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.

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.

"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 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.

No description available.

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.

No description available.

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.

Orientador: Jose Oscar de Almeida Marques / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-14T05:15:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Justi_VicentedePaulo_D.pdf: 1436170 bytes, checksum: df13abd731e3bf77576a57604166fbd6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: A proposta deste trabalho é verificar o tratamento dado por Immanuel Kant na Crítica da Faculdade do Juízo à música. Sob a aparente desconsideração do autor neste tema, encontra-se uma filosofia densa que provoca reflexões e contribui decisivamente para a discussão sempre atual sobre a apreensão, compreensão e classificação da música. A possibilidade de reconhecermos a música como agradável, bela e sublime constitui-se o núcleo central dos problemas analisados. No primeiro capítulo discutimos os conceitos kantianos apresentados na Terceira Crítica como sensação, sentimento, comoção, afeto, prazer, forma, conformidade a fins, intuição, juízos e reflexão. O problema é verificar se estes conceitos, tal como apresentados por Kant, podem ainda contribuir para a nossa compreensão do fenômeno musical. No segundo capítulo verificamos o mecanismo de funcionamento das faculdades de conhecimento kantianas na apreensão e compreensão do fenômeno musical. O terceiro capítulo é reservado à discussão da possibilidade de classificarmos a música como agradável e as condições desta proposição. A música bela é o tema do quarto capítulo, onde além da discussão do problema que dá nome ao capítulo, analisamos o objeto belo, a teleologia da natureza, a arte mecânica e arte estética, a música bela e a poesia e a teoria kantiana do gênio na produção musical. O quinto capítulo discute a possibilidade e as condições de falar-se em música sublime e as incontornáveis ligações desta classificação com o domínio prático (moral). As conclusões estão centralizadas na questão de que a música bela é a única categoria realmente estética, enquanto a agradável é parcialmente estética e parcialmente prática e a sublime é totalmente prática. A beleza fundada na forma exige a cognição, no sentido de utilização do entendimento sem conceitos. A comoção é aceita na experiência estética se ligada, no sublime, à representação prática (moral) que a arte apresenta ao homem. / Abstract: The aim of this dissertation is to examine Immanuel Kant's treatment of music in his Critique of Judgment. Beneath his apparent neglect for the subject one can find a dense philosophical reflection that decisively contributes to the always current discussion about music perception, understanding and categorization. The possibility of recognizing music as being agreeable, beautiful and sublime is the central interest of the problems I analyze. In the first chapter I discuss Kantian concepts presented in the third Critique such as sensation, sentiment, commotion, affect, pleasure, conformity to ends, intuition, judgment and reflection. My aim here is to decide whether these concepts can still be of use in understanding music as a phenomenon in the way Kant presents them. In chapter two I examine how Kant understands the function of our cognitive capacities in the perception and understanding of music. Chapter three deals with the possibility and conditions for classifying music as being agreeable. Beautiful music is the topic of the fourth chapter, in which I not only discuss the concept of beauty in music, but also analyze the problem of what is a beautiful object, how does teleology work in nature, what is mechanical art as opposed to aesthetic art, beautiful music in its relation to poetry, and the role of Kant's theory of genius in musical creativity. The fifth chapter discusses the possibility and conditions of the sublime in music and the unavoidable links of this category to the domain of morality. My conclusions are that beautiful music is the only really aesthetic category, while the agreeable is only partially aesthetic and partially moral, and the sublime is totally moral. Beauty based on form requires cognition, in the sense of a non-conceptual use of the understanding. Commotion is acceptable in aesthetic experience if it is connected, in the sublime, to a moral representation that art presents to human beings. / Doutorado / Doutor em Filosofia

It is not uncommon to read claims of music’s ability to affect our sense of time and its rate of passage. Indeed, such effects are often considered among the most distinctive and prized aspects of musical aesthetics. Yet when it comes to the similarly abstract notion of space and its manipulation by musical structures, theorists are generally silent. My dissertation addresses this gap in the literature and shows how music’s spatial effects arise through an affective engagement with musical works. In this study, I examine an eclectic selection of compositions to determine how the spaces we inhabit are transformed by the music we hear within them. Drawing on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theory of embodied perception, as well as research on acoustics, sound studies, and media theory, I deploy an affective model of spatial perception—a model that links the sense of space with the moment-to-moment needs and desires of the perceiver— to explain how these musical modulations of space occur. My claim is that the manner in which the music solicits our engagement affects how we respond, which in turn affects what we perceive. I begin by discussing the development of recording technology and how fixed media works deemed “spatial music” reinforce a particular conception of space as an empty container in which sound sources are arrayed in specific locations relative to a fixed listening position. After showing how innovative studio techniques have been used to unsettle this conventional spatial configuration, I then discuss examples of Renaissance vocal music, instrumental chamber music, and 20th century electronic music in order to develop a richer understanding of the range of spatial interactions that musical textures and timbres can provide. In my final chapter, I draw upon these varieties of affective engagement to construct a hermeneutic analysis of the spatial experience afforded by Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, thereby modeling a phenomenological method for grounding interpretation in embodied, rather than strictly discursive, practices. By soliciting movement through the call for bodily action, music allows us an opportunity to fit together one world of possibilities with another, thereby providing an occasion for grasping new meanings presented through the work. The spatial aspect of music, therefore, does not consist in merely recognizing an environmental setting populated by individual sound sources. Through the embodied practices of music perception and the malleability of space they reveal, we are afforded an opportunity to reshape our understanding of the world around us.