abstract: Hans Gál is arguably one of the most underrated, underperformed and forgotten composers of the twentieth century. Once a prolific composer in the 1920s and 1930s, Gál’s career was cut short by the Nazi regime in 1933 when he was fired, and his works banned due to his Jewish heritage. Following the Second World War, his music was relegated as obsolete, belonging to a bygone era. Hans Gál is a perfect example of the intransigence, superficiality, and discrimination of the evolving musical fashion, and his life-story speaks to the misfortunes and persecution of the Jewish people in the mid-twentieth century. Consequently, Hans Gál is known today mainly as an educator, scholar, and editor of Brahms’s works, rather than as a composer, despite an impressive compositional output spanning over 70 years covering every major musical genre. Within his impressive oeuvre are several little-known gems of the violin repertoire, including the Sonata in D for Violin and Piano and Violin Concerto op. 39 among others. Scholarly writings on Gál and his music are unfortunately scarce, particularly such works exploring his violin music. However, recent years have seen an increased interest in resurrecting the music of Gál. Recordings of his major works as well as research of his music have furthered the awareness and understating of this forgotten composer’s music. In my document, I will continue the path of recent rediscovery and celebration of this unsung hero of twentieth-century post-Romanticism with an in-depth look at his Sonata in D for Violin and Piano (1933). A light-hearted, accessible and unpretentious work, the Sonata in D distinguishes itself in the violin-piano sonata repertoire of the interwar period by its witty, clear use of form and motivic/thematic unity in the vein of the great Viennese masters. Gál’s take on traditional idioms such as tonality, coupled with masterful use of the implication/realization process, create a highly original and noteworthy style, that renders the Sonata in D an immediately appealing work for performers and listeners alike. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2019

abstract: This thesis examines the jazz jam session’s function in the constitution of jazz scenes as well as the identities of the musicians who participate in them. By employing ritual and performance studies theories of liminality, I demonstrate ways in which jazz musicians, jam sessions, and other social structures are mobilized and transformed during their social and musical interactions. I interview three prominent members of the jazz scene in the greater Phoenix area, and incorporate my experience as a professional jazz musician in the same scene, to conduct a contextually and socially embedded analysis in order to draw broader conclusions about jam sessions in general. In this analysis I refer to other ethnomusicologists who research improvisation, jazz in ritual context, and interactions, such as Ingrid Monson, Samuel Floyd, Travis Jackson, and Paul Berliner, as well as ideas proposed by phenomenologically adjacent thinkers such as Gilles Deleuze, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Karen Barad. This thesis attempts to contribute to current jam session research in fields such as ethnomusicology and jazz studies by offering a perspective on jam sessions based on phenomenology and process philosophy, concluding that the jam session is an essential mechanism in the ongoing social and musical developments of jazz musicians and their scene. I also attempt to continue and develop the discourse surrounding theories of liminality in performance and ritual studies by underscoring the web of relations in social structures that are brought into contact with one another during the liminal performances of their acting agents. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Music 2019

abstract: This document accompanies new recordings of four recent sonatas for trumpet and piano. The project’s objective is to promote these works, while providing a comprehensive resource for potential performers. The four sonatas were selected based on their appeal to modern audiences. Composers Brendan Collins, Luis Engelke, William Rowson, and Christoph Nils Thompson each represents a different country, and they offer significant contributions to the trumpet repertoire. Each sonata expertly features the trumpet by highlighting its lyricism, virtuosity, and ability to cross genres. The accompanying document draws upon interviews with the four composers, which reveal insights into the compositional process and provide details that performers will find useful. This document also offers in-depth musical descriptions, allowing performers to enhance their understanding of each sonata. The principal component of the document is the performer’s guide: Advice is presented directly to the trumpet player that has been garnered from the composers’ interviews, study of the music, and the author’s thoughts on preparing the music. To help other young musicians better comprehend the recording process, the author’s own experience is detailed. Ultimately, this document provides a window into the lifespan of the four sonatas; from their initial composition through the various stages of studying and rehearsing, culminating with the experience of recording these works for the first time. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2019

Steve Reich’s music has had a profound effect on the contemporary percussionist’s repertoire. More recently, his Mallet Quartet (2009) has been one of the most performed works in the rising genre of mallet-keyboard quartets, which was featured in Third Coast Percussion’s 2017 Grammy-winning album Third Coast Percussion | Steve Reich. With Mallet Quartet, Reich codified this type of ensemble into the contemporary repertoire of percussion as evidenced through current commissions in progress by groups such as Sō Percussion and Third Coast Percussion. The purpose of this document is to delineate the trajectory (past and present) of the mallet-keyboard quartet and highlight the most important compositional characteristics found within Mallet Quartet. These characteristics include the use of canonical augmentations, large-scale tonal shifts, rhythmic modification, and developing variation. After this analysis, this dissertation provides a performance guide to Mallet Quartet which specifically address the practicalities necessary for a successful performance. Topics such as the setup of instruments, mallet considerations, approaches to challenges in part-reading, and common ensemble issues are discussed.

