<p> Aaron Copland is one of the best-known composers from the United States and is often credited with creating a distinctly American style. As a 20th Century composer, he departed from traditional classical compositional techniques and made some contrasting choices of medium when considering ensemble. Copland is recognized for his writings for Orchestra, Film, Theatre, and Ballet, but also wrote chamber works that are both thoughtful and creative. The majority of his chamber works consist of pieces written for piano and voice, however he also used strings, clarinet, and in his later works, flute. </p><p> His last decade of works including one piece for orchestra, three piano pieces, and three chamber works that are flute centric. <i>Duo for Flute and Piano</i> and <i>Threnodies I and II</i> for Flute (Alto Flute) and String Trio were written within the span of three years, and are all written as memorials for others. The commonality a of flute in these pieces and in such close compositional proximity is an oddity when you consider his instrumental tendencies. This paper will examine Copland&rsquo;s compositional choices for <i>Duo</i> and <i>Threnodies I and II</i> and will consider the connection between writing memorials for others and his own mortality as influencing this late style.</p><p>

<p> Franz Liszt was a famed composer who broadened the boundaries of piano technique in the nineteenth century. One of his more popular compositions, the <i>Tarantella</i>, found in his <i>Ann&eacute;es de p&egrave;lerinage </i>, was published in 1861 within the collection <i>Venezia e Napoli </i>.1 Liszt admired melodies he heard during his travels in Switzerland and Italy and often arranged and composed from his ideas and experiences. Tarantellas were thought to be dances that were played by various musicians to influence dance and cure diseases. They are played at a quick tempo and contain a simple single melody with short repetitive patterns. The Italian-inspired <i> Tarantella</i> was similar to his other works in borrowing of melodies from other composers&rsquo; works. However, this piece is unusual. Although it is called a tarantella, it does not fully reflect the standard characteristics of a tarantella. Liszt&rsquo;s <i>Tarantella</i> is a folk-like dance with a fast-upbeat tempo in a traditional Italian style, but contains a lyrical section in the second half which he called Canzona Napolitana. This is a departure from the traditional form of a tarantella. This paper discusses Franz Liszt&rsquo;s compositional choices of style and organization in his <i> Tarantella</i> and how he altered the traditional tarantella folk-dance by including a Canzona Napolitana. Other tarantellas will be discussed to compare the similarities and differences between Liszt and other composers. </p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study is to provide background information, a conductor&rsquo;s analysis, and a performance guide for John Mackey&rsquo;s <i>Songs from the End of the World</i> (2015), a composition for soprano soloist, eleven winds, double bass, harp, piano, and percussion. </p><p> Background information for this study emerged from interviews with Abby Jaques, poet; John Mackey, composer; Lindsay Kesselman, premiering soprano vocalist; and Kevin M. Geraldi, premiering conductor. The text, Mackey&rsquo;s compositional choices, the premiering vocalist's approach to characterization, and the conductor's interpretive decisions are presented to reveal the work's structure, construction, and dramatic elements. Insight into challenges and approaches for presentations of this work is provided in the performance guide. </p><p>

<p> This paper examines the capabilities of Vocaloid synthesis software as a featured solo instrument in an original composition entitled <i>&ldquo;Real&rdquo;: Concerto for Vocaloid</i>, scored for an ensemble of vocalists, chamber orchestra, laptop performers who trigger Vocaloid playback and process electronic audio live, and multimedia elements that include video, staging, and lighting design. This paper discusses the inherent compositional issues of implementing Vocaloid within a concerto and multimedia setting through an examination of identity (reality vs. virtuality), the process of composing a concerto, and methods of creation. <i>&ldquo;Real&rdquo;: Concerto for Vocaloid</i> explores appropriation techniques, adaptation of electro-acoustic practices (and the subsequent inheritance of certain styles), and the use of a narrative involving crowd-sourced creativity, hyper-reality, consumerism, and the Vocaloid virtual instrument as a performer and platform.</p><p>

<p> This project report analyzes Eric Whitacre&rsquo;s choral piece <i> When David Heard</i>, a work about grieving the loss of a son, alongside psychologist Elizabeth K&uuml;bler-Ross&rsquo;s five stages of grief. The paper serves to better understand the lamentation of King David in Whitacre&rsquo;s piece by seeing where each of the five stages fit into the process of grief throughout the piece. </p><p> The analysis observes Whitacre&rsquo;s variety of musical devices such as tonal clusters, intermittent silences, and polyrhythms, as a means to describe the stages of grief that David is experiencing. By understanding these different stages of grief within the piece, one can conduct or sing the performance of this piece with better understanding of this grief.</p><p>

