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Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University

Thesis (M.M.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1974. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Songs of the Wind is a five-movement composition for reader, chamber choir, and chamber orchestra. The work is approximately twenty-five minutes in duration. The title describes the programmatic nature of the piece, which depicts an animistic ritual invoking the wind as a deity. The texts are drawn from translations of American Indian poetry as well as original poems by the American Indian scholar Hartley Alexander.

Thesis (M.M.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The purposes of this study were to (1) present a survey of social and cultural backgrounds in the American colonies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the years of the nation's birth, and (2) investigate and document the attitudes toward music and the musical activities of such representative American colonial statesmen as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Francis Hopkinson, Thomas Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams. / 2031-01-01

In 1923, American composer and pianist, Henry Cowell (1897-1965) gave his first highly successful concert tour of Europe, playing his own unique compositions. This thesis details this tour and discusses its impact. Considering the enormous impact of Cowell’s tour, it has only been discussed briefly. Cowell performed in many European cities, especially in Vienna, Berlin, Paris and London, achieving positive reviews and some notoriety. I discuss how and why he created such an impact, not only during the tour but also immediately following it, in relation to musical life in Europe and the differences between his piano music and the piano music that was being heard at the time. On his tour, Cowell showcased many new piano techniques he had invented, some of which he had discussed in his treatise New Musical Resources (1919). His clusters, string-piano technique and to some degree, his experiments with time and metre, were very new and influenced later generations of composers. His music created such passionate responses from the Europeans that when he returned to America, attitudes towards him and his music had changed for the better. In Europe, Cowell was also impressed by the various societies and publications devoted to new music and as a result he founded, in America, the New Music Society and the publication New Musical Quarterly. These promoted mostly American composers devoted to avant-garde developments in music, providing the foundation for the development of American music.

Combining traditional source and modern technique in musical composition has become one of the major trends in the contemporary music development. William Bolcom (1938- ) is an important composer in the 20th century, who followed this trend to compose the two-piano work Recuerdos ¡V Three Traditional Latin-American Dances for Two Pianos (1991). Inspired by characteristics of traditional Latin American dance, Bolcom employed the elements of the Latin American music as the structural foundation. In each of the three movements, Bolcom has tried to recall the stylistic features of the folk music in Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela, as well as musical languages of Ernesto Nazareth (1863-1934), Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869), Ramón Delgado Palacios (1863-1902). Bolcom uses a lot of Latin America music materials in Recuerdos, and also applied contemporary compositional technique to this work, such as polytonality, serialism, collage, etc. Chapter One in this paper will introduce Bolcom¡¦s life background and musical composition experience, and the special characteristics of his five two-piano works. Chapter Two contains the historical background of Recuerdos, mainly discussing musical styles of three countries and three composers which Bolcom wanted to evoke in this composition. Chapter Three includes the compositional manners of Choro, Paseo, and Valse Venezolano, and researches how Bolcom intergrating diverse musical materials and still creating the unity among three movements.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1981. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 352-362) and index.

This study is a history of the musical activities in the Territory of Oklahoma from 1889 to 1907. Material for this dissertation was gathered from newspapers, books, periodicals, letters, sheet music, concert programs, college catalogues, church records, and photographs. Oklahoma City and Guthrie, the most important cities of the territory, provide the locals for the greater part of the study. These two communities reflect the cultural tastes and activities of the entire territory.