Toru Takemitsu's piano works reveal a new scope to the concept of sound in modern piano literature. He achieves originality through his imagination and his Japanese cultural and musical heritage. Subtle Japanese elements, which have been embedded for centuries in Japan's culture and music, lend a unique, but not outwardly Japanese, feeling to this work.

Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) composed Dialogue de l'ombre double for clarinet and live electronics in 1985. This same year, Alain Damiens of Ensemble InterContemporain premiered and recorded the work with the help of Andrew Gerzso of Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM). The piece alternates between pre-recorded and live sections that are performed with varied levels of amplification and reverberation creating a dialogue between the parts. Boulez also includes detailed instructions for the spatialization of the pre-recorded tracks that play through six equidistant speakers that surround the audience. Furthering the complexity of this work, it is available in two published versions: version aux chiffres arabes (Arabic numeral version) and version aux chiffres romains (Roman numeral version). Each version includes much of the same musical material, but arranged in a different order. Performance of Dialogue de l'ombre double requires extraordinary technical facility and musical understanding from the clarinetist, the dedicated involvement of a highly qualified sound technician, and the use of a spacious, technologically equipped performance venue. This performance guide aims to facilitate greater accessibility and understanding of this challenging work, in order to encourage widespread performance of this extraordinary piece.

There are certain recordings by important artists such as Lionel Hampton, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Pedro Iturralde, Chick Corea, and Paco de Lucía, among others, that have been associated with the label flamenco jazz. This label is entering jazz discourse, and it needs to be better understood in order to clarify its history, its identity, and its impact on recent developments in flamenco that are labeled nuevo flamenco. There is a lack of agreement in the existent literature on flamenco jazz on the evaluation of these recordings and these artists' achievements and contributions to this field. These writings encompass authors from different backgrounds: journalists, critics, and musicologists, who have approached their analysis of the recordings from different perspectives. The differences in professional backgrounds, approaches, and purpose of the writings of these authors has resulted in controversy about this label. Therefore, the flamenco jazz scholarly conversation needs more objective writings from an analytical point of view. This historiographical study presents a more comprehensive evaluation of flamenco jazz by discussing selected recordings using analytical tools from jazz studies. These analytical arguments clarify the aesthetics of flamenco jazz and the artistic processes that these artists went through when combining musical elements from flamenco and jazz, which in some cases are described as creative misreading. In this century of cultural globalization, where jazz has become a diverse expression of world music because of its capacity to absorb traits from other musical practices, this study can be a resource for international jazz musicians who are seeking to combine jazz with their musical cultural heritage.

Yvonne Desportes (1907-1993) was an influential female composer, teacher, and music theorist. Her early success as a recipient of the Prix de Rome for composition (1932) marked the beginning of her distinguished career in music culminating in a 35-year professorship at the Paris Conservatory. Despite the relative obscurity of her music, Desportes was a prolific composer and published numerous works for clarinet quartet. This dissertation seeks to promote the clarinet music of Yvonne Desportes through a pedagogical examination of her clarinet quartets. The equitable parts and quality of Desportes' compositional style allow her clarinet quartets to be effective teaching tools for the development of fundamental clarinet skills relating to tone, technique, and musical style.

The euphonium has been an integral part of wind bands and brass bands for more than a century. During this time the instrument has grown in stature in both types of band, as an ensemble member and a solo instrument. Until recently, however, the instrument has been underrepresented in orchestral literature, although a growing number of composers are beginning to appreciate the characteristics of the instrument. The purpose of this research is to explore the perceived rise of the euphonium in an orchestral environment through analyzing the significance of the role it plays within Lorin Maazel's Music for Flute with Tenor Tuba Obbligato (1995) and Karl Jenkins' Cantata Memoria (2005); specifically, how the euphonium contributes to the orchestral scores in relation to its capabilities as an instrumental voice.

This dissertation explores what it is that makes Les nuits d’été such an effective musical composition. This is done by analysing the song cycle according to Terry Eagleton’s four categories of psychoanalytical literary criticism. The death of Berlioz’s mother, with whom he had an unresolved conflict at the time of her death, is proposed as the emotional trigger that led to the composition of these songs. The content and form of the music to which he set them reveals a narrative that closely corresponds to Freud’s description of the Oedipal conflict and its successful resolution. Using the psychoanalytical theories of Lacan, Barthes, Kristeva and others, the subliminal catharsis of Berlioz’s song cycle, in the way that it is transposed to the listener through the mediation of the music, is proposed as the reason why Les nuits d’été is such an effective musical composition. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Musicology)

