Florence Price (1887–1953) was one of the most important African American woman composers of the early twentieth century. Price's music is known for combining techniques of Western art music with elements of the African American musical heritage. Although Price composed many works for piano, from large virtuoso pieces to characteristic miniatures, this study will address only her Piano Sonata in E minor. The purpose of this study is to analyze this sonata and discuss her compositional techniques and musical style as a combination of African American elements and Classical European procedures, combined and coordinated yet remaining in tension. Traditional European harmony, tonality, and form are successfully combined with African American characteristics: pentatonic scale, spirituals, syncopations, repetition, and dance rhythms. Indeed, Price's work is a considerable achievement, and she is one of the important African American women composers who should be better recognized today.

Pianists often have trouble in determining where a phrase ends, or in other words, cadence identification. This is especially true of certain cadences that can be considered either as half cadences or authentic cadences. This analytically ambiguous cadential point can result in different performance decisions, so pianists should make informed decisions about what kind of cadence it is. This study aims to investigate such cadential ambiguity shown at points of phrase boundaries by focusing on Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35, first movement. I offer both possibilities (a half cadence or an authentic cadence) at the phrase ending, suggesting a performance-related strategy based on each possibility. My objective is not to support only one cadential status, but to bring up the cadential problem from the analytical perspective and to demonstrate how cadence identification affects performance results. The dissertation is divided into two parts: analysis and performance, so it relies on a combined method of analytical terminologies and performance-related musical elements. In the analysis, the terminology of William Caplin is employed. The performance part refers to several method books written by prestigious piano pedagogues. After an introduction in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 reviews some literature on cadences. Chapter 3 specifically analyzes the first movement of Chopin's second sonata by means of Caplin's terminologies. Chapter 4 provides a performance-related method and Chapter 5 deals with a practical performance strategy.

In the late 19th century, Georg Schumann (1866-1952) composed an attractive sonata for the cello that remains largely unknown today. By presenting a performer's analysis, this dissertation aims to position Georg Schumann's Sonata for Cello and Piano in E minor, Op. 19 (1898) amongst other more commonly performed sonatas of the era. This paper provides a detailed analysis of each movement of the sonata, an overview of the history and development of the cello sonata and an overview of Georg Schumann's biography leading up to the composition of his cello sonata.

My lecture serves as a critical examination of the Six Sonatas Op. 3, KV. 10-15 by W.A. Mozart. I will engage the variances between the first edition of Op. 3 and those by Joseph Bopp and Louis Moyse edited specifically for the flute in hopes of providing another perspective for students, performers, and pedagogues alike. This study will (1) provide background information regarding the creation of KV. 10-15, (2) include a brief analysis of each sonata, (3) compare adaptions between the first edition, according to NMA, and two modern flute transcriptions, and (4) produce two new transcriptions. My new transcriptions of Sonatas KV. 10 and 13 represent a closer interpretation to the first edition and alerts students and teachers to the differences between the editions by Joseph Bopp and Louis Moyse to that of the first and NMA editions. The goal is to stimulate performers to reappraise their approach to this particular repertoire and to encourage more authentic performances of these engaging sonatas.

The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a musical work of one of the world's most favorite composers of the 20th century - Sergej Prokofiev. Even though I would like to address all his pieces, given the extensiveness of his work and my profession as a pianist and a pedagogue, I decided to focus only on the pieces for solo piano. I detail each piano piece in a catalogue organized by opus number. My analysis focuses on compositions, eventually on cycles, which can be somehow beneficial to us. Beneficial, in this sense means exposure to pieces with variety of character, use of melody and eventually pieces from a various work periods. Another condition during a selection of pieces for my dissertation was various levels of difficulty. The majority of my thesis is dedicated to the piano sonatas. Although they are not very long, they belong to the piano masterpieces forever. Further, I mention less performed Etudes, Op. 2 and Visions fugitives, Op. 22, and on the other hand well known Suit from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75. The music for children is represented in my analysis by one piece only - Children's Songs, Op. 65. Prokofiev wrote nearly 40 opuses for piano, which makes up almost a third of his work. That is a remarkable number and these pieces are worth interest.

Master of Music / Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance / Gary C. Mortenson / This report is an analysis and exploration of the following works: Eugène Bozza’s Caprice, Vincent Persichetti’s The Hollow Men, Halsey Stevens’s Sonata for Trumpet and Piano, Alexander Arutunian’s Concerto for Trumpet, Ernest Bloch’s Proclamation, and Eric Ewazen’s Grand Valley Fanfare. The purpose of this report is to aid performance preparation of these pieces by providing thematic and formal analysis as well as identifying general unifying elements for each piece. Once identified, these patterns will help the performer communicate the broad musical ideas to the audience by finding a balance between the technical aspects and musical statements in each work.

