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This thesis presents an integrated assessment of the life and music of Johanna Beyer (1888-1944) through a combination of socio-cultural and musical analysis. It examines the composer?s biography in the context of the New York music scene in which she participated and the social and cultural paradigms of her time. Contemporary conceptions of gender and sex had a particularly strong impact on Beyer?s work and the reception of her music. Ideologies concerning gender, sex, work, composition and modernism intersected in a variety of ways in her life and music; these issues are examined extensively in Chapter Two. Because gendered thought was so instrumental in obscuring the work of this important composer, Chapters Three and Four provide a thorough and synthesized analysis of Beyer?s music that has thus far been denied to her. These chapters discuss both the composer?s dissonant, ?ultra-modern? music and her later tonal music, exploring elements of continuity and change in her oeuvre. The thesis rejects earlier interpretations of Beyer?s work as disjointed and argues that it is instead the product of a constantly evolving composer.

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This paper examines the Quintet in A Minor for Piano and Strings by Florence B. Price (1887-1953). One of Price's latest compositions (with final revisions dated January 21, 1952), the Quintet is a masterful example of what is possible when using a multicultural lens to approach the making of American music. This paper exposes the insufficiency of examining (and assessing) multicultural composers and their works only with traditional Western European analytical views, when an expanded approach is needed to explain many of the non-European musical influences and phenomena. While more complex and challenging, this expanded analytical approach sheds added light and understanding on all compositional techniques used within this work. This analysis of the Quintet in A Minor shows that Price often self-quotes from some of her own earlier works; specifically works from her organ, art song, and symphonic oeuvres. The findings also show that Price's understanding of both Western Classical traditions and African-American musical traditions enabled her to intertwine multiple cultures, creating novel forms that are authentic to the American experience she lived. Price created what she referred to as a "very beautiful and very American" sound.

Este trabalho é um estudo a partir da correspondência de Camargo Guarnieri, das partituras de sua Obra de difusão interdita e de outras obras compostas entre 1928 e 1945. Nas cartas trocadas e nas partituras estão a relação com os professores de composição e os intelectuais e críticos com os quais o compositor trabalhou em colaboração no processo de fazer-se compositor sinfônico. Lamberto Baldi, Mário de Andrade, Curt Lange, Luiz Heitor, Charles Koechlin, Charles Seeger, Carleton Sprague Smith, Aaron Copland foram os interlocutores privilegiados desse processo no qual Guarnieri lutou para superar as limitações do meio musical brasileiro. Estabelecendo relação entre as obras e as demandas e comentários suscitados por elas, considerou-se que a composição da Sinfonia n° 1 entre 1942-44 e sua estréia em 1945 foi a culminância desse processo em que se construiu um compositor como reflexo e símbolo de seu meio musical, no âmbito das relações do modernismo, do Estado varguista, do americanismo musical, e da política de boa vizinhança e dos interesses do mercado de música sinfônica nos Estados Unidos. / This is a study from the letters of Camargo Guarnieri, the scores of his \"Work of disseminating forbidden\" and other works composed between 1928 and 1945. In the letters and in the scores are the testimony of a relation with teachers of composition and the intellectuals and critics with whom Guarnieri has worked in the making of a composer himself. Lamberto Baldi, Mario de Andrade, Curt Lange, Luiz Heitor, Charles Koechlin, Charles Seeger, Carleton Sprague Smith, Aaron Copland - were the privileged interlocutors of the process in which Guarnieri struggled to overcome the limitations of the Brazilian music scene. Establishing relations between musical work and the demands and comments raised by them, it was considered that the composition of the Symphony No. 1 in 1942-44 and his debut in 1945 was the culmination to the making of a composer, whose career was built as a reflection and symbol of his musical scene, in relations of brasilian modernism, Vargas regime, \"americanismo musical\", and the Good Neighbor Policy and the interests of the classical music as business in USA.

My thesis is a series of 9 compositions. Pieces include the following solos: cello (Passage), piano, viola (Elegy), and flute (Stream Solo). The ensemble pieces are as follows: Vale - Flute, viola, cello, Piano; Stream Ensemble - Flute, Violin, Cello, Piano, Soprano; Around the Bend Percussion Trio - 3 snare drums, bass drum, floor tom, conga, crotales, wood block, cymbal; Steps - Clarinet and Piano; Pierrot Ensemble - clarinet, flute, piano, soprano, cello, violin / acase@tulane.edu

This thesis examines the processes and outcomes of a composer-teacher's practice in the context of a New Zealand secondary school. The research was undertaken by the composer-teacher/researcher as a case study that integrates an investigation of the context with four action research music composition projects developed as a creative response to that context. Chapters One to Three comprise the background theory. Chapter One provides an introduction and overview of the research; Chapter Two explains and justifies the research methods. Chapter Three peels away and examines five layers of the secondary school context identified as significant in shaping the perceptions of the participants: approaching the context in a multi-layered way enabled coherent synthesis and appraisal of the relevant literature. Chapters Four to Seven comprise the four action research music composition projects. Each action research project focuses on a music score composed by the composer-teacher/researcher for a specific group of students at Macleans College, Auckland. The composition, production, and performance processes are investigated from the perspectives of all the participants. Each music project comprises a four part progression - plan (composition process), data (music score), data analysis (recordings of performances, surveys, and interviews with all participants) and reflection (feedback, and feedforward into the next project). Each phase of the research generated significant outcomes, such as the four original music scores. Chapter Eight summarizes the themes, issues, and patterns that emerged, and makes recommendations for further research. A model of co-constructive practice emerges from this research: teacher and students co-construct artistic worlds through performance. The model is not new (it is common practice, adopted by generations of musician-teachers) but is rarely acknowledged and currently un-researched. This research demonstrates the validity of the practice from both musical, and teaching and learning perspectives, and examines the strengths and limitations of the model. At its best, the creative processes co-constructed by a teacher with her students are shown to provide a crucible within which intense and creative learning experiences occur. Students of all levels of ability are shown to gain confidence in this context, and subsequently develop skills with apparent ease. The co-constructive model is limited in that it cannot meet the musical needs of all students: co-construction should be considered as one model of practice, appropriate for use in association with many others. This research provides 'virtual access' to a particular world of performance practice, revealing the secondary school context as a realm of authentic and valid musical practice.

