Degree Level

Visual Music: The Use of Film Composition Devices to Develop Form in the Wind Band Music of Bruce Broughton (open access)

Visual Music: The Use of Film Composition Devices to Develop Form in the Wind Band Music of Bruce Broughton

As a film composer, Bruce Broughton uses themes, motives, gestures, tropes, and other film composition devices; however, he is also able to develop them into compelling formal structures through the use of film composition techniques in his concert music. Traditional musical form is not necessarily applicable to film music. The film dictates the pacing and structure, whereas concert music allows for the creation of form and more complex musical development. Through his extensive experience composing in the film industry, Broughton instinctively uses his film composition techniques as a means to reach his audience with his concert music. He establishes a common ground through film score vernacular to draw the listener into a more sophisticated musical conversation. This is particularly evident in his extensive wind band catalogue. In this dissertation, I identify Bruce Broughton's film composition techniques and examine how he employs them to create a stand-alone form using those techniques in his wind band music. The film composition techniques that are examined include character association, character interaction, motivic snippets, programmatic associations, and musical tropes. These aspects are demonstrated as they influence form in three of his most frequently performed and highly acclaimed pieces for wind band: In the World of …
Date: August 2018
Creator: Blasko, Benjamen
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Uncovering Aspects of Western and Indian Music in Vanraj Bhatia's Night Music for Solo Flute, and Selected Other Works (open access)

Uncovering Aspects of Western and Indian Music in Vanraj Bhatia's Night Music for Solo Flute, and Selected Other Works

Born in 1927 in Bombay, Vanraj Bhatia is an Indian composer of music for concerts, film, television, opera, meditation, and commercial jingles. His musical style is unique, stemming from his training in both Western and North Indian classical, or Hindustani, music. Little is known about Vanraj Bhatia in the Western classical world, and in India he is recognized primarily as a composer of film music. This dissertation aims to bring awareness of Vanraj Bhatia's significance as a Western classical composer, focusing on uncovering the cross-cultural influences of his only solo flute piece, Night Music, composed in 1964. This research offers Western flutists a better understanding of Indian music, specifically Hindustani and Indian folk music traditions, often not fully understood since Indian music is an aural tradition, rarely transcribed and notated, and relies on a guru/shishya (teacher/student) relationship. Such an understanding will elucidate the compositional choices made in Night Music, allowing flutists to be more informed in their performance of it. Although the focus of this study is on Night Music, other repertoire from Bhatia's concert music and film music will also be examined to illuminate Bhatia's compositional style, which includes elements of Hindustani music, Indian folk music, and Western musical …
Date: August 2018
Creator: Woolf, Rachel, 1988-
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Expanding the Violin's Possibilities in Chinese Music: A Case Study of Transcription and Performance Issues Related to Pipa Music Played on the Violin (open access)

Expanding the Violin's Possibilities in Chinese Music: A Case Study of Transcription and Performance Issues Related to Pipa Music Played on the Violin

In recent years, a large part of the erhu's repertoire has been arranged for performance on the violin and vice versa. Given the difficulties involved in transcribing the music of plucked or woodwind instruments for the violin, the erhu has been the most popular choice for transcribing Chinese music for the violin. However, the erhu and violin are radically dissimilar instruments based on different principles. Pipa music is an essential part of traditional Chinese music from as early as 202 BCE, and the instrument's repertoire represents a large portion of East Asian music aesthetics, and this context should be considered to successfully transcribe pipa music for violin. This dissertation talks briefly about Chinese music history and its categories and also focuses on the history and development of the pipa as well as its repertoire categories to provide context for the following musical examples. I use existing transcription examples from different categories of pipa music as an avenue to discuss how to transcribe pipa music for the violin. Even though the violin has some limitations for use as a plucked instrument, the instrument can still make use of several different kinds of techniques in order to play the music in a …
Date: August 2018
Creator: Wang, Tracy (Chun-Chia)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Strategies for the Creation of Spatial Audio in Electroacoustic Music (open access)

