Nyiragongo is a composition for large orchestra. The title is taken from Mount Nyiragongo, an active volcano in the Virunga Mountains of east central Africa. The composition is in one movement and the performance time is approximately eight to nine minutes.

This symphony is a representation of the composer's philosophy of life, which includes a belief in a pre-existent life (Beginnings), a mortal life (Searchings and Wanderings), and a life after death (Return Home). Three out of four of the cyclic elements in the Symphony are symbolic. Theme one represents the influence for good which emanates from a living God; motive one represents the influence for evil, or the Devil; motive two represents the influence of Christ. All three of these influences were present in the pre-existence, they are present in earth life and in the life after death, where good will ultimately triumph over evil. Motive three is found in both first and third movements, but has no symbolic meaning.

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra consists of three movements. The whole work follows a general character of Fast -- Slow -- Fast; but within each movement are sections with contrasting tempi. The performance time approximately eighteen minutes.

The structure of the present work is clearly described in the foregoing definition. Consisting of fourteen movements of varying length, it is primarily a vocal work for soprano, tenor, and baritone soloists, mixed chorus and an orchestra of moderate size.

A set of variations can be any length and contain any number of variations. The same set of variations also can be fashioned to resemble any musical form. On this basic premise, Theme and Variations for Wind Ensemble was written. It is a continuous one movement composition. There is a statement of a theme with five subsequent variations.

Devadasi is an abstraction of primitive dance rites for nine dancers and five percussionists. Though based on fertility rites and religious temple ceremonies, no actual representation of events is intended. It it approximately sixteen minutes and twenty seconds long, and is composed in six sections. Detailed choreography for the dancers is not included, but entrance and exit cues are shown, and the character of each dance is suggested by the music. Suggestion for lighting and costuming are also included in the score.

The composition consists of two movements: Adagio and Moderato. The first movement is mono-thematic, and is divided into three sections. The second movement offers contrast with the first by establishing an immediate tempo, dynamic, and color change.

Hegira is a work for full orchestra making use of piano as well as an augmented percussion section. The title, taken from Mohammed's flight to Mecca in 622 A.D., did suggest certain directions during the compositional process, but it does not imply a specific program for the music. The compositional process employed many techniques, including thematic transformation, serialization, rotation, contrapuntal textures, as well as the intuitive juxtaposition of material.

The composition was written as a laboratory experience in contemporary music especially for the Symphonic Wind Ensemble of the Skyline Career Development Center in Dallas, Texas. Based upon the Greek myth of Icarus, the movements are entitled, "Imprisoned", "Flight" , and "The Fall." The approximate performance time is 17 minutes, 45 seconds.

The composition is in one movement for cello and two-channel tape, requiring approximately twelve minutes for performance. The character of the work is aggressive and decisive in nature, with areas of repose occurring only at the beginning and before the conclusion. The title "concertante" is used to describe a concert-piece in which each of the two instruments.

The Variations on a Theme by Shostakovich is scored for an orchestra of 3 flutes, 3 oboes, 2 bassoons, contra-bassoon, 4 horns, 3 C trumpets, 3 trombones, harp, harpischord, piano, percussion and strings. The entire work is approximately 17 minutes in duration. The subject for the Variations comes from the Fifteenth Symphony of Shostakovich, last movement. There are many allusions to the writing of Shostakovich in terms of gesture, orchestration, and harmonic structure.

The title is intended to suggest that the work expresses the composer's innermost thoughts and feelings, even though these thoughts and feelings have no concrete realizations or programmatic connotations. It is precisely because of their abstractness that the thoughts and feelings are expressed in music rather than in words or some other concrete mode of communication. The total performance time is approximately twenty minute. The individual movements last about ten, four and one-half and five and one-half minutes, respectively.

The Serenade for Viola and Orchestra is a one-movement composition of three connecting sections with two main themes of contrasting character. The "relatedness" of the sections does not depend on common thematic material, but rather on a system whereby motives evolve out of the thematic material and from elements in preceding sections. The sonorous timbre of the viola is exploited and becomes the central tessitura for the piece. The title is representative of the lyrical nature of the composition as a whole, especially the first and third section.

The first movement material is presented by the ensemble and subsequently developed by the saxophone. A majority of the saxophone passages are supported by the ensemble with unaccompanied solo passages kept to a minimum. The various sections are based more on differences in pitch and rhythm than orchestration and harmony.

Symphony Number Five is a composition in three movements for orchestra. It is characterized by an economy of materials and a clarity of presentation of those materials. Further, the materials are expressed in a simplistic manner which avoids intricate textural content and complex melodic and harmonic structures. The symphony was chosen as a pattern of structure for this composition since it represents a microcosm of the history and development of musical style since 1760.

The compositional goals strived for in this work are (1) to unify the past and present, (2) to present a rhythmically simple but harmonically complex use of the voices, (3) to explore the timbral complexities of voices and instruments, (4) to explore rhythmic changes without changing meters, (5) to integrate the orchestra and chorus so as to produce one musical entity rather than two opposing groups, (6) to produce a work that is both practicable in performance and contemporary in spirit.

This theater piece is based on a story by John Updike. It is scored for baritone soloist, chorus, real-time electronic sounds, and a small orchestra (woodwinds 1111, brass 2121, 2 percussionists, organ, handbells, strings 33221). The work also includes actors, dancers, video projections, 35mm slide projections, and special lighting effects. The story opens with the moving of fourteen-year old David and his family is to live on the farm formerly owned by David's maternal grandfather. David becomes disturbed when he reads H.G. Wells account of the life of Jesus Christ, He reacts to this account because it is contradictory in spirit to what he has been taught at church and at home. The story deals primarily with David's attempts to reconcile these conflicts in his mind.

String Music is a composition for string orchestra, percussion, and tape in three movements. The work exploits both traditional and contemporary polyphonic techniques (e.g. imitation, inversion, canon, stretto, fugue, collage). In addition, each movement employs a different musical elementas the focus of organization (timbre, pitch, rhythm/meter). The duration of the entire work is approximately eighteen and a half minutes.

Born into one of the most distinguished families in eighteenth-century England, Samuel Wesley (1766-1837) distinguished himself as a child prodigy, an ardent devotee of the music of J. S. Bach, and as a composer, performer and music lecturer. His four extant overtures, written from the year 1778 to 1824, offer an insight into his development as a composer. This edition, drawn from the Wesley manuscripts housed in the British Library, is preceded by a commentary dealing with Wesley's life, the history of the overture as an independent for, and with Wesley's place in the history of English instrumental music.

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the six special military units which were authorized and created by the War Department under the direction of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. In relating the military history of such special units the study determines what contributions and significance they made to the Union war effort.

Limnological study of Moss Reservoir from May, 1975 through August, 1976 was conducted to evaluate the use of ATP assay in describing planktonic changes within the water column.

This study investigates, analyzes, and attempts to evaluate Robert Lucas Pearsall's (1795-1856) published articles and music as well as all available writings and music in manuscript form.

The Germans who immigrated to Texas in the 1830s, 40s, and 50s brought with them many and varied cultural institutions which they had known and enjoyed in Europe. As soon as the initial hardships of the frontier could be overcome, they eagerly established singing societies in the Lidertafel tradition. These organizations were to have a profound impact on music in Texas from about 1850 to the time of World War I.

A large, multi-basin reservoir (Garza-Little Elm Reservoir) in north central Texas was studied to determine the relative effects of various parameters on primary productivity. The basins were impounded several years apart, thus allowing the influence of age on water chemistry and biota to be considered. Another principal influence on water quality was secondary sewage effluent that entered one basin from a nearby source.