This lecture recital seeks to prove that Sergei Taneyev's only piano concerto is a valuable addition to the piano concerto repertoire for historical and theoretical examination. Taneyev's biographical background proves he was one of the major figures in Russian musical life during the late nineteenth century. For one who had such an important role in music history, it is an unfortunate that his music has not been popular. Through letters to contemporary composers and friends, Taneyev's master teacher Tchaikovsky revealed why his music and piano concerto were not as popular as they should have been. This lecture recital examines Taneyev's compositional style and illustrates his influence in the works of his famous student Sergei Rachmaninoff through examples from Taneyev's Piano Concerto in E-flat Major and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2. Taneyev's Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 have both similarities and differences that resulted from the composers' close relationship. Letters between the teacher and student enlighten readers to the compositional process of the two piano concertos and demonstrates the value of Taneyev's Piano Concerto. A detailed theoretical analysis is included in this dissertation. The principal themes and motifs are presented with a detailed analysis of the structure of …

The two major research questions were: “What is the current status of 20 prominent piano pedagogy programs?” and “what is the vision of an ideal future piano pedagogy program from the perspective of 20 piano pedagogy leaders?” Subjects were the leaders of the top 20 US university piano pedagogy programs. A survey study with interview questions was used as the instrument for the study. The results showed that faculty, curriculum, and teacher training were three top factors that contributed to the quality of the programs. Most interviewed subjects held a doctoral degree in music. The curricular content and degree options were diverse across the selected programs. The content of teacher training included private and group teaching. The perceived best qualifications of a piano pedagogy instructor were to have a balanced education. Most programs had small or little to no budget, however, the preparatory program was perceived to be an enhancement to teacher training program finances. The greatest challenges were faculty acquisition and financial limitations. Gaining more money was the most common improvement priority for programs. To envision an ideal future piano pedagogy program, most leaders stated that an ideal program should contain encourage: (1) collaborating with other divisions' faculty members …

Balakirev's two early piano and orchestra works, Grande Fantaisie on Russian Folk Songs and Concerto Op. 1 in F# Minor, were composed in the middle of the nineteenth century when in Russia there were no particularly important works for piano and orchestra. Balakirev was still a teenager when he wrote these two pieces and unfortunately both remained unfinished. However the beauty and remarkable compositional achievement of these works should be highly recognized. There are six chapters in this essay. The general background, purpose and the state of research are discussed in the first chapter. The second chapter presents Balakirev's biographical information and the overview of his works for piano and orchestra is stated in Chapter III. Individual works, Grande Fantaisie and Concerto in F# Minor are discussed in the chapters IV and V, which including discussing compositional background, analysis and diagram of structural schemes. The last chapter concludes with Balakirev's contribution to Russian music and the development of the Russian concerto coming into its own. It deals particularly with Balakirev's approach to folk songs, which gives the concerto a unique Russian aesthetic, in addition to his ability to write in the European tradition.

The aspiration of this dissertation is to bring forth the significance of Shostakovich's Piano Sonata Op.12. This sonata is a hybrid of the German musical tradition, Russian Modernism, and Liszt's thematic transformation technique. It demonstrates Shostakovich's highly intellectual compositional skills influenced by the education that he received at St. Petersburg Conservatory as well as the exposure to modern music in the 1920s. This dissertation discusses composition techniques, such as the harmonic piers adapted from Alexander Scriabin, neighboring-tone technique, which involves the application of semitone cell throughout the piece, as well as the technique of thematic transformation borrowed from Liszt. These all come together by Shostakovich's design in the most controversial sonata form. The Piano Sonata Op.12 also sheds light on Shostakovich's early compositional style and proves its contribution to the evolution of sonata genre in the twentieth-century.

The Octuor pour instruments a vents (or Octet), written in 1922-1923 by Igor Stravinsky, is a piece in three movements for a curious assortment of instruments: two trumpets, two trombones, flute, clarinet and two bassoons. It is one of four influential chamber works for winds by Stravinsky to include trumpet. Of these pieces, the Octet contains the fewest number of players but is no less complex and important in Stravinsky's oeuvre. The Octet helped mark the beginning of the neoclassical period in twentieth-century music. Chapter 2 examines the life and musical background of the composer. It also reveals the history surrounding the origin of the Octet and its role in neoclassicism. Chapter 3 discusses the role of the Octet in the wind ensemble and orchestral repertoire, and includes a representative performance history, including the premiere. Chapter 4 provides analytical insights into the construction and format of the piece. Chapter 5 provides suggestions regarding style in Stravinsky's music, including interviews with important figures in the trumpet world. Chapter 6 concludes the guide with specific suggestions regarding preparation and performance of the Octet.

