The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the benefit of offering a percussion ensemble class in secondary public schools. I looked at two elements of music education: playing time and relevant instruction. The research questions focused on the difference in playing time and relevant instruction between percussionists in the concert band and percussionists in the percussion ensemble, as well as differences between the concert band subgroups (brass, woodwind, percussion). 6 separate instrumental groups were observed: 4 concert bands and 2 percussion ensembles (N=6). Students were randomly selected from each instrument subgroup (brass, woodwind, percussion, percussion ensemble) for observation. A mixed model ANOVA was used to compare the playing time per hour of each instrument subgroup. A second mixed model ANOVA was used to compare the relevant instruction received per hour of each instrument subgroup. As anticipated, the concert band percussionists experienced significantly less playing time and relevant instruction than both the brass and woodwind subgroups. The percussion ensemble subgroup did not experience a significant difference in either playing time or relevant instruction from the concert band percussionstudents. However, informal observations of the rehearsals indicated a difference in the scope and depth of the playing time and instruction experienced by these two subgroups. Implications from these observations are also discussed.

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Master of Music / Department of Music / Frank C. Tracz / This report contains lesson plans as well as a theoretical and historical analysis of the literature performed in the Graduate Conducting Recital of Veronica Kongs. The recital was held in the Satanta Junior/Senior High School Auditorium in Satanta, Kansas on Tuesday, May 8, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. The recital featured performances by the Junior High and High School Concert Bands. Literature for the Junior High Concert Band included Korean Folk Rhapsody arranged by James Curnow and Riders on the Southern Front by Roland Barrett. The Junior High/High School Concert Band literature consisted of For Thy Courts Above by Ed Huckeby and Of Dark Lords and Ancient Kings by Roland Barrett. This report utilizes two analytical methods, the Larry Blocher/Richard Miles Unit Study model used in the Teaching Music through Performance in Band Books and the Frank Tracz approach of macro-micro score analysis.

The 1994 publication of a new version of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, arranged for winds, percussion and choruses by Juan Vicente Mas Quiles, created new possibilities for the performance of Orff's monumental work. This dissertation serves as a guide to the study and performance of the Mas Quiles arrangement of Carmina Burana. Chapter One presents a brief discussion of Carl Orff and his Carmina Burana, followed in Chapter two by a short discussion of Mas Quiles' and the other significant transcriptions and arrangements of Carmina Burana, Chapter three contains a review of the literature pertinent to the study Carmina Burana. In Chapter Four a detailed examination and comparison of the original Orff score with the Mas Quiles arrangement provides a framework with which the conductor may study and compare the two scores in preparation for a performance of the Mas Quiles arrangement. The scoring of the Mas Quiles arrangement is masterful in that the arrangement so closely maintains the textural, musical and aesthetic integrity of the work. The Mas Quiles version includes all of the movements, and all of the original elements: choruses, soloists and orchestral parts are preserved intact. The only substantive change is the judicious use of winds in place of the orchestral string parts. By comparison and analysis of Mas Quiles scoring techniques with the Orff original, the author concludes that the Mas Quiles arrangement is a viable and unique alternative to the Orff original and highly worthy of study and performance by conductors of advanced level ensembles.