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Bridging the Fantastical Gap: Dread and the Uncanny in the Score of "It Follows" (open access)

Bridging the Fantastical Gap: Dread and the Uncanny in the Score of "It Follows"

"It Follows" (2014), written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. It chronicles the story of Jay, a college student who contracts a curse through sexual intercourse. The curse manifests itself as a human whom only the infected persons can see, always following at a walking pace, and determined to kill if it catches up. This thesis demonstrates the score's crucial role in establishing affect, setting, and character in a film with sparse dialogue and a silent monster. Moreover, the score creates a sense of the uncanny by complicating the binary between music and sound effect and fulfills the need to create dread without resorting to the loud or sudden sounds traditionally heard in horror films. The score's composer, Richard Vreeland, achieves this effect by drawing on both classical film scoring techniques as well as more modern horror scoring styles. It is this interaction between styles that enhances the viewers' experience of dread and horror in the film. This thesis analyzes how Vreeland's score for "It Follows" exploits the poetics of the fantastical gap, of the uncanny, and of musical semiosis. I primarily focus on the "Heels" theme and use of drones in …
Date: May 2020
Creator: Johnson, Kinley
System: The UNT Digital Library
Transatlantic Crossings: Nadia Boulanger and Marion Bauer (open access)

Transatlantic Crossings: Nadia Boulanger and Marion Bauer

In the summer of 1906, Marion Bauer (1882-1955) boarded a ship to Paris to meet with Raoul Pugno, a French pianist and composer. Juliette Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) was also close with Pugno around the same time. Living with the Pugno family in Gargenville during the summer, Bauer was able to travel to Paris, where she met several important musicians of the time and also nineteen-year-old Boulanger. Pugno, who worked closely with Boulanger, asked her to teach counterpoint and harmony to Bauer. Boulanger agreed and reportedly asked Bauer for English lessons in payment. Both women went on to become important music pedagogues, teaching hundreds of students. Their meeting allowed Bauer and Boulanger to share their ideas on teaching and music with each other. As time passed, the relationship between the two women fade from collective memory, but Boulanger's teaching principles of harmony, hearing, la grande ligne, and music history and literature live on through her students and fellow teachers and composers. Bauer's writings demonstrate similarities to these four key principles. Using Kimberly Francis and Emily Green's understanding of Pierre Bourdieu's theory of cultural production and an analysis of Boulanger's pedagogical principles, I believe that Boulanger's early accumulation of cultural capital and …
Date: August 2019
Creator: Brubaker, Blaine
System: The UNT Digital Library
Searching for Songs of the People: The Ideology of the Composers' Collective and Its Musical Implications (open access)

Searching for Songs of the People: The Ideology of the Composers' Collective and Its Musical Implications

The Composers' Collective, founded by leftist composers in 1932 New York City, sought to create proletarian music that avoided the "bourgeois" traditions of the past and functioned as a vehicle to engage Americans in political dialogue. The Collective aimed to understand how the modern composer became isolated from his public, and discussions on the relationship between music and society pervade the radical writings of Marc Blitzstein, Charles Seeger, and Elie Siegmeister, three of the organization's most vocal members. This new proletarian music juxtaposed revolutionary text with avant-garde musical idioms that were incorporated in increasingly greater quantities; thus, composers progressively acclimated the listener to the dissonance of modern music, a distinctive sound that the Collective hoped would become associated with revolutionary ideals. The mass songs of the two Workers' Song Books published by the Collective, illustrate the transitional phase of the musical implementation of their ideology. In contrast, a case study of the song "Chinaman! Laundryman!" by Ruth Crawford Seeger, a fringe member of the Collective, suggests that this song belongs within the final stage of proletarian music, where the text and highly modernist music seamlessly interact to create what Charles Seeger called an "art-product of the highest type."
Date: May 2018
Creator: Chaplin-Kyzer, Abigail
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Comparative Study of Harmonic Tension in Hindemith's Piano Sonatas and in His Theoretical Writings (open access)

