Scholars have considered Italian chamber recitative laments only a transitional phenomenon between madrigal laments and laments organized on the descending tetrachord bass. However, the recitative lament is distinguished from them by its characteristic attitude toward the relationship between music and text. Composer of Italian chamber recitative laments attempted to express more subtle, refined and sometimes complicated emotion in their music. For that purpose, they intentionally created discrepancies between text and music. Sometimes they even destroy the original structure of text in order to clearly deliver the composer's own voice. The basic syntactic structure is deconstructed and reconstructed along with their reading and according to their intention. The discrepancy between text and music is, however, expectable and natural phenomena since text cannot be completely translated or transformed to music and vice versa. The composers of Italian chamber recitative laments utilized their innate heterogeneity between two materials (music and text) as a metaphor that represents the semantic essence of the genre, the conflict. In this context, Italian chamber recitative laments were a real embodiment of the so-called seconda prattica and through the study of them, finally, we more fully able to understand how the spirit of late Renaissance flourished in Italy in …

Paris . Rés. Vmd. Ms. 27, known as Tl.1, or the Thibault Manuscript, is one of the earliest extant sources of lute music, containing twenty-four solos and eighty-six accompaniments for vocal compositions. The manuscript was copied in Italian lute tablature lacking rhythm signs, which makes it inaccessible for modern performance. Each selection contains a full score of the four-part vocal concordance, and the reconstructed lute part in both the original notation and keyboard transcription. The introductory study elaborates upon the creation dates for Tl.1 (ca. 1502-1512) through its relationship with the sources of the time and with the older unwritten tradition of Italian secular music that is apparent in the formal treatment of the music.

Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921), who was considered a Wagnerian due to to his past work in Bayreuth and the Wagnerian traits of his Hänsel und Gretel, seems to have believed that to define himself as a composer, he had to engage somehow with that designation, whether through orthodox Wagner imitation or an assertion of his independence from Wagner's musical legacy. The latter kind of engagement can be seen in Humperdinck's Königskinder (1897), in which he developed a new kind of declamatory notation within the context of melodrama, thus fulfilling Wagnerian ideals as well as progressing beyond them. The effectiveness of Humperdinck's effort is seen in the ensuing critical reception, in which the realities of being heard as a Wagnerian composer are clarified.

This project consists of an original composition, Voci Lontani, and a critical essay about the composition. In this piece, the idea of musical simultaneity is explored. Therefore, the piece focuses on the idea of contrast: between measured rhythms and indeterminate rhythms, between tonality and atonality, and between musics in separate tempos. In order to explore the significance of musical simultaneity, four important compositional concepts-the simultaneous juxtaposition of different musics, polyrhythmic structure, controlled indeterminacy, and quotation-are discussed. Also, several examples of twentieth-century music that use these concepts are analyzed in the essay.

An examination of the influences on twentieth-century wind music would be incomplete without the consideration of composer, organist, pianist, conductor, teacher, and critic Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979). Students from the United States began studying with Boulanger between World War I and World War II, and continued to travel to study with her for over fifty years. The respect awarded this legendary French woman was gained as a result of her effectiveness as a teacher, her influence on the development of each student's unique compositional style, and her guidance of an emerging American musical style. The correlation between the teacher's lessons and the compositional output of her students must be explored. Boulanger did not compose specifically for winds, and she did not encourage her students to compose for the wind symphony. However, this document will outline the influence that this powerful pedagogue exerted over the creation of repertoire by her students by providing insight into the pedagogical style and philosophical foundations of Boulanger as reflected in the literature and by the writings, comments, and compositions of three successful students who composed literature for the wind symphony: Aaron Copland (1900-1990), Leslie Bassett (b. 1923), and Donald Grantham (b. 1947). Three significant works for …

Richard Strauss's Duett-Concertino for Clarinet and Bassoon with Strings and Harp, AV 147 was one of the last works written by this celebrated composer. This double concerto has been largely unrecognized by performers and scholars until a recent surge in recorded performances. Some factors that hinder performances of the Duett-Concertino include unusual scoring and difficult rhythmic passages, as well as a lack of acknowledgement or understanding of the programmatic elements represented in the music. Sketches and letters show that the Duett-Concertino was inspired by a fairytale, which may have been the popular Beauty and the Beast. The programmatic analysis in this study examines the musical gestures of the piece, which, when combined with the cues provided in the sketches and letters, construct a musical interpretation of the fairytale. Recognition of the extra-musical features of the Duett-Concertino is essential for an effective performance and, in turn, creates additional performance possibilities such as narration and choreography.

Many, if not most, student trombonists have perhaps had little or no previous experience with "extended techniques"-novel or unconventional modes of sound production. To address this deficiency of experience, this document sets forth a progressive sequence of descriptive explanations and supplementary studies, which are specifically designed to assist trombonists in mastering the particular extended techniques that will prepare them to perform three of the most popular late Twentieth-Century pieces for trombone that include extended techniques-Luciano Berio's Sequenza V, Folke Rabe's Basta, and Mark Phillips' T.Rex. Following the introductory chapter, the body of the document consists of three chapters, each of which deals with one of the three solos, presenting descriptive explanations of relevant extended techniques interspersed with performance commentary (solicited from prominent trombonists) and supplementary studies (composed by the author). The studies presented in each chapter are specifically geared toward mastering the extended techniques as they relate to the music of each particular solo. They are also especially focused toward learning the more difficult passages of music in each solo.