Shakespeare's Use of Music (open access)

Shakespeare's Use of Music

This thesis explores the use of music in Shakespeare's comedies, tragedies, histories and dramatic romances.
Date: August 1962
Creator: Maples, Betty Ann
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Solemn Music: Three Stories (open access)

A Solemn Music: Three Stories

This thesis consists of three short stories dealing with loss. "A Solemn Music" depicts Frederick's attempt to maintain his comfortable life apart from Nature, which, in the form of cicadas, is bent on moving him from his complacency. "The Waker" explores Floyd's reactions to the death of a girlfriend. "Appetites" relates the story of Allen's encounter with a beauty pageant queen and his subsequent attempt to begin a relationship with her.
Date: December 1982
Creator: Howard, Lyle David
System: The UNT Digital Library
Music in the Fiction of Willa Cather (open access)

Music in the Fiction of Willa Cather

This thesis explores the use of music in the literary works of author Willa Cather.
Date: August 1953
Creator: Johnston, William Winfred
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Original Poem: As Tho Until Now Such a Music Impossible, with a Comparison of Browning's "Abt Vogler" and Allen Ginsberg's "Transcription of Organ Music" (open access)

An Original Poem: As Tho Until Now Such a Music Impossible, with a Comparison of Browning's "Abt Vogler" and Allen Ginsberg's "Transcription of Organ Music"

This thesis presents an original long poem, followed by a short study of two other poems: "Abt Vogler" by Robert Browning, and "Transcription of Organ Music" by Allen Ginsberg.
Date: December 1972
Creator: Foster, Donald Allen
System: The UNT Digital Library
Music in the Life and Poetry of Emily Dickinson (open access)

Music in the Life and Poetry of Emily Dickinson

The problem with which this study is concerned is the importance of music in the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson. The means of determining this importance were as follows: (1) determining the experiences which the poet had in music as the background for her references to music in the poems, (2) revealing the extent to which she used the vocabulary of music in her poems, (3) explicating the poems whose main subject is music, (4) investigating her use of music in the development of certain major themes, and (5) examining other imagery in her poetry which is related to music.
Date: August 1971
Creator: Reglin, Louise Winn
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Symbolic and Structural Significance of Music Imagery in the English Poetry of John Milton (open access)

The Symbolic and Structural Significance of Music Imagery in the English Poetry of John Milton

The purpose of this study is to investigate how John Milton uses music imagery in his English poetry. This is accomplished through consideration of the musical milieu of the late Renaissance, particularly of seventeenth century England, through examination of the symbolic function of music imagery in the poetry, and through study of the significance of music imagery for the structure of the poem. Milton relies on his readers' familiarity with sounds and contemporary musical forms as well as with the classical associations of some references. Images of practical music form the greater part of the imagery of music that Milton uses, partly because of the greater range of possibilities for practical images than for speculative images. The greater use of speculative images in the early poems indicates the more idealistic stance of these poems, while the greater number of practical images in the later poems demonstrates Hilton's greater awareness of the realities, of the human situation arising from the years spent as apologist for the Puritan cause and as Latin Secretary of State. Music imagery is important as a structural device for Milton. He uses music images to provide unity for, to "frame," and to maintain decorum in the poems. …
Date: May 1979
Creator: Woods, Paula M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
"I'm Leading Now": The Argument for Widmerpool as the Central Character of a Dance to the Music of Time (open access)

"I'm Leading Now": The Argument for Widmerpool as the Central Character of a Dance to the Music of Time

This study argues that the central character of Anthony Powell's novel, A Dance to the Music of Time, is Kenneth Widmerpool. A survey of the criticism available on The Music of Time, contained in this study's introduction, indicates that there are a few precedents for this argument but there there are no thorough analyses of the problem from which this argument arises: the identity and function of the novel's central character. This study is organized around separate analyses of three of the novel's elements. Chapter Two deals with characterization, Chapter Three with theme, and Chapter Four with structure. This study concludes that, based on evidence availabe in The Music of Time itself, Widmerpool is the central character.
Date: December 1979
Creator: Morrison, Cynthia Blundell
System: The UNT Digital Library
"A Straunge Kinde of Harmony": The Influence of Lyric Poetry and Music on Prosodic Techniques in the Spenserian Stanza (open access)

"A Straunge Kinde of Harmony": The Influence of Lyric Poetry and Music on Prosodic Techniques in the Spenserian Stanza

