The Sound of the Prairie Land (Caoyuan Zhige) for viola and piano by the Chinese composer Qingwu Guan (b. 1938) has become one of the most popular works in the growing Chinese repertoire for viola. It also exists in another version for viola and viola ensemble, arranged by the Chinese violist Wing Ho, who also expanded the viola part with the composer's approval. The pentatonic work was highly influenced by the landscape and music of Inner Mongolia, a province of China next to the Mongolian border, and incorporates the music of an ode by the Inner Mongolian composer Alatengaole (1942–2011) called Sincere Wishes for a Long Life to Chairman Mao. Guan remains a strong supporter of Mao, the first chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. The work makes use of some performance techniques of the Inner Mongolian two-stringed fiddle called morin khuur, which has a similar tone to the viola: three kinds of slides, grace notes, imitations of a horse's neigh, and the representation of horses galloping across the prairie. The background of the work, understanding of the musical structure, and information about morin khuur techniques presented in this dissertation should aid performers in interpreting the work more authentically.

Yvonne Desportes (1907-1993) was an influential female composer, teacher, and music theorist. Her early success as a recipient of the Prix de Rome for composition (1932) marked the beginning of her distinguished career in music culminating in a 35-year professorship at the Paris Conservatory. Despite the relative obscurity of her music, Desportes was a prolific composer and published numerous works for clarinet quartet. This dissertation seeks to promote the clarinet music of Yvonne Desportes through a pedagogical examination of her clarinet quartets. The equitable parts and quality of Desportes' compositional style allow her clarinet quartets to be effective teaching tools for the development of fundamental clarinet skills relating to tone, technique, and musical style.

Isang Yun (1917-1995), one of the most important avant-garde German-Korean composers, is perhaps best known for his success at integrating Korean musical elements into traditional Western styles. His Concerto for Oboe, Oboe d'amore, and Orchestra incorporates many traditional Korean elements, and uses techniques such as Hauptton, Hauptklang, and Umspielung to blend these elements into a Western musical style. This study explores the elements of traditional Korean music and instruments present in Yun's score, examines his compositional techniques, and makes practical performance suggestions that allow performers to properly convey his intentions. This dissertation includes six chapters. The first chapter discusses the purpose and importance of the study. The second chapter reviews Isang Yun's biography and works, based on a published interview with Yun and a biography written by his wife of many years. The third chapter introduces the characteristics of traditional Korean woodwind instruments relevant to the work. The fourth chapter examines Yun's compositional techniques of Hauptton, Hauptklang, and Umspielung in the work and their relationship with the main-tone and Sigimsae techniques. The fifth chapter introduces and explores different types of Sigimsae in the work, with suggestions for quarter-tone performance techniques. The sixth and last chapter is a conclusion.

This study investigates how different guitarists introduced saxophone-like phrasing into the improvisatory and compositional vocabulary of jazz guitar through their collaborations with saxophonists. This research presents a comparative analysis of phrasing, articulation, and melodic design in solo improvisations. The mixed approach to this study includes analysis of motives, voice leading, articulation, length of phrases, melodic contour, and the execution of bebop vocabulary on the guitar. The findings are based on original transcriptions from significant recordings by guitar-saxophone pairs. These highlight the similarities between and adaptations of musical devices from saxophonists Stan Getz, Jimmy Giuffre, and Joe Lovano into the jazz guitar styles of Jimmy Raney, Jim Hall, and John Scofield. This study supports the argument that the evolution of modern jazz guitar playing is directly connected to the adaptation of saxophone-like phrasing at an improvisatory and compositional level. It also shows that the concept of style in jazz flows between different instruments' lineages. Understanding these findings provides a more complex and accurate concept of the development of style in jazz.

Composed exclusively in the last decade, Joshua Rist's works have received significant performances by numerous high-profile ensembles including prominent high school, collegiate, and community choirs. Although conductors continue to program his works with increased frequency, minimal scholarly work is published about this music and its composer. The quality of Rist's body of work coupled with a scarcity of scholarly research provides opportunity for further study. Closer examination of Rist's works could provide a framework for conductors who perform his music. This study provides background and bibliographic information on the composer. It contains a review of choral works by Rist highlighting critical elements within each work that provide a framework for future performances of his works. This dissertation identifies stylistic characteristics that define Rist's compositional style. Additionally, it highlights the evolution of Rist's artistic growth and development.