<p> This doctoral document and accompanying lecture recital seek to illuminate and bring clarity to <i>aura</i> (2011) for three percussionists and <i>AURA</i> (2015) for four percussionists by Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsd&oacute;ttir. This composition is examined through a thorough musical and formal analysis to show that there is a guiding force to be found behind the sustained drones and complex bell themes of the piece. A performance guide to reduce the composition&rsquo;s logistical and musical challenges is included in the hopes that it will shorten the learning curve for a new ensemble as they learn the piece. It is this author&rsquo;s aim that this resource will make this composition accessible to a wider range of ensembles and thereby bring more exposure to the music of Anna Thorvaldsd&oacute;ttir. </p><p> In addition, biographical information and a survey of the composer&rsquo;s compositional process and style is included to increase the limited amount of scholarly research that currently exists on Dr. Thorvaldsd&oacute;ttir and her works.</p><p>

<p> The aim of this study is to provide insight into the percussion music of Dave Maric through an analysis of a trilogy of pieces with backing track, <i> Trilogy</i> (2000), <i>Sense &amp; Innocence</i> (2002/2014), and <i>Thrice Into Flames</i> (2017). The present study examines Maric&rsquo;s influences, analyzes his compositional style, and provides a performance guide. Brief biographical information is provided to introduce Maric. His compositional style is examined by analyzing tonal language and formal structures. The tonal language of these pieces combines octatonic scales and diatonic scales. In terms of form, Maric uses mathematical sequences to determine proportions between sections, including the Fibonacci sequence. The performance guide includes sticking suggestions, transcriptions of backing track cues, and additional comments.</p><p>

<p>Viator, Landon Bachelor of Music, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Fall 2015; Master of Music, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Spring 2017 Major: Music Title of Thesis: Thanatos Thesis Director: Dr. Quincy Hilliard Pages in Thesis: 68; Words in Abstract: 94 Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to provide a theoretical analysis of my composition as well as demonstrate the techniques used to compose and compile electroacoustic music in the digital realm using a DAW software. I have demonstrated how to use MIDI instruments to compose music, how equalization was used to digitally change the timbre of the guitar and drums, how compression was used to control the dynamic range of the drums and add fullness to their sound, and I have demonstrated how to create MIDI notes to be played by the software instruments.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how to choose, adapt, and arrange music for school full orchestras with incomplete instrumentation that are not yet ready to perform unarranged standard literature. The literature suggests that while school full orchestra directors may be able to find some published arrangements that include generous cues for missing instruments and parts for substitute instruments, the most effective approach is to alter and arrange music as-needed. When arranging, it is important for teachers to make choices that allow for their students to be successful, but also preserve the original octaves, timbres, form, and tempo of the piece, as intended by the composer. Arranging options that accommodate incomplete instrumentation are demonstrated in an arrangement by the author for school full orchestra of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 82, Movement I. Further examinations of arranging techniques and abridgement considerations are provided in an additional arrangement by the author of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, Movement I, for school string orchestra. Two different published arrangements of “Dance Bacchanale,” from the opera Samson and Dalila by Camille Saint-Saëns, are compared to each other and to the original, to observe how existing arrangements anticipate and accommodate incomplete instrumentation in school full orchestras. A brief history of the full orchestra ensemble in American schools is also included.

<p> <i> Ondo</i> was written for my grandmother&rsquo;s 88th birthday. The composition comprises six sections based on a popular folksong, called &ldquo;<i>Tanko-Bushi</i>,&rdquo; which can be heard in every Japanese town during the <i>Bon</i> festival. Obon is a holiday in August, when we return home once a year to pay respect to our elders and ancestors. &ldquo;<i>Tanko-Bushi</i>&rdquo; became popular in Japan around the end of the Second World War and was based on a popular song from the early part of the twentieth century, around the time my grandmother was born, and has taken many forms since; it continues to do so under varied contexts and the versions I encountered there as a child, while attending the summer festivals with her, would have been but a small sample of these. As I worked on <i>Ondo</i>, I tried to imagine what it might have been like to live through all of the changes that took place in Japan over the past century. I think of the composition as a commentary on the westernization that has been taking place there and on the orientalization of Japanese identity&mdash;as an act of harmonizing disparate values. Between and within the sections, I explore varying degrees of fragmentation as they relate to, or disrupt, unifying threads that run through the four main sections (1, 3, 5 and 6). Above all, I wanted the piece to be enjoyable for my grandmother to listen to. The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra gave a reading of the four main sections of <i> Ondo</i> on 28 January 2011 at the SPCO Center in Saint Paul, MN. Subsequent to the reading, two interludes (sections 2 and 4) were added as contrasting materials and as expansions upon the relationships explored between the diverse approaches to formal considerations in the piece.</p><p>