Some artists strive to create artwork that has aesthetic value. If a piece of artwork has the ability to capture the attention of an audience, it must contain strong sensual attributes. Thus, understanding how to design an art form to contain strong sensual attributes may increase the possibility of an aesthetic experience. Since aesthetics is an experience of sensations perceived when in contact with a creative form in any artistic discipline, it is necessary for an artist to understand the nature of the sensual experience. In understanding the sensual experience, artists may be able to create techniques to enhance the aesthetic experience of their work. My video piece, entitled Ararat is a study of methods to enhance the sensual experience. I hope to accomplish this by means of using techniques that optimize an audience's perceptual experience.

As Darkness Falls is a composition that explores our interaction with several aspects of darkness through the use of musical imagery. The imagery attempts to reflect the moods, feelings, and impressions of a person as he or she interacts with darkness. The non-programmatic character of the composition allows listeners to superimpose their own experiences onto the musical tapestry in order to manifest a personal connection between the listener and the music. As Darkness Falls is a composition scored for a minimum instrumentation of piccolo, 6 flutes, 3 oboes, 3 bassoons, 9 B-flat clarinets, B-flat bass clarinet, 2 E-flat alto saxophones, B-flat tenor saxophone, E-flat baritone saxophone, 4 B-flat trumpets, 4 horns in F, 3 tenor trombones, bass trombone, 2 euphoniums, 2 tubas, timpani, and 4 percussionists. The music consists of three movements (slow-slow-fast) lasting a total of approximately seventeen minutes. The duration of each of the three movements is six minutes, four and one-half minutes, and six and one-half minutes, respectively. The document also contains an analysis of the work by the composer. The analysis explores the compositional style of the work, focusing on musical aspects within each movement that were governing parameters in the compositional process.

‘...and one of time.' is a reinterpretation of a small musical moment from Philip Glass' opera, Einstein on the Beach, centered around the phrase "Berne, Switzerland 1905." This reinterpretation is realized through the use of several different compositional techniques including spectral composition, micropolyphony and dodecaphony, as well as the application of extra-musical models developed by Alan Lightman, John Gardner, Italo Calvino and Albert Einstein.

Haiku Seasons is a choral work that uses several haiku to portray moments in nature. Spread throughout the performance space, four choirs (SATB, 3/part) depict larger parts of the pastoral scene (i.e., mountains, the moon, etc.). Soloists depart from the choirs in order to perform solo, duo, trio, and quartet passages, which take place throughout the work. If enough singers are available, individual soloists may be used. The soloist groups display the more intimate moments of the scenes (i.e., sparrows, a blade of grass, etc.). The intent of Haiku Seasons is to create an image of nature isolated from human interaction. Thus, the image is a pastoral setting with many independent parts all coexisting in a relatively silent world. I combine aspects of tonality, time, space, and silence to create this image.

Composed for soprano, tenor, and baritone voices, woodwind, percussion, and string instruments, Three Voices is a polyglotic work that includes German, Chinese, and Spanish texts. The texts are chosen from Brecht Bertolt's Das Schiff, Po Chu I's Lang T'ao Sha, and Frederico Garcia Lorcá's Mar. Significant features of the piece are 1) application of Chinese operatic singing methods to vocal material in the sections that use Chinese text, 2) use of western instruments to emulate the sound of certain Chinese instruments, and 3) employment of Sprechstimme and dramatically inflected speech to create theatrical effects and highlight the sections that use German and Spanish texts.

This dissertation contains five chapters: 1. Introduction, 2. Basic Digital Processing Used in Summer Rain, 3. Part I Summer Rain - Dawn, 4. Part II After the Summer Rain and 5. Conclusion. Introduction contains a brief historical background of musique concrète, Electronische Musik, acousmatic music and music for instruments and tape, followed by basic descriptions of digital technique used in both parts of Summer Rain in Chapter 2. Also Chapter 2 describes software used in Summer Rain including "Kawamoto's VST," which is based on MAX/MSP, to create new sounds from the recorded samples using a Macintosh computer. In both Chapter 3 and 4, Kawamoto discusses a great deal of the pre-compositional stage of each piece including inspirational sources, especially Rainer Maria Rilke's poems and Olidon Redon's paintings, as well as her visual and sound imageries. In addition Chapter 3 she talks about sound sources, pitch, form and soundscape. Chapter 4 contains analysis on pitch in the piano part, rhythm, form and the general performance practice. Chapter 5 is a short conclusion of her aesthetics regarding Summer Rain, which is connected to literature, visual art and her Japanese cultural background.