Improvisation is an art form which has arguably been present since the existence of music itself. Inventing music on the spot, like spontaneous speech, is a common expression of artistry throughout history and across musical boundaries. While improvisation has maintained its importance in jazz, classical organ music and the music of many eastern cultures, this dissertation will focus on the presence of improvisation as acceptable performance practice within the tradition of western classical music. At several points in history, this musical tradition was encouraged and even expected to be a regular part of a musician's life, and yet in the classical music tradition of the twenty-first century, improvisation is rarely, if ever, heard from the concert stage, nor is it regularly included in the general education of the conservatory student.

Cristóbal Halffter, born in 1930, established himself as an important figure in Spanish avant-garde composition in the middle of the twentieth-century. As one of the prominent leaders of the Generación del 51, he helped establish modernity in music as a part of Spain's identity. His compositional style mixing tradition with the avant-garde was built on the success and breakthrough of Manuel de Falla, a composer with close ties to Halffter's family and served as a 'father figure' to the Generación del 51. This study begins with a discussion on Falla's work and reception, as he lay the groundwork for modernism in Spanish music. Further, discussion on Halffter's background and compositional periods, from his nationalist approach in the 1950s to his embrace of the avant-garde in the 1960s and beyond exemplifies Halffter's prominent role in shaping Spanish modernity. This research then sheds light on previously unexplored solo flute works Debla [Solo VI] for Flute and Studie II [Solo III] for Flute by Halffter. Provided is insight to their respective influences (the Spanish debla and the Fibonacci sequence), analysis of each work, and a discussion on their similarities and differences. By taking an informative approach prior to analysis and performance suggestions, readers …

Paul Schoenfeld (b. 1947) is considered one of the major American composers of the present day to have incorporated many different styles in his music. Although Schoenfeld primarily uses a combination of folk, popular music, klezmer, and jazz in most of his compositions, he has also incorporated other distinctive musical styles in his works, such as neo-Baroque, particularly in his Partita for Violin and Piano (2002). The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the eclectic combination of neo-Baroque and klezmer elements found in Schoenfeld's Partita. This research provides a detailed comparative analysis of his work with Johann Sebastian Bach's Clavier-Übung I, BWV 825–830, and 6 Sei Solo a Violino senza Basso accompagnato, BWV 1001–1006, primarily to see how Schoenfeld made use of Baroque forms, imitative passages, rhythms, and other stylistic features, then fused them with klezmer elements. Klezmer is a genre of music stemming from the Eastern European Jewish tradition; its distinctive characteristics are modal scales and Hasidic vocal ornaments. Knowing the mixture of Baroque and klezmer stylistic influences should help performers to interpret the piece.

Texas has a rich tradition of Early Music ensembles that dates back to 1969. However, there is little reliable information based on statistical data collection and analysis concerning Texas Early Music consumers. Little is known about why they attend Early Music performances or other important factors that affect the Early Music industry. Through the use of an extensive survey and accompanying statistical analysis, this study answers many questions regarding Early Music consumers in the State of Texas. This study collected demographic and psychographic data in January 2020 about the Early Music concert-going public in three major Texas cities - Dallas, Austin, and Houston. Other factors were identified in two primary areas: audience characteristics and ticket pricing practices.

Hendrik Hofmeyr is considered one of the most important and influential living composers in South Africa. His music for solo saxophone is not well-known in the classical saxophone repertoire. His four works for solo saxophone (Concerto per saxofono contralto e orchestra, Concerto per saxofono baritono e orchestra, Partita canonica, and Necromancer) are substantial and terrific repertoire for the instrument. This study is intended to inform a saxophone performer's understanding of these compositions through analysis of form, melodic, and harmonic content relevant to performance; and, demonstrate through example the conclusions determined by the analysis about apparent compositional techniques in the music.

Females make up the minority in professional euphonium playing and teaching roles in the USA. The purpose of this research is to unveil the reasons behind this imbalance and to discover potential impacts females experience as a minority in the field. Research methods included sending a questionnaire to professional female euphonium players and teachers to document the experiences of participants. A secondary purpose of this study is to further document the existence of past and present potential female euphonium role models. Through a discussion of possible origins of and reasons behind a perceived lack of female euphonium players, I am seeking ways to achieve greater parity by garnering a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by female euphonium players.

The purpose of this document is to investigate how trumpet students at the University of North Texas experience music performance anxiety and to find out how professors prepare students for controlling music performance anxiety experiences. The interviewees were ten undergraduates and ten graduate students, as well as three trumpet professors who teach at the University of North Texas. The questionnaire responses of the student interviewees were examined, and literature is provided that address the most common performance related psychological and physiological symptoms experienced by the trumpet students. Effective and healthy strategies are discussed that were offered by the trumpet professors, and suggestions are made regarding potential benefits and detriments of trumpet performance anxiety.