Strategies for the Creation of Spatial Audio in Electroacoustic Music

This paper discusses technical and conceptual approaches to incorporate 3D spatial movement in electroacoustic music. The Ambisonic spatial audio format attempts to recreate a full sound field (with height information) and is currently a popular choice for 3D spatialization. While tools for Ambisonics are typically designed for the 2D computer screen and keyboard/mouse, virtual reality offers new opportunities to work with spatial audio in a 3D computer generated environment. An overview of my custom virtual reality software, VRSoMa, demonstrates new possibilities for the design of 3D audio. Created in the Unity video game engine for use with the HTC Vive virtual reality system, VRSoMa utilizes the Google Resonance SDK for spatialization. The software gives users the ability to control the spatial movement of sound objects by manual positioning, a waypoint system, animation triggering, or through gravity simulations. Performances can be rendered into an Ambisonic file for use in digital audio workstations. My work Discords (2018) for 3D audio facilitates discussion of the conceptual and technical aspects of spatial audio for use in musical composition. This includes consideration of human spatial hearing, technical tools, spatial allusion/illusion, and blending virtual/real spaces. The concept of spatial gestures has been used to categorize the …
Date: December 2018
Creator: Smith, Michael Sterling
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Expectancy-Value Model of Elective Music Participation (open access)

An Expectancy-Value Model of Elective Music Participation

The purpose of this study was to specify and test a model detailing (a) gender, (b) previous elective music experience, (c) school, (d) music self-concept, and (e) music values as predictors of music enrollment and the initial juncture of school-sponsored elective music participation. In the event that a model with adequate fit was retained, a further purpose of this study was to calculate the direct, indirect, and total effects of each predictor, thereby determining each predictor's relative contribution towards explaining variance in elective music enrollment. Participants included fifth-grade students (N = 148) from two elementary schools. Data were gathered via administration of the Motivators of Elective Music Participation Questionnaire, and by accessing middle school elective enrollment records. The proposed expectancy-value model of elective music participation demonstrated excellent fit and was retained for interpretation. Overall, the model accounted for 34.4% of the variance in elective music participation. The greatest total predictor of elective music participation was previous elective music experience, followed closely by music values. Music self-concept, gender, and school played negligible roles in predicting whether students opted in or out of sixth-grade music electives.
Date: August 2018
Creator: Frey-Clark, Marta
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Themes of Social Justice in the Choral Music of Jake Runestad (open access)

Themes of Social Justice in the Choral Music of Jake Runestad

With his thought-provoking and socially relevant music, American composer Jake Runestad has quickly become one of the most performed choral composers of the 21st century. Although music and social justice have been tied together for centuries, there is a new movement bringing social justice to American choral music in a noticeably increased manor, and Jake Runestad is a leading composer in this movement. In this paper, I provide a detailed analysis into the social justice themes employed by Runestad, interviews with him and several well-respected American choral directors programming and commissioning his music, as well as compositional devices employed within his compositions. The purpose of this study is to show Jake Runestad's place as an American choral composer by offering a historical overview of the social justice themes in American music and Western choral music separately. I will then narrow the scope to Jake Runestad, who since 2013 has been using his choral music to bring awareness to human inequalities within the United States today.
Date: August 2018
Creator: Hathaway, Christopher M.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Developing Variation and Melodic Contour Analysis: A New Look at the Music of Max Reger (open access)

Developing Variation and Melodic Contour Analysis: A New Look at the Music of Max Reger

Max Reger was a prolific composer on the threshold of modernism. The style of his extensive musical output was polarizing among his contemporaries. A criticism of Reger's music is its complex and dense musical structure. Despite writing tonal music, Reger often pushes the boundaries of tonality so far that all sense of formal organization is seemingly imperceptible. In this dissertation, I offer what I observed to be a new way of discerning Reger's motivic relationships and formal structures within and between movements. There are three primary tools and methods I incorporated to make these observations: Schoenberg's developing variation; melodic contour analysis as discussed by Elizabeth West-Marvin and Diana Deutsch; and Janet Schmalfeldt's motivic cyclicism stemming from internal themes. In this dissertation I examine five different musical works by Reger: D minor Piano Quartet, Clarinet Quintet, Piano Concerto, String Quartet, op. 121 and E minor Piano Trio, op. 102. My analysis shows how Reger relies on melodic contours of his motives to connect musical moments across entire movements and entire works with multiple movements. These motives are developed and often mark structurally significant moments providing the organization often perceived as missing in Reger's music.
Date: August 2018
Creator: McConnell, Sarah E.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Conductor's Guide to Hyo-Won Woo's Choral Music as Reflected in "Oh! KOREA" (open access)