An examination of the stanzas of The Faerie Queene reveals a structural complexity that prosodists have not previously discovered. In the prosody of Spenser's epic, two formal prosodic orders function simultaneously. One is the visible structure that has long been acknowledged and studied, eight decasyllabic lines and an alexandrine bound into a coherent entity by a set meter and rhyme scheme. The second is an order made apparent by an oral reading and which involves speech stresses, syntactical groupings, caesura placements, and enjambments. In an audible reading, elements are revealed that oppose the structural integrity of the visible form. The lines cease to be iambic, because most lines contain some irregularities that are incongruent with the meter. The visible structure is further counterpointed by Spenser's free use of caesura and frequent employment of enjambment to create a constantly varying structure of different line lengths in the audible form. This study also examines precedents that Spenser could have known for the union of music and poetry. English lyric poetry written for existing melodies is analyzedand the French experiments with quantitative verse supported with musical settings are discussed. Special emphasis is given to the musical associations of the Orlando furioso, particularly its …
Date: August 1972
Creator: Corse, Larry B.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Lyric Folkore of American Youth Culture of the Sixties (open access)

The Lyric Folkore of American Youth Culture of the Sixties

The purpose of this study is to survey the song lore of the American youth culture, beginning with the rock Int roll era of the fifties, treating the topical-folksong movement of the early sixties, and finally focusing upon the folk-rock genre that resulted from an amalgamation of the two forms of expression. In addition to the art of folk rock and the cultural values reflected in the lyrics, attention will be given to the folk aspects of the performance, the life-style of the performer, and the participation of the youth as a cultural group.
Date: August 1969
Creator: Hickman, Jerry F.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Craft of the Old English Glossator: Latin Hymns in the Anglo-Saxon Hymnarium (open access)

The Craft of the Old English Glossator: Latin Hymns in the Anglo-Saxon Hymnarium

The ten hymns of this study cover such overlapping categories as doctrine, solemn occasions in the rites of the Anglo-Saxon Church, and hymns prescribed in the Regularis concordia for the "little hours" of the daily office, as well as a historical overview from the fourth to the early tenth centuries.
Date: August 1991
Creator: McKenzie, Hope Bussey
System: The UNT Digital Library
Across Borders and Barlines: Chicana/o Literature, Jazz Improvisation, and Contrapuntal Solidarity (open access)

Across Borders and Barlines: Chicana/o Literature, Jazz Improvisation, and Contrapuntal Solidarity

In this study, I examine Chicana/o writings and Black and Brown musical traditions as they entwine in urban centers and inform local visions of inclusion and models of social change. By analyzing literature and music from South Texas, Southern California, and Northeastern Michigan, I detail how the social particularities of each zone inform Chicana/o cultural productions rooted in the promise of empowerment and the possibility of cross-cultural solidarity. I assert that highlighting localized variations on these themes amplifies contrapuntal solidarities specific to each region, the relationship between different, locally conceived conceptions of Chicana/o identity, and the interplay between Brown and Black aesthetic practices in urban centers near national borders. Through literary critical and ethnomusicological frameworks, I engage the rhetorical patterns that link poetry, jazz improvisation, essays, musical playlists, and corridos to illumine a web of discourses helping to establish the idiosyncratic yet complimentary cultural mores that shape localized social imaginaries in the United States.
Date: May 2014
Creator: Leal, Jonathan J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Everything and Nothing at the Same Time (open access)

Everything and Nothing at the Same Time

This paradoxically titled collection of poems explores what the blues and blindness has come to mean to the author.
Date: May 1999
Creator: Ballenger, Hank D.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Identifying and Analyzing the Poetic Qualities of The Beatles' Lyrics from 1965-1970 (open access)

Identifying and Analyzing the Poetic Qualities of The Beatles' Lyrics from 1965-1970

Honors thesis written by a student in the UNT Honors College discussing the poetic elements of the music of The Beatles.
Date: Spring 2006
Creator: Murphy, Stephanie M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Sexist Language in the Popular Lyrics of the Seventies (open access)

Sexist Language in the Popular Lyrics of the Seventies

The purpose of this study has been to analyze the language of the popular lyrics of the seventies to determine if sexism is used to communicate in various musical genres. Three manifestations of sexist language developed by the Sexism in Textbooks Committee of Women at Scott, Foresman have been used in this study. The lyrics analyzed include 100 lyrics selected from songwriter-singers noted as articulate musical artists of the seventies, 90 songs reaching the "Top Ten" charts (1970-1978), and the top 100 songs of 1978. Chapter I defines sexism and explains three manifestations of sexist language. Chapter II includes examples from seven talented lyricists which illustrate sexism. Chapter III presents an evaluation of sexism in the "Top Ten" lyrics (1970-1978). Chapter IV reveals changes in stereotypic language appearing in the 1978 top 100 lyrics. Chapter V offers summaries and reasons for the findings.
Date: December 1980
Creator: Teague, Carolyn
System: The UNT Digital Library
Wild Nights! Wild Nights! The Dickinsons and the Todds: A Screenplay (open access)