A Comparative Study of Harmonic Tension in Hindemith's Piano Sonatas and in His Theoretical Writings

The purpose of this paper will be to compare the Hindemith theory of harmonic tension as set forth in his book, Craft of Musical Composition, with his actual use of harmonic tension in compositional practice. The compositions used for this study are Hindemith's Sonaten für Klavier, published in 1936, consisting of three sonatas*. Although these pieces were published one year before the theory book, it seems reasonable to assume that Hindemith was at least formulating the ideas that would go into his book, and quite possibly was already writing it. The copyright date of the book is 1937. Therefore, any conclusions derived from the following analysis will not be affected to any degree by the time lapse between the writing of the two works in question. Analysis of the Sonaten für Klavier by Paul Hindemith reveals the fact that each of the sonatas is very different from the other two; hence, conclusions which apply to all three works are not generally possible.
Date: August 1957
Creator: Tull, Charlotte
System: The UNT Digital Library
Jewish Elements in Representative Published Piano Works of Charles Valentine Morhange (Alkan) (open access)

Jewish Elements in Representative Published Piano Works of Charles Valentine Morhange (Alkan)

The purpose of this study is to show interrelationships between the thematic contents of those piano works by Alkan that are considered to be representative of his general style and the more commonly used melodic phrases taken from the Jewish Synagogue, mainly prayer chants and accents. An attempt will be made to point out the reason behind consequent unacceptable of Alkan's piano works, despite the efforts of Busoni, d'Albert, and Lewenthal to bring them to public attention. The results of this investigation are presented in a systematic analysis and discussion of Jewish prayer-chants and their structure traceable within Alkan's music and in a presentation in table form of the Jewish accents found among Alkan's melodies. After consideration of the outcome of analysis, elements which are known to be European are also presented. These are mainly keyboard virtuousity and harmony and secondarily, form and rhythm. In this section, Robert Schumann's opinions of Alkan's music are quoted and discussed. Because Schumann's ideas carried into the twentieth century, this gave opportunity for a re-evaluation of the lack of musical beauty inherent in Alkan's music.
Date: December 1971
Creator: Radford, Wanda J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Remarks and Reflections on French Recitative: Ban Inquiry into Performance Practice Based on the Observations of Bénigne de Bacilly, Jean-Léonor de Grimarest, and Jean-Baptiste Dubos (open access)

Remarks and Reflections on French Recitative: Ban Inquiry into Performance Practice Based on the Observations of Bénigne de Bacilly, Jean-Léonor de Grimarest, and Jean-Baptiste Dubos

This study concerns the declaimed performance of recitative in early French opera. Because the dramatic use of the voice was crucial to the opera genre, this investigation begins with a survey of historical definitions of declamation. Once the topic has been described, the thesis proceeds to thoroughly study three treatises dealing with sung recitation: Bacilly's Remarques curieuses, Grimarest's Traité de recitatif, and Dubos' Reflexions critiques. Principles from these sources are then applied to representative scenes from the literature. The paper closes with a commentary on the relationship between spoken and sung delivery and on the development of different declamatory styles.
Date: August 1985
Creator: Reid, Michael A. (Michael Alan)
System: The UNT Digital Library
An analysis of Brahms' Quintet in B minor, op. 115, for clarinet and strings (open access)

An analysis of Brahms' Quintet in B minor, op. 115, for clarinet and strings

Although many volumes concerning the life and works of Johannes Brahms have been written, it has been found that the majority of these writings treat the material of the subject in a rather poetic and romanticized fashion. This is especially unfortunate in those volumes where the works of Brahms are analyzed with pragmatic implications, since Brahms himself eschewed the use of extramusical elements in his composition. This investigation, therefore, is an attempt to present a careful analysis of one of these compositions, the Quintet in B Minor, Op. 115, for clarinet and string quartet.
Date: January 1968
Creator: Graham, Jack E. (Jack Eldon)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Respond Motets from Matins for the Dead by Robert Parsons (open access)

