Thesis (M.Mus. 1972) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Music, 1970.

Thesis - M.A. degree - Stanford University, 1954.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 76-78).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1979. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 342-352).

The object of the present work has been to trace the evolution of stringed keyboard instruments from the monochord to the present day piano forte. So many inventions have occurred that a chronology of these would be both tedious and of little added value to the existing literature. In the present work the emphasis has been on those innovations which achieved some measure of popularity and can be regarded as essential steps in arriving at the products and methods of modern piano manufacturers. In order to bring this work up to date, visits have been paid to John Broadwood & Sons and the British Piano Museum in London; to the Essex Institute and Pingree House in Salem, Massachusetts; the Smithsonian Institute (Division of Musical Instruments) in Washington; the various Yamaha Factories in Hamamatsu, Japan; and the Piano Manufacturing Company in Wellington, South Africa. Special attention has also been paid to the development and popularity trends of mechanical, pneumatic and electric pianos. In the last Chapter of this study, the information gained is applied to the identification and dating of stringed keyboard instruments found in South Africa or referred to in newspapers or Africana.

The main purpose of this dissertation was to explore the psychomotor and cognitive characteristics of the practice behaviours of a group of novice keyboard instrumentalists and to identify those factors which had most significant influence on performance achievement. The pivotal question guiding the study was 'How can one characterise the effects of practice strategies on the performance outcomes of this group of novice performers?' Six research questions were examined. The first three concerned student predisposition, practice procedures, and performance achievement. The second three questions examined the relationships between personal characteristics, practice behaviours and performance outcomes. The results of the study indicate that some beginners are capable of cognitive engagement in the execution of practice. Students who planned, analysed and evaluated practice strategies, both mentally and physically, were identified as self-regulated learners. These students were the more successful achievers. Students who made use of the technology, specifically for instructional purposes, made more gains that those that did not. Accumulated practice was not found to influence performance achievement. Implications for future research on this little explored subject were included / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1996. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of Oregon, 1971. / Typescript. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [325]-331).

No description available.

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.