This study provides an overall view of the significant change in compositional creation and performance practices in the nineteenth century. One witnesses concerto has become an important genre to demonstrate the technical playing of violin. In addition, through various violin schools, violin performances have developed different styles of playing. Bruch was an important German composer in the late romantic period. Although his status is not sublime as Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms, his ¡§Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor Op. 26¡¨ is well received. Among numerous violin concertos in the nineteenth century, the work is regarded as an essential piece for violinist and in fact up to the present the work has been often performed and included in most concert programs. The most significant in Bruch¡¦s music is his employment of different performance techniques together with beautiful violin voicing. He believes ¡§melody is the soul of music¡¨ and demonstrates with his individual performance, and this explains the long lasting character. The value of Bruch¡¦s music is equal fame of the composition well regarded as his contemporaries. This thesis is divided into three chapters. The First chapter discusses about the succession of the violin performance technique, the influences of violin schools on violin music, and elaboration of the violin concerto features. The Second chapter includes Bruch¡¦s life, the historical background of his Op. 26 and its status. The Third chapter focuses on the performance techniques, examine the sophisticated techniques on both right hand and left hand. Its incorporation with orchestra will also be discussed in this chapter. And followed by a conclusion. Through the research of this work, author, hopefully, could help violinists will not only focus on the technique stage but also convey the idea of the composer more accurately while playing this work.

Students' perspectives in jazz education have gone largely ignored. A modified analytic inductive design allowed me to look broadly at the students' jazz band experience while specifically investigating their views about playing individualized parts, improvising, and interpreting and articulating swing rhythms. A focus group procedure was altered (Krueger, 1995) and incorporated into my teaching of 19 students. Two 30 minute sessions per week over a 12 week period were video- and audiotaped. Audiotaped exit interviews provided data in a non-social environment. All data were transcribed and coded in order to identify major themes and trends. Conclusions were verified through member checks, several types of triangulation and other qualitative analysis techniques. Trustworthiness was determined through an audit. Cognitively and physically, students had to accommodate musical techniques as these differed from those used in concert band. Some students were confused by the new seating arrangement and the playing of individualized parts. While some students could perform distinctly different swing and straight interpretations of the same song without external cues, others could only perform this task with external cues. Some changes in articulation were well within the students' capabilities while other techniques were more difficult to accommodate. Several students felt 'uptight' while they improvised alone in front of their peers, noting group improvisation and rhythmic embellishment of familiar tunes as being helpful in assuaging these feelings. Students recognized the environmental differences between concert band and jazz band, and reported more freedom of expression in jazz band. Particularly enjoying this freedom, the more willing improvisors banded together as a clique. The students' learning was viewed as being situated in the context of jazz band. 'Musical perturbation' and cognitive apprenticeship described students' physical and cognitive accommodation of the new context. The instructional strategies students found to be most helpful were student-centered and derived from cognitive behavior modification and scaffolding theory.

Vibraphone performance continues to be an expanding field of music. Earliest accounts of the presence of the vibraphone and vibraphone players can be found in American Vaudeville from the early 1900s; then found shortly thereafter in jazz bands as early as the 1930s, and on the classical concert stage beginning in 1949. Three Pieces for Vibraphone, Opus 27, composed by James Beale in 1959, is the first solo concert piece written exclusively for the instrument. Since 1959, there have been over 690 pieces written for solo concert vibraphone, which stands as evidence of the popularity of both the instrument and the genre of solo concert literature. Christopher Deane has contributed to solo vibraphone repertoire with works that are regarded as staples in the genre. Deane's compositions for vibraphone consistently expand the technical and musical potential of the instrument. Performance of Deane's vibraphone works requires a performer to utilize grips and specific performance techniques that are departures from standard performance practices. Many of the performance techniques needed to successfully execute these pieces are not routinely found in either percussion pedagogy courses or performance ensemble situations. As a result, most percussionists are not familiar with these techniques and will require additional assistance, instruction, or demonstrations. The impetus of this document is to present explanations and solutions for performance areas that require extended performance techniques, to offer recommendations on the creation, choosing, and manipulating of special implements, and to propose varied choices related to artistic interpretation of three of Deane's vibraphone pieces: Mourning Dove Sonnet (1983), The Apocryphal Still Life (1996), and Dis Qui Etude (2004).