In this paper, the limitations of the six-string classical guitar in terms of chordal possibilities and range are discussed, and ways are presented to overcome those limitations. The study describes some of the problems and limitations that the author experiences when composing for the instrument he plays. Moreover, some solutions that partly overcome these issues are presented and discussed. The presented solutions are drawn from the literature as well as developed through personal insights. In addition, conclusions regarding the practical usage of the presented solutions are drawn from the personal experiences of the author when incorporating them in two short compositions composed for this specific study.

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Tonality is a term often used to describe the music of the common practice period (roughly 1600-1900). This study examines the music of mid twentieth-century jazz composer Thad Jones in light of an extended common practice, explicating ways in which this music might be best understood as tonal. Drawing from analyses of three of Jones’s big band compositions: To You, Three and One, and Cherry Juice, this study examines three primary elements in detail. First is Jones’s use of chord-scale application techniques in the orchestration over various chordal qualities represented by the symbols, revealing traditional as well as innovative methods by Jones. Second is Jones’s use of harmonic progressions, demonstrating his connection to past practice as well as modern jazz variations. Third is Jones’s use of contrapuntal connections and their traditional relationship to functional tonality, but in a chromatic scale-based environment. Jones’s music is presented in this study to demonstrate a tonal jazz common practice that represents an amalgamation of traditions including twentieth-century scale-based procedures, Renaissance and early twentieth-century modality, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century voice leading schemas, and Baroque and Classical descending-fifth progressions. Also included as an appendix is a list of possible note errors in the published scores of To You, Three and One, and Cherry Juice.

Alberto Ginastera completed his ballet Panambí in 1937. The ballet was arranged as a symphonic suite, and was performed the same year at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, conducted by Juan José Castro. Panambí marked the beginning of Alberto Ginastera’s long and successful career as an Argentine composer. Chapter I of this document provides a brief introduction into the history behind Alberto Ginastera’s Panambí suite, and includes a review of the research that is exclusively devoted to the suite, as well as documents that do not provide direct analyses of Panambí, but contain information that aid in a better understanding of the suite’s composition. Chapter II includes analyses of the suite that illustrate important elements that contribute to the structure and sound of the Panambí suite. These components include Ginastera’s construction of the La Noche theme found in the first movement and its use as a master set, his use of diatonic collections and pitch centricity, the importance of unordered pitch class intervals IC1 and IC6, his use of aggregate completion as a compositional method, and his use of local motives over larger spans of temporal space. Chapter III explores the possibility that many of these compositional methods are due to the influence of Claude Debussy’s La Mer and Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printmeps. The “guitar chord” may also be the result of the influence of Debussy’s La Mer.

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This dissertation explores middleground functionality of six-four chords by combining a voice-leading approach with hypermetrical analysis. By acknowledging the functional ambiguity of certain six-four chords that do not fit into traditional classifications (Aldwell and Schachter's cadential, consonant, passing, and neighboring six-four), or that can be seen as fitting in more than one category, I show that our interpretation of deeper-level structures is contingent upon how we choose to hear the functionality of these harmonies. Three types of six-four chords are introduced: cadential/consonant, passing/cadential, and neighboring/consonant six-four, illustrated by works by Robert Schumann, Brahms, and Saint-Säens. Each pair refers to an ambiguity—the same chord invites two alternative harmonic interpretations. I call these chords nontraditional in the sense that they shed more light on the musical structure with their ambiguity, rather than when being wedged into a single type of a six-four chord. This approach renews the ways of hearing the malleability of nonconventional Romantic structures and permits us to trace the path of each work as a unique tonal trajectory from a listener's perspective.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how a small selection of guitar teachers go about to teach chords on electric guitar, as well as how a small selection of guitar students have experienced the phenomena during their studies. To answer the research questions, two experienced guitar teacher and two guitar students were subjects to qualitative interviews. The theoretical perspective of the study was hermeneutic. The results showed that the methods employed by the teachers to a high degree related to how they have been taught and also learned by themselves. Another result is that the combination of systems, music theory and practical musical performance can help guitar students to reach a point of musical independence. The results provide an insight in how chordal playing on electric guitar can take place on a higher level, and also opens up for research within several areas of guitar education. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur ett mindre urval av gitarrlärare lär ut ackord på elgitarr, samt hur ett mindre urval gitarrelever upplevt att de undervisats i ackordspel. För att besvara forskningsfrågorna genomfördes kvalitativa intervjuer med två erfarna gitarrlärare, samt två gitarrelever som studerat elgitarr på musikgymnasium och folkhögskola. Studiens teoretiska perspektiv var hermeneutiskt. Resultaten visar att lärarna till stor del undervisar med metoder som fungerat för dem själva, samt att en kombination av system, musikteori och framförallt praktiskt musicerande kan ge gitarrelever de grundkunskaper som behövs för att vara självgående som elgitarrist. Resultat ger en inblick i hur ackordundervisning kan ta form på högre nivå, och öppnar upp för flera områden av framtida forskning i elgitarrmetodik.

The guitar chord (a sonority based on the open strings of the guitar) is one of Alberto Ginastera's compositional trademarks. The use of the guitar chord expands throughout forty years, creating a common link between different compositional stages and techniques. Chapters I and II provide the historical and technical background on Ginastera's life, oeuvre and scholar research. Chapter IV explores the origins of the guitar chord and compares it to similar specific sonorities used by different composers to express extra-musical ideas. Chapter V discusses Ginastera's initial uses and modifications of the guitar chord. Chapter VI explores the use of the guitar chord as a referential sonority based on Variaciones Concertantes, Op. 23: I-II, examining vertical (subsets) and horizontal (derivation of motives) aspects. Chapter VII explores uses of trichords and hexachords derived from the guitar chord in the Sonata for Guitar Op. 47.

The purpose of this study is to trace the development of the major seventh chord from the earliest recorded music through the German School of composition up to the time of Johann Sebastian Bach. The term "major seventh chord" is used to denote the four-tone chord comprised of a major triad plus a tone which is a major seventh above the root. In major keys this chord may be built on the tonic and subdominant degrees of the scale without alterations, and in the "natural" minor on the mediant and the submediant. The full, or structural, name "major-major seventh chord"--used in the present thesis only when it is necessary to distinguish it from other seventh chords with major sevenths-- arises from the fact that the triad (1, 3, 5) is major and the interval between the root and the seventh is major.