A Conductor's Guide to Hyo-Won Woo's Choral Music as Reflected in "Oh! KOREA"

The choral music of Hyo-won Woo, the composer of Oh! KOREA, is being widely performed by universities and professional choruses in Korea, as well as throughout the world. The work exhibits Woo's remarkable compositional style, which displays traditional Korean musical influences. Hyo-Won Woo's Oh! KOREA consisting of four movements, is for chorus, two pianos, and both Eastern and Western percussion instruments. Woo's Oh! KOREA employs an excellent introduction to the Korean choral repertoire for Western audiences, rooted in traditional Korean folk tunes. As today's choral conductors, singers, and audience cannot fully appreciate the value of this traditional Korean work and will likely not understand its intended context, it is therefore necessary to provide an in-depth investigation of this work for any conductor considering a performance of this piece. This study includes influences of traditional Korean elements within Oh! KOREA and rehearsal and performance consideration for Western choir directors.
Date: December 2018
Creator: Noh, Wonil
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Depicting Affect through Text, Music, and Gesture in Venetian Opera, c. 1640-1658 (open access)

Depicting Affect through Text, Music, and Gesture in Venetian Opera, c. 1640-1658

Although early Venetian operas by composers such as Claudio Monteverdi and Francesco Cavalli offer today's listeners profound moments of emotion, the complex codes of meaning connecting emotion (or affect) with music in this repertoire are different from those of later seventeenth-century operatic repertoire. The specific textual and musical markers that librettists and composers used to indicate individual emotions in these operas were historically and culturally contingent, and many scholars thus consider them to be inaccessible to listeners today. This dissertation demonstrates a new analytical framework that is designed to identify the specific combinations of elements that communicate each lifelike emotion in this repertoire. Re-establishing the codes that govern the relationship between text, musical sound, and affect in this repertoire illuminates the nuanced emotional language of operas by composers such as Claudio Monteverdi, Francesco Cavalli, Antonio Cesti, and Francesco Lucio. The new analytical framework that underlies this study derives from analysis of seventeenth-century Venetian explanations and depictions of emotional processes, which reveal a basis in their society's underlying Aristotelian philosophy. Chapters III and IV examine extant documents from opera librettists, composers, audience members, and their associates to reveal how they understood emotions to work in the mind and body. These authors, …
Date: May 2018
Creator: Hagen, Emily
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Shaping Hagiography through Liturgy: Music for the Patron Saints of Three Cathedrals in Medieval Aquitaine (open access)

Shaping Hagiography through Liturgy: Music for the Patron Saints of Three Cathedrals in Medieval Aquitaine

While the development of hagiography over time has long attracted the attention of medievalists, scholars have not fully explored the critical role of the liturgy in prompting and transmitting these changes. This dissertation examines the liturgies for the patron saints of three musical and ecclesiastical centers in medieval Aquitaine: the cathedrals of Saint-Trophime in Arles, Saint-Just-et-Saint-Pasteur in Narbonne, and Saint-Étienne in Toulouse. Through the music, texts, and ritual actions of the liturgy, the clerical communities of these three institutions reinforced some aspects of their patron saint's legendary biography and modified others. Yet the process unfolded differently at each cathedral, revealing the particular preferences of the canons of each community as well as their changing circumstances during the Middle Ages. In Arles, the office for St. Trophime, which was likely composed at the cathedral, shows dramatic changes in the saint's hagiography. The clerics in Narbonne also composed an office for their patron saints but did not substantially change the details of Justus and Pastor's legendary biography. In Toulouse, the canons selected from among the preexisting repertoire of chants and texts available for St. Stephen, crafting liturgies that were particular to Saint-Étienne within a clearly Aquitanian context. By revealing the ways in …
Date: December 2018
Creator: Recek, Andrea
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Traditional Korean Music in Contemporary Context: A Performance Guide to Gideon Gee Bum Kim's Kangkangsullae (open access)