Wild Nights! Wild Nights! The Dickinsons and the Todds: A Screenplay

Emily Dickinson's seclusion is explored in light of her family's strange entanglement with the Todds. Austin Dickinson's affair with Mabel Loomis Todd, and the effect on the lives of Susan Dickinson, Lavinia Dickinson, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, David Todd, and Millicent Todd Bingham, provide a steamy context for the posthumous publication of Emily Dickinson's poetry. The screenplay includes original music (inspired by the dashes and an old hymn) for two poems: "Wild Nightsl Wild Nights!" and "Better - than Music!" Also included are visualizations of many of Dickinson's images, including "circumference," "Eden," "the bee," and "immortality."
Date: August 1988
Creator: Franklin, William Neal
System: The UNT Digital Library
Cultures of Elite Theatre in the Elizabethan and Jacobean Masque: Four Incarnations (open access)

Cultures of Elite Theatre in the Elizabethan and Jacobean Masque: Four Incarnations

The early modern English masque is a hybrid form of entertainment that included music, dance, poetry, and visual spectacle, and for which there is no modern equivalent. This dissertation looks at four incarnations of the Elizabethan and Jacobean masque: the court masque, the masque embedded in the progress entertainment, the masque embedded in the commercial play, and the masque embedded in the commercial play performed at court. This study treats masques as a form of elite theatre (that is, theatre for, by, and about elite figures like monarchs and aristocrats) and follows them from the court to the countryside, through the commercial playhouse, and back again to the court in pursuit of a more nuanced picture of the hybridity and flexibility of early modern English performance culture.
Date: May 2022
Creator: Rogener, Lauren J
System: The UNT Digital Library
“Wolf Man” (open access)

“Wolf Man”

This creative nonfiction dissertation is a memoir that probes the complex life and death of the author’s father, who became addicted in his late forties to crack cocaine. While the primary concerns are the reasons and ways in which the father changed from a family man into a drug addict, the memoir is also concerned with themes of family life, childhood, and grief. After his father’s death, the author moves to Las Vegas and experiences similar addiction issues, which he then explores to help shed light on his father’s problems. To enrich the investigation, the author draws from eclectic sources, including news articles, literature, mythology, sociology, religion, music, TV, interviews, and inherited objects from his father. In dissecting the life of his father, the author simultaneously examines broader issues surrounding modern fatherhood, such as cultural expectations, as well as the problems of emptiness, isolation, and spiritual deficiency.
Date: August 2015
Creator: Flanagan, Ryan
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Translation of Villiers de L'Isle-Adam's Tribulat Bonhomet (open access)

A Translation of Villiers de L'Isle-Adam's Tribulat Bonhomet

The four works in this collection are related by their central character, Tribulat Bonhomet. In "The Swan-Killer," the first, Bonhomet the music lover carries out his carefully planned excursion to kill swans to hear their last songs. "The Eventualists' Banquet," the second work, reports an after-dinner speech in which Bonhomet proposes a method for ridding France of revolutionaries. And the "Motion of Dr. Tribulat Bonhomet" sets forth a plan whereby earthquakes are harnessed to rid the world of poets and artists. The last and longest piece, "Claire Lenoir," a novella, recounts Dr. Bonhomet's visit to the Lenoir home. A highly philosophical work, "Claire Lenoir" explores questions of reality, revenge, and survival beyond death, ending with a bizarre murder and a grotesque climax.
Date: August 1981
Creator: Lewis, Maurine Ann
System: The UNT Digital Library
Two Stories (open access)

Two Stories

The protagonist of each of these stories has the same problem. Without really willing it, he finds himself involved with people whom he really does not like. These people have little regard for his individuality or for his welfare because they are so immersed in their own worlds that they cannot imagine anyone existing outside them. In both stories the protagonist realizes finally that he is being dragged into these worlds against his will. More importantly, both characters realize that passive resistance will not work, that they must resist actively if they are to retain personal dignity and their very identities. Sammy, in "A Cimmerian Holiday," rejects the Ashburns' world by walking away; Andy, in "Darkling I Listen," repudiates the various worlds of his acquaintances by withdrawing into the solitary world of books and music.
Date: May 1977
Creator: Howard, William L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Southern Tradition and Three Individual Talents (open access)

