The compositions of American composer, Alec Wilder, span multiple, often disparate, genres within the classical and popular music styles. During his lifetime, much of Wilder’s greatest success came from his popular songs. However, his body of work is much more vast, and some of his vocal work should be classified as art song. Wilder’s formal training, aptitude for learning, and experiences with popular music provided him with a diverse artistic palette and a unique musical voice. This resultant style is eclectic and includes modality, rhythmic motives, melodic figures, extended harmonies, and text painting.Wilder scholars, David Demsey and Ronald Prather categorized one hundred and seventeen of Wilder’s compositions as art songs. From this group, nine songs were selected and analyzed according to academically accepted characteristics of Art Song: poetry, harmony and melody, the relationship between the voice and the piano, text setting, phrasing and structure, form, and vocal demands in order to justify the songs’identification as art songs. Furthermore, this document contains brief biographical information on Alec Wilder’s life, career, and varied musical endeavors as well as a concise discussion of scholarly literature concerning the composer and his oeuvre.Alec Wilder composed music within multiple genres and styles. His output is prolific, yet his art songs remain relatively unknown. It is hopeful that this document will bring new attention to Alec Wilder, and, specifically, his art songs.

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Keywords: musical skills, song This thesis deals with the selection of songs that lead to the development of musical skills in elementary school. The aim is to find the songs that match the child's age and at the same time developing its musical skills. We need to evaluate the difficulty of the song intonation, rhythmic peculiarities of the songs and key, in which it sings the song. Finally, we consider the optimal and versatile selection from both the folk and the artificial music.

Actuellement interprétée par des musiciens spécialisés, la musique du Moyen Âge subit un processus de décontextualisation et de recontextualisation qui la mène du cloître ou du château vers la salle de spectacle. Cette thèse tente d’approcher cette problématique par le biais de l’analyse. En prenant l’exemple de Rose tres bele, création pluridisciplinaire de l’ensemble Diabolus in Musica, il s’agit de comprendre comment les spécificités musicales et poétiques d’un pan du répertoire médiéval, en l’occurrence la lyrique féminine en langue d’oïl, induisent une organisation spécifique des différents éléments du spectacle, en particulier les corps et le dispositif dans lequel ils prennent place.Le premier chapitre présente le matériau médiéval, poèmes, musiques, images, utilisé dans le spectacle.Le second chapitre en décrit le déroulement, sous-tendu par les poèmes chantés, dont les textes constituent un véritable fil conducteur pour la représentation. Leur analyse permet de distinguer des particularités poétiques éclairantes pour le spectacle : celui-ci se fonde sur les lieux communs de la poésie courtoise ainsi que sur la notion bien particulière de personnage que celle-ci construit. Cette analyse littéraire débouche, au troisième chapitre, sur une analyse du spectacle proprement dit, notamment en ce qui concerne la relation texte-image. Le quatrième chapitre envisage les enjeux esthétiques de la pluridisciplinarité dans cette création. Il revient notamment sur la question du corps et de son rapport à l’écriture. Le cinquième chapitre retrace la filiation médiévalisante de Rose tres bele, dans une perspective allant du XIIIème au XXIème siècle en passant par le XIXème. / Medieval Music, currently performed by specialist musicians, undergoes a process of decontexutalization and recontextualization. This PHD attempts to approach such problematics through analysis. Rose tres bele is a newly devised pluridisciplinary show by the ensemble Diabolus in Musica that presents one aspect of the Medieval repertoire, the female voice in langue d’oil Medieval lyric. Through its case study, this thesis tries to understand the ways in which the specific musical and poetic elements of this genre induce a specific organization of the different performance elements, particularly in terms of physicality and of the configuration the physical bodies take in space. The first chapter introduces the medieval material: poems, music, images used in performance. The second chapter gives the show’s structure, underpinned by the sung poems, whose texts establish a real narrative line for the performance. The analysis of these poems allows one to single out characteristic poetic elements that shed some insight into the performance. The performance is based on the conventions of courtly poetry, as well as on the specific notions of characterization this poetry expresses. This literary analysis leads to an analysis, in the third chapter, of the show itself, particularly as far as the text-image relationship is concerned. The fourth chapter considers the aesthetic issues raised by this devised show’s pluridisciplinarity. The chapter goes back, notably, to the question of physicality and its relationship to writing. The fifth chapter retraces the origins of Rose tres bele’s Medieval aesthetic, in an overview that goes from 13th. to 21rst century and includes 19th. century.