Harry Sparnaay was a major contributor to the development of unaccompanied works for the bass clarinet and commissioned over 100 pieces for bass clarinet alone. While Sparnaay's book, The Bass Clarinet: A Personal History, includes a list of works written for him, there is minimal information available regarding most of these pieces. This project fills the information gap for this repertoire by providing publication status/score availability, performance challenges, recording history, program notes, and composer information. Each work is classified into three categories based on its publication status and recording history, providing a framework for understanding which works have entered the standard repertoire for the instrument.

The document provides an annotated bibliography of the compositions for clarinet by Dr. Nguyen Phuc Linh, one of Vietnam's foremost contemporary classical musician. Brief biography of Nguyen and his music aesthetic are also included. The dissertation also provides an overview of Vietnamese music and instrumental music.

In the world of chamber music, programmatic suites are more rarely composed and consequently more rarely presented in recital than other musical forms. Perhaps partially for this reason, George Enescu's Impressions d'enfance for violin and piano, his last chamber piece written in the tumultuous year of 1940, has been overlooked for a long time; even the composer himself did not make a recording of this seldom performed piece. This dissertation examines Impressions d'enface in order to explore the relationship between the underlying Romanian folk rhythmic and melodic patterns, to provide an analysis, as well as to serve as a performance guide to assist performers in surmounting the technical challenges and thus create a more effective ensemble. I hope this dissertation will encourage more duos to experiencing the joy of George Enescu's richly fulfilling Impressions d'enfance for themselves.

A Poem Carved in Stone, a work for piano solo by Washington DC-based Chinese composer Wu Yiming was composed in Spring 2020 and is dedicated to the author of this dissertation. The piece is inspired by the poetry of Han Shan, a recluse who lived during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.). His poetry is in Chan (Zen) tradition. Wu depicts the imagery and philosophy in Han Shan's poetry through highly complex rhythms, extreme sound effects and pitches, tone clusters, and extended piano techniques. This dissertation provides practical instructions for achieving these effects and executing the unconventional techniques found in this piece, which include playing inside of the piano, various standing and sitting positions, and coordination and balance. A guide to interpret this piece is from both the composer's and the performer's perspective. Observations are drawn directly from communications and coaching received from the composer. This study briefly explores the historical and cultural context of Han Shan's poetry and discusses how Wu's use of modern western compositional devices reflects the Zen philosophy. An interview with the composer is included along with an overview of both his compositions and those of composers who influenced him. It is hoped that this dissertation will …

Jonathan Leshnoff is one today's foremost contemporary American composers. His percussion compositions are significant compositions to the percussion solo, chamber, and concerto repertoire. This study is a tonal analysis on his marimba solo, Run (2003), with comparative analyses on his percussion chamber work, …without a chance (2002), and Concerto for Two Percussionists and Orchestra (2011).

This anthology of late 19th- and early 20th-century Czech opera arias for soprano focuses on works that lack existing scholarship, bridging the language gap through translations and pronunciation materials for English-speaking singers. Its 24 arias supplement the works of Smetana, Dvořák, and Janáček with those of contemporaneous composers Karel Bendl, Zdeněk Fibich, Josef Bohuslav Foerster, Karel Kovařovic, Vítězslav Novák, and Otakar Ostrčil. Its musicological scope provides vignettes of the musical-cultural landscape of Czech opera around the turn of the 20th century, the transformation of Czech declamation during that period, and the language knowledge needed to sing the works thereof. Chapter 2 elucidates the methodology used in the anthology's phonetic transcriptions and discusses the unique articulatory demands of singing in Czech. Chapter 3 grounds contemporaneous discussion of Czech declamation as late 19th- and early 20th-century composers and librettists sought to shape a musical voice suited to the features of their language. The following chapter is a look at Janáček's unique solution to this challenge. In Chapter 5, the relationship between criticism and composition is examined for these two faces of Czech modernism. Finally, Chapter 6 includes new performance editions of the arias curated for the anthology. Each aria is accompanied by …

In 1895, Emil Georg Conrad Sauer (1862-1942), a world-renowned German pianist and former student of Franz Liszt wrote his first piano concerto, which was published five years later in 1900. Sauer performed it extensively to enthusiastic crowds in Europe and the United States while on tour during the next several years. Then it vanished from the concert repertoire. It is no longer performed and has only been commercially recorded once. The purpose of this dissertation is to establish why it might have disappeared, and why there is value in bringing it back to the standard piano repertoire.