When Hubert Le Blanc published his Défence de la basse de viole in 1741, the cello had already established itself as a solo instrument in Parisian musical life. Several cellists, both French and foreign, had performed to acclaim at the Concert Spirituel, and the instrument had a rapidly expanding repertoire of published solo sonatas by French composers. Among the most significant of the early French cellist-composers were Jean Barrière (1707-47), François Martin (c. 1727-c. 1757), Jean-Baptiste Masse (c. 1700-1757), and Martin Berteau (1708/9-1771). Their cello sonatas are innovative, experimental, often highly virtuosic, and, in spite of unashamedly Italianate traits, tinged with a uniquely French hue. Yet notwithstanding its repertoire and the skill of its performers, this generation of French cellist-composers has remained undervalued and underexplored. To a large extent, this neglect has arisen because a succeeding generation of French cellists of the late eighteenth century - the Duport brothers, Jean-Pierre (1741-1818) and Jean-Louis (1749-1819), the Janson brothers, Jean-Baptiste-Aimé (1742-1823) and Louis-Auguste-Joseph (1749-1815), and Jean-Baptiste Bréval (1753-1823) - are widely acknowledged as the creators of the modern school of cello playing. This dissertation focuses exclusively on the early French cello school. It seeks to examine the rise of the solo cello in France within its socio- cultural and historical context; to provide biographies of those com- prising the early French cello school; to explore the repertoire with particular emphasis on the growth of technique and idiom, detailing features that may be described as uniquely French, and to assert the importance of and gain recognition for this school, not as a forerunner of the so-called Duport school but as an entity in itself.

The aim of the present study is to explore the so-called historically informed performance movement, which also is my own musical performance tradition, from a general perspective grounded in musical philosophy. The discussions concerning this performance tradition have been dominated by different subjects, such as musical works, authenticity, intention and interpretation. The study focuses on Western art music where the performance of the music, the sounding realisation, of a notated work is central. Therefore, the performance in connection with the abovementioned subjects is of prime interest. This more overarching theme gave rise to the following questions: What factors can be considered decisive for whether a performance is a historically informed performance or not? How can these factors be identified? Does this mean that there are instructions in the music that I, as a musician, must obey? What does my artistic freedom look like? Where can I find it? The path to tentative answers to these questions is taken via theoretical discussions and the application of the theory in method and analyses as well as in interpretation.The theoretical perspective of the study is based on contextual musical ontology. The scientific theoretical framework, emanating from this ontology, is formulated in the field of social constructionism.The performance can, through this perspective, be identified as an indispensable part of the musical work, which also implies that the notated work itself is not sufficient to identify the work. Further, the emphasis on the context's importance for the performance in order to allow the performance to be of the work in question implies the necessity of awareness of the context of the work. This concept is deepened in the study through the emphasis on the importance for the performance, in a broad perspective, of the historical as well as the contemporary socio-cultural context. For the work itself this means that the identity of the work is unstable, it is constantly changing, since the different performances of the work that are parts of the work can never be identical. The perspective is based on social constructivist theories about knowledge. With contextual musical ontology as a point of departure, a strategy is formulated concerning analysis and investigation of a musical work. This strategy focuses on the notation, the instrumentation, and historical performance conventions. These three parts interact with one another and in the study they are formulated as being inseparable from the performance of the work.The theoretical part of the study is followed by a case study in which a sonata by Johann Sebastian Bach is studied from the articulated theoretical perspective. The case study contains an investigative part and an interpretative part. The work's notation is always in focus in the investigative and descriptive part, with emphasis on the socio-cultural context connected to the notation. Through the sounding interpretations, the different performances, the final chapter results in a summary of the study as a whole. / Syftet med föreliggande studie är att studera så kallad historiskt informerad uppförandepraxis, och därmed även min egen musikaliska inriktning, ur ett generellt musikfilosofiskt perspektiv. De olika begrepp och frågeställningar som kan sägas dominera diskussionerna kring denna framförandetradition är verk, autenticitet, intention och interpretation. I fokus för studien befinner sig musik inom den västerländska konstmusiktraditionen inom vilken framförandet av musik, den klingande realiseringen av ett noterat verk, är central. Därför står framförandet, i relation till ovan nämnda begrepp, i fokus. Detta mer övergripande tema leder fram till följande frågeställningar: Vilka faktorer kan betraktas som avgörande för att ett framförande kan betraktas som ett historiskt informerat framförande? Hur kan dessa faktorer identifieras? Innebär det att det finns instruktioner i musiken som jag som musiker måste följa? Hur ser min konstnärliga frihet ut? Var finner jag den? Vägen till tentativa svar på dessa frågor har gått via teoretiska resonemang, och applicering av teorin i såväl metod och analys som interpretation. Studiens teoretiska perspektiv och överbyggnad baseras på kontextuell musikontologi. Det vetenskapsteoretiska ramverket, utifrån denna ontologiska grund, formuleras inom ramen för den socialkonstruktionistiska tanketraditionen. Genom detta perspektiv kan framförandet av verket identifieras som en omistlig del av verket, vilket också innebär att enbart notationen inte är tillräcklig för att definiera verket. Vidare innebär teorins betoning av kontextens betydelse att ett framförande för att vara ett framförande av verket, medvetet måste förhålla sig till verkets kontext. Detta perspektiv fördjupas i studien genom att betona den socio-kulturella kontextens betydelse i ett större perspektiv, såväl den historiska som den nutida, för framförandet. För verket innebär det att dess identitet är föränderlig, då de olika framföranden som är en del av verket inte kan vara identiska. Denna syn baseras på socialkonstruktivistiska teorier om kunskapsbyggande. Med utgångspunkt i kontextuell musikontologi formuleras också en strategi för att analysera och undersöka ett verk utifrån notationen, instrumentationen och uppförandepraktiska konventioner, tre delar av verket som griper in i varandra och som konstateras vara omistliga att förhålla sig till vid ett framförande. Studiens teoretiska del åtföljs av en fallstudie där en sonat av Johann Sebastian Bach studeras utifrån det teoretiska perspektivet. Fallstudien består av en undersökande del och en tillämpande interpretativ del. För den undersökande, och i viss mån deskriptiva delen står verkets notation hela tiden i fokus, med tyngdpunkt på notationens socio-kulturella kontext. Det avslutande kapitlet resulterar, genom de klingande gestaltningarna av sonaten, i en sammanfattning av studien som helhet. Avhandlingens slutkapitel utgörs även av en CD. Den kan beställas genom registrator på Institutionen för musik och medier vid Luleå tekniska universitet. E-post: muh-registrator(at)ltu.se / Godkänd; 2008; 20081113 (ysko)

