F. Melius Christiansen was very influential in the a cappella choral tradition. He started his career in Norway and brought his expertise to the American Midwest. Christiansen established a name for himself while working at St. Olaf Lutheran College as the head of the music department. It was the blended choral sound and precision he was able to achieve and display with his new choir in 1912 that caught everyone's ear. He continued to succeed with national and international tours, allowing him to spread his new "St. Olaf" choral sound through his music, compositions, and conducting school. This study explores the influence of F. Melius Christiansen (1871-1955) and the Minnesota choral tradition on six subsequent conductor-composers' compositions and conducting styles, including: Olaf Christiansen (1901-1984), Paul J. Christiansen (1914-1997), Kenneth Jennings (b. 1925), Robert Scholz (b. 1940), René Clausen (b. 1953), and Kenneth Hodgson (b. 1939) using Schenkerian analysis.

When Schenkerian theory began to influence scholarly circles in the United States, the primary - although not the only - work to which scholars had access was Schenker's last monograph, Der freie Satz. Reading textual passages and examining the many musical graphs in the companion volume of examples influenced their concept of the fundamental structure as Schenker understood it, as well as the relationship of the other levels (Schichten) to the larger structure. The problem is that most of the second generation of Schenkerian scholars were reading the 1956 second German edition, not the 1935 first German edition. The second edition had been altered for textual and musical content by Schenker's student, Oswald Jonas - so there is already a disconnect between the original version and the text scholars were reading at that time (the 1950s, 60s, and 70s). Furthermore, many younger North Americans were insufficiently fluent in German to be able to read the work in the original language. In order to make Schenker's treatise accessible to English-speaking scholars, Ernst Oster set about translating the work into English, a task completed in 1979 just after his death. The text was based on the second German edition (ed. Jonas, Vienna, …

The music of Béla Bartók is defined in part by its unique blend of rhythmic vitality and inventiveness, and his string quartets offer a glimpse into a consistency of technique evident throughout his compositional career. Bartók's rhythmic environments are primarily metrical, but many of his rhythmic configurations are placed in such a way as to potentially override established meter. It is necessary, therefore, to institute an analytical means by which the delineation and comparison of rhythmic structures both within and without the metrical context may be accomplished. An analytical method using Timepoint Accent Structures (TAS) allows for the comparison of rhythms resulting from patterns of accent produced by pitch onset, dynamic stress, articulation or any other accentual factors. Timepoint Grouping Structures (TGS) delineate the number of timepoints present in alternating groups/blocks in a texture, thereby allowing for the recognition of patterning created by these larger groups. By applying TAS and TGS analysis, relationships of rhythmic equivalency, rotation, retrograde, complementation, augmentation, diminution, subset, superset, exchange, compression and expansion are clearly confirmed in the string quartets. In addition, symmetrical structures and arithmetic progressions are discovered. In many ways, Bartók's rhythmic organization mimics his procedures of pitch structuring.

The present study develops a dynamic model of strict and free composition that views them as relative to a specific historical context. The dynamic view espoused here regards free embellishments of an earlier compositional generation as becoming the models for a strict compositional theory in a later one. From the newly established strict compositional models, succeeding generations of composers produce new free embellishments. The first part of the study develops the dynamic conception of a continuously emerging strict composition as the context necessary for understanding Anton Bruckner's compositional methodology with respect to the harmonic instruction of his teacher, Simon Sechter. In other words, I view Sechter's harmonic theories as a strict compositional platform for Bruckner's free compositional applications. Many theoretical treatises of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries such as those by Christoph Bernhard, Johann Philipp Kirnberger and Sechter acknowledged that strict composition must provide the structural framework for free composition. The above procedure becomes a manner of justifying a free embellishment since a "theorist" can demonstrate or assert the steps necessary to connect it with an accepted model from a contrapuntal or harmonic theory. The present study demonstrates that the justification relationship is a necessary component for understanding any …

Isang Yun's oratorio My Land My People is organized in four movements, and is scored for orchestra, solo voice and choir. Movements are titled as follows: Rjoksa (History), Hyon-Shil I (Presence I), Hyon-shil II (Presence II), and Mi-rae (Future). This document only covers from measures 1-38 of the first section of the first movement of this work. Even though this work is atonal, the composer emphasizes a harmonically moving, tonal sonority: interval class five includes perfect 4th and 5th, quintal-quartal harmony and authentic cadence moving dominant to tonic. Also, in this document, a comparison with Korean traditional music elements is included to support Isang Yun's musical features.

