This composition is a symphonic setting of three original poems within the confines of an expanded sonata-allegro form and is an approximately twenty-two minutes in duration. The three poems are designed with certain cyclic implications which are related formally to the recurrence of musical ideas. The main application of this plan is found in the duality of formal roles assigned to each of the three major sectional divisions of the work. This is an expanded sonata-allegro, but each section (exposition, development, and recapitulation) is enlarged and individualized to the point of becoming a complete movement in itself. Each is intended to have the internal formal capacity to stand alone and at the same time serve as a section part of the whole. Formal unity is established without excessive dependence upon the poems, as both the music and the texts are formally evolved from the principles of sonata-allegro procedures. The poems were written specifically for this musical setting by the composer and are as an integral part of the compositional process itself; however, the poetry is didactic in purpose and is something of a jeremiad. Each poem relates principally to one of three aspects of existence: a ritual of history, a …

Iconographs is such a composition in which mathematical techniques are brought to bear. Nine separate number series have been generated and carried out to 1024 units. These series are combined by addition to calculate a single number by taking the remainder after dividing the sum of the series by nine. This mod 9 reduction is used to choose a set of pitches. Iconographs is a composition for microcomputer and chamber orchestra written in proportional notation with 1024 time segments grouped into 32 pages of 32 time segments each. The duration for each segment is .618034 seconds, which is the Golden Mean of one second, represented in a horizontal space of .34375 inches. The horizontal space/time-frame proportion is consistent but the actual duration of sounds are only approximate. The duration of the entire composition is 10.54778 minutes with a total horizontal space of 352 inches. The structure of the composition as a whole has no relationship to any of the traditional forms does contain a focus of formal structure at time-frame number 632, the Golden Mean. This focus is expressed by a density of sound events in all parts.

Concertino consists of two movements, Paean and Dithyramb, either of which may be performed independently. Paean, a work of calm and majestic intensity, is characterized by a rhythmic pulse which is more consistently regular than that of the Dithyramb. Its three major sections form an arch, the final measures (mm. 87-95) returning to the material of the opening (mm. 1-14). The first section begins quietly, Maestoso ma sostenuto, in a very slow tempo. The activity and intensity increase until a brief, more active middle section begins in a faster tempo (Ancora piu mosso, m. 55). A fff climax (m. 63) begins in the third section (Tempo I). After a brief poco piu mosso (mm. 72-81), the opening tempo is restored (m. 82), the opening material returns (m. 87) and the final chord fades away. Dithyramb is a free and dramatic movement in which the musical material of the wind group usually contrasts with that of the string group. The piano, which has its own material, occasionally takes on the character of one group or the other as though mediating the conflict.

The purpose of the study was concerned with specific elements of the portion of the female voice commonly referred to as whistle or flute register. Three elements of vocal production were chosen for which past research has demonstrated relationships to source function. These elements included spectral characteristics, airflow rates, and perceptual identification. The research compared what the singer-subjects perceived as being whistle register phonations with that which they perceived as being head register phonations. A comparative technique was utilized where pitch, intensity and phonemic category were held relatively constant, register, therefore, being the only variable. Spectral characteristics and airflow rates of the two subject-determined registers were compared. In addition, an attempt was made to determine if the whistle register could be perceptually differentiated on the basis of voice quality,

This investigation traces the history and development of music theory in Mexico from the date of the first Mexican treatise available (1776) to the early second half of the nineteenth century (1866). This period of ninety years represents an era of special importance in the development of music theory in Mexico. It was during this time that the old modal system was finally abandoned in favor of the new tonal system and that Mexican authors began to pen music treatises which could be favorably compared with the imported European treatises which were the only authoritative source of instruction for serious musicians in Mexico.

This study investigates and documents tenor/bass trombone solo performances at the Gewandhaus, Leipzig, East Germany, between 1821 and 1876. Included is the discussion of a newly discovered composition, the Concertino fur Bassposaune und Orchester, by Carl Heinrlch Meyer, which is the earliest concerto for the tenor/bass trombone. Its performance at the Gewandhaus in 1821 marked the beginning of the solo tradition for the tenor/bass trombone, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus became one of the leading centers of solo trombone performance for the next fifty years. The study includes background information on the rise of the virtuoso soloist in nineteenth-century Germany. It specifically focuses on Friedrlch August Belcke and Carl Traugott Queisser and their performances at the Gewandhaus. All solo trombone performances at the Gewandhaus in the nineteenth century have been documented, and specific information has been provided regarding the soloists, dates of performances and repertoire performed on the concerts. The paper includes a discussion of performance reviews from the Allgemeine Musfkalische Zeitung. The conclusion discusses the importance of solo trombone performance at the Gewandhaus, and the reason for its sudden decline after 1876.