Rhapsody for Piano and Small Orchestra is a one-movement composition in a concerto fashion for seventeen players, and is about nine minutes in duration. The overall form of this work is A B C D E D1 C1 B1 A1. This work contains various hidden compositional devices such as the golden section principle and a palindrome structure. These devices are applied not only to the structure of the work, but also to the pitch related and rhythm-related matters. Also, certain melodic and rhythmic cells are employed for each section in the developmental procedure of that section almost exclusively. Since this work is a concerto-like piece, there are two cadenza-like passages for the piano with an accompanying solo instrument, which plays the obbligato passage. The following essay addresses the form, pitch materials, harmony, rhythm and technical difficulties, orchestration, and variant elements between the corresponding sections used in this work.

The piece is a twenty minute work discoursing the integration and eventual dissolution of two separate musical strands. The pitch material of each strand is determined from synthetic scales whose intervalic content duplicates at the following intervals: Perfect 12th, Diminished 12th, Minor 9th, Perfect 8ve, and Major 7th. A proportional means of temporal compression is generated through the use of the factor, 11/15 (e.g. Event 2 is 11/15 the duration of Event 1). Various elements of jazz music informed the construction of plies, including the instrumentation of the ensemble and the means by which the performers interact throughout the piece. Internal cueing and performer decisions are meant to eliminate the need of a conductor in favor of increased interpretive freedom by the performers.

Concerto for Solo Percussion and Concert Band was commissioned by Staff Sergeant Rone Sparrow, a percussionist with the West Point Military Academy Band. Funding for the project was provided by the Barlow Foundation. The piece was premiered April 13, 2005 in the Eisenhower Hall Theater at West Point, New York. Rone Sparrow performed with the USMA band, and Colonel Thomas Rotondi Jr., Commander/Conductor, conducted the piece. The concerto consists of three movements, and each movement features a different instrument: the first features marimba, the second, vibraphone, and the third movement features the drum kit together with a rhythm section (piano, bass, and drums). In addition to the piece, the dissertation paper discusses important technical detail related to the piece, including: harmony, form, rhythm, programmatic ideas as they relate to motivic strands, and the process of generating and discarding material. The paper also focuses on a number of factors that were influential to the piece, such as postmodern philosophy.

Death, as a subject, has been treated extensively throughout history, both in literature as well as in music. The focus of Memento mori is to portray the inevitability of death through music. The first part of the document is an essay exploring the topic of death, its inevitability, unpredictability and the fragility of life. This section also includes a number of examples of composer's whose works have influenced the composition of the piece. The title of the work is meant to reflect that death catches up with all of us and that humans no matter how invincible they feel at certain stages of life will, eventually, succumb to death. The second part of the document is the notated orchestral score. The work is for full orchestra and solo violoncello. It is in three acts that loosely resemble three stages of life; Youth followed by life in adulthood and finally death. The work is not programmatic and the piece's formal structure varies from a traditional concerto, for although comprised of three distinct acts, there are no pauses between them. The entire work is meant to be dark and morbid and the specter of death looms throughout the piece.

My thesis covers the materials and methods of my composition, The Passion According to the Gospels of Matthew and John. It features an extensive analysis of Penderecki's Passio et mors Domini nostri Iesu Christi secundum Lucam. The research also covers some history of the Passion genre and its development. The second half of the paper presents a background and analysis of my work. It details many of the creative processes and methods I employed.

Winter Landscape is an interactive composition for erhu (Chinese two-stringed fiddle), flute, piano, and Max/MSP interactive computer music system. The total duration of the piece is approximately 15 minutes. Winter Landscape serves to demonstrate one particular approach to exploring the possibilities afforded in an interactive paradigm within a cross-cultural context. The work is intended to convey my personality and identity as a contemporary Chinese composer through diverse cultural and musical influences drawn to this particular piece while creating a balance between traditional and modern sounds. The influences of Chinese philosophy (especially Chán) and the essence of Chinese traditional music play a prominent role as demonstrated in the formation of structures, expressions, and concept of Yun in the work; these influences also play a great role in determining the instrumentation and basic pitch structures of the work. However, this work is equally influenced by techniques and practices of modern Western classical music. These diverse influences hopefully have resulted in a unique work that truly does represent a cross-synthesis of these varying influences. In Winter Landscape, the interaction that takes place between the computer and the live musician is intended to reveal the responsive human/machine relationships. The computer constantly shifts its roles …

GranCloud is new application for the generation of real-time granular synthesis in the SuperCollider programming environment. Although the software was initially programmed for use in the interactive composition Creo, it was implemented as an independent program for use in any computer music project. GranCloud consists of a set of SuperCollider classes representing granular clouds and parameter objects defining control data for the synthesis. The software is very flexible, allowing users to create their own grain synthesis definitions and control parameters. Cloud objects encapsulate all of the control data and methods necessary to render virtually any type of granular synthesis. Parameter objects provide several simple methods for mapping grain parameters to complex changing data sets or to external data sources. GranCloud simplifies the complex task of generating granular synthesis, allowing composers to focus less on technological issues and more on musical considerations during the compositional process.