Thesis (MMus (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / This study represents a contribution to the subject-didactical review of three prominent compositions for the violin by three prominent South African composers, namely the Sonata on African Motives by Stefans Grové (1985), Luamerava by Hendrik Hofmeyr (2000) and the Concerto for violin and orchestra by Allan Stephenson (2007). The three composers are discussed with reference to biographical detail and broad compositional style, while the works are reviewed according to musicological aspects as well as violin specific didactical aspects. To avoid too much repetition, a chapter concerning technical issues and practice methods pertaining to all three works was added. In the Sonata on African Motives, Stefans Grové merges his “old” compositional style, in this work loosely represented by a lack of tonality and metre, as well as complicated use of rhythm, with his “new” African voice (1984-). The African voice, represented by a melody he overheard a black roadworker sing, ties the work together. The sonata consists of five movements, with the first and fourth movements, and the third and fifth movements linked through content. This work presents challenging ensemble playing, rhythmic detail, diverse timbre changes in the violin part, as well as pitch difficulty due to unusual intervals without tonal context. Hendrik Hofmeyr‟s Luamerava was commissioned by SAMRO for the overseas scholarship. The title refers to the last of the mythical Children of the Lost Star who lived in the Cariba gorge on the banks of the Zambezi river (according to Mutwa‟s description of the oral culture of the people of that region). The piece, like the Grové, is thus linked to Africa. The work was composed for solo violin, Hofmeyr makes the most of the lyrical and sonorous qualities of the instrument. Compared to the other two works studied, Luamerava presents the most advanced technical challenges, with extensive doublestopping being the main challenge. Allan Stephenson‟s Concerto differs significantly from the other two works studied in the sense that it is instantly appealing to the general music lover, mainly because of his use of easy flowing melodies. The concerto has, as is tradition, three movements. Although the work contains ample technical challenges, it is obvious that it was composed by a string player – both the extensive running passages and double stopping are quite possible to play once good fingerings have been found. In the discussion of these works, attempts at solving specific technical problems are made.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Humanities / Master / Master of Philosophy

In 1995, fiddler Ashley MacIsaac released the album Hi, How Are You Today? that featured MacIsaac performing traditional Celtic tunes accompanied by modern rock instruments. The musical genre transformation on the album (notable because people who were not fans of Celtic music bought this album, tracks were released for airplay, and music videos accompanied the singles) can be studied according to the types of genre transformation outlined by Alastair Fowler in Kinds of Literature. If MacIsaac's goal was to offer a popular rock album while playing traditional tunes on the fiddle, critics and members of his audience inevitably questioned his motivation, from which charges of pandering and exploitation followed. Alternate interpretations stressed that MacIsaac was merely adapting traditional music to reflect a changing musical climate. This thesis examines such perspectives, along with the global phenomenon of modernizing folk music amidst the ambiguous boundary between popular and folk musical genres.

Orientador: José Roberto Zan / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-16T23:13:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Visconti_EduardodeLima_D.pdf: 3049814 bytes, checksum: b724fe60737a7a167889c3e8a9c53840 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-16T20:13:40Z / Resumo: O tema desta tese é a inserção da guitarra elétrica na música popular brasileira, processo que se deu de forma gradativa a partir de meados do século XX. Através do estudo dos estilos de José Meneses e Olmir Stocker, dois músicos que se dedicaram a esse instrumento, procuro compreender o modo pelo qual a guitarra elétrica não apenas foi introduzida, mas se adequou ao repertório da nossa música popular. Identificada como instrumento dotado de dispositivos artificiais (captadores eletrônicos) e portadora de uma carga de significados associados ao jazz e à música pop anglo-americana, a guitarra foi objeto de veneração e rejeição por parte de críticos e músicos. Ao mesmo tempo em que fora repudiada por uns como símbolo de "estrangeirismo" ou até mesmo do imperialismo cultural sobre a nação brasileira, era reconhecida por outros como elemento de sofisticação e de modernidade musical. Apoiado em análises de composições e gravações de José Meneses e Olmir Stocker, procurei demonstrar que os estilos desses músicos expressam, de certa forma, uma gama de conflitos simbólicos que permearam o meio musical ao longo de décadas, balizados pelas oposições entre nacional x internacional, erudito x popular, comercial x não comercial, tradicional x moderno. Além disso, foi possível verificar que, enquanto José Meneses - músico que iniciou sua carreira ainda nos anos de 1940 - pode ser reconhecido como um instrumentista que faz a transição do violão para a guitarra elétrica, Olmir Stocker faz parte de uma geração que consolidou o instrumento na nossa música popular, construindo um estilo que se amolda a um amplo leque de ritmos e gêneros populares regionais / Abstract: The subject of this thesis is the insertion of the electric guitar in Brazilian popular music, a process that occurred progressively from the beginning of the 20th century. Through the study of the styles of guitar players José Meneses e Olmir Stocker, I seek to understand how the electric guitar was not only introduced, but also adapted to the Brazilian popular repertoire. Identified as an instrument with artificial devices (electromagnetic pickups) and symbolically associated to jazz and Anglo-American pop music, the electric guitar was object both of veneration and rejection by critics and players. Even as it was repudiated by some as a symbol of "foreignness" or even of cultural imperialism against the "Brazilian nation," it was acknowledged by other as an element of musical sophistication and modernity. Based on analyses of compositions and recordings by José Meneses and Olmir Stocker, I have sought to show that the styles of these two musicians express, in a certain way, a series of symbolic conflicts that pervaded the musical milieu for decades. These conflicts were focused on binary oppositions between national/international, erudite/popular; commercial/non-commercial, traditional/modern. Moreover, it was possible to verify that, whereas José Meneses - a musician who began his career still in the 1940's - can be acknowledged as a player who made a transition from acoustic to electric guitar, Olmir Stocker is part of a generation that consolidated the instrument in Brazilian popular music, building a style adapted to a wide range of popular and regional rhythms and genres / Doutorado / Musica / Doutor em Música