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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

David Guion's vision for a musical Americana

Camann, Mark David 27 January 2011 (has links)
American composer David Guion (1892-1981) created and expressed in much of his music a unique and unmistakably American voice. Though he is remembered today mostly for piano pieces, especially Turkey in the Straw and Arkansas Traveler, he was famous for championing cowboy songs, African-American spirituals and folk songs as the truly authentic representations of the American experience. He also wrote many original works, including a substantial number of songs in Black dialect. In 1930 Guion starred in a cowboy show at the Roxy Theatre in New York, drawing upon his western-themed music. The next year he had a weekly radio show, broadcast around the country and featuring his music exclusively, with the title Hearing America with Guion. He played a substantial role in transforming Home on the Range into the best-known of all cowboy songs. His magnum opus, the ballet Shingandi, was highly regarded but has yet to be recorded. This dissertation examines those genres among Guion’s compositions that reveal his vision for a musical Americana. Much of his music is based on songs that circulated first in oral tradition before he adapted them for the concert stage. This dissertation surveys the breadth of the oral tradition of these songs, identifies his direct sources, and examines his treatment of melody, rhythm and harmony as he infused his music with such characteristic national flavor that his audiences were, in effect, “Hearing America.” A complete list of Guion compositions is attempted, and to the extent possible, probable dates of composition are established from recital programs and publication agreements. The scripts of his radio shows are reconstructed from papers in his archives and presented here. / text
2

The Elements of American Vernacular in Three Selected Chamber Works of Libby Larsen: Holy Roller; Barn Dances; and Trio for Piano and Strings

Domenica, Mary Alice 27 April 2010 (has links)
The focus of this essay is a discussion of Libby Larsen's relationship with American vernacular musical expression in her piano chamber music works. This essay examines three works that are representative of the wide range of influences in her piano chamber music: Holy Roller for Alto Saxophone and Piano; Barn Dances for Flute, Clarinet, and Piano; and Trio for Piano and Strings for Violin, Cello, and Piano. They are inspired, respectively, by three different genres of American music: gospel, Western square dance, and jazz. In so doing, this essay discusses Larsen's use of musical quotations, idiomatic harmonic elements, and patterns of rhythm and melody drawn from these varied aspects of American culture. It is essential for musicians to understand how to play varying genres, and this essay offers suggestions on how to play the three different genres of gospel, Western square dance, and jazz within the context of Larsen's music. This essay will hopefully bring these works, and Larsen's larger body of works, to the greater attention of the musical community and introduce them to a wider audience.

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