The Southern Tradition and Three Individual Talents

As pointed out by reviewers and introducers, the first published collection of short stories by Eudora Welty, A Curtain of Green, by Charles East, Where the Music Was, and by Reynolds Price, The Names and Faces of Heroes, all reveal characteristics of the Southern literary tradition. An analysis of their stories does reveal the writers' adherence to traditional elements of Southern literature that includes the treatment of place, characters, blacks, and themes. Although their works fit squarely into the Southern tradition, only Eudora Welty has made an impact on this tradition with her slice-of-life stories written in a fresh, concrete language. Price and East, writing twenty years after Welty, only imitate her style and have not set a new direction for the Southern literary tradition.
Date: December 1980
Creator: Schleyer, Joanna
System: The UNT Digital Library

Sorry Guard

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Sorry Guard is a collection of poems with a critical introduction on poetic form. Form in poetry can be revealed vocally (how the poem sounds), temporally (how the poem makes use of time), and spatially (how the poem is visualized, both physically on the page due to typography and imagistically due to the shape and movement of its subject matter). In this preface, I will address these three aspects of form in relation to three distinct twentieth century poets: Robert Hass, W.S. Merwin, and W.H. Auden. I am most interested in how particular formal decisions shape meaning and value in poetry. My aesthetic approach here primarily dwells on what Helen Vendler calls, "the music of what happens." The urgency of Robert Hass's spoken word is important to me because I wish to make poems that should be spoken aloud and remembered. While W.S. Merwin's rejection of punctuation is not my own aesthetic outlook, I strive to achieve through close attention to temporal form the mythic voice of his poemsthe immediacy of his lines and images, especially in his second four books. And Auden's deft use of spatial form is only a small aspect of his remarkable verse. All three poets …
Date: May 2000
Creator: Poch, John
System: The UNT Digital Library
Vanishing Act (open access)

Vanishing Act

This dissertation is comprised of a collection of poems preceded by a critical preface. The preface reconsiders the value of discontinuous poetic forms and advocates a return to lyric as an antidote to the toxic aspects of what Tony Hoagland terms “the skittery poem of our moment.” I consider poems by Wendy Xu, Kevin Prufer, Sharon Olds, and Stephen Dunn in depth to facilitate a discussion about the value of a more centrist position between the poles of supreme discontinuity and totalizing continuity. Though poets working in discontinuous forms are rightly skeptical of the hierarchies that govern narrative and linear forms, as Czesław Miłosz notes in The Witness of Poetry, “a poet discovers a secret, namely that he can be faithful to real things only by arranging them hierarchically.” In my own poems, I make use of the hierarchies of ordered perception in lyric and narrative forms to faithfully illuminate the collapsed structures of my own family history in the shadow of Detroit. I practice the principles I advocate in the preface, using a continuous form to address fractured realities in a busy, disordered age when poets often seek forms as fragmented as their perceptions. These poems are distinctly American, …
Date: May 2015
Creator: Pryor, Caitlin
System: The UNT Digital Library
Literature of Conscience: The Novels of John Nichols (open access)

Literature of Conscience: The Novels of John Nichols

This dissertation presents a thematic study of the novels of John Nichols. Intended as an introduction to his major works of fiction, this study discusses the central themes and prominent characteristics of his seven novels and considers the impact of the Southwest on his work. Chapter One presents biographical information about Nichols, focusing on his political awakening and subsequent move to Taos, New Mexico. A visit to Guatemala, after the publication of The Sterile Cuckoo. his first novel, brought Nichols to a realization that America was not a benevolent world power. He began to consider capitalism a voracious, destructive economic system, a view which informed the subjects and themes of his five novels written after The Wizard of Loneliness. In 1969, Nichols left New York City, moving to Taos, New Mexico, an area with a history of physical and economic aggression against its predominantly Native American and Hispanic population. The five polemical novels, all set in northern New Mexico, were written after this move. Chapters Two through Four discuss Nichols's seven novels, analyzing theme and reviewing critical response. /V Chapter Two discusses The Sterile Cuckoo (1965) and The Wizard of Loneliness (1966), novels written prior to Nichols's political awakening. Both …
Date: May 1990
Creator: Ward, Dorothy Patricia
System: The UNT Digital Library
Wagnerian Elements in the Fiction of Thomas Mann (open access)

Wagnerian Elements in the Fiction of Thomas Mann

This study will examine the phenomenon of the elevation of Wagner from relative obscurity under Bismarck to the symbol of German Nationalism under the Third Reich, and will attempt to ascertain the reasons for Mann's continuing dedication to Wagner despite his growing apprehension about Germany's destiny under Hitler.
Date: August 1966
Creator: Wright, Sandra Mason
System: The UNT Digital Library