Respond Motets from Matins for the Dead by Robert Parsons

The three respond motets from Matins for the Dead by Robert Parsons constitute an important part of the sacred Latin repertory of mid-sixteenth-century England, illustrating central features of the English mid-century style. Although he worked within a conservative musical tradition, Parsons experimented with that tradition in personal and individual ways. Specifically his modal and thematic construction as well as his practice of musica ficta are singled out for closer analysis. Consequently, a methodology for editorial decisions concerning musica ficta is developed. Two special problems, the simultaneous cross-relation and diminished fourth, are shown as the result of normative polyphonic processes and vertical structures.
Date: August 1984
Creator: Nosow, Robert Michael
System: The UNT Digital Library
Édouard Batiste's Symphonie militaire (1845): edition and commentary (open access)

Édouard Batiste's Symphonie militaire (1845): edition and commentary

Symphonie Militaire is a three movement work for twelve solo wind instruments composed by Edouard Batiste (1820-1876), a professor at the Paris Conservatoire and organist. The composition is scored for flute, two oboes, two B-flat clarinets, two bassoons, E-flat trumpet with valves, two F horns with valves, trombone, and B-flat ophicleide. In this edition, which was prepared from the original manuscript, the trumpet part is transposed to B-flat and a tuba has been substituted for the ophicleide. Based on a study of the score, as well as knowledge of wind band music of the period, several speculations have been made concerning the reason for the composition of the piece. The limited instrumentation supports the idea that, like other military symphonies, Symphonie Militaire may have been written for a special occasion. The work is, however, at least a reflection of the concern in 1845 for the reconstruction of the French military bands.
Date: May 1976
Creator: Smialek, William
System: The UNT Digital Library
Mahler's Tristan, A Documentary Study of Reception (open access)

Mahler's Tristan, A Documentary Study of Reception

Conductors are oftern associated with a specific body of work in their repertoy. Gustav Mahler's conducting repertory contained some major Wagnerian works, including Tristan und Isolde. Mahler's first performance of Tristan took place during his tenure at the Stadttheater in Hamburg (1891-1897). It remained an integral part of his repertory through his tenure at the Vienna Hofoper (1897-1907), and was one of eight works he conducted at New York's Metropolitan Opera (1907-1910). This study includes a brief history of Mahler's education and a description of his conducting style characteristics. It traces the reception of Mahler's production of Tristan from Hamburg to New York, and focuses on his performances at the Hofoper and at the Metropolitan Opera. Sources used to determine performance changes he made include letters, personal reminiscences of friends and critics, and newspaper and journal reviews.
Date: August 1994
Creator: Stauffer, Kristen K.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Zweyer Gleich-Gesinnten Freunde Tugend- und Schertz-Lieder by Johann Jacob Löwe and Julius Johann Weiland (open access)

Zweyer Gleich-Gesinnten Freunde Tugend- und Schertz-Lieder by Johann Jacob Löwe and Julius Johann Weiland

The purpose of this thesis was to make available for performance and study an edition of the twenty-two secular songs published in this collection by Johann Jacob Löwe and Julius Johann Weiland in 1657. The thesis contains twenty-two secular songs for one, two, or three voices with continuo accompaniment and ritornellos for one or two violins, and/or viola, as well as translations of Lowe's preface and dedication and a poem to Lower and Weiland by Heinrich Schaffer. The work contains three chapters, the first covering Lowe's life and work and association with Weiland, the second the state of German secular song in 16050, and the third a critical commentary on the editing of the songs. Editorial corrections are included.
Date: May 1978
Creator: Clayton, Nancy Jean
System: The UNT Digital Library
Alban Berg as Liedkomponist: An Analytical Study of his Two Settings of "Schliesse mir die Augen beide," 1907 and 1925 (open access)

