Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 2006. / Adviser: Nicholas Mazza. Includes bibliographical references.

In this project I explored composing wordless music within the jazz genre inspired by a Norwegian folklore: the story of Trollveggen. Influenced by composers like Meredith Monk and Maurice Ravel I wrote six programmatic compositions. Each piece was thoroughly crafted using specific keywords and rules derived from Patrik N. Juslin’s research on the emotional impact of musical elements. Additionally, I incorporated insights from Alf Gabrielsson and Erik Lindström’s study The Role of Structure in the Musical Expression of Emotions, and used Kate Hevner’s research to further deepen my compositional approach. I discuss jazz vocal performance as a non-verbal storytelling method, incorporating vocal extended techniques. I also explore how I navigated between creative constraints and artistic freedom, within the compositional framework, to bring each composition to life. Reflecting on this process, I examine its profound impact on my musical and personal growth. Through these compositions, I aim to evoke a meaningful emotional connection with the audience, inviting them to interpret the narrative in their own unique way. / <p><strong>Framförda kompositioner:</strong><strong></strong></p><p><em>Møre og Romsdal</em> - S. Levin.</p><p><em>Forelskelse</em> - S. Levin.</p><p><em>Jubalong</em> - S. Levin.</p><p><em>Å Sove/Våkne Opp</em> - S. Levin.</p><p><em>Solens Lys</em> - S. Levin.</p><p><em>Stokk og Stein</em> - S. Levin.</p><p>Samtliga kompositioner arrangerade av Sabina Levin. </p><p><em></em><strong>Medverkande musiker:</strong></p><p>Sång - Sabina Levin</p><p>Klarinett &amp; altsaxofon - Erik Hasselfeldt</p><p>Trumpet &amp; flygelhorn - Øyvind Solheim</p><p>Vibrafon - Alexander Falkebring</p><p>Piano - Fabian Erkelius</p><p>Harpa - Anna Jalkéus</p><p>Kontrabas - Amanda Karström</p><p>Trummor - Kristian Remnélius</p>

Act one of The Metamorphosis is based on the novella by Franza Kafka of the same title. In the writing of the act, George Benjamin's Into the Little Hill and Oliver Knussen's Where the Wild Things Are provide a model of using musical material as a storytelling device. Benjamin emphasizes the parallel nature of Crimp's text through the manipulation of similar music between the acts. Knussen uses form and color to emphasize Max's childlike energy and his desire to return home. In act one of The Metamorphosis these approaches are combined to enhance Kafka's absurd narrative through a rapid collage of texture and form that is influenced by both events and characters in the opera.

Franz Liszt's Faust Symphony has suffered neglect since its premiere in 1857. The analysis in this study aims to clarify some of the misunderstandings which have led to this neglect, particularly concerning Liszt's formal structure and character portrayal. In the Faust movement, the flat 6th scale degree (♭6) plays a prominent role in harmonic organization. Nineteenth-century composers sometimes used the distinct sonic color of chromatic-third progressions, as Liszt does here between C and E rather than diatonic movement by fifth to evoke a distant dream-world state. Liszt's conspicuous and form-defining use of ♭6 in the Faust movement suggests fantasy and mysterious elements ripe for programmatic interpretation. In this dissertation, I will attempt to clarify how Liszt portrayed the character of Faust by using the flat 6th scale degree as a crucial harmonic organizing principle in the Faust movement.

Christopher Rouse (b. 1949), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his Trombone Concerto (1993) and a Grammy award for his Concerto de Gaudi (1999), has come to the forefront as one of America's most prominent orchestral composers. Several of Rouse's works feature quotations of and strong allusions to other composers' works that are used both rhetorically and structurally. These borrowings range from a variety of different genres and styles of works, from Claudio Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea to Jay Ferguson's "Thunder Island." Due to the more accessible filtering and funneling methods of musical borrowings (proliferation of mass media), the weighty discourses attached to them, and their variety of functions (critiquing canons, engaging in an allusive tradition, etc.), quotation has become elevated to the most prominent of musical actors that trigger narrative listening strategies, which in turn have a stronger role in the formation of narratives about music as well as narratives of music. The primary aim of this study is to adapt and apply more recent methodological narrativity frameworks to selected instrumental compositions by Rouse containing quotations, suggesting that their manner of insertion, their method of disclosure, and their referential potential can benefit from being examined through various narrative lenses as well as reveal their participation in certain roles of narrative functions. For this study, I have chosen six instrumental works by Rouse for examination - the Violoncello Concerto, Symphony No. 1, Iscariot, String Quartet No. 2, Seeing, and Thunderstuck. On a more specific level, the aim of this study is to investigate the manner, meaning, and motive of the quoted material in a select group of Rouse's compositions through various narratological lenses. To accomplish this, I intend 1) to establish a context for understanding the musical borrowing procedures of Rouse; 2) to explore how works containing quotations can be examined through various narrativity frameworks; 3) to inspect the ways in which borrowings can enhance or clarify the structural design and stylistic musical features for which he is known; 4) to investigate the various meanings that are generated from his borrowings; 5) to consider the extent to which Rouse's musical borrowings comment on various discourses, and 6) to examine the psychological needs of certain narratives triggered by quotation and the various questions they pose. This study does not attempt to systematically unify the works of Rouse that contain borrowings under a kind of "grand theory" in narrativity or borrowing studies, but rather to examine each work individually, noting the particular roles that borrowings play in regards to narratives of and about music. Fundamentally, I claim that narrativizing about music is a foundational psychological and social impulse, aiding to serve our curiosities about music's otherness qualities. Using both narratives of and about music to frame analyses, I hope to make a small contribution to the growing methodological frameworks of narrativity by featuring works containing borrowings by one individual composer, suggesting that other comprehensive approaches in borrowing studies can used for future composers.

Stravinsky seldom explained the intended theme of his works; however, he chose to do so with his Symphony in Three Movements. Stravinsky describes the first movement as a reflection on war films documenting scorched-earth tactics in China. He also states that the third movement is a reflection on the newsreels of goose-stepping soldiers, depicting the plot of the war in its entirety. In his descriptions, Stravinsky left out the second movement of the work. However, the movement already had a life of its own. The second movement expands a theme Stravinsky originally wrote for the movie The Song of Bernadette. The author, Franz Werfel, asked Stravinsky to compose music for the film when the two discussed the work and its central ideas. Although it did not appear in the film, Stravinsky recycled the music for the Symphony in Three Movements. In my opinion, the ideas of hope depicted in Werfel's novel are used by Stravinsky to evoke ideas of the importance of faith in the fallen world. My analysis aims to show the musical means used by Stravinsky to allow the central ideas from The Song of Bernadette to pervade the entirety of the Symphony in Three Movements.