Although Louis Moreau Gottschalk's works are not generally recognized as being exceptionally significant in the development of musical style, they do serve as a link between the music of Frederic Chopin and that of Charles Ives. Certain stylistic characteristics of Chopin are seen in many of Gottschalk's works, especially those which incorporate "Scherzo" and "Mazurka" passages. Simultaneously, Gottschalk's concept of using popular tunes as prominent melodies and themes was later expanded by Charles Ives. Gottschalk's works include some of America's first experimentations with form through utilization and expansion of the basic form of ABA Coda. Through his use of varied ABA form with repeated and parallel passages, Gottschalk developed his particular style of phrasing, texture, and rhythm, all of which figure prominently in his works. Four pieces are examined with these concepts as the basis for analysis.

Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att få en inblick i hur pianot används inom den svenska folkmusiken. Bakgrundskapitlet handlar om folkmusikgruppernas och instrumenteringens utveckling inom svensk folkmusik. Jag har intervjuat tre aktiva folkmusikpianister och lyssnat på och analyserat deras spel. Det följer även med en cd-skiva med ljudexempel från intervjutillfällena. Vi pratade om karaktärsdrag som de lyfter fram i spelet, om deras inställning till folkmusiktraditionen, pianots möjligheter och begränsningar samt vilken roll pianot har i den svenska folkmusiken. Mina slutsatser är att pianot har flera roller i ett samspel med andra musiker. Pianisten kan spela melodi, rytmik, harmonik och även alltihop samtidigt. Pianot fungerar väldigt bra som soloinstrument men också som ett samspelsinstrument. Vad som gör att pianots plats i folkmusiktraditionen är väldigt liten är bland annat dess opraktiska storlek. Jag har också kommit fram till att pianot tillför en ny klang, ett nytt sound till svensk folkmusik. / The purpose of this study is to acquire a glimpse of how the piano is used in Swedish folk music. The background chapter deals with folk music groups and the development of instrumentation in Swedish folk music. I have interviewed three active folk music pianists, listened to and analyzed their playing style. There is also a CD with music examples from the interview sessions. We discussed the characteristics of their own playing, their attitudes to folk music tradition, the piano's possibilities and limitations, and the role of the piano in Swedish folk music. My conclusion is that the piano functions on several levels while interacting with other musicians. Pianists can play melody, rhythm, harmony, and all of this simultaneously. The piano works very well as a solo instrument, yet also as an ensemble instrument. The small role of the piano in Swedish folk music may be due to its impractical size. I have also discovered that the piano contributes to a new sound to Swedish folk music.

Many piano teachers agree that suitable repertoire motivates their students to learn and practice their instrument. Asking students to learn different categories of repertoire might be a good approach for piano teachers to motivate and maintain their students’ musical interests. However, how do teachers evaluate what kinds of repertoire is presented in the teaching material that is available to them? The purpose of this study is to review the pieces found in North-American piano method books in order to provide an inventory of the different categories of repertoire found in each series and to calculate the proportion of piano repertoire belonging in each category. Consequently, this research will allow piano teachers to see more clearly which kinds of repertoire are in a method book and help select the most appropriate method books for their students.

Det finns en hel del litteratur som lär ut jazzimprovisation, men få som visar vilka musikaliska strukturer som kan användas för att få det att låta ”jazzigt”. I den här kvalitativa studien utforskas därför likheterna mellan fem olika utvalda jazzimprovisationer i piano. I fokus står improvisationernas musikaliska ”språk” ifråga om musikaliska byggstenar eller strukturer. Forskningsfrågan lyder: Vilka musikaliska ”byggstenar” eller strukturer, har fem olika solon i jazzpiano gemensamt? Syftet med studien är att finna likheter mellan några pianoimprovisationer av kända jazzmusiker. Studien utgår från fenomenologiskt och hermeneutiskt perspektiv. Resultaten visar att de olika musikerna använder sig av en rad olika specifika koncept som de bygger sina jazzimprovisationer på: bluesspråk, side slipping, kromatik och närmandetoner, ackordstoner, reharmonisering, överlagrade ackord och pentatonik. Det fenomen som synes hålla samman dessa koncept är tension and release, som tillsammans med koncepten bidrar till det musikaliska språk som används inom den här delen av jazzgenren. Trots att pianisterna synes bygga sina improvisationer på samma koncept, används dock dessa på så pass varierade sätt, att improvisationerna upplevs som både personliga och kreativa. / It is easy to find literature that teaches jazz improvisations, but hard to find any that really shows which musical structures can be used in order to make a sound “jazzy”. This qualitative study will therefore explore the similarities between five piano-jazz improvisations.  The music “language” of the musicians such as the “building blocks” or structure will be in focus when comparing these improvisations. The research question for this study will therefore be: what musical building blocks or structures have the five solos in jazz piano in common? The aim is to find similarities between some piano improvisations done by acclaimed jazz musicians. The study will have a phenomenological and hermeneutic approach. The presented result show that the musicians use a range of specific concepts when building their jazz improvisations; blues, side slipping, chromaticism and approach notes, chord tones, reharmonisation, upper structure triads and pentatonics. The conclusive phenomena has been proven to be tension and release, that together with the concept contributes to the music language that is used within this jazz genre. Even though the different pianists seems to use the same concept when building their improvisations, it is in the way they use them in terms of variation, that makes the solos appear personal and creative.