Traditional Korean Music in Contemporary Context: A Performance Guide to Gideon Gee Bum Kim's Kangkangsullae

Gideon Gee Bum Kim is an internationally-acclaimed contemporary Korean-Canadian composer. Kim has utilized traditional Korean music with Western composition techniques in some of his works. Kim created his own style by incorporating traditional Korean musical elements such as the scale, rhythmic diversity, syncopation, variation, ornamentation, and the progression of melody into a body of music that is otherwise contemporary and Western. The purpose of this study is to develop a performance guide for Gideon Gee Bum Kim's Kangkangsullae for string trio. Kangkangsullae trio is based on Korean historical, cultural and musical influences. I give a detailed historical and cultural background for this work and demonstrate how Kim integrated Western compositional techniques with traditional Korean music. My emphasis is on defining specific characteristics of traditional Korean music which will provide several points toward understanding Kim's compositional style.
Date: May 2018
Creator: Lee, Hyejin
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Grounded Theory of Music Teacher Large Scale Conference Professional Development Implementation: Processes of Convergence (open access)

A Grounded Theory of Music Teacher Large Scale Conference Professional Development Implementation: Processes of Convergence

The purpose of this study was to understand the process of music teacher large-scale conference professional development (PD) implementation (i.e., the integration of conference-derived learnings into classroom practice). The context of this investigation was two national music conferences, the Midwest Clinic and the National Association for Music Education National In-Service Conference, and one state music conference, the Texas Music Educators Association Clinic/Convention. Using purposive maximum variation sampling, active music teachers (n = 32) who each attended one of these conferences were recruited. Data collection occurred in a series of three participant interview phases, staggered according to which conference participants attended and when each conference was held. Twenty-eight participants were interviewed twice, and four participants were interviewed once, yielding a total of 60 interview transcripts, which were then openly, axially, and selectively coded in accordance to grounded theory method. The principal finding, the cycle of music teacher large scale conference professional development implementation (C-MTPDI), revealed an implementation process in three phases. First, the consideration phase (before/during conference) entailed needs assessment, direct engagement, change articulation, and, for some participants, deterrent factors/contingencies. Second, the realization phase (immediate post-conference) included translation, integration, and recalibration. Third, and finally, the decision phase (3-5 weeks post-conference) included …
Date: August 2018
Creator: West, Justin J.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
It's the Kids!: Examining Early-Career Elementary General Music Teacher Longevity in Title I Settings (open access)

It's the Kids!: Examining Early-Career Elementary General Music Teacher Longevity in Title I Settings

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors contributing to the longevity of four early-career (5 to 10 years of experience) K–5 elementary general music teachers in Title I schools situated in four regions of the United States. The central research question was: How did early-career elementary general music teachers in Title I schools describe the opportunities and challenges that contributed to their decisions to continue teaching? Using Deci and Ryan's theory of self-determination as a theoretical framework, I analyzed how the four teachers reflected on the degree to which they each possessed autonomy, competence, and relatedness through recounting their perspectives, stories, and experiences. Although the participants shared many commonalities, they also experienced challenges and opportunities unique to their teaching environments. Results were mixed regarding their levels of autonomy and relatedness, but all four teachers possessed a high level of competence, which was likely a contributing factor to their longevity and potential to continue teaching. Nurture and care for children also emerged as a prominent theme from the results, which required the application of a separate theoretical framework. Noddings's theory of the ethic of care served as a lens for examining the myriad ways each participant demonstrated love, care, …
Date: August 2018
Creator: Chandler, Michael Douglas
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2018-02-28 – Will Douglas, guitar