My monograph focuses on the Instants d’un Opera de Pekin by the contemporary Chinese composer Qigang Chen in particular how he incorporates Chinese musical elements with Western compositional techniques. The main focus of this study is an analysis with emphasis on performance issues. A brief introduction to Chinese music elements is provided to establish a context. This document provides brief information about Chinese scale modes and instruments.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) left many musical scores containing his earliest compositional efforts. Here 'earliest' is taken, for convenience, to refer to the works from the first extant (1810) up to and including the lied Gretchen am Spinnrade (1814), his first generally recognized masterpiece. This dissertation tells the story tracing those efforts in a chronological series of analytical essays. The essays mention only incidentally the external evidence of the home environment, lessons received, concerts attended, and so on, but refer instead primarily to the internal evidence of the compositions themselves, that is, the notes on the page. That story has not previously been told in these terms. The dissertation is thus a contribution to musical analysis applied to a quite important and certainly instructive but very little-known repertoire. An essential feature is that the story proceeds chronologically, to the (fairly large) extent that the exact chronology is known. Over a hundred works are involved, some containing several movements, so the story is necessarily long. Further, music is by no means a simple phenomenon, so the story is necessarily detailed. Another feature contributes to the tracing of the skein of anticipations of resources used in Schubert's later and more famous works, as well as to the evidence of derivation from models of other composers' works. Each work studied is provided with identifying information; musical incipits are also provided in view of the unfamiliarity of the repertoire. This identifying information, though necessary, is merely auxiliary to the story being told, and is accordingly set off from the latter. After the chronological story has been completed, a series of summaries is presented under the various categories of musical analysis; these summaries naturally refer back to the individual works. The ferreting out and telling of the story is itself the aim; no hypothesis is entertained. A review of the story yields several main results concerning the various elements of musical composition. (1) Schubert's attitude to the important matter of sonata form ranged from initial rather extreme experimentation possibly combined with some degree of misunderstanding to a clearly demonstrated ability to handle it convincingly first shown perhaps in his First Symphony D082 (October 1813). (2) Melody and text setting also showed early extremes as in the long and wild ballad Der Taucher D077 (first version September 1813 - April 1814), subsequently settling down, from about his first Opera D084 (first version October 1813 - May 1814), to a more suitable range of expression which was to serve him so well. (3) Counterpoint remained something of a weakness throughout, being used often but only in simple manifestations. (4) Harmony and orchestration were in general well handled throughout and many experiments were noted in methods of modulation. (5) An important factor to be found not in the notes but in the text of the score contributed to the mastery shown in Gretchen am Spinnrade (among other factors which are explored): Schubert's coming into contact with the inspiring poetry of Goethe. Three conclusions are offered on the broadest level. (1) The extent of Schubert's progress as a composer over the period studied was on the whole slight, because of the wealth of resources already at his disposal at the starting point at age 13. (2) The time at which Schubert wrote his first Symphony and first Opera - about October 1813 - is proposed as marking a settling down from earlier extravagance to more acceptably controlled writing. That applies to the two genres, instrumental and vocal music, on the one hand, as well as to the techniques of form and expression, on the other. It thus divides the period studied into two stages. (I naturally hope here to avoid oversimplification and acknowledge that the division is by no means watertight.) (3) By October 1814, the end of the present investigation, it was only in vocal music and specifically the lied, thus not also in instrumental or stage music, that real mastery can be recognized.

