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'...and one of time.': A Composition for Full Orchestra with Narration

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
‘...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.
Date: December 1999
Creator: Rinker, John Thomas
System: The UNT Digital Library
Animations: A Composition for Percussion and Computer Music on Tape (open access)

Animations: A Composition for Percussion and Computer Music on Tape

Animations is a composition in six movements (Fish, Seals, Birds, Cats, Zebras, Snakes) for percussion and computer music on tape. One percussionist performs on various percussion instruments: two suspended cymbals, crotales, triangle, vibraphone, glockenspiel, marimba, three bongos, snare drum, field drum, large tom-tom, bass drum, kettle drum, temple blocks and vibraslap. The computer music on tape employs sampled sounds in a MIDI sequencing environment. The melodic and harmonic materials for the piece are derived from a matrix of twelve heptatonic scales. The individual movements are notated using both traditional and proportional notation systems. The score is 37 pages long with a twenty-two page analysis preceding the score. Animations is approximately nine minutes in duration.
Date: August 1993
Creator: Criswell, Madeleine L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Beneath the Dancing Moon: A Composition for Woodwind and Percussion Ensemble (open access)

Beneath the Dancing Moon: A Composition for Woodwind and Percussion Ensemble

The composition is scored for the following instruments: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons and a large percussion section requiring 7 performers. Beneath the Dancing Moon is a programmatic piece in one movement form composed of 5 continuous sections. It depicts a night scene when the elves begin to dance beneath the moon. Later, the moaning ghosts from the dark forest and the witches with brooms come to join them. They dance furiously until the moon disappears, the sea stops dead and all the dancers suddenly vanish. The approximate performance time is 17 minutes.
Date: December 1992
Creator: Pang, Law Ma Rome Anne
System: The UNT Digital Library
I, Blavatsky: A One-Act Opera (open access)

I, Blavatsky: A One-Act Opera

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.
Date: May 1990
Creator: Cooper, Steve, 1951 Dec. 4-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Breakdown (open access)

Breakdown

Breakdown is a 17 minute, single movement work for orchestra in five sections. It is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 Bb clarinets, 2 bassoons, 3 Bb trumpets, 4 horns in F, 3 trombones, tuba, percussion, piano, and strings. The percussion consists of a tam-tam, 5 break drums, 4 timbales, 2 gourds, chimes, marimba, vibraphone, snare drum, 2 field drums, bass drum and tympani. The inspiration for this work is the poetry of Bruce Weigl which deals with many facets of the Vietnam experience. One particular work from his collection Song of Napalm, the poem "Breakdown", provided the basis for the emotional and structural content of the music. There are two primary sources of pitch material in the music of Breakdown, both of which have links to the Vietnam War. The name of a soldier who was killed in Vietnam, Miles Cooper, was used to generate a basic pitch set and a series of variation sets that provide much of the harmonic and melodic material in Breakdown. There derived sets are supported by the use of phrases and motives from the hymn Jewels, which celebrates the love of God for his children, and providesan indirect link to the subject …
Date: December 1994
Creator: Kappaz, Philip C., 1956-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Capriccio: A Composition for Symphonic Orchestra (open access)

Capriccio: A Composition for Symphonic Orchestra

A body of works titled 'capriccio' have existed for over four hundred years. Most of these works are characterized by a composers abandonment of expected stylistic norms. Guided only by the fanciful whim of the composer, a capriccio exhibits extreme contrasts in the various parameters of a musical composition including melody, harmony, counterpoint, mood and texture. The composition embedded in these compositional parameters as its point of departure and development.
Date: August 1994
Creator: Walczyk, Kevin, 1964-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Cenotaph: A Composition for Computer-Generated Sound (open access)

Cenotaph: A Composition for Computer-Generated Sound

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.
Date: August 1990
Creator: Rogers, Rowell S. (Rowell Seldon)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Chaos, Cosmos, and Communion: Three Movements for String Quartet (open access)

