American composer Ben Moore (b. 1960) is a well-regarded painter, pianist, and composer whose compositions have been sung by leading singers of the Metropolitan Opera. This document serves as a performers guide to Moores song cycle Dear Theo. The song cycle utilizes Moores own text adaptations of letters written by Vincent van Gogh to his brother Theo. Chapter 1 presents a biographical sketch of Vincent van Gogh and his path to becoming a painter. Chapter 2 provides a brief life history of Ben Moore based on personal interview. Chapter 3 details the process of creating the song cycle Dear Theo. Chapter 4 is a performers guide to the cycle, providing explanations for the musical settings as well as suggestions for bringing the music and the text to life. The appendices include a transcription of an interview with Ben Moore, essays written by the composer about the work, and Moores personal research in adapting the texts for Dear Theo. It is the authors hope that this document will provide the necessary information to further the success of singers performing the songs of Dear Theo, while bringing attention to this estimable composer for research, teaching, and performance.

Concepts related to style change have been discussed thoroughly by theorists such as Leonard Meyer and others. In the case of Czech scholar, Antonín Dvořák, this change relates directly to his pentatonic style. While many musicologists suggest that the composer's travels to the United States in the early 1890's had a profound effect on the birth of his pentatonic style, this thesis posits that Dvořák's pentatonicism is apparent from even his earliest works. In examining evidence of this pentatonicism it becomes clear that, for Dvořák, there are two types: thematic and cadential. Thematic pentatonicism arises from themes of works or movements which only include pitches found within the traditional Western pentatonic scale (scale degrees 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6). Cadential pentatonicism is more abstract in that it only makes an appearance during the close of phrases, sections, or melodic gestures. In these moments, often a rising or falling pentatonic scale will be heard in one or more melody instruments with a harmonic accompaniment that moves towards a tonic structure. In order to better understand and find these two factors, a corpus study was used along with various statistical and programming tools. The use of these tools allowed for a quicker and more thorough examination of various themes and figures for elements of pentatonicism. The results of this corpus study hint towards further research into the fields of pentatonic structure, Czech folk music, and the composer himself, Antonín Dvořák

Several of Alfred Hitchcocks movies feature characters with disabilities. Often, these characters are protagonists, and Hitchcock systematically manipulates his audiences to identify with these characters through the editing process, sound effects, and music. This dissertation will analyze the ways music represents various disabilities in three Hitchcock films. Vertigo (1958) addresses obsession and phobia as its main themes, whereas Psycho (1960) investigates obsession and madness. Finally, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) explores muteness, hysteria, and identity in the context of two pieces of diegetic music. Hitchcock made careful notes for the music in his films; songs represent disability through lyrics and in their use as part of a films underscore in specific scenes. When a non-diegetic orchestral score accompanied one of his films, Hitchcock needed a composer to write music to accompany his visual track. For the three films discussed in length, that composer was Bernard Herrmann. Herrmanns music choices closely reflect Hitchcocks desires for that specific film (they worked on eight films together). Herrmann represents disability through his music through several techniques: bitonality, dissonance, atonality, cell-based melodic structures, ostinati, and the use of the minor-major seventh chord. The extensive use of these techniques in Hitchcocks films distinguishes Herrmann from other contemporary Hollywood composers.

Huai Opera, a category of Chinese opera performed in Shanghai as well as the Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces, has been a popular type of entertainment ever since its creation sometime in the nineteenth century. With the beginning of the twenty-first, the art form has begun to lose audiences, in part due to the changed economic circumstances, which no longer made it feasible to attend three- to four-hour performances, in part due to problems inherent in the genre, such as old-fashioned plots, the common, unrefined style of the libretto, and the inflexible use of role types, modes, and metrical types. Zhenfang Zhaos Widow Xianglin (2002) has begun to address these problems. The opera lasts only about two hours and the libretto (by Liancheng Yuan) is no longer based on folklore or history but on a short story addressing pressing social issues in feudal China (such as the position of the woman in general and of the widowed woman in particular). In addition, the opera reforms long-standing musico-dramatic traditions by mixing modes and role types, liberating the metrical types from their conventional functions, and introducing the Western concept of leitmotives. The success of Widow Xianglin appears to have struck a chord with Chinese audiences, as it won several prestigious awards at the Fourth Huai Opera Festival, including the ones for best opera, best libretto, best performance, and best costume design. The success also rekindles hope for the survival of Huai Opera in particular and Chinese opera in general. By investigating the historical significance of Widow Xianglin from a scholarly perspective, this thesis seeks to make a contribution to the survival of a musical tradition protected as an Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Born in Korea, Isang Yun (1917-1995) became one of the most prominent avant-garde composers in the world. Yun made use of a distinctive musical language that synthesized Far East Asian philosophy, especially Chinese Taoism, with Western techniques and Korean traditional instrumental idioms. Isang Yun left more that 100 works, including twelve works that feature the flute. This essay will discuss Yuns five Etüden für Flöte(n) solo (Etudes for solo flute(s)), which are highly representative of Yuns solo music for flute. The document will include a discussion and performance guide for each of the five etudes. This document will present an discussion of the five etudes and an examination of how Yuns study of Korean traditional instrumental techniques, Western avant-garde procedures, and his oriental philosophy and ideology are reflected in these works. The fusion of Korean instrumental techniques, Chinese Taoist philosophy, and the main tones Yun refers to as Haupttöne, is exemplified in the five Etüden für Flöte(n) solo.