Arnold Schoenberg's teaching career spanned over fifty years and included experiences in Austria, Germany, and the United States. Schoenberg's teaching assistant, Leonard Stein, transcribed Schoenberg's class lectures at UCLA from 1936 to 1944. Most of these notes resulted in publications that provide pedagogical examples of combined elements from Schoenberg's European years of teaching with his years of teaching in America. There are also class notes from Schoenberg's later lectures that have gone unexamined. These notes contain substantial examples of Schoenberg's later theories with analyses of masterworks that have never been published. Both the class notes and the subsequent publications reveal Schoenberg's comprehensive approach to understanding the presentation of the Gedanke or musical idea. In his later classes especially, Schoenberg demonstrated a method of analyzing musical compositions using illustrations of elements of the Grundgestalt or "basic shape," which contains the technical aspects of the musical parts. Through an examination of his published and unpublished manuscripts, this study will demonstrate Schoenberg's commitment to a comprehensive approach to teaching. Schoenberg's heritage of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music theory is evident in his Harmonielehre and in his other European writings. The latter include Zusammenhang, Kontrapunkt, Instrumentation, Formenlehre (ZKIF), and Der musikalische Gedanke und die Logik, …

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.

Composition for Arnold Schoenberg is a comprehensible presentation of a musical idea (musikalische Gedanke); the totality of a piece represents the idea. For tonal works, he defines Gedanke as a process of resolving the "tonal relation" or "tonal problem." Contrary to the numerous tonal examples illustrating the notion of Gedanke, Schoenberg hardly expounds on the Gedanke principle for his atonal and twelve-tone repertoires. This study reevaluates Schoenberg's compositional philosophy and aesthetics including Gedanke, comprehensibility, Grundgestalt, and developing variation in light of his compositional practices in Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene, Op. 34. Although Schoenberg denies the existence of a tonal problem and hierarchy among pitches in twelve-tone compositions, the registral placement found in Op. 34 indicates certain functionality assigned to each pitch-class, producing a sense of "departure and return." The approach here elucidates the "idea" of Op. 34, in which the large-scale formal organization unfolds through contextually emphasized tonal relations. This study also explores Schoenberg's concept of the multi-dimensional presentation of a musical idea. Even though Schoenberg's discussion of musical coherence is usually limited to the immediate musical surface, I believe that he was also aware of an extended realization of foreground motives in the sense of Heinrich Schenker's "concealed motivic …

Wladimir Vogel's (1896-1984) interest in twelve-tone composition began to develop in 1936 after hearing a series of lectures by Willi Reich, a music critic and supporter of the new music of the Second Viennese School. The transition for Vogel from a large-scale orchestral “classical” style, influenced by his study with Ferruccio Busoni in Berlin in the early 1920s, to a new technique involving dodecaphony is apparent in his instrumental writing, the third and fourth movements of the Konzert für Violine und Orchester (1937), as well as in his vocal writing, the Madrigaux for mixed a cappella choir (1938/39). Vogel's twelve-tone works exhibit tertian structures which are particularly emphasized by triads located as consecutive pitches within the rows. Emphasis on tertian structures are not limited to small-scale segmentation of the rows but can also be seen in the structural and tonal organization of complete movements and works. A primary example is the Konzert für Violoncello und Orchester (Cello Concerto) (1955) in which, on a smaller scale, the presentation of the row emphasizes both diminished and minor triads, and at the macro level, the structural triadic relationships unify passages within individual movements as well as the concerto as a whole. Since the …

The compositions of Steve Reich and György Ligeti both contain periodic rhythmic structures. Although periods are not usually easily perceived, the listener may perceive their combinations in a hierarchy of rhythmic structures. This document is an attempt to develop an analytical method that can account for this hierarchy in periodic music. I begin with an overview of the features of Reich's and Ligeti's music that contribute to the property of periodicity. I follow with a discussion of the music and writings of Olivier Messiaen as a precedent for the periodic structures in the music of Reich and Ligeti. I continue by consulting the writings of the Israeli musicologist Simha Arom and describing the usefulness of his ideas and terminology in the development of my method. I explain the working process and terminology of the analytical method, and then I apply it to Reich's Six Pianos and Ligeti's Désordre.

