A pesquisa trata de um estudo de três compositores da música popular do Brasil: Pixinguinha, Garoto e Tom Jobim. Através da análise de 5 obras representativas de cada compositor, pretende-se chegar a um perfil comparativo desses compositores, bem como dos períodos que eles representam no contexto da música popular: do choro à bossa nova, / The research is a study about three composers of Brazil\'s popular music: Pixinguinha, Garoto and Tom Jobim. Through the analysis of five representative pieces of each composer, the intention is to reach a comparative profile of these composers, as well as the period of time they represent in the context of popular music: from choro to bossa nova.

Cette thèse se propose de transcrire et analyser dans le but de créer une typologie de l’hymnodie syriaque de l’Église Maronite selon la tradition de l’illustre chantre de l’Ordre Antonin Maronite Père Maroun Mrad. L’Église Maronite, étant une église catholique orientale, elle a conservé et l’union avec l’Église Universelle et son identité et tradition musicale et liturgique. L’objet de mes analyses est l’ensemble des hymnes enregistrées par la voix du Père Maroun Mrad, un des porteurs de la tradition orale au sein de l’Ordre Antonin Maronite. Cet enregistrement est produit par le Père Ivar Schmutz-Schwaller, de l’Université de Cologne, lors de son séjour au Liban en 1972. La méthodologie consiste à produire un diagramme musical de chaque pièce, qui contient toutes les informations utiles à l’analyse. En fait dans ce diagramme on voit l’ensemble de l’échelle utilisée et par conséquent le genre (Zalzalien, Hijaz ou Diatonique). Avec des signes adéquats, on met en relief les degrés d’appui de la pièce (note initiale, teneur, finale temporaire et finale) ainsi que le nombre demouvement (conjoint ou non, ascendant ou descendant) qui les lie. D’après l’ensemble des diagrammes, j’ai choisi la relation finale-teneur comme critère pour la typologie que l’on s’est promis d’établir. En effet, les pièces sont classés en type 1 si leur teneur correspond à leur finale, en type 2 si l’intervalle finale-teneur est une seconde, en type 3 si l’intervallefinale-teneur est une tierce, en type 4 si l’intervalle finale-teneur est une quarte ou en type 5 si cet intervalle est une quinte. Cette typologie sert à classifier ces hymnes pour mieux les repérer et analyser d’autres aspects. / This research wants to transcribe and analyze the Syriac Hymnody of the Maronite Church in order to create a typology. The Maronite Church has conserved its musical and liturgical identity along with its communion with the Universal Church. I based my work on some recording done by Father Ivar Schmutz-Schwaller, from the University of Cologne. In his field trip to Lebanon in 1972, he recorded Father Maroun Mrad, a cantor from the Antonine Maronite Order, while he was singing capella the whole repertoire of the Syriac hymns. The methodology applied here consists in creating a diagram of musical analysis that can summarize the whole piece and simplify the analysis. In fact, each diagram contains all the degrees of the scale and determines its genre (Zalzalian, Hijaz or Diatonic). With the help of some signs, we indicate the basic notes (initial, tenor, temporary ending note and the ending note of the piece) and the number of their movements. With the help of these diagrams, we chose to consider the relation between the “tenor” of the piece and its ending note as criteria for this classification. In fact the pieces that has their tenor equal to their ending note belong to type 1. In the type 2, the interval between the tenor and the ending note is a second, in type 3 a third, in type 4 a fourth and in type 5 a fifth. This typology would help us to better classify these hymns and, furthermore, to analyze other aspects of them.

