The study of wave production and propagation is a common phenomenon seen within a variety of math and physics problems. This thesis in particular will investigate the production and propagation of sound waves through musical instruments. Although this field of work has been examined since the late 1800s, approaching these types of problems can be very difficult. With the exception of the last fifty years, we have only been able to approach such problems by linearizing the necessary equations of gas dynamics. Without the use of a computer, one can only get so far in studying nonlinear acoustic problems. In addition, the numerical theory for nonlinear problems is incomplete. Proving stability is challenging and there are a variety of open problems within this field. This thesis will be examining the propagation of sound waves specifically through brass instruments. However, we will not be able to fully examine this problem in a master’s thesis because of the complexity. Instead, the objective is to provide a foundation and global picture of this problem by merge the fields of nonlinear acoustics as well as computational and analytical gas dynamics. To study the general behaviour of nonlinear wave propagation (and to verify previous findings), experiments have been carried on a trumpet. The purpose of these experiments is take measurements of the sound pressure waves at various locations along the instrument in order to understand the evolution of the wave propagation. In particular, we want to establish if the nonlinear distortion is strong enough to have musical consequences; and if there are such outcomes, what prerequisites are required for the observable behaviour. Additionally, by using the discontinuous Galerkin numerical method, a model of the system will be presented in this thesis. It will then be compared with the experimental data to verify how well we were able to describe the nonlinear wave motion within a trumpet.

Syftet med föreliggande studie är att undersöka lärares arbete med rekrytering av bleckblåselever på svenska musik- och kulturskolor. Studien behandlar verksamma bleckblåslärares skildringar av strategier som används för att rekrytera elever och vilka utmaningar som de intervjuade bleckblåslärarna beskriver gällande rekryteringrelaterat arbete. Metoden som använts är fokusgruppsamtal där totalt nio lärare intervjuades i grupper à tre. Bearbetning och analys av det insamlade datamaterialet genomfördes med utgångspunkt i det sociokulturella perspektivet. Resultatet synliggör strategier som handlar om att bjuda in barn och föräldrar till musik- och kulturskolan för att prova instrument, vilket också beskrivs som en form av marknadsföring. Samtliga fokusgrupper beskriver också social gemenskap i form av förberedande bleckblåsgrupper, till vilka barn rekryteras för att senare rekryteras vidare till musik- och kulturskolans instrumentalundervisning. Samtidigt beskrivs utmaningar gällande inkludering av föräldrar i musik- och kulturskolans verksamhet. Avslutningsvis diskuteras musik- och kulturskolans marknadsföring och föräldrars förståelse för verksamheten i relation till det sociokulturella perspektivet. / The purpose of the present study is to examine the teachers’ work on recruitment of brass students at Swedish music and cultural schools. The study processes active brass teachers’ depictions of strategies used to recruit students as well as what challenges the interviewed brass teachers describe about recruitment-related work. The method used in the present study is focus group interviews where a total of nine teachers were interviewed in groups of three. Processing and analysis of the collected data material was carried out on the basis of the sociocultural perspective. The result highlights strategies that involve inviting children and parents to the music- and cultural school to try out instruments are described, which is also described as a form of marketing. All focus groups also describe social community of preparatory brass groups, to which children are recruited and later recruited to the instrumental teaching of the music- and cultural school. At the same time, challenges regarding the inclusion of parents in music and cultural school activities are described. Finally, the marketing and parents’ understanding of the activities in relation to the sociocultural perspective.

As brass instruments evolved from crude instruments limited to only a few notes into instruments that could play melodic passages within the vocal range, they began to be paired with the voice. The development traced in this paper will focus primarily on the addition of brass instruments with a choral ensemble from the late Renaissance period through the Modern period. Insight into the historical use of brass and the evolution of choral and brass music allows us to better understand the genre and how subject matter, text, and/or the occasion for which the compositions were composed often influenced the composer’s decision to add brass. Four representative pieces will be studied: In Ecclesiis by Giovanni Gabrieli (c.1554-1612); Herr, unser Herscher by Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672); Ecce Sacerdos by Anton Bruckner (1824- 1896); and Ode a la Musique by Frank Martin (1890-1974).

This thesis focuses on the topic of piano accompaniment, which is an essential and beautiful part of piano playing. This field demands from the pianist a specific approach, which is a subject and core of many study programmes throughout the world. The aim of the first part of this thesis is to map the evolution as well as the current state of knowledge in the field of piano accompaniment using scientific literature on the subject as well as curricula of study programmes obtained from universities in central Europe, where piano accompaniment is taught as a major study course. A strong correlation has been established based on this research between theory in scientific literature on the subject and the current practice of piano accompaniment education in central Europe. The aim of the second part of this thesis is to expand further the level of knowledge in scientific literature, which is insufficient mainly in the accompaniment of solo musical instruments. For this reason, the second part of the thesis focuses on the specific problems in piano accompaniment of musical instrument groups, i.e. string instruments, woodwind instruments and brass instruments. For these three groups case studies have been created, which examine the specific characteristics of the musical instruments in relation to piano...

This is a study where I examine and compare the perceived emotional expression of brass instruments and reed instruments to investigate whether one group have an inherent tendency to better express a certain emotion than the other group. Based on scientifically proven methods, I have composed two musical pieces, where one of them represents the emotion of happiness and the other one represents the emotion of sadness. I have then written 5 arrangements per musical piece, where one of them consists of piano, two consists of solo instruments from each instrument group accompanied by piano, and two consists of a trio from each instrument group. This makes a total of 10 arrangements. These arrangements serve as audio examples in a web survey where I compare the two instrument groups based on how the audience perceive their emotional expression. A total of 36 people participated in the survey. Regarding the emotion of happiness, 71 % of the participants felt that trumpet and piano was the solo instrument version that best expressed happiness while 18 % chose oboe and piano. 44 % chose the brass trio as the happiest version while 36 % felt that the reed trio best expressed happiness. When it came to the emotion of sadness, 19 % of the participants chose trumpet and piano as the saddest solo instrument version, while 72 % felt that oboe and piano sounded the saddest. 25 % chose the brass trio as the saddest version while 67 % chose the reed trio.