Chaos, Cosmos, and Communion: Three Movements for String Quartet

The three movements of this piece are related proportionally in that movements one and two represent three-fifths of the length of the whole. Movement three represents two-fifths of the length of the whole. Another proportional relationship exists between movements one and two. Movement one represents two-fifths of the length of the first two movements, while movement two represents three-fifths of the length of the two. An additional link between the three movements is pitch content. Movements one and two have little in common in this regard, but movement three combines elements of the first two. The duration of the entire piece is approximately fifteen minutes.
Date: August 1994
Creator: Moran, David W. (David Wayne)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Concertino for Jazz Clarinet, Electric Viola and Symphonic Orchestra (open access)

Concertino for Jazz Clarinet, Electric Viola and Symphonic Orchestra

Concertino for Jazz Clarinet. Electric viola and Symphonic Orchestra is a composition of approximately fifteen minutes' duration, and is scored for two flutes (second doubling piccolo), two oboes, two Bb clarinets, two bassoons, four F- horns, two Bb trumpets, three trombones (third bass), two percussionists, solo Bb clarinet, solo electric viola and strings. The piece is divided into two movements; Andante and Canon. Concepts derived from jazz music are employed in, for example, harmony and improvisation in the solo parts, whereas the orchestration is mainly traditional. The piece is written for two great Swedish instrumentalists; Putte Wickman, clarinet, and Henrik Frendin, viola. Stylistically this work is difficult in the orchestral parts, since it uses concepts from two different musical styles, jazz and classical. Influences originate from such wide-ranging composers as Mozart, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Chick Corea.
Date: August 1991
Creator: Holmquist, Mats G. (Mats Göran)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Contours (open access)

Contours

Contours is scored for full wind ensemble and percussion, and is approximately nine minutes in length. The title refers to the way melodic shape or contour is used to create unity and variety in the piece. Contours is a single-movement work containing three sections that are unified by thematic and harmonic materials. The melodic material is generated by three twelve-tone rows, which are then used in combination with freely composed material. The first and last sections are highly contrapuntal and rhythmically disjunct. Both sections share common rhythmic and melodic patterns. These sections are contrasted with a slower and more lyric middle section. This section is made of a series of episodes that create an overall A-B-A structure.
Date: August 1994
Creator: Hughes, Russell M., 1954-
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Crucifixion (open access)

The Crucifixion

The Crucifixion, a composition for three vocal soloists, four-part mixed chorus, and instrumental ensemble, is a setting of passages taken from the four Gospels of the Holy Bible. It describes the mocking of Christ and includes the Seven Last Words of Christ on the cross. It uses serial technique in the structuring of pitches and rhythm. Special attention is paid in designing and combining pitch and rhythm to create monophonic, homophonic and polyphonic textures. Besides traditional performance techniques, the work employs some modern vocal and instrumental techniques.
Date: December 1993
Creator: Yang, Chuan-Tsing
System: The UNT Digital Library

As Darkness Falls: A Composition for Wind Ensemble

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
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.
Date: December 1999
Creator: Prinz, Kendall R.
System: The UNT Digital Library

A Different Drummer: A Chamber Opera

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
A Different Drummer is a chamber opera adaptation of Donald Davis's story "A Different Drummer" from his collection Listening for the Crack of Dawn, published by August House. The opera lasts about seventy minutes, and calls for a cast of three and an orchestra of sixteen players. It contains a prologue, epilogue and four scenes in a single act. The score is prefaced by a paper describing the musical strategies employed in setting the story as an opera. Three chapters describe the adaptation from short story to opera, the essential musical elements, and details of the application of the musical elements in each scene of the opera. The libretto is presented in the fourth chapter.
Date: May 1999
Creator: Friedman, Arnold Jacob
System: The UNT Digital Library
Distant Thoughts: Dreams and Reflections (open access)

Distant Thoughts: Dreams and Reflections

Distant Thoughts: Dreams and Reflections, A Suite for Symphonic Winds, is a seventeen-minute work composed for the high school level wind ensemble. The instrumentation is based on the typical high school band resources. Instrumentation includes piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, three clarinets, bass clarinet, two alto saxophones, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, two bassoons, four trumpets, four horns, two trombones, bass trombone, two euphoniums, two tubas, timpani, and four percussionists.
Date: August 1991
Creator: Alexander, Joe L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Elatio: Praises and Prophecies (open access)