As a little boy, Dmitriĭ Dmitrievich Shostakovich pressed his ear against the wall to hear his neighbors play chamber music. He matured into one of the most prominent Soviet era composers. While the majority of academic interest Shostakovich centers on his symphonic works, his string quartets provide a window into a more intimate facet of Shostakovich’s life. This thesis explores first, why Shostakovich turned to the string quartet after some of the most fearful years of his life: his demise and rise after the scathing Pravda letter that all but threatened his life. Second, this thesis analyzes three of Shostakovich’s String Quartets: No. 1, No. 8, and No. 15. String Quartet No. 1, despite its simplicity, illuminates tender expressivity. Following years of intense artistic and personal scrutiny, Shostakovich sought an escape into an aural world of innocence. However, the quartet proves more complex than its surface suggests. Obscured harmonic complexities, intimate dialogue between instruments, and subtle recollection of prior movements lend the quartet a deeper meaning than its aural simplicity suggests. Decades later, amidst personal crisis, Shostakovich turned to the quartet, again. Composed in 1960, the year of his invocation into the communist party, String Quartet No. 8 demonstrates how Shostakovich utilized the string quartet as an avenue for personal self-expression. The intertwining of his musical signature with constant self-quotations and allusions confirms the deep, personal reflection the quartet provided Shostakovich. This study recounts the quotations previously uncovered by David Fanning, but goes beyond identification and relates the content of the quotations to Shostakovich’s emotional turmoil at the time of his party invocation. Finally, enduring anguishing physical pain and facing death, Shostakovich turned to the string quartet at the end of his life. String Quartet No. 15 provided Shostakovich an external outlet for his internal dialogue on death. Sentiments of meditation, fury, resistance, anguish, and resignation musically intertwine during Shostakovich’s longest and most painful string quartet. This study demonstrates how Shostakovich used the string quartet as a medium for deeper self-expression.

Nous avons appréhendé Köln Concert comme une sorte de symptôme. Il présente à l’analyse un ensemble de caractéristiques rarement coprésentes. C’est en ce sens une œuvre utile, prétexte à évaluer des phénomènes parfois contradictoires, du moins qu’on a l’habitude d’opposer (composé/improvisé, écrit/oral, savante/populaire). Enregistré à l’opéra de Cologne en 1975, par Keith Jarrett, il représente une vente record dans l’histoire du jazz, à cheval entre deux époques, comme le basculement dans l’ère post-moderne, qui traduit l’existence d’un flou esthétique, d’un état intermédiaire où la notion d’œuvre même paraît peu pertinente. Cette musique, improvisée du début à la fin, ne semble pourtant pas appartenir au « free jazz », ni même vraiment au jazz et évoque à l’écoute un récital « néo-romantique ». Nous nous sommes attachée à en suivre le cheminement, associant l’écoute et l’analyse critique de sa transcription (publiée en 1981). Elle ne relève pas d’une forme dominante : de formes nous ne trouvons qu’ébauches, segments; c’est une œuvre « ouverte », au sens d’une action en relation directe avec son public. Dans cette dramaturgie musicale, on reconnaît les effets d’une rhétorique – au sens de la Grèce antique – et un travail de la mémoire, évoquant l’ars memoria. Par sa grande culture musicale « classique », ses longues années d’étude précédant sa carrière de jazzman, Keith Jarrett occupe une position à part, marquée par la relation inédite entre une maison de disques européenne (ECM) et un musicien, achevant de brouiller les frontières entre les genres et les localisations esthétiques. Köln Concert acquiert ainsi une dimension anthropologique riche en enseignements. / Köln Concert is a useful instrument to compare and articulate contradictory or opposite elements on conceptual sides (composed/improvised, written/oral, savant/popular). Recorded in 1975, this solo performance is the biggest record sale in jazz music. It was published at the very beginning of the post-modernism era in music and belongs to a new aesthetical field, not defined by such notions as « opus » or « work ». This music, totally improvised, can’t be defined as jazz or « free jazz » or « contemporay music », for example, nor « neo-classical music », even if it could sound like some neo-romantic recital. Through a critical analysis of the transcription (published in 1991), we tried to describe the music as an action. Köln Concert has no overall shape, no total structure, just fragmentary forms. It’s an opened work directly connected to an audience. His musical dramaturgy has a rhetorical dimension, as it can be perceived through ancient Greek culture and ars memoria in general. Thanks to his great musical culture, including jazz and classical music, Jarrett is out of categories. American artist. associated with an European record company (ECM) and to his new aesthetical conceptions of the sound, he belongs to a new world of aesthetics. We consider Köln Concert as a kind of musical symptom, not because of the quality of the music (which can always be discussed) but because this type of musical action can be analysed as a concrete utopia, made to explore cognitive processes and develop a new vision of anthropology.

