Charlotte Moorman (1933–1991) was a Juilliard-trained cellist whose life and work made an indelible mark on the development of the American avant-garde. In her career, Moorman acted as a performer, collaborator, composer, administrator and muse. She solely founded the inaugural New York Avant Garde Festival, and subsequently directed fifteen of these festivals between 1963 and 1980, the feat for which she is most widely acknowledged today. Yet, her revolutionary performance practice, which blurred the lines between her life, her body, and her work, and brought into focus the dynamics of corporeality, the feminine body, female nudity and sexuality, and gendered politics within the contexts of musical performance, has so far escaped serious consideration in the written histories of the American avant-garde. This dissertation describes the nature of Moorman's practice as one that evolved to become inherently and irrevocably embodied, explores how this approach fell at odds with the pervasive avant-garde philosophies of music, and illustrates how her work troubles even a feminist musicological analysis. Further, through a contemporary critique of Moorman's oeuvre which centralizes the social, cultural, and political implications of her body in performance as integral to the work, this project offers a retrospective visibility to the artist which …

Paul Tortelier's How I Play, How I Teach (1975) is an invaluable addition to the limited amount of comprehensive cello methods written during the second half of the 20th century. Although Tortelier's influence on cello performance is still being felt today, the application of his method has not been sufficiently explored. An exceptional performer and devoted pedagogue, Paul Tortelier (1914-1990) can undoubtedly be ranked among the greatest cellists of the 20th century. Influenced by Pablo Casals' (1876-1973) approach to cello playing, How I Play, How I Teach develops his views on intonation, sound production, shifting, and articulation. However, Tortelier also introduces numerous daring inventions of his own into his method. These include playing with a flattened last joint of the finger for a more expressive vibrato, "rolling the stick of the bow" while playing for a wider palette of tone colors, new pizzicato and thumb position techniques, new legato fingerings for double stops, and the "pianistic passing of the thumb," among others. Due to their highly unorthodox nature and often condensed, minimalistic explanations, many of Tortelier's ideas have failed to gain acceptance since their publication and are regularly considered to be types of extended technique, mostly applicable to contemporary music …

Like numerous other Baroque pieces, the Ciaccona attributed to Tomaso Antonio Vitali (1663-1745) was transformed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The German violinist and composer Ferdinand David (1810-1873) was the first to edit and publish the piece. The composition became popular after being included in the second volume of his Die Hohe Schule des Violinspiels [The Advanced Method of Violin Playing] (c.1867). Since then, Vitali Ciaccona became an essential work in the violin repertoire and is often heard in concert halls. However, what many audiences hear in concerts is essentially an arrangement of the Ciaccona. Acknowledging the "double life" of the piece as both Baroque and Romantic, this dissertation examines the advantages and disadvantages of playing the Ciaccona attributed to Vitali on both the Baroque and modern violins.

Violin repertoire composed in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries placed new demands on performers. While numerous pedagogues have written etudes and treatises analyzing traditional techniques, far fewer have thoroughly examined contemporary techniques. Many of the existing etudes and exercises inspired by contemporary violin repertoire are of a very high difficulty level and may seem unapproachable to students with little to no experience performing the music of recent decades. As a result, many violin students are unacquainted with the language of new music. This dissertation is intended to help fill a gap in the pedagogical literature by serving as a resource that familiarizes advanced students with the notation and proper execution of the non-traditional techniques commonly found in contemporary violin music. This document includes a survey of violin repertoire written since 1970, an analysis of the non-traditional techniques used most often in the works examined, methods for approaching specific technical problems that arise in them, and nine etudes originally composed by this author. The etudes focus on nine contemporary techniques, ranging from contact point variations to changing subdivisions, and are intended for study by advanced violinists interested in performing contemporary music.

Anthony Plog's Concerto for Flute and Wind Ensemble is a substantial but relatively unknown work from the composer's early compositional period. It deserves wider exposure and recognition in the repertoire for solo flute and wind ensemble, given its accessibility for both the soloist and the ensemble.

Jonathan Leshnoff is one today's foremost contemporary American composers. His percussion compositions are significant compositions to the percussion solo, chamber, and concerto repertoire. This study is a tonal analysis on his marimba solo, Run (2003), with comparative analyses on his percussion chamber work, …without a chance (2002), and Concerto for Two Percussionists and Orchestra (2011).

