Modernist accounts of artistic integrity often required artists to alienate audiences. In some senses, the relationship between artists and audiences never recovered, and arts organizations today struggle to overcome the hostility. The alienation had roots in two applications of Hegelian philosophy. First, modernists viewed bourgeois audiences as needing a new consciousness of their place in history. Second, artists could only bring this consciousness about by posing an antithesis to bourgeois culture, accomplished by abstraction, or removal from established aesthetic norms. In music and painting, abstraction became an important mark of seriousness, while audiences were alienated by it. J. S. Bach’s “Chaconne” for solo violin offers a model for reconciling artist and audience. Bach used a well-established dance form to lead an audience through many levels of abstraction that are both pleasing and challenging. A different account of artistic integrity and a more nuanced view of abstraction can reframe the relationship between artist and audience.

Academic research in the area of music and learning has proven that there is both a deficiency and need for classroom music education commencing at the primary grade levels. The research has shown that by incorporating music education into the academic curriculum the arts can be more effectively taught and other academic subject areas can gain from the diverse teaching strategies the arts bring to education. There are two goals of this project. One is to demonstrate to teachers what primary grade level students should be learning in music. A second goal of this project is to design a music education handbook for primary teachers that can serve as a basis for intergrating music into the curriculum. This handbook takes into consideration the general lack of sufficient teacher training in music instruction, along with teaching time constraints, and potential roadblocks, such as the acquisition of music and instrumental supplies.

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"It Follows" (2014), written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. It chronicles the story of Jay, a college student who contracts a curse through sexual intercourse. The curse manifests itself as a human whom only the infected persons can see, always following at a walking pace, and determined to kill if it catches up. This thesis demonstrates the score's crucial role in establishing affect, setting, and character in a film with sparse dialogue and a silent monster. Moreover, the score creates a sense of the uncanny by complicating the binary between music and sound effect and fulfills the need to create dread without resorting to the loud or sudden sounds traditionally heard in horror films. The score's composer, Richard Vreeland, achieves this effect by drawing on both classical film scoring techniques as well as more modern horror scoring styles. It is this interaction between styles that enhances the viewers' experience of dread and horror in the film. This thesis analyzes how Vreeland's score for "It Follows" exploits the poetics of the fantastical gap, of the uncanny, and of musical semiosis. I primarily focus on the "Heels" theme and use of drones in "It Follows," tracing how these musical features blur the distinction between what is score and what is sound effect. I also examine the use of melodic themes in a primarily non-melodic score. By analyzing these elements, I show how Richard Vreeland uses both classical and modern scoring techniques to answer his own question: "Why is this scary? What could push that emotion even further?"

The rasa theory of Indian aesthetics is concerned with the nature of the genesis of emotions and their corresponding experiences, as well as the condition of being in and experiencing the aesthetic world. According to the Indian aesthetic theory, rasa ("juice" or "essence," something that is savored, that is tasted) is an embodied aesthetic experienced through an artistic performance. In this thesis, I have investigated how the aesthetics of rasa philosophy account for creative presence and its experiences in Karnatik vocal performances. Beyond the facets of grammar, Karnatik rāga performance signifies a deeper ontological meaning as a way to experience rasa, idiomatically termed as rāga-rasa by South Indian rāga practitioners. A vocal performance of a rāga ideally depends on a singer's embodied experience of rāga and rāga-bhāva (emotive expression of rāga), as much as it does on his/her theoretical knowledge and skillset of a rāga's svaras (scale degrees), gamakas (ornamentation), lakṣhaṇās (emblematic phrases), and so on. Reflecting on my own experience of being a Karnatik student and performer for the last two decades, participant observation, interviews, and analysis of Indian aesthetic theory of rasa, I propose a way of understanding that to sing rāga is to embody bhāva opening the space that brings rasa into being. Reflecting on the epistemology of rāga theory, particularly its smaller entities of svaras and gamakas, and through a phenomenological description of the process through which a vocalist embodies rāga (including how a guru transmits this musical embodiment to his shishya [disciple]), I argue that the notion of rāga-rasa itself has agency in determining the nature of svaras and its gamakas in a rāga performance. Additionally, focusing on the relationship between performers and rasikas (drinkers of the juice), this thesis examines how the embodiment of rāga-bhāva and the experience of rasa open the possibility for musicians and audiences to live rāga-rasa in a performance.

