominent amount of highly individual, non-patterned laryngeal activity which played an integral role in the performance of each subject. Individuals including Law (1960), Cramer (1955), Jacobs (Stewart, 1987), and Noble (1964) have advocated an unrestricted airway during …

The purpose of this study is to provide a guide for the instruction of a trumpet mariachi performance ensemble in a music curriculum. The fulfillment of this purpose is dependent upon the data supplied in answer to the sub problems: (1) What socio-cultural information provides authentic trumpet mariachi music; (2) What trumpet mariachi literature illustrates the repertoire and style; (3) What instructional source materials may be developed such that Mexican American and non-Mexican American instructors build a competency in repertoire and style; (4) How could this guide be evaluated in its functional design for a music curriculum? The data collected for use in this study has been presented in three major categories: (1) the history and milieu in which the trumpet, mariachi crystalized; (2) the repertoire--its history and function in Mexican society and the transcriptions of types demonstrating the musical structure; and (3) the technical information relative to the instruction of the particular mariachi instruments. An evaluative instrument has been supplied in an attempt to establish the validity of the information and examples provided in this practicum. The validity of the research seems to rest on its authenticity and its serviceability. The findings of this study are stated as assertions …

The present study sought to confirm melodic expectancy patterns discovered in a previous investigation and to determine whether data would be affected by altering the rhythmic condition of the stimuli. The three problems of this investigation were to study expectancies generated by two-note stimulus intervals of equal duration; the expectancies generated by stimulus intervals presented with a long-short rhythm; and the expectancies generated by stimulus intervals presented with a short-long rhythm. Fifty subjects were asked to sing what they believed would be the natural continuation of the melody begun by a two-note stimulus interval. The stimulus intervals were grouped in rhythmic sets, one set of neutral-rhythm stimuli, one set of long-short stimuli, and one set of short-long stimuli. The interval from the second note of the stimulus interval to the first sung note was transcribed as the generated expectancy response interval. The data were examined in two basic ways, using response data as a whole and examining data for each stimulus interval separately. A third method of data evaluation concerned harmonic triads occurring in the response data. Both when considering response frequency as a whole, and when considering response data separately for each melodic beginning, no significant difference associated with …

The purpose of this study was to investigate the phenomenon of choral blend through acoustical analysis of individual vocal sounds. One aspect of the study involved identifying and comparing the acoustical qualities of sounds produced in the usual solo manner and sounds produced by the same singers attempting to blend with a unison ensemble. Another aspect of the study involved identifying and comparing the acoustical qualities of vocal sounds identified as blending well and poorly with a unison ensemble. Singers attempting to blend adjust their overall intensity not only to affect the perceived loudness of their tones, but also to facilitate other acoustical changes which are helpful for achieving blend. Vocal blend apparently may be achieved more readily on vowels having few upper partials than on vowels having numerous upper partials. Where vibrato is employed, certain vocal sounds can achieve a good blend even though their fundamental frequencies only approximate the theoretically correct frequency. There apparently is an interaction between the vibrato of a vocal tone and its spectral features, making it advantageous for the singer to adopt mutually beneficial approaches to both factors in order to blend. Vowel modification effective for achieving vocal blend- -at least for sopranos-- appears …