Chinese art songs—which are derived from over four thousand years of Chinese culture and combine unique Chinese literary and musical flavors with Western compositional techniques—remain largely unknown in the Western world. Chinese art song, a treasure of a genre, deserves more attention from Western singers and scholars. With a population of 1.41 billion, China has the largest potential market for bel canto singing. Not only will studying Chinese art songs enrich a singer's worldview and repertoire choices, doing so will also be advantageous when singing internationally. In order to assist non-Chinese-speaking singers overcome the difficult language barrier that often prevents them from studying Chinese art songs, I have chosen six songs by the renowned early twentieth century Chinese composer, Huang Zi (1904–1938) to analyze. Although he remains virtually unknown in the Western scholarly world, Huang's Chinese art songs, which include both ancient and contemporary Chinese poetry as well as Chinese and Western musical characteristics, are representative of this genre. By analyzing the poetry and musical settings of six Chinese art songs by Huang Zi, providing pronunciation instructions for Mandarin Chinese, word-for-word and poetic translations, practical International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions from the Pinyin system, and creating an interpretive guide of these songs, this project aims to help singers worldwide to prepare and perform Chinese art songs in a more expressive and authentic way. Taking this project as the first step, singers and scholars worldwide will be able to study and research more Chinese art songs and explore a new artistic world.

This dissertation examines the contributions of the early twentieth-century Chinese composer Huang Zi to the genre of Chinese art songs. It discusses how he combined Western compositional techniques with traditional Chinese music and ancient or contemporary Chinese poetry, focusing on his works 花非花 Flowers in the Mist, 点绛唇, 赋登楼 Ode to Ascending the Tower, 思乡 Missing Homelands, and 春思曲 Spring Nostalgia. Huang's songs, which created a bridge between East and West, are still significant today in China and deserve performance in the West, too. Translations and a phonetic guide to the four songs are provided so that Western singers have the tools they need to perform these songs.

As one of the few piano works with Tibetan folk characteristics, the piano suite Tibetan Sketches composed by Bingyuan Cui presents a vivid depiction of the Tibetan people with colorful sound and considerable imagination. As a Tibetan, I have been greatly honored to research and perform this work and incorporate my understanding into this dissertation. The composer took into account Western composition techniques as well as Eastern music, combining religious and folk musical elements of Chinese ethnic minorities with Western piano techniques to create a wonderful work. This dissertation introduces the characteristics of Tibetan music and analyzes the work, then explores the use of Tibetan elements and the varied styles in the three movements of Tibetan Sketches. Cui uses a large number of Tibetan elements in this work, closely related to the local Tibetan music style in melodies, decorations, harmonies, tone color changes, and performance techniques. Based on the historical background and influence of Western music on the development of Chinese music and some other aspects, a brief description is given of the Eastern and Western music styles in the work. This dissertation introduces my own performance and learning experience when I studied this work, communications and an interview with the composer are also taken into account.

Extended piano techniques, which mainly involve playing directly on the internal components of the piano, emerged early in the twentieth century, mainly in the United States. Henry Cowell (1897-1965) explored some of these techniques in short piano pieces such as The Tides of Manaunaun (1917; clusters) The Banshee (1925; glissando, pizzicato) and Sinister Resonance (1930; mute, harmonic). Several contemporary composers followed this path. Notably, George Crumb's (b. 1929) mature works combine conventional techniques with an unprecedented variety of extended techniques, including vocal and percussive effects. Although extended techniques are no longer a novelty, most pianists are still unfamiliar with them. Extended piano works are rarely performed or taught. This situation is regrettable considering the quality of these compositions, and the great potential of extended techniques to expand the piano's coloristic resources. A Pedagogical Guide to Extended Piano Techniques is designed to help pianists learn this idiom and achieve fluency. Teachers may also find it useful in planning courses at the undergraduate college level. Chapters 1 and 2 provide general information such as the development and classification of unconventional techniques, and the construction of the grand piano. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 form the core of the monograph. They contain practical exercises, composed by the author, presented in a progressive order and accompanied by detailed instructions explaining how to execute and practice each technique. From a technical point of view, natural string piano techniques--pizzicatos, glissandos, mutes and harmonics--are the basis upon which most other extended techniques are founded. Therefore, this document focuses mainly on mastering these string techniques through the acquisition of two important skills: visual techniques and aural-motor coordination. The following topics are also discussed: use of foreign objects inside the piano, percussive technique, vocal effects, and strategies to integrate various techniques into a unified musical context. Prepared piano techniques are excluded because they do not require the acquisition of performance skills, which form the essence of this monograph. Chapter 6 provides a suggested course schedule to organize the pianist's study and practice time, and offers practical advice for the preparation of performances involving extended piano techniques. It is hoped that this document will play a positive role in helping pianists gain the knowledge, ability, confidence and enthusiasm to explore and perform extended piano repertoire. / Music Performance