Understatements for two-channel fixed media is a four-movement study of the sonic potential of acoustic instruments within the practice of electroacoustic studio composition. The musical identity of the entire composition is achieved through consistent approaches to disparate instrumental materials and a focused investigation of the relationships between the various acoustic timbres and their electroacoustic treatments. The analytical section of this paper builds on contemporary research in electroacoustic arts. The analysis of the work is preceded by a summary of theoretical and aesthetic approaches within electroacoustic composition and the introduction of primary criteria of sonic faktura (material essence) used in the compositional process. The analyses address the idiosyncratic use of the concept of faktura to contextualize and guide the unfolding of the work. The reconciliation of the illusory electronic textures and the acoustic sources that parented them may be considered the ultimate goal of Understatements.

Pleroma is a digital drama: a work composed of digital animation combined with electroacoustic music, presenting an original dramatic narrative. Pleroma's dramatic elements evoke both the classical form of tragedy and the concept of perceptual paradox. A structural overview of the drama and its characters and a plot synopsis are given to provide context for the critical discussion. Analytical descriptions of Beethoven's Coriolan Overture Op.62 and Mahler's Symphony No. 9 are provided to give background on tragic form and Platonic allegory in music. An investigation into the elements discussed in the analysis of the instrumental works reveals several layers of possible interpretation in Pleroma. Dramatic elements allow for tragic narratives to be constructed, but they are complemented by character associations formed by pitch relationships, stylistic juxtapositions, and instrumentation. A copy of the dramatic text is included to supplement the multimedia production.

Intricate Maneuvers is a series of musical works that were composed using movement as a model for compositional processes and forms. This essay presents in-depth analyses of three works from the series; Fidget, Sway: The Mildest Form of Falling, and Swerve for Chamber Ensemble. The analysis of each work highlights correlations between the musical characteristics of that work and the temporal, spatial, contextual, and psychological implications of the motion after which it was modeled. The third chapter also demonstrates the ways in which the creation of Sway was influenced by materials and processes taken from Ruth Crawford's String Quartet 1931. In order to investigate the question of how life experiences can function as models for compositional processes, the essay examines precedents for the compositional modeling of extra-musical ideas and images in the works of Bed?ich Smetana, Elliott Carter and Roger Reynolds. It also discusses approaches to modeling movement in music created for dance. Throughout the Intricate Maneuvers series, movement is modeled not merely to create an association between a musical work and a particular movement pattern, but rather to infuse the compositions with the dynamism that defines a particular kinetic experience.

Sinfonietta is a work of about 18 minutes for orchestra with an instrumentation of 3 flutes, 2 oboes, 3 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, 4 timpani, percussion, harps, piano and strings. Three players are required for the percussion battery. The work is in four movements: Prelude, Theme and Variations, Largo and Finale. Movement I is in a tri-partite design. In the second movement, the theme is first enunciated by a solo violoncello in its high register followed by seven variations in the orchestra. In Movement III, there are three brief sections plus a longer coda which links to the Finale, the last movement of the Sinfonietta. This movement ends the work with a double fugal section where many of the important features used in the work recur. The movements are made coherent by means of cyclic treatment of the material.

Symphony in Three movements is an orchestra work scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in Bb, two bassoons, two horns in F, three trumpets in Bb, three trombones, one tuba, percussion and strings. The percussion consists of timpani, vibraphone, temple block, tom-tom, suspended cymble, bass drum, and gong. The piece is not based on any non-musical image. The three movements of this work, I.(variation-like) II.(ternary) III.(fantasia-like), are based on the combination of the solemn ceremonial atmosphere of Korean music and early twentieth-century Western music.