George Enescu (1881-1955) is the best-known Romanian composer and has been widely lauded for his folk- inspired compositions. While folk music was an important influence in Enescu’s music, it was always balanced by his passion for and intimate understanding of late Romantic compositional techniques. The extent to which he was influenced by the folk music of his homeland is a point of contention amongst some of the leading Enescu scholars. The English-speaking representative, Noel Malcolm believes that the influences in Enescu´s musical language were more diverse than scholars have suggested prior to the 1989 revolution. He believes that the depiction of Enescu as a folkloristic composer has contributed to his marginalisation and relative obscurity. By contrast, scholars such as Boris Kotlyarov and Grigore Constantinescu give greater weight to national characteristics in Enescu’s music. Enescu conceded that some of his early works made direct quotation of Romanian folk melodies, and that such an approach was limited in its possibilities. The composer’s more mature works employ characteristics of folk music and its performance traditions without the use of direct quotation. This critical commentary will observe and comment on the folk influences in Enescu’s compositions as well as noting the influence of Western traditions and techniques. Due reference will be given to the work of Bartók, whose incisive study of Romanian folk music remains one of the most substantial and detailed primary sources today. In order to highlight specific examples of folk influence, as well as other techniques, three of Enescu’s works are targeted for specific study, namely the Romanian Rhapsody, op. 11 no. 1, Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no. 3 and his Impressions D’Enfance for violin and piano, op. 28. Each work exhibits a tie with the composer’s Romanian origins, but also with 19th and early 20thC composers such as Brahms, Wagner, Debussy and Fauré. This critical commentary highlights the fact that Enescu’s works display folk idioms and techniques developed using late-Romantic techniques.

Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) was an excellent English composer in the twentieth century. He has devoted his whole life to popularize British music and preserve literature. In the songbook Oh Fair to See, Finzi¡¦s wife and son collected seven songs which he had composed but have never published since 1921 to 1956. This study is to discover the close connection between literature and music by analyzing the lyrics and music of these songs. This study mainly contains four parts: the biographical life about Gerald Finzi, the characteristics of Finzi¡¦s art songs, the composing background of Oh Fair to See, and analysis of these songs. Each song shows Finzi¡¦s intuitive sense of blending words and sounds. Finzi employed a wide variety of figures both in the vocal phrases and in the accompaniment with an alternate and extensive use of tonal and model scale, which shows Finzi¡¦s creation that has great combination of music and poetry.

The creative potential and work of the performer in new music extends from the moment of conceptualising a concert to the moment of presenting it on stage and comprises many areas between and around those two points. In this thesis I explore the nature of this activity, from the act of playing itself to the commissioning and creating of new pieces, curatorial and collaborative tasks, and the actual concert presentation. I deliberately include interrelations between performer and music promoters, composers and the audience. This leads me to further areas of investigation, namely the question of the performer’s leadership, the charismatic bond with the audience and the creation of what I call “concert aura”. I do not strive to offer all-purpose formulae for the “perfect concert” or for the ideal collaboration. I investigate performance practice not as an absolute art but rather as something embedded in and shaped by social relations and society. Accordingly I understand this thesis as an empirically based study of the questions performers could ask, as well as processes in which they might want to engage, to find meaningful solutions for each new situation. Not all of the questions I raise will be new to each performer, but in their collaborative and concert practice many performers rely on a random, unsystematic, empirical understanding that has been gained by chance. In contrast, I attempt to draw a theoretical basis for my investigation from the fields of psychology, philosophy, media science and sociology, together with the evaluation of my own and other artists’ performance practice. In this way I hope to develop an academic foundation and a comprehensive, systematic approach that can be applied to different collaboration and concert situations. Part 1 of my thesis is concerned with theories and concepts relating to creativity, collaboration and presentation (concert aura and charisma) and aims to establish a firm theoretical basis for application in practice. Part 2 presents, discusses and analyses a selection of case studies from my own practice, considered in relation to the theories discussed in the first part. I conclude by offering guidelines to collaboration and giving a model example of how one might plan a future performance, aiming to create a Gesamtkunstwerk through the totality of the preparation and presentation, its social and psychological connotations. The thesis includes two DVDs with Quicktime Movies and two CDs with recordings of the compositions, commissioned as part of this research and discussed throughout the thesis. The Appendix contains three sample-CDs with an accompanying commentary which give an introduction to contemporary playing techniques for the acoustic and electronic violin and acoustic viola. This CD is intended as a guide for composers to get acquainted with the instruments and was given to each composer involved in this research.