The European arts in the nineteenth century went through significant changes with the advent of romanticism. In respect to music, more and more composers at that time set out to express their emotions through the beauty of sounds and rhythms, imbuing their works with multiple elements and alterations. However, the overemphasis on the subjective experience of the composers led to the gradual loss of simplicity and purity in their music. At that time, Brahms abondoned the artistic trend of the epoch and refused its pompous and exaggerated style. Devotedly following Bach, Beethoven and Schuman in their aesthetic perspectives and musical creations, Brahms composed absolute, introspective, sincere and in-depth works in the classical form. Variations on a Theme by Haydn, op. 56 composed by Brahms in 1873, was the representative piece marking his shift from large piano works to orchestra works, exhibiting the master¡¦s habitual use of composition skills and mature variation techniques. The two pianos version (op. 56b), as Brahms¡¦ most important work of its kind, illustrated how he took advantage of the strength of two pianos to arrange multiple voices with expertise. This piano piece pushed the artistic value of Brahms¡¦ two pianos works to its peak in the musical history and launched their golden age. Chapter One of this thesis gives the definition of variations, introduces its types and discusses the historical specificity of the variations of the nineteenth century. Chapter Two introduces the life of Brahms and his variations. Chapter Three probes into the composing skills, variation techniques and features illustrated in Brahms¡¦ Variations on a Theme by Haydn, op56b. Chapter Four examines the history of two pianos and gives suggestions on the performing of two pianos works.

Human life in Europe started to change radically in the first half of the twentieth century between two world wars. Comparing to the nineteenth-century Western musical environment, employing the early compositional technique and style of the past, mainly the Baroque and Classic period, Neo-classicism among the various movements in the twentieth century is extremely important but also controversial. With diversity of the musical style, Igor Stravinsky composed Concerto for Two Solo Pianos in 1935, which combined the compositional principles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the new musical innovations of the twentieth century. The piece reveals characteristics of Neo-classicism thoroughly. In addition to adopting four traditional forms and thematic development technique, Stravinsky replaced the orchestra part with the second piano and still kept the concertante textural treatment of a traditional concerto format. The first chapter will introduce the life and musical style of Stravinsky. In the second chapter Neo-classicism movement and how deeply Stravinsky was influence by it will be discussed. The third chapter focuses on the compositional background and formal analysis of the Concerto for Two Solo Pianos. And final part will be the conclusion of this topic.

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Thesis (D.M.A)--University of Maryland, College Park, 2005. / Compact discs.

Thesis--Chicago Musical College. / "Original two-piano music": p. 340-362. "Recorded two-piano music": p. 363-373. "Annotated bibliography": p. 374-384.

Combining traditional source and modern technique in musical composition has become one of the major trends in the contemporary music development. William Bolcom (1938- ) is an important composer in the 20th century, who followed this trend to compose the two-piano work Recuerdos ¡V Three Traditional Latin-American Dances for Two Pianos (1991). Inspired by characteristics of traditional Latin American dance, Bolcom employed the elements of the Latin American music as the structural foundation. In each of the three movements, Bolcom has tried to recall the stylistic features of the folk music in Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela, as well as musical languages of Ernesto Nazareth (1863-1934), Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869), Ramón Delgado Palacios (1863-1902). Bolcom uses a lot of Latin America music materials in Recuerdos, and also applied contemporary compositional technique to this work, such as polytonality, serialism, collage, etc. Chapter One in this paper will introduce Bolcom¡¦s life background and musical composition experience, and the special characteristics of his five two-piano works. Chapter Two contains the historical background of Recuerdos, mainly discussing musical styles of three countries and three composers which Bolcom wanted to evoke in this composition. Chapter Three includes the compositional manners of Choro, Paseo, and Valse Venezolano, and researches how Bolcom intergrating diverse musical materials and still creating the unity among three movements.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to create two multimedia projects using computer software that combined a soundtrack with an interpretive visualization of music written for two pianos, and to document the technical procedures involved in the creation of the multimedia projects.This study was a collaborative undertaking between the author and the other member of PALENAI Piano Duo, Adrienne Shannon. A companion to the current dissertation has been submitted by Ms. Shannon, titled Black and White in Color: The Creative Aspects Involved in the Production of Two Computer Multimedia Projects Based on Music for Two Pianos.The goal of the multimedia projects was to produce visualizations of the musical elements and compositional devices found in the selected compositions. The two pieces selected for these visualizations were "Le Cygne", from Le Carnaval des Animaux by Camille Saint-Satins, and the Prologue from the Sonata for Two Pianos by Francis Poulenc. The SWAN project is visualized by means of realistic photography and the PROLOGUE project makes use of abstract imagery.This study examines the technical procedures in all stages of the projects, including the creation of the source photographs and the scanning procedures, the image editing and manipulation stage that was carried out in Adobe Photoshop, the composition of the project using Adobe Premiere, and the output to a computer-based presentation by compiling the project into a QuickTime movie.The projects in this study are intended to express the music by visual means as a creative endeavour, as an educational tool, and as a demonstration of the capabilities of two Adobe software programs within a Macintosh environment. / School of Music

The purpose of this study was to create two multimedia projects using computer software that combined a soundtrack with an interpretive visualization of music written for two pianos, and to document the creative factors involved in the creation of the multimedia projects.This study was a collaborative undertaking between the present writer and the other member of PALENAI Piano Duo, Joy Innis. A companion to the current dissertation has been submitted by Ms. Innis, titled Black and White in Color: The Technical Procedures Involved n the Production of Two Computer Multimedia Projects Based on Music for Two Pianos.The goal of the multimedia projects was to produce visualizations of the musical elements and compositional devices found in the selected compositions. The two pieces selected for these visualizations were "Le Cygne", from Le Carnaval des Animaux by Camille Saint-Satins, and the Prologue from the Sonate pour deux pianos by Francis Poulenc.The study begins with a traditional analysis of the works followed by a description of the images that were selected from the image pool for the visualizations (the image pool is described in detail in the companion dissertation); an explanation of the criteria for image enhancement and manipulations that were carried out in the Adobe Photoshop program; and a detailed outline of the composition stage of the projects using the Adobe Premiere program.The projects in this study are intended to express the music by visual means as a creative endeavour, as an educational tool, and as a demonstration of the capabilities of two Adobe software programs within a Macintosh environment. / School of Music

A Guide to Transcriptions and Arrangements for Two Pianos was designed as a reference tool for the pianist and duo-pianist. 1378 entries are catalogued in this dissertation. Each entry contains information from the following list: Composer name; Birth and death dates; Country; Title of work; Date arrangement written; Publisher; Publisher identification number; Date of publication; Arranger name; Number of pages; Length in minutes; Library or source where found; Origin of work; Editor; Comments and level of difficulty.The writer read music for the research of this dissertation at number of libraries including the Library of Congress. Additionally, an original questionnaire was sent to 393 pianists who are listed as Master Teacher or College Faculty in the 1995 Directory of Nationally Certified Teachers of Music. The results are printed from the 219 replies. / School of Music