Riders to the Sea is a chamber opera in one act of approximately 40 minutes in duration. The single act is divided into six scenes that progress without pause. The vocal parts are comprised of 2 sopranos, 1 mezzo-soprano, 1 baritone, and an off-stage chorus of men's voices (tenor I, tenor II, baritone, and bass; two per part). The orchestra will be comprised of winds (1-1-1-1-1), brass (2-2-1-1), strings (2-2-2-2-1), piano, 2 percussionists, and tape, that will be used to provide a continuous background of surf and wind sounds. Authentic Irish folk songs are threaded throughout the work, generally functioning as a background element, while twentieth-century compositional techniques are utilized primarily for special effects.

Vox Organalis is a concerto for organ and orchestra. It employs an ensemble comprising the compliment of wind, percussion, and string instruments normally available within a contemporary symphony orchestra with augmented brass and woodwind sections. It is intended to be performed with a large organ such as might be found in a symphony hall or large church. The work is in two movements, and its intended performance time is twenty-five minutes. Use of the concerto format within Vox organalis results in a new approach to organizing the interaction between the solo part and the orchestral accompaniment. The organ part is notated in traditional metered notation, but the orchestral notation is organized in units of clock time (seconds). The horizontal spatial arrangement of the orchestral notation corresponds to the timing of the metered organ part. Pitch organization in Vox Oraanalis is derived from a twelve-tone row based upon the natural harmonic series. Several techniques of serial composition were used to organize and select elements of the tone row for use in the construction of the work. Use of the tone row for horizontal and vertical pitch structures provides unity to the pitch organization of the work. Vox Organalis is constructed in …

Mass/360 is computer music in the sense that the audio tape was realized with a computer language for digital synthesis. This tape is combined with traditional choral and instrumental forces, and demonstrates only one technique available for the use of computers in composition. The work displays a number of elements which afford both unity and contrast. The arch span of the whole is supported by timbral, melodic, rhythmic, and textural parameters. Recurring events include tone clusters, chant-like melodies, angular melodies, and counterpoint. Special vocal effects are found in all movements, and the large scale tonicizing effect of the movement from f to b-flat gives the composition a sense of direction over a long temporal span. The single pitch (doubled unison/octave) arises as the major event in the work, and other events are generated from this element. The use of different formal designs within each movement corresponds to the natural textual divisions found in the liturgy, and affords a contrast from one movement to the next. The relationship of the Gloria/Qui Tollis to the Sanctus/Benedictus, which is not a mirror relation, contrasts with the chiastic design of the whole. Traditional contrapuntal devices juxtaposed against contemporary vocal techniques and the use of …

Mysterium Cosmographicum is a musical chronicle of an astronomy treatise by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). Kepler's Mysterium cosmographicum (Tubingen, 1596), or "Secret of the Universe," was a means by which he justified the existence of the six planets discovered during his lifetime. Kepler, through flawless a priori reasoning, goes to great lengths to explain that the reason there are six and only six planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) is because God had placed one of the five regular solids (tetrahedron, cube, octa-, dodeca-, and icosahedron) around each orbiting body. Needless to say, the publication was not very successful, nor did it gain much comment from Kepler's peers, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and Tycho Brahe (1546-1601). But hidden within the Mysterium cosmographicum. almost like a new planet waiting to be discovered, is one of Kepler's three laws of planetary motion, a law that held true for planets discovered long after Kepler's life-time. Mysterium Cosmographicum is a monologue with music in three parts for orchestra, narrator/actor, and computer music on tape. All musical data structures ape generated via an interactive Pascal computer program that computes latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates For each of the nine planets as seen From …

Gestures and Fields is a twenty minute work for chamber orchestra and dancers. It is scored for flute (doubling piccolo), oboe (doubling English horn), Bb clarinet (doubling Eb clarinet), bassoon Bb trumpet, French horn, trombone, tuba, percussion, piano, and strings. The percussion consists of a suspended cymbal, large tam-tam, 5 temple blocks, xylophone, marimba, tumba, snare, tenor drum, 4 tom-toms, bass drum and timpani. The work is in 5 movements, each inspired by an abstract expressionist painting: Autumn Rhythm by Jackson Pollock, Light, Earth and Blue by Mark Rothko, Mahoning by Franz Kline, Vir Heroicus Sublimus by Barnett Newman, and Excavation by Willem de Kooning.

The Symphony has been composed using traditional Korean idioms and Western style four-movement arrangement. The Symphony requires Western instrumental forces. The discussions about Far Eastern music raised by Western and Eastern scholars, and about some Korean rhythmic aspects, articulations, and ornamentations help explain how the Symphony is constructed. The pitch materials, melodic styles, rhythm, form, and structural materials that are used in the composition are presented. Heterophony, embellishment, articulation, and mutation are also discussed.