Concerto for Solo Percussion and Concert Band was commissioned by Staff Sergeant Rone Sparrow, a percussionist with the West Point Military Academy Band. Funding for the project was provided by the Barlow Foundation. The piece was premiered April 13, 2005 in the Eisenhower Hall Theater at West Point, New York. Rone Sparrow performed with the USMA band, and Colonel Thomas Rotondi Jr., Commander/Conductor, conducted the piece. The concerto consists of three movements, and each movement features a different instrument: the first features marimba, the second, vibraphone, and the third movement features the drum kit together with a rhythm section (piano, bass, and drums). In addition to the piece, the dissertation paper discusses important technical detail related to the piece, including: harmony, form, rhythm, programmatic ideas as they relate to motivic strands, and the process of generating and discarding material. The paper also focuses on a number of factors that were influential to the piece, such as postmodern philosophy.

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《紙・驚》與《鼓・箏》 : 褐紫紅色 : 自《彩露》 : 為京腔女中音、中國大鼓和古箏而寫的雙樂章作品 = "Paper. Jolt" and "Gu. Zheng", op. 23 : Maroon : from the Dews of Color : two-movement piece for Chinese operatic mezzo-soprano, Chinese big drum, and Gu-Zheng (2008) -- Carnival, op. 24 : for symphonic band : coral : from the Dews of Color (2009) -- Celadon, op. 26 : from the Dews of Color : composed for clarinet in B-flat, Gu Zheng, and Percussion (suspended cymbal and vibraphone) = 青瓷色: 自《彩露》: 為降B單簧管, 古箏與敲擊(弔鈸及鋼片琴)而寫 -- Prelude, passacaglia and fugue, op. 25 : for percussion quartet. / "Zhi, jing" yu "Gu, zheng" : he zi hong se : zi "Cai lu" : wei jing qiang nü zhong yin, Zhongguo da gu he gu zheng er xie de shuang yue zhang zuo pin = "Paper, Jolt" and "Gu, zheng", op. 23 : Maroon : from the Dews of Color : two-movement piece for Chinese operatic mezzo-soprano, Chinese big drum, and Gu-zheng (2008) -- Carnival, op. 24 : for symphonic band : coral : from the Dews of Color (2009) -- Celadon, op. 26 : from the Dews of Color : composed for clarinet in B-flat, Gu zheng, and Percussion (suspended cymbal and vibraphone) = Qing ci se : zi "Cai lu": wei xiang B dan huang guan, gu zheng yu qiao ji (diao ba ji gang pian qin) er xie -- Prelude, passacaglia and fugue, op. 25 : for percussion quartet. / Lee, Kar Tai. / Durations: 8 min.; 4 min.; 4 min.; 10 min. / Thesis (M.Mus.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Cover Page --- p.i / Abstract --- p.ii / Acknowledgements --- p.iv / Table of Contents --- p.iv / """Paper. Jolt “ and “ Gu . Zheng""《´紙Ø驚》與《´鼓Ø箏》" --- p.1 / Carnival《嘉年華》 --- p.18 / Celdaon《青瓷》 --- p.35 / "Prelude, Passacaglia and Fugue《前奏、巴沙加牙和賦格曲》" --- p.48

Master of Music / Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance / Craig B. Parker / This Master’s Report will address questions about Afro-Cuban music, focusing on Afro-Cuban percussion and music in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The first two chapters will address congas and timbales, which are two Afro-Cuban percussion instruments at the center of Cuban culture and music. The next three chapters will address danzón, rumba, and son. These chapters will provide analysis into the influences that shaped the music as well as analysis of the music itself. Chapter 6 of this report addresses Cuba’s impact on culture outside Cuba, relating but not limited to music, with emphasis on the 1930s into the beginning of World War II. Throughout this report videos have been created to help explain topics of Afro-Cuban music to readers in a more interactive way. The purpose of these videos is to demonstrate how the instruments sound as well as what the instruments look like, how notation included in the report is realized, and generally to make the page come to life in ways that technology today now allows.