Solos for euphonium with electronic media present the unique challenge of incorporating an active, physical involvement in the live accompaniment through sound-altering technology such as guitar pedals or digital processors. Instructions for this solo genre are often vague and demand a general knowledge of how to use non-traditional devices. Due to the lack of information available on newly-composed pieces for this medium, students and professionals easily overlook the artistic merit of electroacoustic music. This dissertation provides a comprehensive performance guide that aids in the set-up and operation of advanced technology and presents a methodical approach to performing common musical and technical challenges found in modern euphonium repertoire with electronic media. Included in this dissertation are tables of common audio vocabulary and images of connectors, safety precautions, equipment recommendations with performance settings, a list of required connectors, adapters, cables, speakers, and amplifiers, performance set up diagrams, background information, and analyses of both the technical and musical aspects of each piece. In the appendices are signal flow charts, visual illustrations of polar recording patterns, and an updated catalog of published and unpublished original, adapted, and arranged euphonium solos with live electronics and electronic media accompaniment between 1970 and 2017.

When talking about tonal music, we sometimes tend to take for granted the idea that the tonic should always be clearly established either at the beginning or the end. However, there are composers who sometimes deviate from the normal path by creating different types of riddles or tonal enigmas in their works. Some of these riddles can be solved later on as the piece progresses; yet others may need to bexplained with the help of some external references. This thesis examines three such examples, each of which poses its unique enigma. The second movement of Bruckner's Symphony No. 1 presents a dualism between Ab and F (paralleled by their dominants Eb and C); Brahms's Alto Rhapsody involves an enormous auxiliary cadence spanning 2/3 of the piece and a seemingly plagal cadence which turns out to be authentic with the V suppressed; and eventually, Grieg's setting of Dereinst, dereinst, Gedanke mein provides a paradoxical ending which may be understood as incorporating the composer's attitude towards the text.

Woody Shaw is one of the most influential jazz trumpet players of the past fifty years. Despite his importance, very few models exist that contextualize Shaw's improvisatory approach inside modern jazz pedagogy. Writers such as Rex Richardson, Eric O'Donnell, and Gavin Franklin have identified key elements of Shaw's style, and have begun a critical examination of Shaw's music. While extensive, these approaches do not take into consideration the impact free jazz had on Shaw's technique, nor do they provide a model for how to duplicate Shaw's style. This project examines four elements of Shaw's style as seen in three improvised solos on "The Moontrane." These solos are taken from early, middle, and late stages of Shaw's career. By studying scale choice, sequence and the sequential treatment of motifs, pentatonic approaches to harmonic sequence, and atypical rhythmic phrasing, this study is able to show (1) how these elements developed over the totality of Shaw's career, (2) provide a better understanding of Shaw's improvisational style, and (3) provide a basis for implementing these procedures in modern music.

This dissertation presents an analysis of Akrodha (1998), a multiple percussion solo in two movements, composed by Kevin Volans. The analysis is focused on the motivic content and subsequent iterations written within the tempos that provide the structural form of the piece. The structural tempos are supported by the presence of various motifs that serve as the tempos' characteristic traits, thereby giving the tempos more tangibility. As the work develops, these motifs reappear either as note-for-note reiterations or as variations that still maintain the unique qualities of the motifs. For comparison, similar analyses of Mr. Volans' other multiple percussion solos, She Who Sleeps with a Small Blanket (1985) and Asanga (1997), are also presented to further explore Mr. Volans' use of motifs as they relate to structural tempos. In addition, a comprehensive performance practice of Akrodha is presented based on a synthesis of considerations and methods from individuals involved in the piece's development and early performances. These include Dr. Volans himself, Jonny Axelsson (for whom Akrodha was written), and Robyn Schulkowsky (for whom She Who Sleeps with a Small Blanket and Asanga were written), as well as the author's personal experiences. This dissertation provides a deeper understanding of Akrodha for the scholar and provides performance guidance for the performer to enhance the ability to replicate the musical spirit of Kevin Volans' compositional intentions.

This diploma thesis turns attention to the important figures of the first half of the 20th century such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gerald Finzi and Benjamin Britten. It deals with an art song on the territory of the then England, and compares the contribution of the chosen authors. Partly, this thesis focuses on the aspect of interpretation and singing.

In this thesis, I demonstrate how I use leitmotif in a programmatic context in my original orchestral suite, The Legend of Two Rings.