Antoine Reicha stands as an important figure in the growing systematization of musical form. While Traite de melodie (1814) captures the essence of eighteenth-century concern with tonal movement and periodicity, Reicha's later ideas as represented in Traite de haute composition musicale (1824-26) anticipate descriptions of thematic organization characteristic of his nineteenth-century successors. Three important topics emerge as crucial elements: melody, thematic development, and schematic categorization of complete pieces.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the curricular content of elementary music in China between 1912 and 1982. The questions addressed were: (1) What changes in elementary music resulted from China's becoming a republic in 1912? (2) What changes in elementary music resulted from China's becoming a socialist country in 1949? (3) What changes in elementary music in the People's Republic of China resulted from the Anti—Rightist Struggle Movement in 1957? (4) What changes in elementary music in the People's Republic of China resulted from the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)? (5) Have changes occurred in elementary music in the People's Republic of China since the beginning of the reform movement in 1978? (6) Did any of the changes affect curricular goals, contents, methods, required materials, and instruction time allotted in a like manner, or did some of these components remain the same while others changed? (7) Were the changes important enough to attribute them to a changed political ideology? After translating all pertinent documents, the goals, contents, methods, materials, and time allotted for the elementary music curricula between 1912 and 1982 were listed and identified. Subsequently, the areas of focus within those categories as well as changes in focus …

The life, music, and theoretical writings of Pietro Pontio (1532-1596) yield considerable insight into questions of theory and practice in the late sixteenth century. The dissertation places Pontio within his musical and cultural milieu, and assesses his role as both theorist and composer. Volume Two presents an annotated works list for Pontio's compositions, transcriptions of archival documents used in the study, and transcriptions of representative musical compositions.

The life, music, and theoretical writings of Pietro Pontio (1532-1596) yield considerable insight into questions of theory and practice in the late sixteenth century. The dissertation places Pontio within his musical and cultural milieu, and assesses his role as both theorist and composer. Volume Two presents an annotated works list for Pontio's compositions, transcriptions of archival documents used in the study, and transcriptions of representative musical compositions.

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 …

I, Blavatsky is a one-act opera based on the life of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, a nineteenth-century Russian princess and co-founder of a religious organization called the Theosophical Society. The libretto, by the composer, involves a cast of three principal soloists and minor roles for six more singers who are also participants in a small chorus. The text format features free verse alternating with regular, rhymed strophes. Accompaniment is provided by a piano. Melodic structure combines some nineteenth-century Romantic idioms with twentieth-century style. Most of the melodic and harmonic material was intuitively composed to express the text. Rhythmic and stylistic contrasts are accomplished in the representation of the extensive travels of the main character. Stage directions involve a stylized set, several scenes requiring minimal set changes, magical effects to represent that facet of Blavatsky's life, and onstage costume changes for several characters. Approximate duration is one hour.

The purpose of this study was to compare the speaking fundamental frequency, physiological vocal range, singing voice quality, and self-perceptions of the singing and speaking voice between two groups of girls ages 11 through 15 years, who were pre-menarcheal by 6 months and post-menarcheal by 10 months or more. Subjects were volunteers who attended a North Texas public school system. Each subject was examined by an otolaryngologist. Age, height, weight, a hearing screening, and information on music classes and/or private music lessons were obtained. The speaking fundamental frequency measure was obtained by having each subject speak for 30 seconds on a subject of choice and read a passage of approximately 100 syllables. The vocal range measure was obtained by having each subject begin at an arbitrary pitch and sing mah and moo up the scale as high as possible and mah and moo down the scale as low as possible. These four measures were repeated with the researcher giving visual gestures. For singing-voice quality, each subject sang "America" in the key of her choice and again in the key of F major. Each subjects singing voice was rated according to breathiness. Data regarding self-perceptions of the singing and speaking voice …

Discusses the creation and performance at a concert on Feb. 12, 1990, in the Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater at the University of North Texas of three computer music-intermedia compositions: Shakespeare quartet for 4 acoustic guitars; A noite, porem, rangeu e quebrou, for instrument of low pitch range, tape and computer; and Help me remember, for performer, Synclavier, interactive MIDI computer music system and slides.

