Charles Valentin Alkan (1813-1888), one of the great genii in music history, was widely misunderstood by his contemporaries because of his highly idiosyncratic ideas. From the perspective of the late twentieth century, his innovations can be better understood, and his music is now gaining wider appreciation. Yet, today many musicians still do not know even his name, much less his achievements. The year 1988 marks the one hundredth year since his death. In commemoration of this centennial anniversary, this thesis is presented as a plea for a greater awareness of the achievements of this important figure in the development of piano music.

In 1904, Black British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor published six songs from the oeuvre of white British poet Christina Georgina Rossetti, only a few months after reading W.E.B. Du Bois’ groundbreaking work The Souls of Black Folk (1903). This seminal book included a chapter called “Sorrow Songs” devoted to discussing slave songs. It also introduced the concept of double-consciousness to describe how Black people, see themselves through the lens of the white society. This point of view creates a sense of doubleness in their identity and recognition of self. The songs that Coleridge-Taylor composed, which he titled Six Sorrow Songs, Op. 57, address themes of love, death, and spirituality. Coleridge-Taylor grouped these art songs under the title “Sorrow Songs”—showing a connection to Du Bois’ work and its influence. This fusion of art song and slave song opens up room for examinations of cross-genre relations, which highlights complexity of meaning and textual changes when interpreted and performed—revealing a “doubledness” to the composition in this time in the composer’s life. Serge Lacasse’s (2018) model for intertextuality offers a framework for considering the cross-genre relations that emerge in this song cycle. The concepts of architextuality, transfictionality, and polytextuality from his model are particularly relevant in this cycle, as they account for inter-genre relationships, fictional elements of the story (including speakers and the setting), as well as the overall compilation of the songs, respectively. Drawing this model together with scholarship on Sorrow Songs, this thesis focuses on the emergence of “Sorrow Songs” at this pivotal moment in the composer’s life, which will enable the consideration of the intertext of Western classical and African slave songs in this composition as well as the creation of a story in this musico-literary hybrid. Context is critical to this discussion so his trips to the USA, personal experiences, the socio-political events of the time, and the encounter with the influential Black figures will be discussed to understand how this song cycle reshaped Coleridge-Taylor’s musical path. Intertextual analysis of this song cycle reveals a sense of double meaning in Six Sorrow Songs, Op. 57, where one clearly sees Du Bois’ concept at work in the life of the composer living as a Black man in a white society, in his music combining Western classical and Sorrow Song genres, in the medium he chose to write for, a singer and a pianist, and in setting spiritual/religious poetry written by a white poet to these romantic songs.

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This thesis is a critical analysis and creative commentary providing research and insight into my 150-minute multimedia exhibition, "Femininity: Ownership and Power," that premiered October 23, 2021. All of my research, composition, and collaboration efforts seek to recontextualize the semiotics of ‘femininity' through ownership and empowerment from varying intersections and identities. The titles of the eight works composed and premiered as part of the exhibition include: a beautiful reckoning; Dust; Moirai; Gaia; Portrait of the American Woman; Shared, In Balanced Contrast; At My Intersection; and I See You. Also included was #pinkcode, an exhibit that features a fuschia graphic user interface for an interactive modulation synthesis application built in Csound designed to bring femininity into computer music spaces. The musical compositions vary in instrumentation including flute, alto flute, voice, guitar, viola, harp, cajon, vibraphone, live electronics, and fixed media. They also vary in medium including live performance, virtual reality video, music video, audio-reactive TouchDesigner video, immersive text projections, light show, and live dance. Feminist texts by women poets and authors recited by women personally connected to me are also included in the fabric of the musical fixed media of multiple pieces in the thesis exhibition. Collaborators of artistic media including film, digital art, music, and dance include Eboni Johnson, Hannah Ottinger, Cami Holman, Miranda Zapata, and Elijah J. Thomas.

This problem has been limited to a study of the largest form among Grieg's piano compositions, the Piano Concert in A Minor. References are made to his smaller piano pieces, for the concerto has proved representative of his style of composition and, being one of his earlier works, it reflects a vigor and enthusiasm not present in his later work. Rhythm is discussed with relationship to the harmony and melody in the sections devoted to these two elements. The present study does not include consideration of the orchestral score and its relationship to the piano part.

A stylistic analysis of John Stevens' second brass quintet, Fabrics, which discusses the composer's use of orchestration, harmonic language, rhythmic activity, melodic and formal considerations, and performance practice issues. Collaboration between composer and performer is investigated, particularly through Stevens' status as member of the Wisconsin Brass Quintet, the ensemble for which Fabrics was composed. Biographical information about Stevens and the Wisconsin Brass Quintet is provided, with appendices providing information regarding Stevens' activities as composer and performer and the activities of the Wisconsin Brass Quintet. Stevens was extensively interviewed as source material for this dissertation.

Although many volumes concerning the life and works of Johannes Brahms have been written, it has been found that the majority of these writings treat the material of the subject in a rather poetic and romanticized fashion. This is especially unfortunate in those volumes where the works of Brahms are analyzed with pragmatic implications, since Brahms himself eschewed the use of extramusical elements in his composition. This investigation, therefore, is an attempt to present a careful analysis of one of these compositions, the Quintet in B Minor, Op. 115, for clarinet and string quartet.

I den här uppsatsen redovisas hur tystnad används i musik och vad för effekt tystnad kan komma att skapa i musik. Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera begreppet tystnad och dess samband till musik. Undersökningens analys är uppdelad i två akter där jag först genomför diskursanalys kring hur andra forskare beskriver och diskuterar begreppet tystnad samt dess koppling till musik. Jag utför sedan en receptionsbaserad musikanalys där tre olika fonografiska verk analyseras för att skapa en bredare förståelse hur tystnad används. Musikanalysen undersöker verk av banden Bon Iver respektive Led Zeppelin i hopp om att finna partier i musiken som använder sig av tystnad i någon form. Efter närmare granskning kring begreppet tystnad så är det tydligt att tystnad i musik har flera syften och kan definieras utifrån olika begrepp och former. Tystnad uppfattas olika beroende på ett flertal faktorer och har i ett historiskt perspektiv varit ett självklart val bland större kompositörer.

Hendrik Hofmeyr is considered one of the most important and influential living composers in South Africa. His music for solo saxophone is not well-known in the classical saxophone repertoire. His four works for solo saxophone (Concerto per saxofono contralto e orchestra, Concerto per saxofono baritono e orchestra, Partita canonica, and Necromancer) are substantial and terrific repertoire for the instrument. This study is intended to inform a saxophone performer's understanding of these compositions through analysis of form, melodic, and harmonic content relevant to performance; and, demonstrate through example the conclusions determined by the analysis about apparent compositional techniques in the music.