The American composer Charles Ives is well known for musical quotation/borrowing: composing music with or from pre-existing musical sources, such as folk tunes, hymns, chants, or other composers' works. His Third Violin Sonata is one of few works that used his unique technique of cumulative setting with only hymn tunes. For analysis of his instrumental music, the text of the hymn tunes is generally disregarded, as the compositions are for instruments. Ives' Third Violin Sonata is challenging to understand in comparison with other violin sonatas, because it lacks information such as titles and subtitles. Even though Ives never mentioned the piece's meanings or extramusical meanings, almost all the elements of the piece indicate hope as a common theme. This dissertation examines which hymn tunes were quoted in the piece, gives the meanings of the hymn tunes, and discusses how Ives uses these tunes as themes with textual meanings. The study includes a brief life of Ives and his historical circumstances and presents a brief musical analysis. The research should give a better understanding of the piece to performers and others curious about it.

There are very few significant sonatas for flute and piano written between 1880 and 1918, a period of unusually rich stylistic diversity. Gabriel Pierné composed his Sonata in D Minor, Op. 36 for piano and violin in 1900, and later transcribed it for flute and piano. Unfortunately, the work has not been embraced to a significant extent by either violinists or flutists. The wealth of violin sonatas from this period might explain it not becoming part of the canon for violinists, but this is not the case for the flute repertoire, where it seems that it should hold a place of genuine importance. Since little has been written about Pierné as a composer or about this piece in either of its versions, this project is intended to promote an understanding of the work in its historical and theoretical context and to advocate for more frequent performances. This document also suggests an alternate version of several particular passages so it can better represent the characteristics of today's flute and its modern techniques. This research will help other flutists and flute professors to introduce and spread an awareness of its existence and ideally helping to establish its place in the flute repertoire. …

Byung-dong Paik is the one of the most famous Korean composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He has wanted his music to keep up with the times and also incorporate features of Eastern music without catering to the "difficulty" of modern Western music. The Passacaglia for Solo Violin takes a unique modern approach to the Baroque form of passacaglia and its tonal structure by transforming the characteristics of the original theme in a series of seventeen variations and a coda. In this paper, a general analysis of the work leads to suggestions on how to perform it effectively.

The American Clarinet School includes approaches to clarinet playing from European immigrants who instilled their musical style and ideas in the first generation of American-born clarinetists. Some of the first influential pedagogues from Europe include Daniel Bonade (1896-1976), Gustave Langenus (1883-1957), Gaston Hamelin (1884-1951), and Simeon Bellison (1881-1953). Even though they inspired many ideas of the American approach to clarinet, they were known in their time as performers rather than teachers first. The aim of this dissertation is to provide further examination into the modern clarinet professorship in the United States by examining three of the first generation of American-born clarinet professors and their contributions to pedagogy: Keith Stein (1908-1980), William Stubbins (1911-1975), and Himie Voxman (1912-2011). Topics discussed include embouchure, hand position, articulation, technique, expression and phrasing, equipment, teaching beginners, and repertoire.

The link between trumpet playing and emulation of the human voice has been acknowledged by a number of prominent teachers, authors, and composers since the inception of the trumpet as a melodic instrument. This dissertation is a pedagogical guide to lyrical trumpet performance based on the verismo style of singing consistent with the authentic interpretations of operatic soprano arias by Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, and Giacomo Puccini. Included are chapters that examine various aspects of the verismo style, as well as comparison and application of late 19th-century voice pedagogy to trumpet practice and performance. This resource examines six recordings of sopranos who created or popularized operatic roles during the verismo period. Included are transcriptions of the six arias for trumpet and piano, with performance notes based on dramatic and textual contexts, as well as interpretive aspects, namely tempo, dynamics, and vibrato.

This survey presents a transcription for horn and piano of Siete Canciones populares Españolas (Seven Popular Spanish Songs) by Manuel de Falla (1876-1946). Siete Canciones populares was written originally for voice and piano and previous transcriptions with different instrumentation have been published after the original work. In order to provide a faithful representation in my version, my study explores three main subjects: the style of Manuel de Falla; the significance of Siete Canciones; and the composer's horn writing in his orchestral work The Three-Cornered Hat. The solo horn repertoire originates in the central European countries and remains a product of their traditions until the second half of the twentieth century, when it was broadened by composers worldwide. My transcription helps to fill a gap in the repertoire for horn and piano by Spanish composers before 1950. It will serve as both a resource for horn players and a valuable contribution to horn recital repertoire.

