The purpose of the creative approach in music education is to furnish the child with opportunities for originality of expression and for freedom and adventure. This thesis examines the goals and purposes of using creativity in music eduction.

A study of the critical work of Virgil Thomson, critic for the New York Herald Tribune and of Olin Downes, music critic for the New York Times, will perhaps give a better understanding of how different emphasis on purposes may influence critical work. Each man wrote brief, journalistic reviews. They attended many of the same concerts; yet, their critical judgments differed in many respects.

This paper attempts to give a complete musical and dramatic analysis of the character of Isolde, from both the legend and Richard Wagner's opera, Tristan and Isolde, by first comparing the events as related in the two principal sources of the legend and then by an examination of Wagner's version of the story.

It is the purpose of this thesis to present some of the material to be employed in the pedagogy of the woodwind instrument classes at the college level in order that this material may serve as a useful and beneficial guide for the students and teachers of the woodwind instrument classes. This study has been prepared in the belief that a most serious obstacle in the teaching of woodwind instrument classes is the lack of a comprehensive text dealing with the fundamentals underlying the selection of teaching materials to be used. In a large number of instances young teachers are confronted with the necessity of developing a woodwind department in their schools without having had any systematic preparation for the task. This thesis attempts to meet this need.

The main purpose of this study will be to analyze the impressionistic style and techniques of Debussy, how the idiom came to be, and the influence of this particular idiom on two American composers. For thorough understanding, the poetic and artistic backgrounds of impressionism must be brought out; the biography of the man who originated the idiom, as well as his aesthetic theories, must be briefly covered. More objectively, from biographies and various other studies the techniques peculiarly impressionistic will be listed, and analysis will be made of several of the Debussy songs from various periods of his composition.

The problem undertaken in this paper is a study of sonata form in regard to the number, types, and key schemes of movements in the pre-Haydn sonatas and a comparison of these with the sonata form as Haydn established it. Finally, a detailed analysis of the Haydn E-Flat Major sonata is presented showing typical formal characteristics. The history of the sonata form does not begin simultaneously with the advent of the sonata itself, for the sonata as we know it today is the result of many stages of experimentation. Its growth and development were a gradual process which lasted the better part of three centuries. Many composers contributed to this growth, but the sonata form itself cannot be ascribed to any particular composer.

The purpose of the following study is to make to stylistic analysis, on the basis of form, harmony, melody, and rhythm, of the Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra by Harl McDonald, a twentieth-century American composer. When a composer begins the composition of a concerto he is faced with a series of specific problems, e.g., the degree of prominence to be given the soloist in relation to the orchestra, the technique of the solo instrument, the traditional first movement sonata form, and the balance between solo and orchestra in regard to tone color and sound mass. By determining the elements of style typical of this particular work, the investigator aims to set forth in a general way to how the composer treated each of the problems stated above.The concerto for Two Pianos was selected for study because of its modernity and because of the writer's active interest in works for this medium.

This study was prompted by the writer's interest and experience in the field of two-piano performance. At the beginning of this writer's two-piano work the available material was scarce, and much of it was inadequate in quality from the standpoint of both composition and arrangement. It seems strange that this particular form of chamber music, so delightful to play and so enjoyable to listen to, did not completely take popular fancy until the twentieth century. During the past ten years however, teachers are realizing the benefits derived from training students in two-piano playing. There is no doubt in the writer's opinion that two-piano concerts will henceforth always be in demand.

The purpose if this study is to make an analysis of the structural elements and stylistic characteristics in the Concerto in A Minor for Piano by the nineteenth century German composer, Robert Schumann. These elements include the composer's treatment of melody, rhythm, form, and piano idiom. This problem has been limited to a stylistic analysis of Schumann's only concerto in A minor for piano and orchestra, Op. 54. Its purpose is to make an analysis of the structural and stylistic elements in the Concerto. These include the composer's treatment of melody, rhythm, form and the piano idiom. Since the matter of harmony is not of primary importance in this work, it is not discussed here. The present study does not include a consideration of the orchestral score and its relationship to the piano; however mention of it is made in the chapter on piano idiom.

This study is a progressive series of string quartets for children ages six to eight. A picture and a story for the child accompany each of the twenty lessons. The stories are written about animals, birds, and incidents that exist in the child's world. They are designed to arouse associations between familiar subjects or incidents and unfamiliar problems at hand. The second section of this work is entitled "Instructions to the Teacher." A child's interest is sacrificed when he is burdened with too many technicalities. Thus the teacher is fully informed of the difficulties in each lesson, and suggestions are given for solving the problems that arise.

The purpose of this study is to create a curriculum for beginning instrumentalists who have no background in music and are young students not yet capable of deciphering highly technical and academic sentences, phrases, and terms. This method is designed to give the student a foundation in theory without taking undue time from the instrumental phase of the curriculum and at the same time to increase the tempo of training in both phases.

This study was made in conjunction with a recital of contemporary American song literature. It it designed to show how the modern composer has taken the tools of words and music and utilized them in creating a valid art-form. I believe it is the first study of its kind that has been made. The song literature which formed the basis of the study has been attested to as valid data by Otto Luening, prominent modern composer and pedagogue and twice winner of the Guggenheim Fellowship in composition, and John Kirk, distinguished pianist and lecturer on modern music.