Alban Berg as Liedkomponist: An Analytical Study of his Two Settings of "Schliesse mir die Augen beide," 1907 and 1925

Alan Berg's two musical settings of Theodor Storm's poem"Schliesse mir die Augen beide" have received little in the way of scholarly analytical attention. The three major chapters of this thesis deal with the two settings on three different levels. Chapter II surveys the political and cultural milieu in which Berg functioned as a young composer of Lieder in the years 1900-1910. Chapter III examines the special quality of lyricism which is often attributed to Berg and his works. Chapter IV provides more definitive and complete musical analyses of the two settings than have heretofore been available. The question of what role songwriting played in the development of Berg's compositional process is addressed in the conclusion.
Date: May 1986
Creator: Ray, Karen, 1951-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Wagner's Das Liebesverbot (open access)

Wagner's Das Liebesverbot

Wagner's second opera Das Liebesverbot, composed in 1835 and first performed in Magdeburg in 1836, could be termed Wagner's "Italian" opera. It represents Wagner's attitudes and feelings at the time of its composition. During this period in Wagner's life the composer had become particularly enchanted with Italian music and also with the Italian way of sensuous and carefree living. At the same time his disillusionment with German conservatism and pedantry also had an influence on the composition of this opera.
Date: May 1973
Creator: Behne, Danna
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Dramatic and Musical Unity of Hector Berlioz's Les Troyens (open access)

The Dramatic and Musical Unity of Hector Berlioz's Les Troyens

The discussion concentrates on Hector Berlioz's second opera, Les Troyens, which is Berlioz's final large work written between 1855-1858. The study demonstrates how the opera is unified through its drama and music. Les Troyens, a five-act tragic opera that is based on Virgil's Aeneid, is perhaps one of Berlioz's least known major works. The orchestral score had not been published in its entirety until 1969, when a two-volume edition of the opera was published by Bärenreiter in the New Edition of the Complete Works of Hector BerIioz. The first complete recording of Les Troyens, conducted by Colin Davis, was released by Philips records in 1972. These two sources have made an analysis of this important work of the nineteenth century possible. The study includes a survey of the dramatic influences of Virgil and his Aeneid, and the poetry of Shakespeare, in addition to the musical influences of Gluck's operas, the compositions of Lesueur, the symphonies of Beethoven, Weber's opera, Der Freischütz, and the French grand opera style, which all contributed to the opera.
Date: August 1973
Creator: Menn, Marta C.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Welsh Crwth, Its History, and Its Genealogy (open access)

The Welsh Crwth, Its History, and Its Genealogy

In the early years of the nineteenth century, when bowed string instruments were assumed to have reached the apex of their development, there arose among antiquarians and scholars a widespread interest in tracing the ancestry of the violin and related members of the chordophone family. This task proved to be exceedingly formidable not only because of the enormous amount of often obscure evidence which had to be taken into consideration but also because of the manner in which many items of evidence seemed to contradict each other. The issue is still not resolved to the complete satisfaction of every party concerned. Literally scores of different and often conflicting arguments have been advanced, and it could perhaps be justly said that the only furtherance thus far realized has been that of the confusion rather than the resolution of the issue.
Date: August 1973
Creator: Bevil, J. Marshall (Jack Marshall)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Drama and Characterization in Opera Settings of "A Midsummer Nightʼs Dream" by Britten and Siegmeister (open access)

Drama and Characterization in Opera Settings of "A Midsummer Nightʼs Dream" by Britten and Siegmeister

Although Shakespeare deliberately downplays characterization in his moonlit dream fantasy, both Britten and Siegmeister exploit this dramatic element as the basis of their opera settings of the play. Through the operas, the shallow characters take on new dimensions, creating musical experiences existing quite independently of Shakespeare, while at the same time retaining the atmosphere of a dream-fantasy. Placing emphases upon varying aspects of the play, the two composers create entirely different revelations from the Bard's dream. This paper presents a study of the way in which drama and characterization are treated in the operas, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Night of the Moonspell.
Date: August 1982
Creator: Allen, Debra K. (Debra Kaye)
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Translation of and Commentary on The Noble Art of Music, by Juan Miguel Urtasun de Yrarraga (open access)

