Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) constitute core accessibility resources for Web designers and developers. To explore their deployment, I conduct interviews with 10 practitioners who use WCAG and WAI-ARIA in their work. Using techniques derived from grounded theory and situational analysis, I develop the concept of conformance work. Conformance work refers to how designers and developers develop harmonized interpretations of WAI-ARIA and WCAG, and the Websites these specifications are meant to instruct. Conformance work is the upstream work designers and developers engage in to invest categories such as “standards compliance” and “Web accessibility” with meaning.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) constitute core accessibility resources for Web designers and developers. To explore their deployment, I conduct interviews with 10 practitioners who use WCAG and WAI-ARIA in their work. Using techniques derived from grounded theory and situational analysis, I develop the concept of conformance work. Conformance work refers to how designers and developers develop harmonized interpretations of WAI-ARIA and WCAG, and the Websites these specifications are meant to instruct. Conformance work is the upstream work designers and developers engage in to invest categories such as “standards compliance” and “Web accessibility” with meaning.

abstract: Numerous orchestral reductions for piano are plagued by cumbersome passages that impede pianists from delivering phrases with flow and elegance. The vocal works of George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) and Richard Wagner (1813–1883) are among the more unwieldy of these. While arrangers of the piano vocal scores by these two composers admirably include as much orchestration as possible, their efforts often result in writing that is not idiomatic for the piano. The frustrating difficulties in the orchestral reductions of Handel’s “Empio, dirò, tu sei” (Giulio Cesare), his Messiah chorus “For unto us a child is born” as well as Wagner’s aria “Du bist der Lenz” (Die Walküre) all plead for a new, fresh arrangement for the working pianist. Concerning itself with the formation of one’s hands, stamina preservation, and the need to give proper support to the singers, this paper makes examples of these three pieces to document and justify the steps and techniques one may take to customize both these and any variety of orchestral reductions. With great emphasis on the methodology of rewriting operatic and choral orchestral reductions, this document presents newly arranged note–for–note piano vocal scores of the above arias and chorus. By customizing and rewriting complex scores, our partners benefit by singing above the identical accompaniment every time. It is the intent that the collaborative pianist can apply these methods to future rewrites, with the result of producing scores that are conducive to proper technique and flow. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Music 2012

Foreword to Aria Da Capo The libretto of the opera is a verbatim setting of Edna St. Vincent Millay's one act play "Aria da Capo." World events, especially World War II and the current Korean War influenced the choice of this timely, yet timeless play. Miss Millay's death occurred during the composition of the opera. She never knew, therefore, of the composition or performance of her play as an opera. The form of the opera is that of the "da capo" aria. he form, of course, was determined by the play which ends exactly as it started. Thematic material consists mainly of two themes: the opening theme or Scene I (Pierrot and Columbine's scene) and the opening theme of Scene II (the Shepherd's scene). All of the significant motivic material used in Scene I is derived from the opening theme of that scene. In the shepherd's scene, material derived from both of the above mentioned themes is used. The musical style of the two scenes is intentionally contrasting. In Pierrot and Columbine's scene an attempt was made to express their characters by means of a pseudo-popular music style which is rhythmic and lively but has no real depth of emotional feeling. In the shepherd's scene an attempt was made to express their changing characters by means of a very simple style eventually evolving into a more complex style. In order to make the score more easily understood all the orchestrated parts are written in concert. For the same reason all directions to the musicians are given in English instead of the usual Italian. The opera was produced under the direction of Dr. Lucas Underwood. Thomas Haynes, musical assistant to Dr. Underwood, deserves special recognition, not only for his excellent job of conducting the opera, but also for designing the set and staging the opera and for his untiring efforts in rehearsing the cast and the orchestra.

