Print portion available via link; print score has not been digitized but is available for consultation in McGill University Library's Rare Books and Special Collections (ROAAR) with the following call number:AS42 M3 1978 B41 vol. 2 ELF

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The diploma thesis investigates 24 Caprices for Solo Violin op. 1 by Nicolo Paganini in great detail. It also includes a brief biography of the famous performer and composer but mainly focuses on 24 caprices op. 1. The author of this work addresses circumstances of their creation, their main features and methodology problems. He further looks into interpretation options and compares recordings of Ruggiero Ricci, Ivan Kawaciuk, Itzhak Perlman and Shlomo Mintz. The aim of the work is to offer violinists who study any of the capricies recommendation regarding technic and interpretation problems.

Balakirev's two early piano and orchestra works, Grande Fantaisie on Russian Folk Songs and Concerto Op. 1 in F# Minor, were composed in the middle of the nineteenth century when in Russia there were no particularly important works for piano and orchestra. Balakirev was still a teenager when he wrote these two pieces and unfortunately both remained unfinished. However the beauty and remarkable compositional achievement of these works should be highly recognized. There are six chapters in this essay. The general background, purpose and the state of research are discussed in the first chapter. The second chapter presents Balakirev's biographical information and the overview of his works for piano and orchestra is stated in Chapter III. Individual works, Grande Fantaisie and Concerto in F# Minor are discussed in the chapters IV and V, which including discussing compositional background, analysis and diagram of structural schemes. The last chapter concludes with Balakirev's contribution to Russian music and the development of the Russian concerto coming into its own. It deals particularly with Balakirev's approach to folk songs, which gives the concerto a unique Russian aesthetic, in addition to his ability to write in the European tradition.

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The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a musical work of one of the world's most favorite composers of the 20th century - Sergej Prokofiev. Even though I would like to address all his pieces, given the extensiveness of his work and my profession as a pianist and a pedagogue, I decided to focus only on the pieces for solo piano. I detail each piano piece in a catalogue organized by opus number. My analysis focuses on compositions, eventually on cycles, which can be somehow beneficial to us. Beneficial, in this sense means exposure to pieces with variety of character, use of melody and eventually pieces from a various work periods. Another condition during a selection of pieces for my dissertation was various levels of difficulty. The majority of my thesis is dedicated to the piano sonatas. Although they are not very long, they belong to the piano masterpieces forever. Further, I mention less performed Etudes, Op. 2 and Visions fugitives, Op. 22, and on the other hand well known Suit from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75. The music for children is represented in my analysis by one piece only - Children's Songs, Op. 65. Prokofiev wrote nearly 40 opuses for piano, which makes up almost a third of his work. That is a remarkable number and these pieces are worth interest.

As several Italian baroque violoncello transcriptions have entered the standard performance repertory for both high school and collegiate tubists, and as numerous texts, articles, and baroque performance instruction courses have illuminated a new realm of performance possibilities, no published document has provided specific, thorough, and sample approaches to performance on the tuba of a given piece (or pieces) through a detailed application of materials found in any singular source or combination of sources. Many of the existing articles and texts that approach the subject focus largely on ornamentation, while limiting the discussion and application of the following topics: tempo, spirit, affect, notation, rhythm, dynamics, and articulation. This document examines such topics and provides detailed explanations and suggestions of historically-informed characteristics applicable to two movements each from the R. Winston Morris transcription of Antonio Vivaldi's Sonata No. 3 in A Minor and the Donald C. Little/Richard B. Nelson transcription of Benedetto Marcello's Sonata No. V in C Major.

Bulgaria, though a fairly small Eastern European country, boasts an ancient history of folk traditions and music; however, very few notated works exist due to the people's primitive lifestyle throughout Bulgaria's history. Singing and dancing as well as creating instruments from wood and animal skin were considered an integral part of everyday life, equal to cooking, sewing, herding, or farming; in fact, one almost always accompanied the other. Thus, more than 1500 years of folklore was orally passed on and preserved generation after generation; however, nothing was notated until only very recently when Bulgarians realized the cultural and national value of their history. After the liberation from Ottoman Rule (1453-1877) a nationalist movement spread throughout the Balkan countries, which resulted in the emergence of Bulgarian composers. Music and songs from the local folk traditions evolved, developed, and - with notation - became the foundation for the vocal and instrumental music of the so-called first generation of Bulgarian composers. Around the turn of the century, many Bulgarian artists and musicians traveled to Western Europe (mostly Austria, Germany, and Russia) and upon their return, their artistic output created an original mixture of Bulgarian national folk with influences from Western classical music. After World War II, Bulgaria became one of the countries governed by the Communist regime, which restricted all travel to and contact with the West, including cultural influences from the West. Gradually, as the Communist regime became less controlling until it dissolved completely in 1989, restrictions on music and culture started to lift. Petar Christoskov (1917-2006), considered part of the second generation of Bulgarian composers, began his compositional career immediately after returning from Germany to a communist-ruled Bulgaria. His first opus was the set of 12 Caprices for Solo Violin (1953, formerly known as Concert Etudes in Folk Style); they have a fairly simple compositional style but are full of elements from the Bulgarian folk tradition. Some of these caprices, along with other works from the beginning of Christoskov's compositional career, were commissioned by the nationalist government and/or were required repertoire at national music competitions. Nearly thirty years after the first set of caprices, Christoskov composed another set: 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 24 (1978-9). These later works also contain many Bulgarian folk characteristics, but their compositional style is much more abstract, atonal, and complex - more “mainstream Western.” The goal of this document is to compare and contrast the two sets of Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1 and Op. 24, by investigating the development of Petar Christoskov's compositional style. I will argue that the constantly-changing political systems in twentieth-century Bulgaria had a direct impact on the composer's artistic output. After a historical overview of Bulgaria's music and political background, the two sets of caprices will be compared and contrasted by focusing on technical, musical, and sociological similarities and differences. In order to illustrate these similarities and differences, three caprices from each set will be selected and analyzed, as well as compared and contrasted with each other. The second part of the document will discuss the negative influence of the political climate on music and printing, with a focus on the difficulties of preserving Bulgarian culture itself. This research has the additional purpose of serving as scholarly support for a future project: as a personal contribution to the circulation and preservation of Bulgarian music, I intend to produce a new violin edition of Petar Christoskov's caprices as well as complete the arrangements for viola.

The first three recitals included one recital of chamber music and two recitals of solo piano music. The first recital consisted of music for clarinet and piano, performed with Dr. Lee Gibson of the music faculty of North Texas State University. This program included the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, Five Atonal Pieces by William Latham, Sonata in F minor by Johannes Brahms, and Four Pieces for clarinet and piano by Alban Berg. The second recital contained the D minor Concerto of Marcello, transcribed by J. S. Sach, Sonata No. 1 by Karl Haria von Weber, Sposalizio by Franz Liszt, Sonata in F by Nels Harveland, and Three Fantasies from Opus 116 by Johannes Brahms. The third recital consisted of the F minor Fantasy by Mozart, Variations on a Theme of Rameau by Paul Dukas, Sechs Kleine Klavierstucke by Arnold Schoenberg and Four Preludes by Sergei Rachraaninov. The fourth recital featured a comparison of selected Liszt and Schumann piano transcriptions of Paganini Viol in Caprices. Musical examples comparing the Paganini Caprices and the transcriptions by Liszt and Schumann, in addition to examples comparing the similarities and differences between the transcriptions of Liszt and Schumann, were interspersed throughout the lecture.