This paper is an examination of the battle chansons of Clement Janequin for references to Renaissance trumpet music. The following issues are addressed: dating the early use of the clarino register; the history and evolution of the courtly trumpet ensemble; and the transition from the shorter trumpet of the Middle Ages to the longer instrument of the middle Renaissance and Baroque eras. Because the earliest Janequin battle chanson predates all known written trumpet sources by over fifty years, musical evidence gleaned from these battle chansons can help to establish the existence and character of trumpet performance practices in the first third of the sixteenth century. The first chapter summarizes all of the known primary sources of information on Renaissance trumpet performance, and identifies important issues worthy of further investigation. The second chapter examines trumpet music and trumpet style in the Renaissance, including trumpet ensemble performance, military trumpet calls, and the imitation of trumpet style in purely vocal music, and contains eight musical examples. The third chapter discusses the battle chansons of Janequin and their influence on other sixteenth-century works. Chapter £our analyzes the battle works of Janequin for allusions to trumpet music and includes eleven musical examples. The fifth and …

The purpose of this study is to identify some of the performance problems associated with contemporary piano music, using the Sonata No. 2 for Piano by Karel Husa (1921 - ) as the basis for the discussion. In so doing, this study identifies Karel Husa as an important contributor to twentieth century piano repertoire. Personal interviews and correspondence with the composer provided biographical, analytical, and stylistic insight for this study. Supplemental information on Karel Husa was obtained from journals, newspaper articles, and dissertations. The first chapter provides biographical information gleaned from the interview, with emphasis on Husa's keyboard compositions and early compositional influences. The second chapter offers a detailed formal analysis of the Sonata No. 2 from the perspective of motivlc development and cyclic unity. The final three chapters focus on twentieth century performance problems as exemplified in Karel Husa's Sonata No. 2 for Piano. In Chapter 3, the discussion of notation provides a general background on notational developments in pitch and rhythm in the twentieth century, with the Sonata illustrating these procedures. The fourth chapter concentrates specifically on Husa's individual rhythmic language. The final chapter is devoted to Husa's coloristic use of the piano, addressing his unique contributions to …

Good vocal health is a vital concern for those people who use the voice in a professional capacity, such as teachers, singers, actors, clergymen, and lawyers. Research in the area of vocal health reveals the need to determine if specific exercises are beneficial to the voice and if exercises used to train the singing voice might be beneficial to alleviate pathological and/or dysfunctional voice disorders. The purpose of this study was to describe the response of a variety of pathological voices to a selected set of singing exercises. Subjects were selected from the private practice of cooperating physicians who felt that the vocal instruction and exercise program might be helpful to the teachers, students, professional "pop" singers, and housewife-singers who were diagnosed to have muscle tension dysphonia, nodules, recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis, or iatrogenic dysphonia. Instrumentation for assessing conditions before, during, and after exercise included a brief case history, subject interviews, attending physicians' medical charts, flexible fiberoptic video nasolaryngoscopy, video cassette recorder and video tape segments, three physician/observers, and a specific diagnostic procedure which provided a method of assessing organic, functional, and perceptual variables. For the exercise program the researcher chose seven vocalises from the routine designed by Allan R. …

The lecture recital was given November 6, 1989. Five Preludes by Claude Debussy were preformed following a lecture on some important considerations of approaching the pedaling complexities in his solo piano works. In addition to the lecture recital, three other solo piano recitals were performed. The first solo recital consisted of works by Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann, and was performed on November 17, 1980. On March 1, 1982, the second solo recital was presented. This performance consisted of works by J. Brahms, W.A. Mozart, S. Prokofieff, and A. Schoenberg. The third solo recital was performed on November 21, 1988 and included the works of L. van Beethoven. A. Berg, F. Chopin, and C. Debussy. The four programs were recorded on tape and filed with the written version of the lecture as part of the dissertation.

Cenotaph is a work of fifteen minutes duration for solo tape realized on the Synclavier Digital Music System at the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia. All of the sound materials in the work consist of resynthesized timbres derived from the analysis of digital recordings of seven different human voices, each speaking the last name of one of the Challenger astronauts. The work's harmonic resources are derived in a unique way involving partitioning of the octave by powers of the Golden Section. The work is in a single movement divided into three sections which function as prologue, action, and epilogue, respectively. This formal structure is reinforced by differentiation of harmonicmaterials and texture. Although Cenotaph cannot be performed "live" and exists only as a recording, a graphic score is included to assist analysis and study.

