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 …

Cēgə Trouhèst is a three-movement work of about thirteen minutes duration. The text by the composer provides a vehicle for aural stimulation only. Cēgə Trouhèst is a continuum of resonances embellished by melodic and rhythmic passages. These embellishments along with other devices and the choice of instrumentation all contribute to the development of the varied timbres. The first two movements introduce the material to be employed in the third, which continues the idea of change exhibited in the text by modification and extraction. Timbre is the most important aspect of this work. It is exploited homophonically, contrapuntally, and through instrumental/vocal interchange and timbre modification of a single tone.

New York City: A Collage of Cultures is a single-movement programmatic orchestral work that features polytonality, prallelism, sound-mass, micro-tones, polychordal rhythmic ostinato, neo-impressionism, and folk themes and anthems from sundry cultures and nationalities. The simultaneity of contextual material at one point necessitates the employment of three conductors. The composition portrays America as a "melting pot" through its busiest immigration center, itself a microcosm of diverse international elements. This is achieved by the depiction of three different settings: a boat sailing from a foreign port, bound for New York Cty; New York itself in all of its awesome fury; and a capsule image of a conglomerate of turn-of-the-century emigrants and their interaction throughout the voyage.

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.

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 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.

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.

Symphonic Poem New Life is a composition in one movement for orchestra and yang-chin. The work is divided into six continuous sections. It is written in resultant form which is a cumulative process by which all major musical elements return at the end of the work. The tritone is the prominent interval used throughout the piece. Some graphic notation is also employed. The work has a performance time of approximately 13-15 minutes. The yang-chin is a Chinese string instrument similar to the Hungarian cymbalon, which is played with a pair of small beaters. These instruments have similar ranges, and either instrument can be used in this work.

By the early eighteenth century, French music was tangibly influenced by the Italian style which had already permeated much of Europe. The French Cantata is symptomatic of that often disparaged influx. The cantatas of Rameau are a significant contribution to an important form. Written almost entirely in the early years of the artist's career, they hold details of his stylistic development. In the present study of Rameau's cantatas several aspects of his style are discussed as they relate both to his theoretic writings and to the various influences of the time. Examples of those stylistic elements found in the cantatas are cited and discussed. There is, as well, a comparison of the works to the poetic form standardized by Rousseau.

"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.

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.

This study examines the five late keyboard works of Cesar Franck: the Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue and the Prelude. Aria, and Finale for piano, and the three organ chorales. The study focuses on harmonic and contrapuntal techniques and their interrelationships, placing the discussion in the context of an analysis of the whole piece. The primary goal is to identify the salient characteristics of each piece; a secondary goal is to identify common harmonic and contrapuntal aspects of Franck's style.

The Czechoslovakian composer Jindrich Feld (b.1925) composed Introduzione, Toccata e Fuga per Flauto Solo, for the Italian flutist Roberto Frabbriciani. Feld's Introduzione is from his third style period. This work may be labeled as a synthesis of the experiments and experiences that have enabled him to create his own mature style of expression.

This dissertation contains the first complete Latin-English translation of one of the most controversial music theory treatises of the fifteenth-century: the Musica Practica (Bologna, 1942) of Bartolomeo Ramos de Pareia. its title as well as its content illustrate the Renaissance transformation from the abstract mathematical approach of "musica speculativa" to that of an emphasis upon the everyday demands of the practicing musician. Although Ramos provides traditional explanations of the modes, counterpoint, "musica ficta," and white mensural notation, his innovations in temperament, solmization, mutation, and the gamut set this treatise apart from other ffifteenth-century music treatises. Ramos's rejection of traditional Pythagorean-Boethian-Guidonian explanations, coupled with his strong polemic criticisms of the auctoritas, resulted in a treatise that remained at the center of heated debate well into the sixteenth century.

This study examines the finale of Beethoven's choral symphony and focuses on its inspirations and aims to invoke critical theories involving genre, namely genre's "horizon of expectation", and lead to an enriched perspective that points toward a number of compelling aspects of the Choral Finale overlooked by previous commentators.

This study traces the significant developments in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which led to the development of electronic music and increased writing for percussion. Whether by coincidence or premeditation, the field of percussion in Western culture and electronic music share many parallel aspects in their history. Carlos Chavez, Edgard Varese and John Cage foresaw a time when electronic music would allow composers to realize compositions with ease, provide new sounds to the spectrum of possible material for pieces and aid in the conception of works. Significantly, these same composers were important figures in the development of percussion composition. In many ways, Lejaren Hiller's Machine Music can be seen as a culmination of the developments which had been taking place in the history of electronic music and percussion music. A product of the innovations in both fields, it poses some formidable problems for the performers. This study will give some background into its composition, examine its structure and deal with its performance problems.

The focus of this study will be the impact of Neue Sachlichkeit on Zeitoper, specifically its influence upon Hindemith's operatic output. The purpose of this paper is not to.subject these works to detailed musical analysis, but rather to place Hindemith's Zeitopern in historical perspective, examining how they were influenced by and mirrored the aesthetic atmosphere of the Weimar Republic.

The lecture was presented on November 18, 1991. This presentation focused on the only two compositions for solo flute and orchestra by Ernest Bloch. Written during the last three years of the composer's life, the pieces are representative of his last style period. While Suite Modale is neobaroque in style, Two Last Poems is much more subjective. Together they represent a synthesis of many of the stylistic characteristics of Ernest Bloch. The musical parameters discussed included form, melody, texture, rhythm, harmony, and expressive devices.