Music educators admit that there is a great need for research in the field o public school music. Instrumental class teaching has suffered the trial and error method since its introduction into the schools. There is still an appalling lack of material on the subject. The two or three books published on instrumental class teaching are from twelve to seventeen years old. The Reader's Guide lists only nine magazine articles in the past ten years concerning the class teaching of string instruments. Yet, the successful teaching of instrumental classes requires a high type of organization and a specialized teaching technique. It is not only necessary for the teacher to be a good musician, but he must have a knowledge of proper classroom methods and apply it. The purpose of this study is to analyze and evolve from six recognized beginning string methods a course of study suitable for use in training a beginning string section.

The purpose of this thesis is to present an evaluated list of motion picture films which are related to the field of music and the teaching of music in order that both teacher and student of music may become familiar with the films which are available for use in music education and with the relative merit of each film.

It is the purpose of the study to make a survey of the larger libraries in this region and to compile a list of the holdings of books about music. With the impetus of the North Texas Regional Union List of Serials, 1943; Comprising the libraries of North Texas State Teachers College. Southern Methodist University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Texas Christian University Texas State College for Women, and the Public Libraries of Dallas and Fort Worth, and its two supplements of 1943-45 and 1945-46, and following the general form of that work, the present "Union List of Musical Literature in North Texas Regional Libraries, 1946," has been compiled. The libraries represented in the North Texas Regional Union List of Serials are included here, with holdings listed as of March 1, 1946. These libraries are: North Texas State Teachers College and Texas State College for Women, Denton, Texas; Texas Christian University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Fort worth Public Library, Fort Worth, Texas; Southern Methodist University and Dallas Public Library, Dallas, Texas.

The instrumental composition of the band is an outgrowth of utilitarian improvisation. The well-developed percussion section, and the voluminous reed and brass sections are a carry-over from the Military, where the emphasis was on functional beating of time for marching. Mobility and volume sufficient for the accompaniment of troop movements were also necessary. Until recent times, the band existed only for functional matters, never as an independent and self-justifying medium with its purpose being a musical organization. Through the growth of military, professional, and school bands, the band of today has developed into a musical organization in its own right, which can perform almost anything in the technical range of composition.

Ravel' s "Tombeau de Couperin," a suite for piano, was published in 1918 by Durand. Its first performance was in the Salle Gaveau in Paris in April, 1919. Shortly afterwards Ravel scored four of the six movements of the piano suite for small orchestra, composed of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns in pairs, English horn, trumpet, harp, and strings, The new version was introduced in America in 1920. The four orchestrated movements, Prelude, Forlane, Menuet, and Rigaudon, have no programmatic content and the titles identify the forms used. "Le Tombeau de Couperin" is a souvenir of World War I. Each movement is dedicated to the memory of a French soldier fallen in battle. The "Tombeau" form dates from the seventeenth century and is a musical "homage" to Francois Couperin, clavecinist of Louis XIV, and one of the great names of French music. "The separate movements, cast in eighteenth century dance forms often used by Qouperin have been described as "tonal wreaths," not too somber nor too profuse, laid with tenderness on an unforgotten tomb." This piece represents Ravel's extreme effort to express himself in the simplest possible manner. The music is subtly archaic; form, line and texture artfully suggest …

Material relating to the viola, its history, technique, use as a solo and orchestral instrument, and its use in chamber music, is practically non-existent. For this reason, this document is being written in an attempt first, to collect and discuss, for the benefit of the author as well as for any who might have some interest in the viola, facts which might eliminate some of the common misunderstandings about the instrument, and second, to show, through examination of viola music, the use to which the viola has been put in solo, orchestral, and chamber music from the Baroque period to the present.

There is often difficulty in determining the most desirable medium to be used in the composition of music. After careful consideration, the writer chose the medium of piano to present the following musical composition. In the initial investigations, it appeared that the vocal idiom might provide a more suitable choice. However, piano teaching rather than work in the vocal field will probably consume a greater part of the writer's time in the future. The writing of a piano composition, then, appeared to be a justifiable decision.

Many persons who major in music with the intention of teaching, either at the public school or college level, are poorly equipped to cope with every problem confronting them. With this in mind, the author has attempted to assemble as much valuable and helpful material as possible into a course of study.

This thesis is designed to acquaint vocalists with the history of the solo cantata and to give a bibliography of available cantatas. Very few singers know that solo cantatas exist and little material is available on the subject in comparison to the material available on other musical forms.This work endeavors to aid the vocalist by compiling the solo cantata material that is available in the North Texas State College Library.

This study considers only one aspect of music of the twentieth century--that of dissonance. Through an analysis of harmonic tension in the twelve fugues of the "Ludus Tonalis" by Paul Hindemith, a two-fold significance is notable. First, consideration of the broad tendencies of modernism is necessary. second, with Hindemith as a chosen representative of certain aspects of the twentieth century style, the study attempts to show more specifically certain characteristics of the composer himself in the use and treatment of dissonance, one of the more technical features of style in modern music.

The English classical song is peculiarly native to Britain. It roots in the mystic elements of ballads and nature. It was the influence of the early English ballad, first spoken, then sung, then joined in the happy culmination of voice and melody to make a song that is immortal and unique in music.

The purpose of this study is to present a brief history of the work, a discussion of the ornamentation which occurs therein and suggestions for the performance of the ornaments, an analysis covering especially the characteristics of each movement in regard to form and style and inasmuch as possible to show the influence of this early work on the later compositions of J. S. Bach.