A Translation of and Commentary on The Noble Art of Music, by Juan Miguel Urtasun de Yrarraga

This study is a translation of and commentary on an eighteenth-century treatise written by Juan Miguel Urtasun de Yrarraga. Its purpose is to contribute to the field of knowledge of eighteenth-century Spanish materials, making an original work of that era accessible to the reader unfamiliar with the Spanish language.
Date: December 1972
Creator: Barrera, Xavier
System: The UNT Digital Library
'T Uitnemend Kabinet: Vol Pavanen, Almanden, Sarbanden, Couranten, Balletten, Intraden, Airs: Volume II (open access)

'T Uitnemend Kabinet: Vol Pavanen, Almanden, Sarbanden, Couranten, Balletten, Intraden, Airs: Volume II

'T Uitnemend Kabinet is a two-volume collection of two and three-part instrumental music from Germany, France, Italy, and Holland, published by Paulus Matthysz in Amsterdam (1646 and 1649). Volume I consists of 54 folios in the treble part book, and 19 in the bass part book; Volume II has 37 folios in the treble part book and 21 in the bass part book. he main part of this edition consists of a transcription of the 103 pieces of Volume II, which is accompanied with a brief commentary on the composers represented, the styles and forms of the music, and evidences of significant developments in early seventeenth-century instrumental music.
Date: December 1974
Creator: Wallace, Barbara K.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Lady of the Lake: a Reconstructed Piano-Vocal Score, with Commentary on the Historical Background (open access)

The Lady of the Lake: a Reconstructed Piano-Vocal Score, with Commentary on the Historical Background

The document consists of a commentary on the historical background of the work and an edition of the restored score. The commentary treats its relationship to the ballad opera, sources and alternate settings of the music and libretto, a history of the development of "Hail to the Chief," biographical sketches of the primary composers, and a section on early productions in England and America. The commentary includes a history of the English and American premieres, lengths of the first-runs, and the names of the theatres in which the performances were mounted. The reconstructed score is a piano-vocal performance edition with dialogue, cues, scenery, costume and property plots indicated in detail.
Date: May 1979
Creator: Knox, Robert E., Jr.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Johann Anton Kobrich's Wohlgeübter Organist (open access)

Johann Anton Kobrich's Wohlgeübter Organist

Johann Anton Kobrich (1714-1791) was the priest and organist of the parish church of Landsberg am Lech in upper Bavaria from 1730 until his death. A prolific composer, Kobrich wrote several works for organ, including the Wohlgeubter Organist (1762), a three-part collection of preludes, fugues, and toccatas. The major portion of this thesis consists of an edition of twenty-six selected pieces from the original fifty-eight in this collection. Also included are a bibliography of Kobrich, a discussion of his significance among other contemporary composers, and a survey of the organs and organ music of eighteenth-century southern Germany. In addition, there is an analysis of the Wohlgeubter Organist and a commentary on its significance.
Date: May 1982
Creator: Carnes, Nancy Warlick
System: The UNT Digital Library
Representative Nineteenth-Century Choral Symphonies (open access)

