This thesis demonstrates the need for and the importance of developing a comprehensive curriculum for the intermediate steel-string guitarist and provides a method to fill this need. The method is not specific to any one musical style and will serve to offer information necessary for the performance of music in any idiom. The lack of material presently available for the intermediate guitarist leaves them without proper musical guidance during this significant stage of their learning curve. The use of this method will help the prospective student to grow both as a guitarist and a musician.

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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a Self-Regulated Learning Music Practice Strategies Curriculum (SRL-MPSC) on Self-Efficacy in music practice, Self-Regulation in music practice, Music Performance Achievement, Processing Speed, and Meta-Cognitive Awareness for high school instrumentalists. The goal of the fifteen-day music training using the SRL-MPSC, was to teach adolescents how to practice more effectively, think meta-cognitively and develop musical independence while enhancing self-efficacy, performance achievement, processing speed and meta-cognitive awareness. Results of this study suggest that a 15-day music training intervention using the Self-Regulated Learning Music Practice Strategies Curriculum, significantly enhanced participant’s Music Performance Achievement, F, (1,33) = 11.28, p =.002, d = 1.98, self-perceptions of Self-Regulation in music practice, F (1,33) = 16.91, p = .001, d = 1.98. and Self-Efficacy in Music Practice F (1,33) = 13.81, p =.001, d = 2.10. Based upon the results of this study, teaching students to practice effectively using strategies, cooperative group activities along side daily rhythmic audiation, sight reading and scale study, will develop independent musicianship, increase confidence and musical competence, broaden the literature level and increase student motivation to practice.

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In 1959 French composer Francis Poulenc composed the opera La Voix humaine based on Jean Cocteau’s original play (1928). La Voix humaine is a one-act opera for soprano. The main character, Elle, spends the opera on the phone with her ex-lover who is marrying another the next day. Many musicians believe this opera is difficult or impossible to update, due to the use of the telephone and its dated operator system, which is a large aspect of the action and drama. This document provides the reader with a new interpretation of the opera with modern technology. Chapter One begins with a brief history of the creators of the play and opera, Jean Cocteau and Francis Poulenc. It delves into their early years, leading up to their time involved with Les Six. Chapter Two discusses Cocteau’s vision and creation of the play and continues to his collaboration with Poulenc on the opera. Chapter Three offers a view of how the phone plays a large part in the play, continues to the telephone’s function during the time period the play was written, and concludes with a look at how current technology may be applied to an updated interpretation of the opera. Chapter Four provides a look at the sections of the libretto that is linked to the telephone, thus making its use unavoidable in certain portions of the opera while providing musical examples. It also discusses how the libretto poses a problem with a modern-day telephone system and how to address these issues. Chapter Five presents ways to incorporate the use of an iPad into the second section of the opera, through analysis and interpretation of the text. Chapter Six gives a look into modern research on technology and its effects on mental health, following with how this research can be applied to a modern interpretation of the work and Elle’s untimely suicide due to effects of technology addiction. This chapter also discusses how the text and music support these ideas. Finally, the conclusion summarizes main ideas and their application into the opera.

My recent engagement as music director and conductor of Robert Nelson’s A Room with a View (1992, rev. 2004) has offered me the valuable opportunity to work on an opera side by side with its composer. The purpose of this dissertation is to reconstruct the various stages of the process of creation, interpretation, and performance of a contemporary opera, addressing aspects of the collaboration between the composer and the conductor. The methodology used in my research is based primarily on direct observation and interview. The investigation is conducted from the perspective of a “participant-observer,” due to my personal involvement in the project, as music director and conductor first, and then as interviewer and researcher. The document will be organized in three sections: - the first chapter will establish the context and specific features of my research, providing a scholarly background in relation to the study of the relationship between composer and conductor; - the second chapter will focus on the process of composition in all its stages. I have defined this as the “extended creative process” of A Room with a View; - the third chapter will discuss the Michigan State University production of the opera, considering several aspects of the artistic collaboration between Robert Nelson and me, as well as my involvement in the process as conductor. Through my research, I wish to provide useful insight into the crucial aspects of the composition and the production of new music. In addition, the project aims to offer a fresh contribution to the investigation of the relationship between composers and interpreters, and perhaps could provide some background reference for an interrogation about the current state and the future of American opera.

New free improvisers may come across six major problems as they learn to improvise: imbalance between technique and music, incorrect perception of limitation, imbalance between rationality and emotion, lack of enthusiasm, inability to view criticism as a source of creativity, and misunderstanding of mistakes and risks. In this thesis, I propose a set of effective pedagogical tools as possible solutions for students and groups interested in exploring the beauty of free improvisation.

The Caprices of Piatti and Etudes of Popper are considered by most cellists to be fundamental components of the cello literature designed to provide a solid technical basis for the student. This document will provide an alternative approach to teaching and learning these works by focusing on the qualities of expression that can be developed during the process of integrating these studies into one's repertoire. After providing contextual information for the both composers and the works, I will examine how this concept of "artistry through technique" has been adopted by other art forms, used in training students on different instruments, and can be applied to these particular studies.

The Ephesus Seventh-day Church, one of the first Black SDA churches that were formed in the New York City area during the late 1920s and early 1930s, is one church that has been faced with the challenge of maintaining traditional repertoire and musical practices, while including more popular genres and styles that lay outside the SDA guidelines. Located in Central Harlem, Ephesus is surrounded by the cultural and historical influences within the Harlem community. The Ephesus Church, based on extant hymnals and the recollections of church members, continued in the Euro-centric musical traditions of early SDA churches until the 1960s, when it began to explore African-inspired musical practices. Around 1970, close in time to the SDA 1972 Music Guidelines were instituted, a struggle between Euro-centric versus Afro-centric musical cultures became apparent. Following introductory chapters on the history of African-American membership in the SDA Church from the 19th century to the early 20th century and early musical leaders of Ephesus Church, the musical practices of Ephesus from 1970 to 2010 serves as the focus of this study.

The trumpet and electronics genre of music has been in existence since 1965. While various dissertations have discussed other composers and their works in this field, there is still a need for a treatise exploring appropriate performance practice for the electroacoustic trumpet music of Meg Bowles. There has been no study of the compositional process nor trumpet techniques required for performance of these works and other electronic compositions. This dissertation will study the compositions for trumpet and electronics by Bowles, develop strategies for performing these works, and explore compositional techniques used to create them. Interviews have been conducted between the author and composer (Meg Bowles), as well as the author and collaborating performer (David Bilger). In addition, existing interviews with the composer are included from journals and websites. This document is presented in two parts: Part I, “Introduction to Music for Trumpet and Electronics,” “Biography of Meg Bowles,” “Compositional Techniques,” “Night Sun Journey,” “Places Where Rivers Meet,” “Shapeshifter,” and “Twilight Embrace.” The second part of this dissertation contains materials which are pertinent to the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree and includes recital programs, program notes, and vita.