This study examines in detail the various aspects of the segmentation process as applied by Obrecht and Josquin to the chanson Malheur me bat, especially the effect of this process on the structure of each composer's respective mass. Although musical aspects such as cadences and mode have varying degrees of influence on the structure of these two masses, the primary influence is the establishment of proportional relationships that occur as a result of the segmentation process. Sources of previous music research frequently point out that Obrecht's Mass utilizes both the Phrygian and Aeolian modes, while in Josquin's Mass the Phrygian mode is the firmly established mode throughout. Since segments in Obrecht's Mass are usually not connected to one another, strong cadences frequently occur at the end of the segments throughout. On the other hand, since the segments in Josquin's Mass are usually connected to one another, weak internal cadences frequently occur throughout, with strong cadences reserved for the end of sections.

Different sections or movements of a piece are associated with each other and contain the composer essential thought. A vague affinity of mood and a resembling theme or form testifies to the relationship. However, the evidence is insufficient to reveal the unification of the different sections or movements since these are under restraint of external music proofs. In order to figure out the relationship, thus, identical musical substance should be discovered. In the study the substantial evidence, which can be called unity or unification, is mainly discussed. The unity is illustrated with Brahms's Horn Trio, Op.40 that is one of the Brahms's significant works. The unity found in the Horn Trio is based on the internal structure and structural voice-leading notes. The unity in the Horn Trio is the fundamental structural unity that is divided into initial ascent and voice exchange, and fundamental voice-leading motive. The fundamental unity seriously affects the master piece and penetrates the movements as a whole. Further, it reveals the hidden connections to the historical background of the Horn Trio and the philosophy of Brahms for the music. Even though a piece consists of several sections or movements, the entire piece presents homogeneity. The identity of …

This is a study of Bartók's compositional process as it relates to the Improvisations, Op. 20. The study, which focuses on the analysis of the draft manuscript 50PS1, compares the draft and other relevant sources with the final composition. Bartók's framework for the entire Improvisations is based on a compositional strategy of pairing individual improvisations combined with systematic revision of the draft copy by the introduction of tritones as tonal equivalents and movement by fifths from semitones, to achieve structural coherence in the individual improvisations. The tonic-dominant relationship is used to rearrange the individual improvisations in the draft and tritones as tonal equivalents are used to propel the movement between the improvisations to produce a coherent whole.

"Harry Partch's Keyboard Innovation" is a computer-assisted demonstration that introduces the tuning system used primarily by the twentieth-century American composer, Harry Partch. The multimedia product was developed in Director 6.0, and it includes sound and video clips from CDs and videocassettes of Partch's works produced by Phillip Blackburn and distributed by the American Composers Forum. The content of the demonstration involves a 43-tone microtonal tuning system and its application in the music literature. This demonstration will discuss the chronological order in which these prototypes were developed and also includes samples of the tuning of notes in Partch's scale that the novice can experiment with interactively. These tones were synthesized using the Csound scores shown in Appendix B. Materials for this demonstration are based on Harry Partch's Genesis of a Music.

The thesis speculates upon the three movements of Concerto da Camera II (1987), scored for Bb clarinet, string quartet and piano) in these four aspects: 1) the formal structure, 2) the manipulation of the notes of whole-tone, octatonic, and chromatic scales in octave displacement, 3) the potential combination of subsets that present different levels of pitch transformation in melodic and harmonic structure, and 4) the usage of intervals of minor seconds, tritones, and perfect fourths or fifths which dominates the linear writing. All of these features demonstrate that the music has strong structural elements in form, motives, and sonorities, which unify the piece in an aurally coherent style as an organic whole. This study should provide more insight into the understanding of Ran's unique compositional technique and style.

Twelve-tone music illustrates many characteristics relative with those of conventional tonal form, though works are based on a different composition method. The fundamental question of twelve-tone music arises in debate on terminology between tonal and atonal as well as methodology of musical analysis. Certain theorists try to approach twelve-tone music by traditional harmonic views rather than by pitch-class set theory. Conventional harmonic aspects arise from the fact that both tonal and twelve-tone music share similar narrative strategies. This point is explored in examining Anton Webern's Quartet for Violin, Clarinet, Tenor-Saxophone and Piano, Op. 22, which displays connection to tonal music. The present study seeks to examine certain features of the composer's working in pitch materials; i.e., the dispositions of pitch classes and the characteristics of the matching dyads, and thereby to disclose the connection between twelve-tone methods and conventional harmony.

This research project evaluates the effectiveness of specific music theory instructional strategies in terms of D. A. Kolb’s theory of experiential learning and Kolb’s typology of individual learning style. The project provides an original methodology for the adaptation of music theory instructional material to the individual learning style types described in Kolb’s typology. The study compares the relative effectiveness of two music theory instructional sequences, one of which is adapted for all of the learning style modalities described in Kolb’s typology, and the other adapted for only a limited number of Kolb’s learning style types. In order to compare the potential “learning outcomes” produced by these instructional sequences, a detailed study is proposed, in which computer based instruction (CBI) will deliver the instructional sequences to research participants and electronically record the participants’ responses. The current study demonstrates the effective aspects of the original methodology and suggests methods for the successful adaptation of music theory instructional material to individual student learning styles.