This thesis' focal presentable object – to swim in air – is a mythosystem comprising six iteratively malleable experiential systems of intermedial musical and visual performance works composed by myself between the years 2018 and 2023. Conceived through the lens of Jennifer Walshe's New Discipline, created within my practice cycle's nodal context, and connected by a sub/conscious structure of perceptual timbre, the mythosystem and its parts form the centerpiece of this discussion of context, process, and method. As described in this document, the creative practice of nodal context and the adaptive intermedial methods used in the conceptualization and composition of to swim in air were developed through a personal and pragmatic application of feminist writer and independent scholar Sarah Ahmed's Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others, and composer, musicologist and trombonist George Lewis' curatorial decolonization guidelines as outlined in his "8 Difficult Steps to Decolonizing Music" towards the creation of presentable cultural objects which invite variable and continuous interaction from their participants through the exploration of the reciprocity of community, multi-practice creative strategy and malleable forms. Throughout this document I discuss how through the exploration of the reciprocity of community, multi-practice creative strategy and malleable forms I have addressed concerns of cost, access and participation in living culture with regards to my own work creating cultural objects. I also discuss phenomenological and practical issues to do with cost, access and living culture present within the creative, curatorial and institutional spaces and communities in which this work was created and is initially intended to exist, and how these concerns impact the pedagogical, practical and experiential potential of my own work. This document also reflects on how the pragmatic and personal adoption of these concepts of cultural object phenomenological ephemera and decolonized curatorial practice as presented by Ahmed and Lewis by other composers, artist, curators, educators, and other creative professionals might impact the nature of artistic institutional spaces, might encourage the engagement of new, speculative and/or more colloquial spaces, and how these spatial reorientations might encourage a more fluidic approach to creative practice, community cultivation and engagement.

Master of Music / Department of Music / Frank C. Tracz / The following report is research and analysis of major wind band literature for the Graduate Conducting Recital performed by the Kansas State University Wind Ensemble on March 13th, 2011 under the direction of Lyle Sobba. The repertoire for the concert was comprised of the following pieces: Funeral March for Brass Choir by Edvard Grieg, Dance Mix by Rob Smith, and An Original Suite by Gordon Jacob. This examination, through thorough research and theoretical analysis, is a compilation of the documents created to effectively rehearse the compositions. The report also contains documents pertaining to the planning and executing of the Graduate Conducting Recital.

Master of Music / Department of Music / Gary Mortenson / This Master’s report focuses on analyzing the four works performed on the author’s Master’s recital on April 10, 2011, from a biographical, historical, theoretical, and technical standpoint. These works include André Jolivet’s Concertino for Trumpet, Oskar Böhme’s Concerto for Trumpet in F Minor, op. 18, Tomaso Albinoni’s Sonata á 6 con Tromba, and Manuel de Falla’s Suite of Old Spanish Dances.

Master of Music / Department of Music / Anna Marie Wytko / In 1838, Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax created the saxophone. The saxophone was officially patented on June 24, 1846. Sax became the first Professor of Saxophone at the Conservatoire de Paris. This conservatoire has been and continues to be a historically important school of music in Europe. There have been four saxophone professors at the Conservatoire National Supèrieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris since the instrument’s creation. These professors include: Adolphe Sax (1814-1894), Marcel Mule (1901-2001), Daniel Deffayet (1922-2002), and Claude Delangle (born 1957). Each instructor has championed the saxophone to new heights by refining pedagogical approaches and by advocating for the creation of new saxophone compositions. The music examined in this document represents pieces composed for each of the four saxophone professors who have taught at the Conservatoire de Paris. Paul-Agricole Génin’s composition Variations sur un thème espagnol: pour saxophone alto et piano was inspired by Adolphe Sax, Fernande Decruck composed Sonata in C-Sharp for Alto Saxophone and Piano (1943) for Marcel Mule, Ida Gotkovsky wrote Variations pathétiques: pour Saxophone Alto et Piano (1980) for Daniel Deffayet, and Sequenza IX for Alto Saxophone (1980) by Luciano Berio was dedicated to Claude Delangle. All of these pieces demonstrate how composers continually strive to expand the boundaries of the skilled saxophonists’ musical style, technical facility, and overall flexibility on the saxophone. This master’s report, presented as extended program notes, includes biographical information about the composers, a historical and stylistic overview of the selected compositions, and a harmonic and formal analysis of the music with respect to performance considerations.

Master of Music, Theater, and Dance / Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance. / David Littrell / This report provides detailed analyses of several orchestral works. Current orchestras have striven to rejuvenate their programs by balancing canonical literature with newer or less familiar works; such a practice has become especially important in an age when audiences are dwindling and orchestras are disbanding. The works included in this report follow that balanced blueprint, including staples such as Haydn’s Symphony No. 103 in E-flat Major (the “Drumroll”) and Berlioz’s “Hungarian March” from The Damnation of Faust to new orchestrations of 20th century works, such as Bryce Craig’s arrangement of the toccata from Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, as well as works composed within the last six years, such as Casey Cangelosi’s Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra No. 2. Each work’s formal design is straightforward, and the technical skills required are not virtuosic. The chapters below explore each work from a historical, theoretical, and performance perspective.

Master of Music / Department of Music / Julie Yu / This document is focused on three excerpts from a graduate vocal recital, completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Music degree. The recital was held on January 23, 2012 at seven-thirty o’clock in the evening at All Faiths Chapel on the campus of Kansas State University. Selections for this recital were selected upon the theme of Seclusion. The three characters examined further in the document are Alcina in the G. F. Handel opera, Alcina (HWV 34), Gretchen in German Lieder Gretchen am Spinnrade (D. 118) by Franz Schubert, and Lily from the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, The Secret Garden, by Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman. Each chapter, devoted to a specific work, contains the following: 1) biographical information on the composer, 2) textual analysis, and 3) compositional, stylistic, and technical considerations.