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Master of Music / Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance / Amy Underwood / The following report is extended program notes that focus on the expression of love in various ways. These songs were presented on a graduate recital March 31, 2015 in All Faiths Chapel at Kansas State University. It is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Music degree in vocal performance. The works included are by Bellini, Bernstein, Hahn, Koechlin, Obradors, Saint-Saëns, Schumann, and Sullivan. Below is a detailed description explaining the focus of the report. Many musicians discuss the musical elements including key signatures, time signatures, harmony, rhythm, and melody. They may also discuss the understanding of the music through the viewpoint of the vocal text. The musical elements and how the subject matter connects the two together is important to understand when giving a recital. It makes the music come alive for the audience and it is a true interpretation of how it should be performed. Love is a topic which many composers explore because of the natural emotion people feel about its perception. Different feelings and emotions conjured in the hearts and minds of humankind. Love is a personal feeling, and after studying the poetry and music, I assigned an adjective or verb to each song that describes a more specific facet of love’s emotional spectrum. These adjectives and their portrayal by various composers will comprise the focus of this paper.

This study seeks to discover the extent and manner of Debussy's use of the motive in thematic material. A total of 40 melodic examples were analyzed in order to show their relationship to a single motive, a three-note figure having a step-leap relationship. Using eighty-four series of examples, the study shows the melodies analyzed to be 85% motive-derived. The study concludes, therefore, that Images I is a remarkably economical work, using a single three-note motive as a unifying and developmental basis.

This study deals with problems of identity of the office antiphons performed in the period after Pentecost. Mentioned antiphons belong to the New Testament canticle Benedictus for laudes and Magnificat for vespers. This part of the office is not so carefully regulated and between the European traditions occur variations. So this material was used for the determination of each tradition. The variability was not only in the selection and order of antiphons, but also in texts and melodies. After my analysis of the individual Post-Pentecost antiphons in several European medieval sources I found out that in certain cases with the same antiphon text appear completely different melodies or significantly different melodic variations. Due to this fact, in my opinion, is necessary to work with the musical part of this repertoire, consequently sort these chants not only according to the text, but also according to the melody. The ability to assign to the antiphons Melody ID based on the melody of chants (except Cantus ID based on the text) allows us to observe links between traditions which used this melody. In this way it is possible to reveal the relationships between the centers, which were performing the office repertoire. Keywords antiphon, office, manuscript, liturgical year, Pentecost, traditions,...

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Detta arbete tar avstamp i Brian Enos uttryck generative music, detta har blivit förknippat med modulära syntar. Hos modulära syntar är möjligheterna stora att ställa in parametrar och sedan låta synten göra sitt, vilket kan skapa intressanta ljudlandskap. Det som dock sällan uppstår är melodier. Arbetet går ut på att lägga till ytterligare en dimension i en sådan kreativ process. Målet med arbetet är att skapa en steg-sequencer inom formatet Eurorack. Denna sequencer ska kunna spela, och slumpmässigt ändra melodier, utifrån valda parametrar. Den önskas dessutom kunna uttrycka musik utifrån musikteoretiska koncept. En prototyp skapas med mikrokontrollern RP2040 från Raspberry Pi Foundation, kretskort designas och tillverkas med KiCad och beställs från mönsterkortstillverkare JLCPCB. Mjukvaran utvecklas i programmeringsspråket C, och skrivs så generellt som möjligt för att det skapade operativsystemet ska kunna expanderas. Prototypen klarar av att programmeras på samma sätt som man skriver noter på notblad. Den innehåller två separata sekvenser med 16 takter vardera, dessa är oberoende av varandra och kan vara olika längd. Det går att ställa in skala och tonart, dessa påverkar båda sekvenser. Det går att ställa in sannolikhet för slumpmässiga ändringar i tonart, skala, melodi på två sekvenser, och harmonisering mellan sekvenserna. Förutom sannolikhet finns flera andra parametrar för de slumpmässiga ändringarna. På prototypens panel sitter en bildskärm och 18 tryckknappar där 13 av dem är utformade likt tangenterna på ett piano. Förutom att programmera sekvenser går det även att spela de kopplade syntarna med pianotangenterna. Följande MoSCoW modellen uppfyller prototypen alla ska och bör mål. Endast två av önskade målen är ej uppfyllda. Funktionaliteten upplevs över författarens förväntan. / This work kicks off with Brian Enos expression generative music. Generative music has risen to prominence lately within the modular synth community. With modular synthesizers there are basically infinite possibilities of setting up some modules and let the synth play forever creating soundscapes without human influence. What seldom is produces in this process is melodies. This work sets to add a new dimension to this kind of creative process. A step-sequencer is produced, intended to play random musical harmonies, within the boundaries that are set. Another aspiration is to create a sequencer which more closely follows the principles of basic music theory. A prototype is created with the microcontroller RP2040 from Raspberry Pi foundation. The circuit board is designed and created in KiCad and ordered from PCB manufacturer JLCPCB. Software is written in the C programming language, data structures are written as generic as possible, so that the operating system easily can be expanded. The result is a sequencer in which you add notes much like you would write sheet music. It contains two separate sequences which can play at the same time, both with 16 bars. There is a changeable key and scale which both affect the sequences. It has the possibility to set a probability for random changes to occur. The key, the scale, the melodies, and harmonization can be randomized. There are several other parameters that affect the randomization. The front panel of the sequencer contains a display and several buttons, some of which is positioned as a piano, which you can use to play any synth it is connected to. Following the MoSCoW model, the prototype fulfills all the must and should goals, only two of the could goals is not implemented. The usability and functionality are beyond the authors expectations.

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Black choral music composers in South Africa, inspired by the few opportunities available to them until recent times, have nonetheless attempted to establish, perhaps subconsciously, some choral tradition and, in doing so, incorporate African musical elements in their works. My research traces the foundations and historical development of choral music as an art amongst Vhavenda, and the contributions made thereto by a number of past and present Venda composers that this researcher could manage to identify and trace, to the music of the people. The selected composers are Stephen Maimela Dzivhani, Matthew Ramboho Nemakhavhani, Derrick Victor Nephawe, Joseph Khorommbi Nonge, Israel Thinawanga Ramabannda and Fhatuwani Hamilton Sumbana. Through the application of multiple methodological lenses, the study sets out to analyse, describe, and interpret Venda choral music. Of particular interest is the exploration of the extent to which the ”formal” education that was brought by the Berlin Missionaries influenced Venda choral musicians, particularly the selected Venda choral music composers. Also crucial to this research is the exploration and identification of elements peculiar to indigenous Venda traditional music in the works of these composers. The question is whether it was possible for these composers to realize and utilize their potentials fully in their attempt to evoke traditional Venda music with their works, given the very limiting Western tonic sol-fa notational system they were solely working with. The project also briefly traces the place of Venda choral music within the South African music context and its role within the search for cultural identity. The research has found that the majority of Venda choral music written so far has generally not been capable of evoking indigenous Venda traditional music. Whilst these composers choose themes that are akin to their culture, social settings, legend and general communal life, the majority of the music they set to these themes does not sound African (Venda in particular) in terms of the rhythms and melodies. The majority of the compositions under scrutiny have inappropriate settings of Venda words into the melodies employed. This can be attributed to the limitations imposed by the tonic sol-fa notational system, which was the only system they were taught in the missionary schools established around Venda and which, itself, was flawed as well as the general lack of adequate music education on the part of the composers themselves. Despite these limitations and the very few opportunities available to them, Venda choral music composers nonetheless managed to lay a foundation for choral music as an art amongst their people (Vhavenda). / Art history, Visual Ars and Musicology / D. Mus