In recent years scholars have begun to re-evaluate the works, writings, and life of Robert Schumann (1810-1856). One of the primary issues in this ongoing re-evaluation is a reassessment of the composer's late works (roughly defined as those written after 1845). Until recently, the last eight years of Schumann's creative life and the works he composed at that time either have been ignored or critiqued under an image of an illness that had caused periodic breakdowns. Schumann's late works show how his culture and the artists communicating within that culture were transformed from the beginning to the middle of the nineteenth century. These late works, therefore, should be viewed in the context of Schumann's output as a whole and in regard to their contributions to nineteenth-century society. Schumann's contributions, specifically to the genre of the song cycle from 1849 to 1852, are among his late compositional works that still await full reconsideration. A topical study, focusing on three themes of selections from his twenty-three late cycles, will provide a critical evaluation of Schumann's compositional output in the genre of the song cycle. First, Schumann's political voice will be examined. The political events that led to the mid-nineteenth-century revolutions inspired crucial …

In 2005, composer Susan Botti won the coveted Prix de Rome in musical composition and spent eleven months in residency at the American Academy in Rome. That same year, the University of Michigan Wind Symphony, under the direction of Michael Haithcock, premiered her exciting new work Cosmosis at the College Band Directors National Association Conference in New York City. The bi-annual conference is a venue for the premiere of new works for wind ensembles and bands, and the 2005 conference saw the world premiere of nine works for winds and percussion, many of which were performed in the legendary Carnegie Hall. What made the debut performance of Cosmosis exciting and notable was the composer's own appearance as soprano soloist, and the inclusion of a chorus of women augmenting the ensemble of winds and percussion. Such a combination of elements is unique, and created a fresh and powerful sonority. Botti's inventive approach to composition has expanded the repertoire for both women's chorus and wind ensemble with this distinctive work. This study is intended to serve as a guide to the study and performance of Cosmosis. The information provides a detailed examination of the work from its conception to its premiere performance. …

This paper delineates meaningful relationships of passions, emotions, feelings, affections, nuances and aural perceptions of expressions and utterances, for understanding human artistic possibilities historically and contemporarily in the fraternal arts of music and poetry, with reference to sounds, silences, sequences, rhythms, rhymes, repetitions, retards, accelerations, tempos, harmonies, melodies, forms, etc., in four poetic and three musical compositions uniquely created by its author.

Robert Eugene Ward's impressive body of work encompasses almost every genre of music. He has composed symphonies, operas, large orchestral pieces, chamber works, solo instrumental pieces, extended choral works, short choral pieces, ceremonial works, a ballet, theatre pieces, and even jazz and swing band pieces. Ward's name is recognized in most musical circles but usually only for his opera The Crucible, a work for which he earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1962. In fact, a survey of all the dissertations, articles, interviews, and books written about Robert Ward shows that the vast majority of these studies focus on his most famous opera. His choral works, though they comprise some of Ward's most expressive work, have received little attention. Ward's works show a deliberate use of symbols and allusions. While this use is far from an innovative concept in composition, Ward distinguishes himself with a consistent and purposeful application of these devices establishing an unmistakable interweaving of text, composition, and context. This study examines several of Ward's short choral compositions as they relate to the composer's use of symbols and allusions. Comparisons are made to Ward's use of these devices in his operatic works as a means of determining the consistency …

The purpose of this dissertation is to present a comparative analysis of the sarabandes from the six cello suites. Six individual analyses each address the following elements: harmonic reduction, the relationship between the large-scale harmonic and metrical structures, the melodic elaboration of the harmonic-metrical structure, and the type and prevalence of sarabande rhythm. A summary at the end of each analysis provides a cumulative comparison of the results. Knowledge gained from this exercise will provide insight into Bach's conception of the genre by identifying both those features that stylistically unify the sarabandes as well as those that make each unique. In addition, the author will demonstrate the relationship between analysis and interpretation, using the sixth sarabande as an example. This interpretive process will also take into account the idiomatic nature of the guitar.

