<p><italic>Tentative Embrace</italic> is a composition in five movements for flute, clarinet, saxophone quartet, vibraphone, piano, string quartet and tape track. The tape track features spoken text and soundscape recordings gathered in and around the Sonoran desert of the Southwestern United States. The text and the soundscape recordings, along with the composed music, are all my own work. </p> <p>This piece embodies my efforts to interpret and translate the complicated sensation of being a human alone in nature - of wanting to belong, realizing I do belong, but also not quite belonging. The Sonoran desert, the site of inspiration for this work, is an especially revelatory space that heightens these simultaneous sensations of connection and disconnection; it draws attention to the biological points of contact between human beings and their natural surroundings, but it also emphasizes those cultural and material differences that we carry with us into such a space. Through the combination of the music, the text and the soundscapes, I work to convey the ever-shifting boundaries between the self and everything else. </p> <p>For the music, I find formal inspiration in the slow and cyclical pace of the desert itself; musical ideas unfold gradually through ever-varying repetitions. Each movement is devoted to a particular phenomenon experienced in the desert, and while the text and the soundscapes work to articulate the specifics of these phenomena, the music gives form to their structural and sensual suggestion. I move back and forth between specifics and abstractions; as such, some of my translations of this space will be more audible than others, but each of them demonstrate this attempt at forging an artistic point of connection with this environment.</p> / Dissertation

Thesis (M.M.)--Bowling Green State University, 2006. / Document formatted into pages; contains 1 score (viii, 30 p.)

Connections between athletes and musicians have been drawn recently by scholars, sports psychologists, and musicians. Literature on these connections, however, has focused on individuals rather than exploring connections between teams and ensembles. The broad goal of our study was to determine whether leadership roles like those observed in sports research emerge in chamber music ensembles. We chose to focus on connecting the literatures of leadership in sports and music by using a questionnaire drawn from sports research (Fransen, et al., 2014) in a chamber music setting. Fransen’s model was designed to measure the emergence of four leadership roles (Task, Social, Motivational, and External) in teams. In our study, fifty local musicians responded to an online questionnaire derived from Fransen (2014). We found that all four of Fransen’s leadership roles were identified by respondents as present in chamber ensembles. Respondents were also asked to describe leadership roles in their ensemble that did not fit Fransen’s four leadership roles, where such existed. From their responses, we postulate the roles of “organizational leader” and “leader by example” in chamber ensembles. We interpreted the organizational leader to be an extension of Fransen’s “external leadership” role. We interpret he leader by example role to be a set of attributes as predictors of shared leadership in individuals, rather than as a separate leadership role. In light of our findings, we offer suggestions for improving the functioning of chamber ensembles and for future research in this topic.

abstract: Patterns and Soundscapes explores the concept album format, popularized in the late 1960s and into modern times by artists such as the Who, Pink Floyd, and Frank Zappa. Specifically, I sought to adapt this format as a compositional process aimed towards the completion of a large-scale work that can be presented in album format and live performance. Further influenced by the concept album, I sought to create pieces consisting of similar musical techniques, motivic ideas, and harmonic language, so that each piece could be performed on its own or be combined as a multi-movement work. I began writing this work in the spring of 2019, with “Colored Red Currents” for string quartet and “Conspiracy Wall” for two drum sets. After realizing that both pieces had a similar sound and style, I began to consider how they could function within an album format, and how they could also work together to form a large-scale musical work. I then decided that each subsequent piece, in addition to being composed of similar musical ideas, would be written in a manner that allowed for seamless transitions between the end of one and the beginning of another, and would also introduce the instrumentation making up the full ensemble in the last movement. This work begins with the sparkling and rapid string quartet, “Colored Red Currents,” then moves to the energetic and groove based “Conspiracy Wall” for two drum sets, the meditative “Interlude” for solo viola and electronics, and the quick and mechanical “Beat Frequency” for alto saxophone, bass clarinet, and electronics. The work ends with “ALL IN,” where the full ensemble is finally formed, and all of the patterns and soundscapes come together to form a bombastic and wild finale. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Composition 2020

This project consists of an original composition, Voci Lontani, and a critical essay about the composition. In this piece, the idea of musical simultaneity is explored. Therefore, the piece focuses on the idea of contrast: between measured rhythms and indeterminate rhythms, between tonality and atonality, and between musics in separate tempos. In order to explore the significance of musical simultaneity, four important compositional concepts-the simultaneous juxtaposition of different musics, polyrhythmic structure, controlled indeterminacy, and quotation-are discussed. Also, several examples of twentieth-century music that use these concepts are analyzed in the essay.

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