Elatio: Praises and Prophecies

ELATIO: Praises and Prophecies is an allegorical composition based upon a collection of carols, poetry and prose in selected verses, phrases and fragments from medieval Christian liturgy, the canonical Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and New Testament, and portions of various non-canonical Dead Sea Scroll texts. The languages used in the selections presented here are English, Medieval Latin, and transliterated Biblical Hebrew.
Date: December 1998
Creator: Job, Lynn R. (Lynn Renee)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Explorations: a Composition for Eighteen-Piece Jazz Ensemble (open access)

Explorations: a Composition for Eighteen-Piece Jazz Ensemble

Explorations is a three-movement experimental work for eighteen-piece jazz ensemble consisting of the following instruments: soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, two tenor saxophones, baritone saxophone, two trumpets, two flugelhorns, three trombones, bass trombone, electric guitar, vibraphone, contrabass, drums and piano. The duration of the work will approximate twelve minutes. The first movement features geometric configurations of spatially notated sound which emphasize percussive qualities of the ensemble (i.e. key clicks, tongue slaps, mouthpiece pops, etc.). Tone clusters of various pitch, texture and dynamics derived from blues scales provide the source material for the second movement. A slowly developing dynamic counterpoint creates the sound mass texture and delineates the form. Movement Three features a contrapuntal poly-metric collage of variations on a four-note theme. The collage provides the background fabric for an exchange of periodic and aperiodic events.
Date: May 1992
Creator: Rudnick, Isidore L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
"Eyre," a Three Movement Instrumental Work for Small Chamber Ensemble (open access)

"Eyre," a Three Movement Instrumental Work for Small Chamber Ensemble

"Eyre" is a composition of approximately sixteen minutes duration for an instrumental ensemble consisting of two flutes, oboe, B𝄭 clarinet, bassoon, guitar, and cello. It is inspired by a large seasonal lake basin in South Australia of the same name. The piece is divided into three movements; the first is fast and quasi sonata-allegro form without the recapitulation; the second is slow and through-composed; and the third, essentially the missing recapitulation from the first movement. Much of the motivic material for the piece is derived from the initial progression of triads. Harmonic and melodic development of this material contains some modal tendencies. While the overall effect tends toward equal weighting of the instrumental forces, there is some featuring of the guitar and an interplay between the woodwind and string instruments.
Date: May 1991
Creator: Hodges, Glen J. (Glen John)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Five Soundscapes for  Acoustic Instruments and Taped Computer Music (open access)

Five Soundscapes for Acoustic Instruments and Taped Computer Music

Inspired by Chinese poems, the overall characteristics of the work reflect the assimilation of several non-Western musical and philosophical influences such as the use of pentatonic scale patterns, the principle of embellishing a single note, and the application of the I-Ching in dealing with active instrumental passages over a long-sustained computer music drone. Traditional Western compositional techniques such as aleatory counterpoint, serialism, and moment form are also employed in the treatment of thematic material, developmental processes and formal design.
Date: August 1998
Creator: Tseng, Yu-Chung, 1960-
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Full Armor of God (open access)

The Full Armor of God

The Full Armor of God is a musical composition based on the apostle Paul's comparison in Ephesians 6:10-20 between armor for physical combat and armor for spiritual warfare. The instrumentation consists of the following: oboe/English horn, bassoon, two violins, viola, cello, and bass. Texts on Roman armor as well as commentaries and sermons on the scriptures were consulted for the basis of the musical materials. The piece combines imagery and historical associations with abstract renderings of both the physical and the spiritual.
Date: August 1997
Creator: Lawrence, Nicholas A. (Nicholas Alan)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Gestures and Fields (open access)

Gestures and Fields

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.
Date: December 1990
Creator: Muncy, Thomas R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Hailstones and Birdcages for Wind Ensemble (open access)