Master of Music / Department of Music / Julie Yu / This report contains an extensive technical and historical analysis of tenor repertoire. It contains modern technical approaches to “Every Valley” and “Thou Shalt Break Them” from Messiah by George Frederic Handel. The report also reviews the history, music theory, and performance techniques of several late Romantic and Neoromantic art songs and arias from Italy, France, and England. The pieces reviewed are the following: “Ouvre tes yeux bleus” by Jules Massenet, “En fermant les yeux” from Manon by Jules Massenet, Three Pastoral Songs by Roger Quilter, Nell by Gabriel Fauré, “Quando ti rivedró” from 36 Arie De Stile Antico by Stefano Donaudy, and “O del mio amato ben” from 36 Arie De Stile Antico by Stefano Donaudy. Finally, this report reviews the popular Spanish art song Granada by Agustin Lara.

This examination essay is a study of the aria Ritorna vincitor! from the opera Aida by composer Giuseppe Verdi. The aim of this study is to address the vocal and interpretational questions that may arise while learning the aria. My work with this essay has included searching for information about Verdi, the opera Aida and the cultural, political and musical climate wherein the opera was born. I have also watched the opera and listened to several versions of the aria. I concentrated especially on the interpretations of Mirella Freni, Leontyne Price and Maria Callas. I also created a musical analysis of the aria. Throughout the process of writing this essay I have kept in my mind my own perspective as a singer. I have formed my study from the information I find useful in the process of approaching a new piece of music. The process of writing this essay has provided me with a lot of insight into the musical ideals and ideas behind Verdi’s work. Writing this essay made me aware of the dilemma of fulfilling the vocal expectations of the tradition and at the same time interpreting the drama convincingly. I have found a lot of useful material for a singer’s artistic development and all that I have learned will certainly come into use in my future vocal studies.

Thesis (M.M.)--Boston University. A thesis presented to the faculty of the School of Fine and Applied Arts [Boston University], in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Music, August 1963.

This study has been conceived to verify whether Francesco Cavalli (Crema, 1602--Venice, 1676), the most representative composer of seventeenth-century Venetian opera, used what is called "key symbolism." Key symbolism, or the association of one particular mood or meaning with one specific key, has been a topos in music theory literature ever since Plato and Aristotle. Many scholars maintain that early modern composers believed in the connotative power of the keys and selected them according to the "affect" they meant to convey. These assumptions are mostly based on the treatises of the time and significant examples, but key symbolism had never been investigated systematically as a poetic code. This study on key symbolism focused on the identification of patterns in the associations of the expressive content ("affect" or "affection") and the key of Cavalli's arias. Arias represent the best place to investigate this association because they form semantic and musical units. Cavalli's twenty-seven extant operas include more than 850 arias and, thus, provide a sufficient sampling for testing the consistency of these patterns in the work of the same composer. My analysis and categorization of Cavalli's arias, which resulted in the compilation of a complete thematic catalogue, was based directly on the manuscript sources of the Contarini Collection held by the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice, and the collection of librettos owned by the same library. This study on Cavalli's key selection determined the following points: 1) the complete spectrum of the keys actually used by Cavalli, and how his tonal palette compares with the one proposed by contemporary theorists; 2) how practical factors, such as orchestration or the voice of the singer, influenced Cavalli's choice of the key; 3) the frequency with which the composer associated recurring topics in arias with particular tonalities; 4) whether Cavalli's usage is consistent with the connotations of the keys described in theoretical literature; and, finally, 5) whether the association of a topic with a key is systematic enough to be considered a poetical code. In the end it appears that Cavalli's choice of the key was certainly influenced but not determined by the content of the text. On the one hand, it is possible to identify some of the affective characteristics he attributed to keys; on the other hand, the link between the key (signifier) and the expressive content of the aria text (signified) cannot be codified as a system of meanings.

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was one of the most prolific British composers of the twentieth century, yet his operas are virtually unknown in the standard operatic repertoire. Singers and teachers of singing are often challenged in finding operatic arias composed in the English language, because the standard operatic repertoire simply does not have as many works originally written in English as are found in Italian, German, or French. If there are arias from Vaughan Williams’ operas that are accessible to the young singing voice, they should not remain unknown. This study was executed in hopes of identifying for singers and teachers of singing, the arias, duets and scenes for male voice that can stand alone outside performances of the operas. The implications of this research project are that singers and teachers of singing have a newly found wealth of repertoire to utilize in performance as well as in the learning environment. Not only are these findings beautiful music from one of the twentieth century’s most prominent composers, but they are perhaps more importantly, accessible to the young and developing singer.