David Baker (b. 1931) is an educator, composer, and jazz legend. He has composed at least fifteen works that include the clarinet. Baker’s Clarinet Sonata (1989) has become a standard of clarinet repertoire and a popular recital inclusion. His chamber work Heritage: A Tribute to Great Clarinetists (1996) interweaves solo transcriptions of five jazz clarinetists. The compositional style of Baker’s clarinet works frequently links jazz and classical idioms. The two works discussed in this document are excellent examples for classically trained musicians who would like to increase their ability and experience in interpreting jazz styles. The purpose of this document is: (1) to provide background, style, and performance considerations for Baker’s Clarinet Sonata and Heritage: A Tribute for Great Clarinetists, for Clarinet, Violin, Piano and Double Bass; (2) based on these style elements, to provide suggestions for interpreting jazz-style works for classically trained clarinetists; and (3) to archive Baker’s published and unpublished clarinet compositions. Appendices include transcripts of interviews with David Baker and other experts in this field (James Campbell, Rosana Eckert, Mike Steinel and Steven Harlos).

I detta arbete analyseras det omfattande pianoverket ”Dantesonaten” komponerat av Franz Liszt i syfte om att ta reda på vilka musikaliska och tekniska element han utnyttjat för att uttrycka djävulen, helvetet och andra diaboliska företeelser i sin musik. Därmed kommer en djupgående analys av eposet Den gudomliga komedin skrivet av Dante Alighieri genomförasdå Liszt baserat sin komposition på detta verk. Liszts intresse för Den gudomliga komedin och Dante som poet belyses samt varför han valt att basera sin sonat på detta ämne. Resultatet tyder på att Liszt använt dissonanta intervall som tritonus, dimackord, heltonsskalor, kromatik och tremoloteknik m.m. för att allt i kombination bilda en tydlig representation av det som kan kopplas med det diaboliska. Största delen av resultatet består av egna tolkningar men även andras interpretationer hämtade från olika litterära källor och online-resurser. Det var svårt att finna konkreta tecken på vad kompositörens egna återspeglingar i musiken må ha varit. Däremot kan detta arbete ändå vara en bra utgångspunkt för en pianist som planerar att spela verket och vill få idéer om hur det diaboliska materialet och andra teman ur ”Dantesonaten” kan tolkas. / In this study, the extensive piano piece "The Dante Sonata" composed by Franz Liszt is analyzed in order to find out what musical and technical elements he has used to express the devil, hell and other diabolical phenomena in his music. Thus, an in-depth analysis of the narrative poem The Divine Comedy written by Dante Alighieri will be made, as Liszt bases his composition on this work. The study investigates Liszt's interest in The Divine Comedyand Dante as a poet and why he chose to base his sonata on this subject. The results indicate that Liszt used dissonant intervals such as tritones, diminished chords, whole-tone scales, chromatic passages and tremolo technique, etc. to all in combination form a clear representation of the diabolical. Most of the results consist of own interpretations but also other renderings taken from various literary sources and online-resources. It was difficult to find concrete signs of what the composer's own reflections in the music may have been. However, this work can still be a good starting point for a pianist who plans to study thismusic and want to get ideas on how the diabolical material and other themes from "The Dante Sonata" can be interpreted. / <p>F. Liszt - Après une Lecture du Dante (Fantasia quasi Sonata) från Années de pèlerinage II, Deuxième année: Italie, S. 161, Nr. 7, "Dantesonaten"</p>