Published Article / A retired physicist attempting to master elements of music theory in a short time found the Mental Model of the keyboard layout invaluable in overcoming some of the related learning challenges and this has been followed up in collaboration with a professor of Music Education. Possible cognitive mechanisms for his response are discussed and it is concluded that his engrained learning habits, which emphasise models as found in physics, are potentially of wider applicability. A survey of the use of Mental Models among competent young musicians indicated that although various models are widely used, this is largely subconscious. The practical question of whether exposure of students to the keyboard would assist them in mastering music theory remains unresolved.

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Alexander Scriabin's piano sonatas are largely regarded as the most significant works in the genre since Beethoven. They outline the development of his compositional style from the youthful Chopinesque works, to his mature, idiosyncratic post-tonal offerings. According to his close friend, biographer, and critic Leonid Sabaneyev, despite Scriabin's philosophy suffering “from too many manifest faults”, his late music is “incomprehensible and incomplete” when “severed from his philosophy”. Consequently, this treatise focuses on Scriabin's unique compositional voice through an examination of his idiosyncratic musical gestures, and the points of their interaction/intersection with his eclectic philosophizing. Recognizing the absence of a substantial interpretive system that reconciles Scriabin's music with his philosophical outlook in the available Scriabin-scholarship, this dissertation investigates the impact of his mystical beliefs upon his compositional style. This is largely achieved through the identification and scrutiny of symbolic gestures in his idiosyncratic pianistic style. Part 1 constitutes the examination of Scriabin's symbolic gestures that routinely feature in his late works: unity, summons, light, flight, occult, resonance, sensuality, eroticism, ecstasy, and transformation/dissipation. Part 2 discusses Sonata no.8, which stands to benefit the most from a gestural reading, due to the near absence of the composer's customary vivid French annotations. A brief discussion regarding issues of interpretation and performance of that sonata and Scriabin's late keyboard works completes this dissertation. The investigative method outlined above, in synergy with the composer's complex beliefsystem, develops a new gestural framework for perceiving and interpreting Scriabin's work; one that blurs the conventional distinctions between musicologist and performer, enabling informed conceptualizations and gestalt performances of these ‘symbolist' works. Sonata No.8 is used as a matrix upon which this theoretical approach is applied. Through relative comparisons and references to the other late sonatas, the Eighth is proffered as an interpretive model upon which analogous interpretations may be based.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo principal descobrir e revelar como Francisco Mignone compôs as 12 Valsas de Esquina e as 12 Valsas-Choro para piano solo, contribuindo para o estudo e a divulgação da música brasileira. Através da análise realizada nesta tese, revelou-se o idiomático de Mignone referente a essas obras. Além disso, investigaram-se os dados biográficos desse compositor, o gênero valsa e a contextualização da época em que as peças foram compostas. Como acréscimo, foi elaborado um guia interpretativo baseado na análise dessas Valsas e realizada uma entrevista com a pianista e viúva do compositor, Maria Josephina Mignone. A conclusão desta pesquisa, a partir das importantes informações apresentadas nos capítulos e também do resultado da análise, identifica a estrutura musical utilizada nas 12 Valsas de Esquina e nas 12 Valsas-Choro. / This paper\'s main objective is to discover and reveal how Francisco Mignone wrote the 12 Waltzes Corner and Choro-12 Waltzes for piano, contributing to the study and dissemination of Brazilian music. Through the analysis conducted in this thesis, proved the idiom of Mignone on these works. Furthermore, we investigated the biographical data of the composer, the dance, and the gender context of the time in which the pieces were composed. How increase has produced a guide for interpretation based on analysis of waltzes and held an interview with the pianist and composer\'s widow, Maria Josephina Mignone. The conclusion of this research, from the important information presented in the chapters and also the result of the analysis identifies the musical structure used in the 12 Waltzes Corner and 12 Waltzes-Choro.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo principal descobrir e revelar como Francisco Mignone compôs as 12 Valsas de Esquina e as 12 Valsas-Choro para piano solo, contribuindo para o estudo e a divulgação da música brasileira. Através da análise realizada nesta tese, revelou-se o idiomático de Mignone referente a essas obras. Além disso, investigaram-se os dados biográficos desse compositor, o gênero valsa e a contextualização da época em que as peças foram compostas. Como acréscimo, foi elaborado um guia interpretativo baseado na análise dessas Valsas e realizada uma entrevista com a pianista e viúva do compositor, Maria Josephina Mignone. A conclusão desta pesquisa, a partir das importantes informações apresentadas nos capítulos e também do resultado da análise, identifica a estrutura musical utilizada nas 12 Valsas de Esquina e nas 12 Valsas-Choro. / This paper\'s main objective is to discover and reveal how Francisco Mignone wrote the 12 Waltzes Corner and Choro-12 Waltzes for piano, contributing to the study and dissemination of Brazilian music. Through the analysis conducted in this thesis, proved the idiom of Mignone on these works. Furthermore, we investigated the biographical data of the composer, the dance, and the gender context of the time in which the pieces were composed. How increase has produced a guide for interpretation based on analysis of waltzes and held an interview with the pianist and composer\'s widow, Maria Josephina Mignone. The conclusion of this research, from the important information presented in the chapters and also the result of the analysis identifies the musical structure used in the 12 Waltzes Corner and 12 Waltzes-Choro.