The technique of symphonic composition requires a deliberate and methodical process by the composer; when the symphony is intended to aesthetically convey a specific subject matter, the compositional process must become even more deliberate. First a subject must be chosen and examined in a contemporary standpoint. Then the composer must determine how to reflect this subject through his or her composing. Ideally, the end result of this composition should encompass the subject matter as thoroughly as possible. While the great majority of textbooks on music theory and composition centralize themselves on elements of pitch in music, the composer has many other elements to consider, notably rhythm, texture, timbre, and form. These elements – be they working independently of one another, supporting one another, or at odds with one another – can be influenced by a wide variety of both traditional and developmental artistic movements. Oftentimes, a composer may find it ideal to synthesize both older techniques of one element with newer techniques in another. This synthesis was the objective in composing a modern program symphony based on the four seasons. Emulating different styles and affects of the twentieth century, this work aimed to synthesize both older and newer techniques. This thesis explains in detail the compositional process used for this program symphony.

Igor Stravinsky's precompositional process was so methodical that his move to serialism is no surprise. After becoming acquainted with the music of Schoenberg and Webern, Stravinsky was moved to experiment with serial techniques. He rejected many of the conventional approaches developed by the serial architects, only to adopt the technique at its basic form—the use of a series of pitches—and cultivate it into his own compositional style. Stravinsky continued to refine his style throughout his serial period (1951–1966) as each composition grew increasingly more serial than the last. For each work composed after 1960, Stravinsky constructed rotation arrays, a serial technique he adopted from Ernst Krenek. These arrays consisted of a twelve-tone row partitioned into hexachords, with each hexachord rotated to create five additional permutations per hexachord. These permutations were then transposed so that the first pitch of the original hexachord was retained for each permutation. This operation was performed on four series forms: prime, inversion, retrograde, and inversion of the retrograde (favored by Stravinsky over the traditional retrograde inversion form). It is from his rotational arrays that Stravinsky systematically chose hexachords to compose A Sermon, a Narrative, and a Prayer (1961); The Flood (1962); Abraham and Isaac (1963); and Requiem Canticles (1966). Though his precompositional charts are very specific in determining pitch application, it is difficult to account for the use of some hexachords that are found in these works but not found in Stravinsky's charts, as the hexachords do not explicitly appear in the charts. Many analysts have glossed over these incongruities. For instance, Joseph Straus mentions very little about these “anomalous hexachords” in Stravinsky's Late Music (2001); and Claudio Spies completely ignores the hexachords in question. In this paper I will identify these anomalous hexachords and attempt to explain their derivation from Stravinsky's charts.

...That the Children May Learn is a 28-minute musical parable about the process by which children are indoctrinated into cultures of war through play, parental influence, and propaganda. Specifically, the composition focuses upon the universality of these overarching sociopolitical structures. It is the composer’s personal response to Igor Stravinsky’s L’histoire du soldat. Material is often drawn from or related to external sources, particularly national anthems and the so-called “Ur-song,” familiar to individuals of many nations (sol-sol-mi-la-sol-mi). Texts are original or comprise fragments from letters and diaries of soldiers and their families during wartime separation. Performance of the work may be accompanied by an optional multimedia projection, and may be conducted outside of the normal concert setting in an effort to motivate the closer examination by individuals from a broad variety of backgrounds of the issues raised in the piece. The analytical paper discusses the raison d'être for the composition as well as its micro- and macroorganization, and the variety of methods used to reinforce its strength as an agent of communication. / text

Among the techniques associated with the theory of musical transformations, network analysis stands out because of its broad applicability, demonstrated by the diverse examples presented in David Lewin’s seminal work Musical Form and Transformation and related articles by Lewin, Klumpenhouwer, Gollin, and others. While transformational theory can encompass a wide variety of analytical structures, objects, and transformations, two particular types of network postulated by Lewin are often featured: the product network and the network-of-networks. These structures both incorporate repetition, but in different ways. This document will propose one possible definition for product networks and networks-of-networks that is consistent with Lewin’s theories as presented in Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations. This definition will clarify how each of these two network formats may be generated from the same sub-graphs, which in turn will clarify the advantages and disadvantages of each structure for musical analysis, specifically demonstrating how analytical goals shape the choice of network representation. The analyses of Chapters 3 and 4 examine works by contemporary Canadian composers that have not been the subject of any published analyses. Chapter 3 presents short examples from the works of contemporary Québécois composers, demonstrating the utility of these networks for depicting connections within brief passages that feature short, repeated motives. Chapter 4 presents an analysis of R. Murray Schafer’s Seventh String Quartet, demonstrating how these structures can be used to link small-scale events with longer prolongations and motivic development throughout a movement. Chapter 5 demonstrates through a wider repertoire how analytical goals shape the choice of network representation, touching on such factors as continuity, motivic return, and implied collections.