Night of Glass (open access)

Night of Glass

Night of Glass is for chamber orchestra with an estimated performance time of 14 minutes. The instrumentation for the work, using one player per part, is Flute (also small glass wind chimes), Oboe (also 1 tuned water crystal), Clarinet in A (also small glass wind chimes), Bassoon (also 1 tuned water crystal), Horn in F (also 1 tuned water crystal), Trumpet in C (also 2 tuned water crystals), Percussion (Vibraphone, Glockenspiel, Chimes, Bell Tree, Hammered Dulcimer, 3 Suspended Cymbals, 1 Large Tam-tam, 4 Roto Toms, 3 Tympani), Piano, 1st Violin, 2nd Violin, Viola, Cello, and Double Bass, While not programmatic, the work is divided into six sections each expressing a predetermined emotional content: fragility, anxiety, solitude, fear, catharsis, and reconciliation. All are emotional contents which are found in the dream-state that is reflected in the work's title. All aspects of Night of Glass (i.e., pitch material, form structure, and structural density) are centered around the unifying factor of emotional projection within each section. The work seeks emotional content through the expansion of composition procedures while being accessible to listeners.
Date: May 1988
Creator: Sanders, Gregory L. (Gregory Lynn)
System: The UNT Digital Library
For Unto Us… (open access)

For Unto Us…

For Unto Us is a one movement work for soprano and orchestra. The text, by the composer, describes the thoughts and feelings of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as she watches the crucifixion. Mary's process of faith is traced through the sequence of dramatic events which proceed and follow the crucifixion. The work explores symbolic instrumentation, juxtaposition of harmonic languages, and extended techniques for performance and notation. The setting of the text combines traditional operatic idioms with new elements in the music. The duration of this dramatic, quasi-operatic scene is approximately nine minutes.
Date: May 1989
Creator: McBride, Melissa Lyn
System: The UNT Digital Library
White Dawn Streams (open access)

White Dawn Streams

White Dawn Streams is a composition for orchestra with tape. The orchestra includes woodwinds (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon), brass (horns(2), trumpets(2), trombone, tuba), percussion (timpani, bass drum, snare drum, tom-toms, timbales, temple blocks, suspended cymbal, triangle, xylophone), and strings. The tape was produced using a Synclavier digital synthesizer. The work consists of a single movement approximately eleven minutes in duration. The pitch materials in the work are derived from a single series of pitches and are used in a contrapuntal texture.
Date: May 1984
Creator: Mitchell, Daniel R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Of Variegated Shadows (open access)

Of Variegated Shadows

Of Variegated Shadows is an original composition for wind ensemble. The purpose of the composition is to contribute a work to college level wind ensemble literature which employs established instrumental techniques and explores the various colors or timbres of the ensemble. The work is a single movement of approximately 15 - 20 minutes duration. It is divided into three continuous sections, each reflecting a different character or mood. A transition couples the first and second sections and a coda concludes the composition with a brief return of the opening section. Textures of the piece are transparent with an emphasis given to the blending of different colors in the ensemble. Instrumentation includes antique cymbals, vibraphone and tam-tam to add subtle shades of color. Thematic materials woven into the texture are linearly constructed as well as vertically layered and fragmented. There is no order or system in which pitches occur, although intervals used reflect the motivic structures in the work.
Date: May 1984
Creator: Mita, Harold Y.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Seven Last Words of Christ: A Sacred Cantata (open access)

The Seven Last Words of Christ: A Sacred Cantata

The Seven Last Words of Christ is a sacred cantata for SATB chorus with soloists accompanied by a woodwind quintet, brass quintet and three percussionists. The text employed in this work is based on the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in the King James Version of the of the Holy Bible. The cantata consists of seven movements with an instrumental introduction and postlude, and has a duration of approximately twenty-seven minutes. The majority of the movements are slow in tempo, reflecting the somber mood of the text. The major goal of this work is to musically represent the drama and prevailing mood present at an event of extreme magnitude and importance in the lives of Christians around the world, and to provide additional literature for special church services through the use of individual movements.
Date: May 1987
Creator: Roberson, Kevin D. (Kevin Douglas)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Iconographs For Microcomputer and Chamber Orchestra (open access)

Iconographs For Microcomputer and Chamber Orchestra

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.
Date: May 1982
Creator: Elliott, Don A. (Don Allen)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Songs of Praise (open access)

Songs of Praise

Songs of Praise is a setting of four passages from the Psalms for soprano and chamber orchestra. The text is taken from Psalms 96, 114, 55, and 116 of the New American Standard Version, with each psalm scored as a separate movement. The duration of the work is approximately seventeen and one-half minutes. The instrumentation includes soprano, oboe, strings, and a percussion section of four players incorporating fourteen different instruments. The musical language employed is largely tonal, consisting generally of shifting tonal emphases achieved by exploiting the pitch relationships of traditional tonality. The movements are contrasting in character, according to the text, but generally of the same style. The vocal line predominates throughout spanning two octaves and a minor third from an A below middle C to a high C above the treble clef.
Date: May 1983
Creator: Bardin, Charles Randall
System: The UNT Digital Library
Hymns to Inanna (open access)

Hymns to Inanna

The poetry of Sumer, inscribed in cuneiform script on clay tablets dating from 2000 B.C., is considered humanity's earliest written literature. Hymns To Inanna is a three-movement, mixed media work based on adapted English translations from ancient Sumerian text. The text is sung by SATB choir and musically illustrated by harp, flutes, percussion, and computer-generated sound (on tape). My musical setting displays these hymns not as a reflection of antiquity but as a timeless expression of spiritual thought. Certain elements of the composition evoke associations with early culture and music. These components, however, are transformed or merged with musical characteristics of other eras, idioms, and forms thus representing a conceptual and stylistic "bridge" between past, present, and future.
Date: May 1986
Creator: Quate, Amy
System: The UNT Digital Library