For more than 20 years, Christian Lindberg has been internationally recognized as the premiere trombone soloist of our time. Few, however, are familiar with his compositions. For over ten years, he has composed many solo and ensemble works for trombone. Many prominent musical organizations in the world have performed Lindberg's music, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the University of North Texas Wind Ensemble. Today, Christian Lindberg has commission requests up to 2010. Christian Lindberg completed Mandrake in the Corner, a three movement concerto for trombone, in 1999. The purpose of this dissertation is to present an analysis of the first movement of Mandrake in the Corner to provide the first in depth study of Lindberg's compositional style. This analysis borrows freely from the method of Jan LaRue, which focuses on sound, harmony, melody, rhythm, and growth of musical structure on the small, middle, and large levels. The focus of this study centers on the aspects of melody, harmony, and rhythm to explain how the piece works despite the lack of a second theme or change of key in the first movement.

The fact that Davis changed his mind radically several times throughout his life appeals to the curiosity. This thesis considers what could be one of the most important and definitive changes: the change from hard bop to modal jazz. This shift, although gradual, is best represented by and culminates in Kind of Blue, the first Davis album based on modal style, marking a clear break from hard bop. This thesis explores the motivations and reasons behind the change, and attempt to explain why it came about. The purpose of the study is to discover the reasons for the change itself as well as the reasons for the direction of the change: Why change and why modal music?

The abstract includes a detailed analysis of the quartet as well as idiomatic aspects of the music. In addition, a background of composer/performer relationships is outlined.

The primary purpose of this study is to address performance issues in the Polish Fantasy, Op. 19, by examining characteristics of Polish folk dances and how they are incorporated in this unique work by Paderewski. The study includes a comprehensive history of the fantasy in order to understand how Paderewski used various codified generic aspects of the solo piano fantasy, as well as those of the one-movement concerto introduced by nineteenth-century composers such as Weber and Liszt. Given that the Polish Fantasy, Op. 19, as well as most of Paderewski's compositions, have been performed more frequently in the last twenty years, an analysis of the combination of the three characteristic aspects of the Polish Fantasy, Op.19 - Polish folk music, the generic rhetoric of a fantasy and the one-movement concerto - would aid scholars and performers alike in better understanding the composition's engagement with various traditions and how best to make decisions about those traditions when approaching the work in a concert setting. Chapter 1 provides biographical and factographical information about Paderewski as a composer, pianist, and statesman. Chapter 2 examines characteristics of Polish folk music with regard to melody, rhythm and tempo. Musical examples of the Polish folk songs …

Sergei Mikhailovich Liapunov (1859-1924) was a distinguished Russian composer, pianist and teacher of the late 19th and early 20th century whose works are relatively unknown. His piano pieces were highly regarded and performed by pianists such as Konstantin Igumnov, Josef Hofmann, Josef Lhévinne, Ferruccio Busoni, and Vladimir Horowitz. However, they are rarely included in modern pianists' repertoire both in Russia and abroad, and are often viewed merely for their historic significance. Works of Liapunov are characterized by a life-affirming character and monumental beauty largely inspired by the images of nature as well as the sounds of his native Russian folk songs and dances. His music rarely conveys the urgency or profound melancholy which is often seen in the music composed during the same period by Rachmaninoff and Scriabin. Liapunov continued and enriched the great traditions of Russian music started by Glinka and The Mighty Five. He did not discover bold new ways of composing, and at the same time did not succumb to the temptation of following contemporary musical trends. The Twelve Transcendental Etudes, op. 11, dedicated to the memory of Franz Liszt, are masterpieces of immense value both from a technical and artistic standpoint. Just like Liszt's études, they …

The trumpet, or some ancestral form of the trumpet, has existed nearly as long as civilization itself. Despite its long history, however, the trumpet's solo repertoire remained limited and relatively unvaried until the second half of the twentieth century. Like most music, the American trumpet sonatas from the 1950s are a reflection of the culture and history surrounding their composition. The purpose of this research is to show how the trumpet sonatas by George Antheil, Kent Kennan, Halsey Stevens, and Burnet Tuthill are both distinctly American and unmistakably from the 1950s. The post-war era in America is often viewed as a time of unbridled optimism stemming from economic prosperity and the nation's military and industrial supremacy. The decade of the 1950s is often viewed today as a simpler, happier time in America's history. The trumpet sonatas of this era reflect this primarily in their ebullient rhythms and brilliant, often heroic melodies. However, darker characteristics of the decade (the rise of communism, for example) also make veiled appearances in these four sonatas. After an overview of the social and musical trends of the decade, the central chapter of the work delineates formal, thematic, and tonal structures of each of the four …

This dissertation focuses on the clarinet music of Luigi Bassi (1833-1871), an Italian clarinetist and composer. Biographical information and performance history for Luigi Bassi are included. Bassi wrote 27 works for clarinet, including 15 opera fantasies or transcriptions. Most of his works are housed in the Milan Conservatory library. This document provides analysis of all but two of Bassi's 27 works. For Bassi's pieces with ties to opera, I identified his source material and discussed the ways in which he manipulated the material. A brief synopsis of each opera is included. This study serves as a performance guide for those seeking to perform Bassi's clarinet works.