Representative Nineteenth-Century Choral Symphonies

This study is concerned with the examination of choral symphonies by major nineteenth-century composers. Its purpose is to delineate the common characteristics which these works have. Emphasis is given to the investigation of the choral elements in the symphonies. Detailed musicological studies of nineteenth-century music are minimal; there has. been a particular lack of interest in nineteenth-century works for chorus. Therefore, the principal sources of data for this study were the full scores of the following nine symphonies: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Berlioz' Romeo and Juliet and the Funeral and Triumphal Symphony, Mendelssohn's Lobgesang, Liszt's Faust Symphony and Dante Syrmphony, and Mahler's Symphonies Nos. 2., 3, and 8. Other important sources included major biographies of the composers of the symphonies listed. chapter is devoted to each of these composers, subdivided as follows: a general survey of the composer's other works for chorus and/or orchestra; the historical facts connected with the composition and first performance of the individual symphonies; analysis; and conclusions.
Date: December 1971
Creator: Alexander, Metche Franke
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Comparison of the Use of Music in the Holy Eucharist of the Roman Catholic Church and the Sabbath Morning Service of the Jewish Synagogue in the Middle Ages (open access)

A Comparison of the Use of Music in the Holy Eucharist of the Roman Catholic Church and the Sabbath Morning Service of the Jewish Synagogue in the Middle Ages

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of comparing the medieval musical traditions of two of the world's most influential religions. The similarities are discussed in two major categories: the comparison of liturgical texts and ritual, and the comparison of the music appearing in each ritual. This study has one main purpose. That purpose is to demonstrate how, through musical traditions, each religion has developed through the influence of the other. Samples of the liturgies from the musical portions of the services were obtained from prayer books and references dealing with those religions. Investigations of English translations from the Latin and Hebrew revealed a close identity between the two, not only in scriptural uses, but also in prayers and responses. Musical examples demonstrating similar elements in Hebrew and Christian worship were found in the extensive research of A. Z. Idelsohn and Eric Werner. Due to the dispersal of world Jewry, the best examples of Hebrew medieval music were obtained from the most isolated Jewish communities, such as those of Yemen, Musical similarities included modes, melodic formulas, and hymns and songs. This report concludes that the musical portions of the services of Christianity and Judaism in the Middle …
Date: July 1971
Creator: Simmons, Sandra K. (Sandra Kay)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Prodromus Musicalis of Sébastian de Brossard (open access)

The Prodromus Musicalis of Sébastian de Brossard

Sebastien de Brossard (1655-1730) was a French priest, a zealous collector and historian, a musician of merit, and the author of one of the first dictionaries of musical terminology, the Dictionnaire de musigue of 1703. Largely self-taught in music, Brossard studied theology and philosophy at Caen. He was appointed curate at Strasbourg A in 1687 and maitre de musique in 1689. In 1698 he was made grand chapelain and mattre de musique at Meaux, where he remained until his death. His complete works and immense personal library are contained in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. The first edition of Brossard's solo motets was published in 1695 under the title Elevations et motets a voix seule, avec la basse continue. The title Prodromus Musicalis was used for the second edition, published in 1702, and may be loosely translated "Musical Forerunner" or "Musical Prelude." The motets contain a vocal line with text and a figured bass. The present edition presents a faithful rendering of the figured bass and was prepared from a second edition copy contained in the North Texas State University Music Library. In order to enhance the performance and understanding of the eight motets, much of the prefatory material included …
Date: May 1973
Creator: Bolton, Thomas W. (Thomas Wayne)
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Edition of Verse and Solo Anthems by William Boyce (open access)

An Edition of Verse and Solo Anthems by William Boyce

The English musician William Boyce was known as an organist for the cathedral as well as the Chapel Royal, a composer of both secular and sacred music, a director of large choral festivals, and the editor of Cathedral Music, the finest eighteenth-century edition of English Church music. Among Boyce's compositions for the church are many examples of verse and solo anthems. Part II of this thesis consists of an edition of one verse and three solo anthems selected from British Museum manuscript Additional 40497, transcribed into modern notation, and provided with a realization for organ continuo. Material prefatory to the edition itself, including a biography, a history of the verse and solo anthem from the English Reformation to the middle of the eighteenth century, a discussion .of the characteristics of Boyce's verse and solo anthems, and editorial notes constitute Part I.
Date: August 1975
Creator: Fansler, Terry L.
System: The UNT Digital Library