Leo Brouwer's Sonata Mitología de las Aguas No. I for flute and guitar, first published in 2017, has taken its place as an important twenty-first-century addition to the flute and guitar duo repertory. I provide a brief historical context for the work, followed by preparation guides for guitar alone and duo passages. My preparation guides include exercises and rehearsal strategies, focusing on those passages of the work that include controlled indeterminacy. The study of indeterminacy in music is unusual in the pedagogy of the classical guitarist; this leaves guitarists unprepared for dealing with pieces, especially chamber works, that use improvisation or aleatoric music as a primary element. I take a multifaceted approach to facilitate the realization of the indeterminate sections of the work; this includes demonstrations of my traditional music notation transcriptions and other rehearsal strategies and the application of music performance study systems by James Thurmond and Marcel Tabuteau. This document aims to provide guidance to creating an organic, natural aesthetic in the actualization of Brouwer's groundbreaking work.

One of the essential difficulties encountered while preparing a piece for a pre-professional player is defining the piece's technical challenges and doing exercises or etude studies accordingly. Based on this fact, in my thesis, I described the technical challenges of Edouard Nanny's Dragonetti A Major concerto under the headings and suggested technical studies suitable for these difficulties. The titles represented are string crossing, bow strokes, thumb position and vertical-horizontal approaches, harmonic arpeggios and horizontal playing in harmonics, intonation and shifting, and double stops. In the last step of each heading, I associate these technical studies with an excerpt from a more advanced piece than this concerto in the double bass repertoire. Accordingly, the thesis aims to define a working path for Nanny's Dragonetti A Major Double Bass Concerto and, at the same time, to be a preliminary preparation for the more technically challenging works of the repertoire.

This document examines current practices and opportunities in the music performance field related to artistic citizenship, community engagement, and the field of teaching artistry. The relationship of musicians to their audiences and communities has shifted significantly in the twenty-first century, and there is an increasing need to redefine the essential skills of the professional musician. Derived from the field of teaching artistry, the concept of "activating artistry" suggests that our greatest strength and power as artists lies in drawing out individual artistic expression in other people, and it is with this power that artists as a workforce can create meaningful change in society. This intention could be manifested in many different contexts during the course of a given music career, however, developing the tool kit necessary for engaging in such work is not widely emphasized in the training of musicians. What tools can be provided for students and professionals to help them navigate both traditional and evolving career paths in music? How are bassoonists doing as a field in addressing the imperative of community engagement and artistic citizenship? How might we explore more collaborative ways to engage with our diverse communities – ways that value their perspectives? These questions guide …

The main purpose of this dissertation is to offer a modern transcription and critical edition of François Campion's Sonatina in D Major, found in his Piéces de Guitare du S.r Campion from 1748. Since it is not a common practice for the modern classical guitarist to study the baroque guitar and all its idiosyncrasies, this transcription from French tablature into modern notation will make this piece accessible to all classical guitar players. Using his sonatina as an example, this dissertation covers the process of transcribing baroque guitar French tablature while emphasizing a practical performance approach that suits the classical guitar. This approach includes examining tuning differences, suggested transposed notes, ornamental interpretation, and the overall differences in performance practice between both instruments. Not much is known about Campion's life (c1685-1747), but his importance as a musician in France during the early eighteenth century is evidenced by his publications and his accounts as a theorbo and baroque guitar player for the orchestra of the opera company L'Académie Royale de Musique, for which he was employed from 1703 until 1719. Unfortunately, while this music is fairly known and usually performed by early music specialists, it is ignored by modern guitarists, mainly because of …

François Couperin (1668-1733) was one of the earliest French Baroque composers to merge the Italian style into the French tradition. He had great influence on the development of French Baroque music from the end of the seventeenth century until his death. Couperin's four Concerts Royaux and the ten Concerts Nouveaux (published in 1722 and 1724) were written for the enjoyment of Louis XIV. Those suites were popular in the court before they were published, as they were requested to be performed every Sunday during the years 1714 and 1715 to give pleasure to the king. Rittrato dell'amore is the ninth suite out of the fourteen suites. The purpose of this study is to provide a performance guide and a practical edition of François Couperin's Neuvième Concert Ritratto dell' amore. It also contrasts Italian style and French tradition in the Baroque period, and how Couperin blended both styles together in his Neuvième Concert. In addition, this dissertation summarizes the general principles of Baroque performance practice that one may encounter in Neuviéme Concert, including notes inégales (unequal notes), ornamentation, over-dotting, and other issues. It is especially important for one to understand the performance style of French Baroque music in order to perform …