The dissertation consists of four recitals: one chamber music recital, two solo recitals, and one lecture recital. The chamber music program included a trio with the violin and cello performing with the piano. The repertoire of all of the programs was intended to demonstrate a variety of types and styles of piano music from several different historical periods. The lecture recital, "The Poetic Ideal in the Piano Music of Franz Liszt," was an attempt to enter a seldomexplored area of Liszt's musical inspiration. So much has been written about the brilliant and virtuosic compositions which Liszt created to demonstrate his own technical prowess that it is easy to lose sight of the other side of his creative genius. Both as a composer and as an author, Liszt reiterated his belief in the fundamental kinship of music and the other arts. The visual arts of painting and sculpture were included, but he considered the closest relationship to be with literature, and especially with poetry.

The lecture recital was given October 15, 1971. The subject of the discussion was Brahms and the Character Piece: Emotion Guided by Intellect, and it included historical and biographical information, an analysis of Brahms' romantic-classic style, a general analysis of the six character pieces in Opus 118, and performance of Opus 118 by memory. In addition to the lecture recital, three other public recitals were performed. These three programs were comprised of solo literature for the piano. The first solo recital was on April 15, 1971, and included works of Brahms, Chopin, Mozart, and Ravel. The second program, presented on April 28, 1972, featured several works of Beethoven. Performed on Septemhber 25, 1972, the third recital programmed compositions by Chopin, Debussy, and Prokofieff. Magnetic tape recordings of all four programs and the written lecture material are filed together as the dissertation.

The purpose of this study was to compare personal investment levels among nonmusic major piano students in the contexts of portfolio and teacher-directed assessment. Three problems were addressed: 1) identifying students' perceptions of direction, persistence, continuing motivation, intensity, and performance in the context of teacher-directed goal setting, choice of instructional activities, and evaluation of performance; 2) identifying students' perceptions of the five personal investment behaviors in the context of portfolio assessment; and 3) comparing student perceptions as identified in problems one and two.

When Alberto Ginastera's oeuvre is viewed as a whole, an essential continuity between compositional ideas often appears in different works. This is especially apparent in the three piano sonatas, where each sonata represents an evolution and a condensation of ideas occurring in the previous one. The evolution of ideas throughout the three sonatas takes place through two primary processes. The first is a shift in cultural focus from reliance on Ibero-American material in the first sonata (1952) to Amerindian in the second (1981), to a synthesis of the two cultural elements in the third (1982). The second means of evolution from sonata to sonata is through a process of symmetrization. Along with constructions using symmetrical scales, material in each of the three sonatas is subjected to various symmetrical procedures which correspond musically to basic geometric symmetry types or operations (bilateral, rotational, and translatory, for instance). The decreasing number of movements evidences a negative dilatation of material, moving from four movements in the first sonata to three in the second, to one in the third. In each case, corresponding material from the previous sonata is integrated into the following sonata. Both independently and as a group the three piano sonatas exhibit "invariance under a transformation."

The purpose of the study was to investigate independent piano teachers' view of themselves in the light of selected attributes found in sociological writings on the professions. The research problems were: (a) to determine the attitudes which independent piano teachers held toward selected professional attributes; (b) to determine the relationship between the attitudes toward the professional attributes and selected background variables; and (c) to determine the degree of association between these attributes. The problems were addressed by a questionnaire directed to independent piano teachers active in the area of Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas. Thirty teachers were also interviewed to determine consistency of response and to explore issues which the questionnaire had raised. Reliability and validity were established at acceptable levels. Techniques of statistical analysis included Pearson's product-moment correlation, multiple regression, chi-square in conjunction with Cramer's V_, and factor analysis. The strongest attitudes expressed by the teachers in the study concerned professional self-image, altruism, client orientation, commitment to work, and independence. The most important background variables were age, years of experience, number of students, certification by a professional association, and college degree in music. A multiple regression analysis tested each variable against the dependent variable professional self-image; recognition by others, commitment to work, client orientation, and qualification were found to account for 25% of the common variance. A factor analysis was also conducted to seek out patterns of attitudes among the attributes being studied; seven factors were identified among the subjects' belief systems as Professional Actions, Satisfaction, Quality Control, Professionalism, Compliance, Autonomy, and Focus on Student. These factors accounted for almost half of the total variance in the data. The study concluded that: (a) independent piano teaching was a female-dominated, subsidized occupation, and (b) the piano teachers' professional self-image seemed to be an evaluation of themselves and their work, rather than the use of profession as a definable goal for which to strive.

The purpose of the thesis is to analyze formally, harmonically and melodically the five movements of the suite both as separate movements and inclusively as one cohesive unit. The thesis will be written in three parts: Part One will include a biographical sketch of the composer, a general discussion of his music, background information on the suite and Dett's antecedents and contemporaries influencing him. Part Two will discuss the following: A) Form, B) Harmonic Analysis, and C) Melodic Analysis and the influences of black folk idioms. Part Three will include the keyboard music of Dett's contemporaries as compared to his suite in terms of their contrasts and similarities.