abstract: “OUT.” is a song cycle for bass and piano that follows the coming out process of a young homosexual who has been raised in a politically and religiously conservative corner of American culture. This character was taught from a very young age that anything or anyone of a queer nature was inherently wrong and should be avoided and scorned. The story arc captured in this seven-movement work is only a small portion of what the character ultimately goes through as they mature. This portion of their narrative has been isolated with the hope of embodying a queer character of strength, and this piece begins with the character knowing, understanding, and having already come to terms with their own sexuality. The story outlined in this song cycle is one of hardship that ultimately leads to triumph, as a demonstration that overcoming queer suppression is an achievable goal. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Composition 2019

abstract: Late nineteenth-century French art song, also known as mélodie, is one of the most important genres in a classical singer’s repertoire and it cannot be ignored. Its creation represents a marked improvement over the song form of French Romance which dates from the eighteenth century. French art song was not introduced to China until the establishment of the New Republic of China in 1949. In the decades since then, French art song seems less favored by Chinese singers, when compared to Italian songs and German Lieder. Having studied both in China and the United States, the author realized that for Chinese native speakers, singing French art song is a difficult challenge. Two main problems immediately present themselves: the language barrier and the obstacle of a basic understanding of French poetry. The author’s purpose here is to examine these problems and try to help Chinese singers by offering them a systematic path toward correct French pronunciation, a brief discussion of poetic imagery often seen in French poetry, and a selected bibliography of sources on French poetry to advance their comprehension. First, the paper will introduce the phonology of Pinyin (Chinese Phonetic Alphabet), the system used in China to teach Chinese (Mandarin) and compare it with the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), which is universally used by people in the West to learn the pronunciation of most languages. The document will then show the sounds that are most challenging for Chinese singers and will give some suggestions and vocal exercises to help singers better pronounce French diction. Secondly, the author will examine a few poems used in French songs to point out some of the cultural differences between China and Western countries and identify the challenges in understanding the meaning of selected French art songs from the perspective of a Chinese singer. Since an exhaustive study of French poetry would be another broad topic to be researched, the author will offer only basic suggestions and a brief annotated bibliography of sources at the end of this research project. It is the author's hope that this document will benefit Chinese singers and voice teachers by acquainting them with French diction and by helping them to appreciate French song literature. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2019

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Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Anthropogenic noise is increasingly widespread as human development continues. Noise can negatively affect humans and wildlife, but the most deleterious effects are incurred by species that rely on vocal communication for mating, territory defence, and other vital functions. Songbirds are particularly susceptible, often experiencing declines in richness and abundance in noise-affected areas. Yet, some species remain abundant in noisy environments. High frequency vocalizations, or the ability to shift to higher frequencies, is one adaptation that may allow birds to communicate above low frequency anthropogenic noise. However, the mechanisms underlying frequency shifting, and the relationship between vocal frequency and abundance, are still not fully understood. I examined whether black-capped chickadees produce songs at higher frequencies in noisy areas, and whether these differences could be due to altered vegetative structure rather than noise. I also examined whether chickadees could plastically change song frequencies as noise increased. Finally, I surveyed abundance and recorded vocalizations from several songbird species to evaluate whether plasticity in song frequency, or mean song frequency, could predict how abundance and urban prevalence would be affected by anthropogenic noise. I found that black-capped chickadees shifted to higher song frequencies in noise-affected areas, and that vegetative differences did not account for these changes. Further, chickadees at roadside locations plastically increased their song frequencies as noise levels increased. Vocal plasticity, however, was not related to abundance in my multi-species comparison. Instead, noise-related changes in abundance were predicted by a species minimum song frequency. Nevertheless, minimum song frequency did not necessarily predict whether a species would be widespread in urban areas. In addition to frequency parameters, urban species may avoid overlap with noise through spatial and temporal mechanisms, but those that lack any mechanisms to communicate within anthropogenic noise may experience declines. Thus, reducing anthropogenic noise may increase the quality of urban habitats for birds. / Ecology