An important resource in many areas of music is the availability of standardized graded databases of literature for solo instruments. These databases provide a progression of technical abilities that help musicians follow a proper path in developing new skills. Currently in the area of percussion, there are no graded databases for solo vibraphone literature. While there are several sources that contain subjective graded music lists, none of these sources have a standardized approach in defining each of their difficulty levels, and this creates contradicting information for particular pieces. The goal of this research is to present the first standardized and systematic approach to grading the difficulty levels of vibraphone literature. Influenced by pianist Jane Magrath's reference guide of piano teaching literature and percussionist Julia Gaines' research project on marimba repertoire, this research is modeled on Gaines' objective analysis document used to grade marimba literature with ten different levels of difficulty. With the exception of dampening and pedaling, all of the technical aspects required for playing the vibraphone remain the same as the marimba. Because musical considerations are subjective in nature, only the quantifiable technical considerations are used for grading each work in an objective manner. The technical difficulty of original unaccompanied four-mallet solo vibraphone literature is assessed through the analysis of stroke speed, interval size, wrist turns, manual changes, independence, dampening, and pedaling. Each piece's grade will be classified based on the highest level of technical difficulty found in the music. The selection of vibraphone literature for this research comes from pieces found on prescribed state music lists and university handbook recommendation lists. Annotations are included to describe the pieces that are particularly mislabeled, and a discussion regarding the performance challenges that each piece presents are offered. Three annotations from each of the ten difficulty levels contain a justification based on the results recorded in the analysis document. With an extensive graded database containing over one hundred seventy vibraphone pieces listed in the appendix, this resource will assist percussion students and educators in selecting appropriate vibraphone literature to study and perform within a proper progression from one work to another.

In current times, issues of curriculum relevance are driving a raft of reforms and reviews in higher education. The unmet needs of students in terms of employment outcomes, particularly in the area of the performing arts are increasingly a matter of concern. For tertiary music training institutions, the need to attach greater importance to student needs has forced a more critical reappraisal of curriculum priorities. An effect of this has been ongoing contestation and debate within music institutions about the nature and purposes of music curriculum as a university offering. This thesis examines the implications of the above by undertaking an investigation into the relevance of keyboard curriculum, as it is currently understood in one tertiary institution, a Conservatorium of Music. It examines the contestation over student needs that is apparent within the curriculum of keyboard within such an institution. The aim is to improve the institution's capacity to respond appropriately to 'student needs' by better understanding issues about curriculum relevance. This is done by investigating how needs become articulated within this particular institution and curriculum domain and by investigating the effect these needs articulations have on the practices of those who teach and those who learn within this domain. The study uses the conceptual work of Nancy Fraser (1989) and Elizabeth Ellsworth (1989) and a doctoral study by Erica McWilliam (1992), to focus on needs articulations or needs talk that is related to the needs of keyboard students within this Conservatorium. This talk, which is generated in management, staff and student texts, is examined as produced out of systems of language use that are employed within and outside the Conservatorium. The analysis of the talk treats the contestations and struggle over student needs in the Conservatorium as products of, and productive of, power relations. The analysis reveals discourse communities that are not only fractured from within but which share very little common language. It demonstrates how systems of language use at work within the Conservatorium marginalise students at the same time as they permit the institution to continue its traditional work and practice. The study clearly demonstrates how the institution itself is actively producing 'failing' and 'blaming' students as discursive subjects. The conclusion is drawn that more attention needs to be paid to building shared communities that share a common discourse, rather than trying to wedge more 'relevant' material into the curriculum.

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Αντικείμενο της διπλωματικής είναι ο σχεδιασμός μιας βέλτιστης διάταξης του Ελληνικού πληκτρολογίου. Μετά από ανάλυση των υπαρχόντων πληκτρολογίων και των αρχών διάταξής τους, θέτουμε τις αρχές του κενού, και των βαρών των θέσεων του πληκτρολογίου. Μετά αναλύεται η συχνότητα των γραμμάτων στα ελληνικά κείμενα και οι κινήσεις που μπορούν να κάνουν τα δάχτυλα και το πόσο δύσκολο είναι να γίνουν. Έτσι, δημιουργούμε ένα πληκτρολόγιο με τα «βάρη» των γραμμάτων και πάνω σε αυτό τοποθετούμε τα γράμματα ανάλογα με τη συχνότητα τους. Το αποτέλεσμα αξιολογείται με βάση την λειτουργικότητα του καινούργιου πληκτρολογίου. Φαίνεται να είναι 33% καλύτερο από το ήδη υπάρχον. / Subject of this thesis is the design of new functional layout of the Greek keyboard. After analyzing the current keyboards and their designing principles, new ones are founded: the principle of space and the principle of difficulty of keystrokes. Next step is to analyze the frequency of greek letters and the movements the human finger can do and how difficult they are. We then create a keyboard based in this difficulty and the frequency of the letters. The result is rated by its functionality and it seems to be 33% better than the existing layout.