Hailstones and Birdcages for Wind Ensemble

Hailstones and Birdcages is a composition of approximately thirteen minutes' duration and is scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and english horn, three Eb clarinets, E clarinete, bass clarinet, two bassoons, two Eb alto saxophones, Bb tenor saxophone, three Bb trumpets, four F horns, three trombones, euphonium, two tubas, and three percussionists. Four instruments--one each of flute, oboe, Bb clarinet, and trombone--are used in concertante like fashion, and there are prominent solo passages for the first bassoon, as well. The work is a single movement in three sections, fast - slow - fast, with ritornello. and employs a free use of the total chromatic. Technically, the work is within the capabilities of an above-average high school or average college wind ensemble
Date: August 1990
Creator: Anderson, Andrew E. (Andrew Edwin)
System: The UNT Digital Library
House in Heaven (open access)

House in Heaven

House in Heaven is a theatrical piece for five solo voices (one soprano, two mezzo sopranos, one baritone, and one bass), two trumpets, four French horns, one trombone, two flutes, two clarinets, two bassoons, string orchestra, vibraphone, timpani and a synthesizer which produces pipe organ sound. The composition consists of an introduction followed by a single act in three Scenes. The piece employs the cyclical device in engaging themes associated with particular characters. The texture grows from simple alternating dialogues to arias and, finally, to tutti passages in which all voices are combined to form a quintet, at the climactic point of the entire composition, which occurs at the end of the piece. The scenes depict imaginary events in a Church and at a flower garden. Rear-stage slide projections are used to project the scenes of these locations, and lighting is used to emphasize actions, characters and changes of scene. The singers also serve as actors. The duration of this work is approximately 20 minutes.
Date: December 1993
Creator: Gan, On C. (On Cally)
System: The UNT Digital Library
S'I' Fosse Foco, Arderei'l Mondo (open access)

S'I' Fosse Foco, Arderei'l Mondo

The dissertation is recorded computer music. It has a duration of fourteen minutes and fifty seven seconds. The source sound material is a reading of a sonnet of the same name by thirteenth century Sienese poet Cecco Angiolieri. It utilizes Linear Predictive Coding and Short-time-fourier synthesis in addition to postprocessing by spatialization and digital filtering. The discussion of the piece includes an explanation of the synthesis techniques, the pitch manipulation algorithms and the programs written by the composer to generate computer scores based on these algorithms, and finally how the individual musical events were generated and mixed together. The computer scores and programs used to generated these scores are provided after the discussion.
Date: May 1993
Creator: De Lisa, Eugene, 1957-
System: The UNT Digital Library
In Nomine Domini (open access)

In Nomine Domini

In Nomine Domini is an eighteen-minute composition for two chamber orchestras with two soloists using real-time interactive signal processing techniques. The first chamber orchestra is scored for flute (piccolo), English horn, trumpet in C, trombone, two percussionists (cowbells, wood blocks, tenor drum, suspended cymbal, gongs, tam-tam, temple blocks, tambourine, snare drum, timbales, and bass drum), horn in F (soloist), viola, and string bass. The second chamber orchestra is scored for oboe, clarinet in Bb (bass clarinet in Bb), bassoon, tuba, two percussionists (crotales, two marimbas, vibraphone, chimes, and tom-toms), piano (soloist), violin, and cello. Real-time interactive signal processing techniques are achieved through the use of a stereo multiple-effects signal processor and a personal computer running MIDI interactive software. The work is based upon the four-hundred and seventy-five year old in nomine composition tradition begun by John Taverner in the Benedictus of his Mass Gloria tibi Trinitas (1520) and continued in over one-hundred and fifty Renaissance settings. In Nomine Domini consists of three movements: "Taverner* derived from the Benedictus of the Mass Gloria tibi Trinitas (1520), "Byrd" derived from the Benedictus of William Byrd's Five-voice Mass (1592), and "Tye" derived from Christopher lye's In Nomine XIII "Trust" (1578). In Nomine Domini …
Date: August 1995
Creator: Crowley, Timothy R. (Timothy Robert)
System: The UNT Digital Library