<p> <i>Newsfeed</i> is a composition for eight performers and electronics, written in 2016. It incorporates elements from popular music, namely in the form of borrowed instrumentation and influx of styles, in its aesthetic. A discussion of the ideologies behind the crossover of popular music within contemporary classical composition prefaces specific examples from recent composers that have also sought to bridge the gap between these two realms of music. The observations of musicologists, as well as artist statements from the composers themselves, justify the philosophical and cultural ramifications of the cross-pollination between popular and art music. The composers discussed in this report use a variety of methods to crossover the two realms, which range from instrumentation, incorporation of popular styles, and references to popular music and contemporary media within their works. Following this is a discussion of popular artists who have made a similar crossover into the art world.</p>

Given the prevalent use of sight-reading in the classroom, at music festivals, and in audition procedures, it is important to know the most effective practices in preparing students to sight-read musical excerpts. Previous studies suggest that rhythm accuracy is a significant indicator of sight-reading ability. However, others have observed a possible influence of pitch on the performance of rhythm. In an effort to better understand that relationship, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of pitch and rhythm priming tasks on sight-reading accuracy and fluency. High school wind instrumentalists (N=182) sight-read selected stimulus exercises from the Watkins-Farnum Performance Scale under one of four conditions: pre/post rhythm, pre/post pitch, post only rhythm, or post only pitch. As part of a repeated measures design, two priming treatments and a control condition were administered. Participants played through either the rhythms on one pitch or through the sequence of pitches on quarter notes during perceptual priming tasks and through either a general rhythm exercise or scale exercise during conceptual priming tasks. Those in pre-test/post-test groups first sight-read the exercise as written while those in the post-test only groups began with treatments. Using a three-way repeated measures MANOVA, no significant differences were found in rhythm, pitch or fluency accuracy based on treatment condition (pitch or rhythm) or exposure condition (pre/post or post only). Significant differences were found based on priming condition (p < .02). Rhythms scores were significantly lower after both perceptual and conceptual priming than after control conditions. No significant differences in pitch accuracy or fluency were detected based on priming condition but each significantly improved over time. These results suggest that rhythm processing was influenced in different ways than pitch. The independent consideration of fluency revealed important relationships between pitch and sight-reading accuracy. In addition, significant differences in pitch were found between brass and woodwind players suggesting the importance of aural representation skills in accurate sight-reading. Based on these outcomes, future research should continue to investigate the complex roles of rhythm and pitch processing during music reading performance tasks.

This project applies mathematically informed narrative to monophonic music in the twentieth century, with a focus on three works for solo woodwinds: Debussys Syrinx (flute), Stravinskys Three Pieces for Clarinet, and Brittens Bacchus from Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, Op. 49 (oboe). This music poses difficulties for traditional analytical methods due to a lack of explicit harmonies and unusual pitch language that is neither functionally tonal nor serially atonal. Additionally, these pieces present a variety of challenges due to differences in length, number of movements, and presence or absence of programmatic elements. Therefore, nontraditional methods could be beneficial for understanding these idiosyncratic pieces. Mathematical and transformational approaches have shown that such descriptions can elegantly illustrate pitch language in a wide variety of tonal and atonal styles. Visual transformational and geometric approaches, such as oriented networks and graphic representations, can assist in illustrating important changes that take place during a piece. Narrative theory approaches analysis from another viewpoint. While not all music can be considered narrative, a narrative paradigm is applicable to a wide range of musical styles. Because narrative theories focus on large-scale topical and gestural changes for building interpretations, it complements the locally focused nature of transformational theory. Together, a mathematically informed narrative method can reveal connections that are not immediately obvious in these works, and help a listener or performer create an informed interpretation.

Prior to 1851, music in Great Britain was influenced by the music of Germany, in particular by that of Johannes Brahms. This began to change, in part, because of the Great Exhibition of 1851, a forum held showing the best in raw materials, industrial design and new inventions, as well as the fine arts. This inspired new interest in English music and art. More importantly, this event led to the formation of the Royal College of Music, which opened in May of 1883. From this school an outpouring of distinctly English composers flowed, most of whom studied with Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. Among these were William Hurlstone, Thomas Dunhill, Gordon Jacob, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, each of whom wrote a piece for bassoon solo, bassoon and piano, or bassoon and orchestra. Jacob's student, Malcolm Arnold, added a solo bassoon composition of his own. These works are bound not only in their origin but in several common compositional traits. These traits include the use of quantities of phrasing within each section of a piece's form, melodies that strongly indicate a tonic key and use little rhythmic variation, the use of the bassoon's lowest range as the indicator of transitional material, and the change of role between the bassoon and the accompanimental voice in secondary themes.

This document provides a comprehensive examination of Beethoven's Fantasy for Piano Op.77. While most of Beethoven's other works for solo piano have been extensively researched and performed, this work has received very little scholarly or performance attention. The prime objective of this document is to redress this omission and shed some light on a work that contains several intriguing features. After tracing the fantasy tradition from which this work emerged, this document provides an extensive background into the specific origins of the Fantasy Op.77. Amongst the issues that are discussed is this work's relationship to the Choral Fantasy Op.80 and also those piano works by Beethoven that contain fantasy-like elements. The central portion of this document is concerned with the unique structural design that underpins this work. After discussing that small body of research that does address this work, this document puts forward an original analysis that puts this work in a new perspective. This involves a more eclectic analytical approach that embraces elements of Schenkerian as well as more conventional theoretical procedures. A definite connection between the compositional procedures in this fantasy and the late piano sonatas by Beethoven is then established. Ultimately this document reveals the compositional genius of Beethoven in this little known work, specifically in his ability to mask structural unity with the outward appearance of chaos and disorder.