This diploma thesis deals with Dmitry Shostakovich and his works. Its aim is to map the life of the composer and to further characterize his two works, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 a minor op. 77 and String Quartet No. 8 in C minor op. 110. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter is about composer's life in the difficult living and creative conditions of the Soviet Union of that time and about selected compositions of his. In the following two chapters, the analyzes of the two above-mentioned works and the historical context in which they were create are presented. The thesis also provides an interpretative analysis of the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 a minor, which is also an interpretative comparison of the concert recordings of David Oistrach and Julian Rachlin.

In this thesis, I demonstrate the dynamic way in which musical processes can be described as metaphors. Using Steve Larson’s three main metaphors (gravity, inertia, and magnetism) as a starting point, I propose additional metaphors (friction, repulsion, momentum, wave, orbit, and oscillation) to analyze the first movements of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K 466 and Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, op. 54. These metaphors provide a means to discuss points of convergence and divergence between the Classical style and the early-Romantic style. Additionally, most theorists of the energeticist tradition only discuss motion through prose; I introduce a way to represent these metaphors as musical examples. By focusing on the listener’s experience through musical motion, the model proposed in this thesis is useful, not only for the theorist, but for all who wish to communicate ideas about music in a dynamic way.

The lecture recital was given on June 16, 1980. The Ralph Vaughan Williams Concerto for Bass Tuba and the Paul Hindemith Sonate for Tuba and Piano were performed following a lecture on the historical evolution of the tuba in Europe. The lecture included a history of the predecessors of the tuba and their influence on the development of tuba playing traditions. Tuba performance practices in Europe developed around two playing traditions, one in France and England, and a second in Germany. The ophicleide enjoyed tremendous popularity in France and England during the early nineteenth century. Because this instrument was a major competitor of the tuba in these countries, the tuba was viewed as an ophicleide replacement. Tubists in Europe and England had to develop facility and sound quality equivalent to that of the older instrument. In Germany the tuba's main competitor was the Russian bassoon, a form of upright serpent. At this same time the serpent and its related forms were in decline. This lack of popularity with the older instruments provided an opportunity for the quick adoption of the tuba in Germany.

Max Reger was a prolific composer on the threshold of modernism. The style of his extensive musical output was polarizing among his contemporaries. A criticism of Reger's music is its complex and dense musical structure. Despite writing tonal music, Reger often pushes the boundaries of tonality so far that all sense of formal organization is seemingly imperceptible. In this dissertation, I offer what I observed to be a new way of discerning Reger's motivic relationships and formal structures within and between movements. There are three primary tools and methods I incorporated to make these observations: Schoenberg's developing variation; melodic contour analysis as discussed by Elizabeth West-Marvin and Diana Deutsch; and Janet Schmalfeldt's motivic cyclicism stemming from internal themes. In this dissertation I examine five different musical works by Reger: D minor Piano Quartet, Clarinet Quintet, Piano Concerto, String Quartet, op. 121 and E minor Piano Trio, op. 102. My analysis shows how Reger relies on melodic contours of his motives to connect musical moments across entire movements and entire works with multiple movements. These motives are developed and often mark structurally significant moments providing the organization often perceived as missing in Reger's music.

The Concerto for Bassoon by Andrzej Panufnik is a valuable addition to bassoon literature. It provides a rare opportunity for the bassoon soloist to perform a piece which is strongly programmatic. The purpose of this document is to examine the historical and theoretical context of the Concerto for Bassoon with special emphasis drawn to Panufnik's understanding of religion in connection with Polish national identity and the national struggle for democratic independence galvanized by the murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko in 1984. Panufnik's relationship with the Polish communist regime, both prior to and after his 1954 defection to England, is explored at length. Each of these aspects informed Panufnik's compositional approach and the expressive qualities inherent in the Concerto for Bassoon. The Concerto for Bassoon was commissioned by the Polanki Society of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and was premiered by the Milwaukee Chamber Players, with Robert Thompson as the soloist. While Panufnik intended the piece to serve as a protest against the repression of the Soviet government in Poland, the U. S. context of the commission and premiere is also examined. Additionally, the original manuscript and subsequent piano reduction are compared. Although the Concerto for Bassoon has been subject to formal analysis by several scholars, discussion of the piece is generally contained within a larger discussion of several other compositions, and a comprehensive analysis of the piece has not yet been presented. This document contains a thorough formal analysis of all movements, as well as analysis of Panufnik's compositional style within the context of serialism, postmodernism, and the new Polish school of composition. The Concerto fro Bassoon features several devices common to Panufnik's larger opus, including the se of a common three-note cell, strong contrasts between section and movements, and symmetrical patterns of transposition, metric alteration, dynamic alteration, and registral expansion.