Com a popularização da Web 2.0 e RIA - Rich Internet Applications, as aplicações web cada vez mais utilizam-se da linguagem JavaScript, para implementar recursos de interação sofisticados e complexos na plataforma da Web, visando atrair os usuários com experiências que agradem e atendam suas expectativas. Uma vez que esses recursos de RIA, muitas vezes, fornecem feedback visual de mudanças realizadas na interface, usuários que interagem com a Web por meio de Tecnologias Assistivas, como leitores de tela, não são capazes de identificar e interagir corretamente com os componentes de interface. Assim, a WAI - Web Accessibility Initiative propôs a especificação ARIA - Accessible Rich Internet Applications que determina um conjunto de propriedades que atribuem semântica aos elementos de um componente de interface (Widget), permitindo que as Tecnologias Assistivas identifiquem previamente o comportamento dos componentes de interface e informem o usuário sobre as alterações que possam ser realizadas na estrutura da página web. Nesse contexto, esta tese teve como objetivo elaborar estratégias de avaliação automática dos requisitos de acessibilidade da especificação ARIA. Foram elaboradas três diferentes abordagens para analisar os requisitos da especificação ARIA, utilizando a metodologia de pesquisa-ação com a condução de três ciclos das atividades de planejar, agir, descrever e avaliar. As abordagens foram desenvolvidas com base em Testes de Aceitação e verificações de características tecnológicas das aplicações web, considerando especificamente o modelo de interação de usuários deficientes visuais que utilizam leitores de tela. Cada uma das abordagens foi validada separadamente e os resultados apresentam tendências de que as estratégias são capazes de avaliar corretamente o comportamento esperado de uma aplicação rica de Internet acessível, segundo as recomendações ARIA para usuÁ¡rios deficientes visuais. As abordagens também apresentaram como contribuições: a inclusão do modelo de interação do usuário no processo de avaliação e levantamentos sobre os níveis de conformidade de aplicações web e bibliotecas JavaScript com a especificação ARIA. Os resultados obtidos a partir das abordagens propostas nesta tese contribuem para o processo de Engenharia Web de aplicações ricas de Internet acessíveis / With the increased popularity of the Web 2.0 and RIA - Rich Internet Applications, web applications rely more and more in JavaScript to implement richer and more complex interaction mechanisms in the Web platform. Since these mechanisms, frequently, generate dynamic updates to the DOM - Document Object Model structure of a webpage and require visual perception of users to notify them about these changes in the interface, users that interact with the Web through usage of Assistive Technologies such as a screen reader are not capable of correctly identifying and interacting with the interface components built with these technologies - the widgets. In this context, the WAI - Web Accessibility Initiative created the ARIA - Accessible Rich Internet Applications specification which describes the use of properties that add semantics to elements that compose a widget, allowing Assistive Technology to priorly identify the behavior of a widget and inform the user about changes that might be made to the DOM structure of the webpage. This thesis goal was to elaborate automatic evaluation strategies for accessibility requirements of the ARIA specification. Three evaluation strategies were elaborated following the research-action methodology with the conduction of three cycles of the activities of planning, acting, describing and evaluating. The strategies were implemented based in Acceptance Tests and verifications on specific details of the technology that compose web applications, considering specifically blind users interaction patterns through the use of screen readers. Each strategy was separately validated and the results show tendencies that the strategies were capable of correctly evaluating the behavior of web applications, considering their conformance with ARIA recommendations for blind users. The development and validation of the evaluation strategies also presented contributions by: including user interaction models in the automatic evaluation approaches and presenting a survey on web applications and JavaScript toolkits conformance rates with the ARIA specification. Thus contributing to the Web Engineering process of ARIA