Music and identity are inextricably linked. While a particular social or ethnic group's music may reflect characteristics of that group, it also functions in creating the identity of the group. In Andean Bolivia, the choloethnic group has very subjective and constantly changing boundaries. Cholo-ness is made possible through mediated cultural performances of all types, in which members actively choose elements from both criollo and Indian cultures. Music is one particularly effective way in which cholos create and maintain their identity. This thesis focuses on the ways in which cholos use music to create a hybrid identity in and around Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Snow Spell is an interactive composition for erhu, flute, cello, piano, and Max/MSP interactive computer music system. This one-movement piece, Snow Spell, is intended to depict the beauty of a snow scene by presenting four different impressions of snow envisioned by the composer through music. The definition, history, and significance of interactive music are explored. Various modes of interactivity to control signal processing modules, and technical considerations for signal routing and level control in the interactive computer music system are also explored. Chinese music elements in Snow Spell including pentatonic scales, glissandi, and quotations from the Chinese folk tune River of Sorrow are investigated.

The purpose of this paper is to create a modern transcription/edition and an historical study of Munich Mus. Ms. 1511b thereby helping to define the social and pedagogical ramifications of lute repertoire from the mid-sixteenth-century. Because of the amateurish nature of the compositions, the conclusion of this study is that a member of the Herwarth family probably used the manuscript for learning purposes. Dance, grounds and other related forms found in the manuscript are discussed. Also included is an incipit concordance that can be used as a cross-reference for further research.

The earlier symphonies of the 1950s embody a gradual realization of Pettersson’s own unique symphonic style, containing large-scale development, repetition, and reiteration. Symphony no. 5 takes these ideas to the extreme and represents the codification of techniques that are further developed in later symphonies. The present study examines the structure of the symphony from a voice-leading perspective. Included in this study is an analysis of the construction of the piece focusing on the development and expansion of motives that operate as structural determinants and the use of chromatic saturation to create intensity and direction. The use of linear analysis in a post-tonal context makes necessary a section devoted to explicating the graphic notation shown in the analysis and the analytical process of determining linear progressions.

The expressive marking "schattenhaft" appears twice in Gustav Mahler's symphonies: at the beginning of the scherzo in the Seventh and within the first movement of the Ninth. Theodor Adorno's observations regarding Mahler's use of this marking, which connect it to Schopenhauer and Romantic aesthetics, provide the framework for an examination of possible meanings of these two passages in Mahler. Drawing also on references elsewhere in Adorno's book to stylistic and formal features peculiar to Mahler's music, and especially on the comparison he makes between the experiences of reading novels and listening to Mahler's symphonies, this thesis demonstrates that close analysis of the "schattenhaft" passages offers a valuable point of entry into the thinking of both Adorno and Mahler.

The Six épigraphes antiques represent a cross-section of Debussy's creative output that traces the composer's germ-seed from his original setting of the work in 1901 as incidental music to accompany the recitation of several poems, to the four-hand piano version of 1914, and its consequent reduction for solo piano. What can be gleaned by the methods of derivation from his original sketches to the final, mature works is an understanding of Debussy's use of musical metaphor and his connection to the poetry - the Chansons de Bilitis of Pierre Louÿs. Embedded literary procedures create a new musical expression of the work whereby text and music become integrated. Rather than serving as accompaniment to the poems, the Épigraphes function as the primary vessel for the conveyance of these ancient scenes. Several of Debussy's hallmark symmetrical and structural moulds, such as the whole-tone, chromatic, octatonic, and mirroring techniques reflect the omnipresent symmetry of Classical Greece. Various other artistic creations emanated from the Épigraphes, most significantly the orchestration of Ernest Ansermet in 1939. A look at the techniques used by Ansermet for the augmentation of the piano work serves to extrapolate the multifarious layers relevant in performance. In order to facilitate the four-hand …

Music that is categorized as part of the Indianist movement in American music (ca. 1890-1925) typically evokes Native American culture, ritual, story, or song through compositional gestures. It may also incorporate Native American tunes. Amy Beach (1867-1944) is considered to have composed five Indianist works, but her Theme and Variations for Flute and String Quartet, op. 80 has not been included as one of them. This thesis rethinks categorization of the piece, seeking the "Indian" in it through examination of its gestures, instrumentation, and relationship to contemporary Indianist compositions.