In the case of Concerto for Orchestra, Béla Bartók transcribed one of his most emblematic orchestral compositions to his own solo instrument, the piano. This transcription's primary function was to suffice for ballet rehearsal accompaniment for the choreography to be introduced alongside a performance of the orchestral work. György Sándor, Bartók's pupil and pianist, prepared the original manuscript for publication. Logan Skelton, pianist-composer, used this published edition as a point of departure for his own piano arrangement of the same work. György Sándor took an editorial approach to the score and followed the manuscript as literally as possible. On the other hand, Logan Skelton treated the same musical material daringly, striving for technical simplicity and a richer orchestral sound. The purpose of this study is to examine and identify the contrasting treatments pertaining to playability, text, and texture in the Bartók-Sándor edition and Skelton arrangement of the two movements, Elegia and Finale, of the Concerto for Orchestra piano arrangement.György Sándor took an editorial approach to the score and followed the manuscript as literally as possible. On the other hand, Logan Skelton treated the same musical material daringly, striving for technical simplicity and a richer orchestral sound. The purpose of this study is to examine and identify the contrasting treatments pertaining to playability, text, and texture in the Bartók-Sándor edition and Skelton arrangement of the two movements, Elegia and Finale, of the Concerto for Orchestra piano arrangement.

Orchestral excerpt books have become a staple in instrumental study for those pursuing a career in the orchestra. Many of these books, especially those for clarinet, are catered towards the popular and prolific clarinet solos found in principal clarinet parts. However, there is a lack of quality resources geared towards those pursuing second clarinet positions. Former materials might be outdated or are filled with inconsistencies or mistakes. The purpose of this document is to provide a resource and guide for select second clarinet orchestral excerpts. In this guide, certain aspects of playing second clarinet will be discussed as a whole and as it pertains to selected excerpts. The excerpts included in this document are: Bartók Concerto for Orchestra, Mendelssohn The Hebrides and Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Ravel Daphis et Chloé and Rapsodie Espagnole, and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5.

Since its premiere in 1878, Antonín Dvořák’s Piano Concerto in G Minor has been underrated and held in low regard by musicologists, critics, performers and audiences alike. Vilém Kurz (1872-1945), a Czech pianist and pedagogue, revised and reworked the piano solo part to incorporate what he considered to be added brilliance and pianistic effectiveness. However, the revised version has not increased the popularity of the work. In recent decades, this concerto has begun to appear more often in the programs and recordings are currently available, utilizing either the original piano part or Kurz's revision or a combination of both. In order to gain a broader analytical perspective and achieve a more authentic interpretation of the piece, a thorough understanding of the relation between Dvořák’s work and Kurz's revisions is indispensable. This study examines these adaptations and compares them with Dvořák’s scoring in order to gain further insight to Kurz's musical intent and pianistic aims. Examples from all movements are evaluated vis-à-vis the original to determine their purpose and musical validity.

In 1895, Emil Georg Conrad Sauer (1862-1942), a world-renowned German pianist and former student of Franz Liszt wrote his first piano concerto, which was published five years later in 1900. Sauer performed it extensively to enthusiastic crowds in Europe and the United States while on tour during the next several years. Then it vanished from the concert repertoire. It is no longer performed and has only been commercially recorded once. The purpose of this dissertation is to establish why it might have disappeared, and why there is value in bringing it back to the standard piano repertoire.

One of the essential difficulties encountered while preparing a piece for a pre-professional player is defining the piece's technical challenges and doing exercises or etude studies accordingly. Based on this fact, in my thesis, I described the technical challenges of Edouard Nanny's Dragonetti A Major concerto under the headings and suggested technical studies suitable for these difficulties. The titles represented are string crossing, bow strokes, thumb position and vertical-horizontal approaches, harmonic arpeggios and horizontal playing in harmonics, intonation and shifting, and double stops. In the last step of each heading, I associate these technical studies with an excerpt from a more advanced piece than this concerto in the double bass repertoire. Accordingly, the thesis aims to define a working path for Nanny's Dragonetti A Major Double Bass Concerto and, at the same time, to be a preliminary preparation for the more technically challenging works of the repertoire.