Doctoral recital presented at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.
Date: February 28, 2018
Creator: Douglas, Will (Guitarist)
Object Type: Video
System: The UNT Digital Library

Ensemble: 2018-11-14 – Brass Band, Concert Band, and University Band

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Wind studies concert performed at the UNT College of Music Winspear Hall.
Date: November 14, 2018
Creator: University of North Texas. Brass Band.
Object Type: Video
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2018-11-07 – Casey Goldman, trumpet

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.
Date: November 7, 2018
Creator: Goldman, Casey
Object Type: Video
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2018-04-26 – Héctor Alfonso Torres, classical guitar

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.
Date: April 26, 2018
Creator: Torres, Héctor Alfonso
Object Type: Video
System: The UNT Digital Library
Doctoral Lecture Recital: 2018-09-25 – Fang-Yi Chu, piano transcript

Doctoral Lecture Recital: 2018-09-25 – Fang-Yi Chu, piano

Lecture recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.
Date: September 25, 2018
Creator: Chu, Fang-Yi
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library
Fence, Flavor, and Phantasm: Balancing Japanese Musical Elements and Western Influence within an Historical and Cultural Context (open access)

Fence, Flavor, and Phantasm: Balancing Japanese Musical Elements and Western Influence within an Historical and Cultural Context

Given the diversity found in today's Japanese culture and the size of the country's population, it is easy to see why the understanding of Japanese wind band repertoire must be multi-faceted. Alongside Western elements, many Japanese composers have intentionally sought to maintain their cultural identity through the addition of Japanese musical elements or concepts. These added elements provide a historical and cultural context from which to frame a composition or, in some cases, a composer's compositional output. The employment of these elements serve as a means to categorize the Japanese wind band repertoire. In his studies on cultural identities found in Japanese music, Gordon Matthews suggests there are three genres found within Japanese culture. He explains these as "senses of 'Japaneseness' among Japanese musicians." They include Fence, Flavor, and Phantasm. Bringing a new perspective to the idea of Japanese influence, I trace the implementation of these facets of Japanese music through the wind band music of Japanese composers. I demonstrate that Japanese wind band genres are the result of a combination of Japanese musical elements and Western influence and argue that the varying levels of this combination, balanced with historical and cultural context, create three distinct genres within the Japanese …
Date: May 2018
Creator: Desjardins, Kelly
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Performance Editions of Three Works for Winds by Gyorgy Druschetzky (open access)

Performance Editions of Three Works for Winds by Gyorgy Druschetzky

Gyorgy Druschetzky was a noted Czech composer of Harmoniemusik, who wrote more than 150 partitas and serenades, along with at least thirty-two other selections for larger wind groups. This is in addition to twenty-seven symphonies, eleven concertos (most for wind instruments), two fantasias, forty-seven string quartets, two operas, a ballet that is lost, and other miscellaneous chamber music for various combinations of wind/string instruments. Three of his works for winds have existed only in manuscript form since their composition: Concerto in E-flat pour 2 clarinett en B, 2 cors en E-flat, 2 fagott; Overture to Mozart's Die Zauberflöte; and Partitta a la camera a corno di bassetto primo, secondo, terzo, due corno di caccia, due fagotti. These works remain remarkably interesting to modern ears and deserve to be heard in the twenty-first century. Along with a brief examination of Druschetzky's life and how it figures into the history of Harmoniemusik, this work presents each piece edited into a modern performance edition.
Date: August 2018
Creator: McDannald, Brandon K.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2018-10-27 – Han Zhao, piano

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.
Date: October 27, 2018
Creator: Zhao, Han
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2018-11-16 – Meilin Ai, piano

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.
Date: November 16, 2018
Creator: Ai, Meilin
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2018-03-20 – Byung Sook Kong, piano

Doctoral recital presented at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.
Date: March 20, 2018
Creator: Kong, Byung Sook
Object Type: Video
System: The UNT Digital Library

Doctoral Recital: 2018-11-19 – Gregory Satterthwaite, piano

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Kenton Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.
Date: November 19, 2018
Creator: Satterthwaite
Object Type: Sound
System: The UNT Digital Library