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Beethoven's Transcendence of the Additive Tendency in Opus 34, Opus 35, Werk ohne Opuszahl 80, and Opus 120 (open access)

Beethoven's Transcendence of the Additive Tendency in Opus 34, Opus 35, Werk ohne Opuszahl 80, and Opus 120

The internal unity of the themes in a sonata-allegro movement and the external unity of the movements in a sonata cycle are crucial elements of Beethoven's compositional aesthetic. Numerous theorists have explored these aspects in Beethoven's sonatas, symphonies, quartets, and concertos. Similar research into the independent variation sets for piano, excluding Opus 120, has been largely neglected as the result of three misconceptions: that the variation sets, many of which were based on popular melodies of Beethoven's time, are not as worthy of study as his other works; that the type of hidden internal relationships which pervade the sonata cycle are not relevant to the variation set since all variations are, by definition, related to the theme; and that variations were composed "additively," that is, one after another, without any particular regard for their order or relationship to one another. The purpose of this study is to refute all three of these incorrect assumptions. Beethoven was concerned with the order of variations and their relationship to one another, and he was able to transcend the additive tendency in a number of ways. Some of his methods included registral connection, registral expansion, rhythmic acceleration, textural expansion, dynamics, articulation, and motivic similarities. …
Date: December 1989
Creator: Kramer, Ernest J. (Ernest Joachim)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Schoenberg's Janus-Work Erwartung: Its Musico-Dramatic Structure and Relationship to the Melodrama and Lied Traditions (open access)

Schoenberg's Janus-Work Erwartung: Its Musico-Dramatic Structure and Relationship to the Melodrama and Lied Traditions

Arnold Schoenberg's atonal monodrama, Erwartune. Op. 17 (1909). has been viewed as an unanalyzable athematic aberration, without any discernible form. Recognizing Erwartune's forward-looking aspect, this dissertation also explores the melodrama and the Lied, a connection with the past which forges a new understanding of its form and structure.
Date: December 1989
Creator: Penney, Diane Holloway
System: The UNT Digital Library
Romanzas for Clarinet and Piano by Ernesto Cavallini: A Lecture Recital Together with Three Other Recitals (open access)

Romanzas for Clarinet and Piano by Ernesto Cavallini: A Lecture Recital Together with Three Other Recitals

The lecture was given on September 25, 1989. The discussion dealt with the stylistic characteristics of music for clarinet by Ernesto Cavallini and included a performance of four romanzas: La Calma, Un Pensiero, L'Incudine, and Lontano dalla Patria. Cavallini was the foremost clarinet virtuoso of the nineteenth century as well as a prolific composer of music for his instrument. The works presented in the lecture represent Cavallini's proclivity for a performance style combining virtuosity with lyrical expression. Copies of the original publications of Cavallini's romanzas were obtained from the Biblioteca del Conservatory, "Giuseppi Verdi," Milan, Italy. In addition to the lecture recital, three other recitals for solo clarinet were given. The first recital was given on October 29, 1984, and included works by Carl Maria von Weber, Leslie Bassett, Halsey Stevens, and Carl Reinecke. The second recital was given on July 29, 1985, and included works by Bernard Heinrich Crusell, Halsey Stevens, and Johannes Brahms. The third recital was given on October 3, 1988, and included works by Saviero Mercadante, Eugene Bozza, and John Ireland. All four recitals were recorded on magnetic tape and are filed, along with the written version of the lecture materials, as a part of the …
Date: December 1989
Creator: Hollingsworth, Mark Stanton
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Investigation of the Laryngeal Activity of Trumpet Players During the Performance of Selected Exercises (open access)

An Investigation of the Laryngeal Activity of Trumpet Players During the Performance of Selected Exercises

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 …
Date: December 1989
Creator: Bailey, Robert E. (Robert Elwood), 1946-
System: The UNT Digital Library