While most orchestral instruments reached their final design in the 19th century, the expansion and redesign of traditional instruments have become increasingly common in experimental contemporary music. This dissertation explores the deep interconnections and reciprocal relationships between musical instruments, their historical, conceptual and technical frameworks, and the contemporary practice of instrumental expansion. It argues that musical instruments are both socially and historically saturated objects, deeply enmeshed in genealogical traditions that continue to influence their roles and possibilities. As a result, they function as aesthetically regulative devices. Through a critical analysis of instrumental expansion and the examination of two key works representing different philosophies of expansion, this paper seeks to problematize the implicit restraints inherent to musical instruments and magnify the moment of instrumental expansion, shedding light on the inner workings of this process. The dissertation is structured into four chapters, with each of the first three posing a fundamental question concerning instrumental expansion. The first chapter, "Why Expand?" draws from Deleuze, Guattari, and Foucault to contextualize musical instruments as territorial entities that demarcate and regulate a technical as well as conceptual field, rendering latent aesthetic values. These values, I argue, are perpetuated by the interaction between performer and instrument, which is codified according to pre-existing aesthetic standpoints. The second chapter, 'What is Expanded?', traces examples from the historical evolution of instrumental ideals, which, I argue, conflate the technical domain with changing notions of beauty. The third chapter, "How to Expand?" presents two contrasting case studies, representing different philosophies of expansion: Mauro Lanza and Andrea Valle’s Systema Naturae, and Lisa Streich’s Pietà. Rather than providing an exhaustive analysis of each piece, this chapter focuses on specific moments to explore their poetic and technical approaches to instrumental expansion. The fourth and final chapter offers a macro perspective, reflecting on history’s unrelenting grip on the present and its connection to the current stagnated cultural, social, and political moment. The dissertation concludes with a brief contextualization of three of my own works, Bricolage, Inquiline, and Relics of Movement, which are inextricably linked to the themes explored in this paper.

As a film composer, Bruce Broughton uses themes, motives, gestures, tropes, and other film composition devices; however, he is also able to develop them into compelling formal structures through the use of film composition techniques in his concert music. Traditional musical form is not necessarily applicable to film music. The film dictates the pacing and structure, whereas concert music allows for the creation of form and more complex musical development. Through his extensive experience composing in the film industry, Broughton instinctively uses his film composition techniques as a means to reach his audience with his concert music. He establishes a common ground through film score vernacular to draw the listener into a more sophisticated musical conversation. This is particularly evident in his extensive wind band catalogue. In this dissertation, I identify Bruce Broughton's film composition techniques and examine how he employs them to create a stand-alone form using those techniques in his wind band music. The film composition techniques that are examined include character association, character interaction, motivic snippets, programmatic associations, and musical tropes. These aspects are demonstrated as they influence form in three of his most frequently performed and highly acclaimed pieces for wind band: In the World of Spirits, Celebration, and Spacious Skies. Through the examination, Broughton's use of formal development through film composition devices is demonstrated.

The present dissertation consists in an original composition for solo piano, titled Seven Nocturnes (2020). The score is preceded by a critical essay in which I discuss the overall aesthetic and formal qualities of the work, its musical, philosophical, theoretical, and historical background, as well as specific performance suggestions for future interpreters. Particular emphasis is given to the work's experimental use of musical time and original approach in relating expanded time with directional harmony.

Beethoven is widely considered to be one of the most influential composers of all time. His compositions denote a crucial turning point in the history of western music, and his influence can be discussed in numerous ways - musically, technically, theoretically and even philosophically. This treatise discusses one of the primary aspects of Beethoven's influence on later generations: the way that his symphonies contributed to the expansion of the genre and, consequently, to the development of the orchestra. Included is a detailed analysis of his nine symphonies, an overview of his personal life, and an exploration of the historical, social, and political time in which he lived. This thesis collects and examines relevant documents in order to inquire about and better understand the changes and innovations that transformed the standard orchestra of the eighteenth century, opening the doors to the symphonic music of the Romantic Era. / by Daniel Padua. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 200?. Mode of access: World Wide Web.