A student's sight-reading ability directly affects the speed and quality of their learning, especially for those at the beginning and intermediate levels. Sight-reading on keyboard percussion instruments is typically very challenging for percussionists because percussion instruments are the only kind of instruments that the player doesn't physically touch when they play them. The player is removed from contact with the instrument through the use of mallets. This document will cover the topics of body movements, kinesthetic sense, music pattern recognition, sight-reading strategies in different levels, and music resources for instructors. Students who develop better sight-reading skills will learn new music faster, improve accuracy on the instrument, and increase their level of self-confidence.

Long Distance is a work for solo percussion (marimba and vibraphone), wind ensemble, and electronics consisting of four movements and lasting approximately twenty minutes. Each movement is designed to be able to stand on its own and, when multiple movements are performed, their order is flexible. A version of this piece with no wind ensemble also exists and was commissioned by a consortium of 33 percussionists. From its inception, this solo version was composed with the possibility of expansion to a larger instrumentation in mind. In this paper, I will discuss and analyze many of the factors and influences involved in my composition process for this piece. This will include performance techniques, extracting and utilizing musical material from field recordings, audio processing techniques, orchestration, drawing musical inspiration from non-musical sources, and stylistic juxtaposition. In addition, I will provide some background on how this commission came about and how composition as a collaborative process shaped this piece especially in the context of working with such a large and diverse consortium. / text

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Teachers and performers have advocated the study of orchestral excerpts for many decades. There are articles, dissertations, reference books, and method books that provide annotated and edited excerpts for use by students.It is well known that obtaining the actual music to the excerpt for practice or to prioritize which excerpts may be asked on an audition can be a difficult and daunting task. Playing orchestral excerpts can seem complicated. Students and teachers may not know what excerpts to play or on which to start.This research has produced a collection of a wide variety of orchestral percussion excerpts collected that are analyzed in the style of Kodály song retrieval systems commonly used by general music education teachers around the world. The Orchestral Percussion Excerpt Retrieval System presented in this document contains 100 excerpts and combines features of the excerpts (keywords that describe the excerpts and are searchable), recommended recordings and internet links, average tempi, and practice suggestions that involve a reference, link to a source, or document. The printed version also includes an index.Use of a retrieval system allows teachers the flexibility to select appropriate music that supports the concepts and objectives of music lessons within a sequenced curriculum. Adaptation to the study of orchestral percussion excerpts could involve sight-reading, playing and singing simultaneously, and musical/technical interpretation. It challenges the students to think critically, listen intently, and encourages a style of practice that involves self-reflection. Use of this retrieval system can aid in the development of music literacy and music enrichment by encouraging both the practice of and listening to historically great works of music.

This thesis scientifically investigates the setup and tuning of cylindrical membranophones as musical instruments. To date there has been very little quantitative analysis of drum tuning with respect to performance sound, studio recording and music production. Digital signal analysis has been used to quantify a number of acoustic related factors to drum setup and tuning. This is concerned with the evaluation of a drum's free vibration once excitation has occurred. Novel analysis of membranophone response is performed with respect to tuning an 'equalised drumhead'. Such analysis has not previously been performed on cylindrical drums with two heads. The findings show that it is indeed possible to tune a drum to a chosen, uniform frequency response and to a quantified accuracy. With reference to previous, non-scientific literature, the fundamental frequency of each drum in the modern drum kit is shown for the first time to be objectively tunable to correspond to a musical pitch. The research also investigates the role of the resonant head in tuning cylindrical drums. Unique analysis of the interaction between the two membranes shows for the first time that the ratios of the modal frequencies present in a drum sound are not fixed and can be manipulated to more desirable ratios. The fundamental frequently present is shown to be the same for both batter and resonant heads due to the strong coupling effect of the (01) modes. Furthermore the current research shows how this ability to manipulate the frequencies present in the drum can be extended to the drum kit as a whole and how the envelope profile of cylindrical drums with two heads can be manipulated via tuning and damping. This research therefore provides an original contribution to the knowledge of drum tuning for both scientific and musical purposes.