Byung-dong Paik is the one of the most famous Korean composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He has wanted his music to keep up with the times and also incorporate features of Eastern music without catering to the "difficulty" of modern Western music. The Passacaglia for Solo Violin takes a unique modern approach to the Baroque form of passacaglia and its tonal structure by transforming the characteristics of the original theme in a series of seventeen variations and a coda. In this paper, a general analysis of the work leads to suggestions on how to perform it effectively.

The main purpose of this dissertation is to offer a modern transcription and critical edition of François Campion's Sonatina in D Major, found in his Piéces de Guitare du S.r Campion from 1748. Since it is not a common practice for the modern classical guitarist to study the baroque guitar and all its idiosyncrasies, this transcription from French tablature into modern notation will make this piece accessible to all classical guitar players. Using his sonatina as an example, this dissertation covers the process of transcribing baroque guitar French tablature while emphasizing a practical performance approach that suits the classical guitar. This approach includes examining tuning differences, suggested transposed notes, ornamental interpretation, and the overall differences in performance practice between both instruments. Not much is known about Campion's life (c1685-1747), but his importance as a musician in France during the early eighteenth century is evidenced by his publications and his accounts as a theorbo and baroque guitar player for the orchestra of the opera company L'Académie Royale de Musique, for which he was employed from 1703 until 1719. Unfortunately, while this music is fairly known and usually performed by early music specialists, it is ignored by modern guitarists, mainly because of …

Voice teachers can train versatile singers by infusing musical theatre technique within bel canto evidence-based pedagogy. Seeing these two genres as possessing similarities instead of as unrelated fields allows teachers to not only match academic knowledge with the current entertainment job market, but most importantly, possess a versatile technique allowing them to train singers to perform fluently in multiple styles: the hybrid singer. An area of confusion in both bel canto and musical theatre training is mixed registration. This dissertation uses historic pedagogical texts and contemporary writings on mixed registration to understand laryngeal and acoustical events of the treble voice. The relationship between the two modes of voice production and musical theatre timbral acoustics ("legit" head voice, traditional belt, contemporary chest-mix, contemporary head-mix) is discussed with applicable tools for voice teachers training versatile singers.

The underrepresentation of Mexican art song has left classical singers with few Spanish-language repertoire options. Currently, the music of Spain dominates this scene and Mexican art song has yet to earn a place in academic curricula and concert halls. Manuel María Ponce (1882-1948) retains an important position in Mexican music. However, Ponce's vocal repertoire—consisting of over 150 songs—remained dormant for many decades after his death due to its misclassification by music aristocrats in Mexico that greatly affected their diffusion. Consequently, few copies were published during Ponce's life, making them difficult to find. The need in the singing community for repertoire of this kind has raised many questions not only about its existence and availability, but also about its origins and relationship to the established Art Song canon. To promote the diffusion of this underrepresented repertoire, a style analysis of Ponce's Romantic Mexican Art Song is offered through the lens of his writings about Mexican Song. The analysis includes vital information about the origins, form, style, and subjects of these songs. Tangible examples of these traits are provided from Ponce's Doce Canciones Mexicanas along with historically-informed suggestions for singers and translations of the text with IPA transcriptions.

Charlotte Moorman (1933–1991) was a Juilliard-trained cellist whose life and work made an indelible mark on the development of the American avant-garde. In her career, Moorman acted as a performer, collaborator, composer, administrator and muse. She solely founded the inaugural New York Avant Garde Festival, and subsequently directed fifteen of these festivals between 1963 and 1980, the feat for which she is most widely acknowledged today. Yet, her revolutionary performance practice, which blurred the lines between her life, her body, and her work, and brought into focus the dynamics of corporeality, the feminine body, female nudity and sexuality, and gendered politics within the contexts of musical performance, has so far escaped serious consideration in the written histories of the American avant-garde. This dissertation describes the nature of Moorman's practice as one that evolved to become inherently and irrevocably embodied, explores how this approach fell at odds with the pervasive avant-garde philosophies of music, and illustrates how her work troubles even a feminist musicological analysis. Further, through a contemporary critique of Moorman's oeuvre which centralizes the social, cultural, and political implications of her body in performance as integral to the work, this project offers a retrospective visibility to the artist which …