Difficulties are encountered in any discussion of Copland's style, for his works cover the spectrum from harsh, dissonant works to folk music. To avoid the task of defining a style which encompasses this array of vastly different pieces, a sharp distinction is frequently made between the abstract and popular works. However, Copland has repeatedly objected to such categorization, claiming that he composed from a single vision. A careful examination of his total output proves the validity of his claim. Many common characteristics are found throughout works from all categories and time periods. These traits include a basic economy of materials, emphasis on thirds, consistent method of development, use of declamation, jazz-influenced rhythms, cyclicism, and a slow/fast/slow sequence of movements, as well as within single movements. This document uses the Piano Sonata as a model of Copland's style, for it exemplifies these characteristics more clearly than any other major piece for piano. By making numerous comparisons with other works, Copland's single vision is revealed.

John Blow (1649-1708) was among the first group of boys pressed into the service of King Charles II, following the decade of Puritan rule. Blow would make compositional efforts as early as 1664 and, at the age of nineteen, began to assume professional positions within the London musical establishment, ultimately becoming, along with his pupil and colleague, Henry Purcell, London's foremost musician. Restoration sacred music is generally thought of in connection with the stile nuovo which, for the first time, came to be a fully accepted practice among English musicians for the church. But the English sacred polyphonic art, little threatened by England's largely political Reformation, embodied sufficient flexibility as to allow it to absorb new ideas, thereby remaining vital well into the seventeenth century. Preserved from decisive Italian influences by the Interregnum, the English sacred polyphonic tradition awoke at the Restoration full of potential for continuing creative activity. In addition to studying Blow's polyphonic compositions, including the transcription of several not available in modern edition, this paper seeks to address the unique nature of the English polyphonic tradition which allowed it to retain its vitality throughout the seventeenth century, while other polyphonic traditions were succumbing to the ossifying influences …

John Corigliano (b. 1938) is a contemporary American composer who has in the last twenty years established himself as a composer whose versatility and accessibility are appreciated by a wide range of audiences. He has labeled himself an eclectic composer who unashamedly borrows from other musical styles and periods in an effort to create works that appeal to a variety of listeners. He has been mentioned along with George Rochberg, George Crumb, and Jacob Druckman as an advocate of the post-modern movement in contemporary American music, a trend that has been crucial to the development of contemporary concert music. The purpose of this study is to examine the two solo piano works of Corigliano in terms of style, structure, and musical influences. The Etude Fani-agy (197 6) is a set of five etudes, performed without pause. The etudes are unified through an elaborate use of thematic transformation in which a row-like idea generates most of the material. The keyboard writing is varied and dramatic, with similarities to Debussy, Bartok, Prokofiev, and Copland. Fantasia on an Qstinato (1985), commissioned for the van Cliburn International Piano Competition, is an atmospheric tone poem that transforms the theme from Beethoven's Symphony no« 7 (second …

While a limited body of research pertaining to vocal sound quality exists, technological advances in sound analyses have facilitated a reexamination of vocal timbre. The sound quality of sung vowels ([ a], [e ], C i ]) produced by ten baritone/bass singers at the University of North Texas was analyzed by the use of Fourier analysis and electronic digital equipment. This procedure and equipment produced results over a wider frequency range with greater accuracy than prior studies on vocal timbre. The study sought to answer the following questions: (1) Using formant regions between 0-20 kHz for comparison, what similarities and differences can be observed among spectra produced from [a], [e], and [ i ] vowels sung by baritone/bass singers? (2) Using formant regions between 0-20 kHz for comparison, what similarities and differences can be observed among spectra produced from [a], [ e ], and [ i ] vowels sung by baritone/bass singers with regard to individual singers? (3) Approximately what vocal-tract tube lengths were used by baritone/bass singers when performing [a], [e ], and [ i ] vowels? (4) What similarities in vocal-tract tube lengths can be generalized as to [ a], L e ], and [ i ] vowels …

This study discusses how cultural and social aspects of contemporary Swedish society impact the musical arts. It contains biographical information on representative Swedish composers, and analyzes technical and structural elements of their compositional styles. Finally, it recommends performance practice considerations regarding technical and interpretive details in Tommy Zwedberg's Face the Music for trumpet and prepared audio tape, Folke Habe's Shazam for unaccompanied trumpet, and Bo Nilsson's Infrastruktur for brass quintet.