Missa Papae Marcelli: A Comparative Analysis of the Kyrie and Gloria Movements of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and an Adaptation by Giovanni Francesco Anerio

This study explores Sibelius's last and, perhaps, most enigmatic Symphony from historical (source-critical), Schenkerian, and transtextual perspectives. Through a detailed study of its genesis, musical architecture, and meaning, the author maintains that the Seventh, its composer, and its generative process, can best be understood as a series of verges: conceptual points of interaction between two or more forces. Verges between Sibelius's nature mysticism and the dramatic biographical circumstances of the period (1914-1924), between inspired and reasoned modes of composition, between genres (symphony and fantasy), between various form types, between tragic despair and hopeful yearning, between innovation and classicism, and between a host of other seeming oppositions, all define the Seventh Symphony and illuminate various facets of the composer's life and thought.

Most studies of the Mass in B Minor deal with the history of the work, its reception history, primary sources, performance practice issues, rhetoric, and even theological and numerical symbolism. However, little research focuses on an in-depth analysis of the music itself. Of the few analytical studies undertaken, to date only a limited number attempt to explain Bach's use of parody technique or unity in the whole composition. This thesis focuses on understanding three primary concerns in regards to the Mass in B minor: to comprehend how preexistent material was adapted to the context of the Mass, how this material functions in the network of the entire composition, and how unity is achieved by means of large-scale voice leading. The results of this study not only provide new information about this monument of Western music, but also provide insight to the deep sense of large-scale structure in Bach's work.

With the proliferation of Schenkerian theory in the US, Great Britain, and mainland Europe in the past quarter century, the pedagogy of Schenkerian analysis has become an important issue. Schenker himself was suspicious of textbooks with their tendency for artificial codification and over-simplification; rather, he recognized that his “New Teaching” (“Die neue Lehre”) – as he called it – required a different, more “organic” pedagogical approach that was both personal and yet accessible to a wide audience. New digital technologies and the Internet now have made it possible to disseminate Schenker’s pedagogical approach by adapting interactive techniques of Web-based instruction. Schenker’s “new teaching” was as organic as his theory itself – and as novel in the connections it sought to draw between the individualed disciplines of theory, musicology, composition, and performance. The interactive and multi-media components of Web-based instruction enable us to realize Schenker’s own pedagogical approach to Schenkerian analysis instruction.

Heinrich Koch completed his treatise in 1793, a pioneering work regarding the musical phrase as well as a sonata form description (lacking that term). Composition of Opus 18 began in 1798, a momentous project for several reasons in Beethoven's early career. Here, the theories expressed in Koch's Versuch are taken as an analytic springboard into a thorough analysis of the first movement of the quartet published no. 3, which was the first composed; additionally, nos. 1 and 6 are explored to a lesser degree. This study in phrase-analysis demonstrates significance in the fundamental ideas of Koch as applied to a masterwork of the turn of the 19th century.

Cindy McTee's Symphony No. 1: Ballet for Orchestra is composed primarily of pitch materials from the octatonic collections that contain both diatonic and non-diatonic relationships in the themes, harmonic content, and larger structure of the symphony. Because the octatonic collections contain the potential for both diatonic and non-diatonic relationships, the piece is argued to have octatonic structure, as the octatonic collection is capable of producing both relationships. The second chapter contains a review of the literature, focusing particularly on the work of Arthur Berger, Pieter C. van den Toorn, Richard Taruskin, and Allen Forte. Next, the octatonic structure of the symphony is shown in the thematic material. Finally, the harmonic support and large-scale structure of the piece are shown to contain octatonic relationships as well.

Philip Glass' Glassworks (1981) is a six-movement composition for two flutes, two soprano saxophones/clarinets, two tenor saxophones/bass clarinets, two French horns, violas, cellos, and the DX7 electric piano. Glassworks consists of six movements titled "Opening," "Floe," "Island," "Rubric," "Facades," and "Closing." This thesis covers the first movement "Opening." Repetition in musical minimalism confronts traditional prescriptive codes of tonal music and post-tonal music. While challenging the traditional codes, repetition in musical minimalism established new codes for listening to minimal music. This thesis explores the implications of these ideas.