Toccata in C-dur / Franz Schmidt -- Variations on a quiet theme (1952, rev. 1995) / Kent Kennan -- Trio sonata II in C minor, BWV 526 / Johann Sebastian Bach -- Variations on Mein junges Leben hat ein End / Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck -- Final in B-flat major, op. 21 / Cesar Franck. / text

Scenic route -- Toccata -- Beautiful journey -- A different shade of blue -- Our father -- Ascend -- Concerto for horn and chamber ensemble. / text

Not available / text

Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

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À la Renaissance et à l'ère baroque, l'art de l'improvisation faisait partie intégrante de l'éducation musicale et de la pratique instrumentale. Cette façon de faire de la musique s'apprenait très jeune et se pratiquait au quotidien. En la même personne, étaient le plus souvent confondus compositeurs et improvisateurs, en ce que ces deux disciplines étaient étroitement liées. Plus encore, l'improvisation allait jouer un rôle déterminant dans la création de nouveaux genres musicaux. Parmi ces derniers, la toccata, genre musical instrumental de style libre et improvisé, devait se présenter comme un élément significatif de cette pratique musicale. À partir de cette donnée historique, la question que nous souhaiterions examiner est la suivante : comment peut-on mieux cerner, dans ces œuvres de style libre, le côté improvisé qui s'y rattache ? Notre objectif sera donc d'identifier les éléments compositionnels contenus dans les œuvres de style toccata et qui rendent compte de l'aspect spontané et improvisé qui caractérise ces pièces, et ce, de Frescobaldi à Bach. C'est donc, d'une part, par une évaluation qualitative d'œuvres de style toccata et, d'autre part, par un examen approfondi d'études de cas que nous nous efforcerons de dégager les techniques d'écriture qui permettent de faire le lien entre la pratique de l'improvisation et les œuvres écrites. Le cadre de cette recherche sera délimité par des connaissances théoriques telles que rencontrées dans les traités anciens ainsi que dans les ouvrages musicologiques récents en tenant compte des connaissances tacites issues de la pratique musicale, de l'enseignement reçu ainsi que du savoir intuitif de tout musicien. Nous espérons que ce projet nous permettra de mieux comprendre la nature de l'improvisation dans ces compositions dites libres, tout comme de nourrir et justifier notre interprétation en la rendant plus juste et vivante. / In the Renaissance and the baroque era, the art of improvisation was part of the learning process and performance praxis. Very early on, young musicians were educated in this type of musical activity and they practiced it regularly. As improvisation and composition were closely linked at that time, both types of musical expertise were often encountered in the same person. Moreover, improvisation played an important role in the genesis of new musical genres. Among them, the toccata, an instrumental piece characterized by freedom and fantasy, emerged as a significant component of this musical practice. With this historical background in mind, we would like to investigate the following question: how can we better define, in freestyle pieces, the improvised side that results from them? Our goal is to identify which compositional and discursive elements in toccatas translate the improvisational aspect so typical of those pieces from Frescobaldi to Bach. Using case studies and a qualitative approach, we will try to show how certain compositional techniques contained in the written pieces can be linked to improvisational practice. Additionally, our method will be delineated using treatises of musical theory from the period as well as more recent musicological studies, combined with tacit knowledge drawn from our own musical experience and education, including intuitive knowing. We hope that this research project will help to foster understanding about the nature of the practice of improvisation in toccata-like pieces and to nurture and explain our performance decisions with respect to those pieces in order to make them more authentic and alive.

The keyboard toccatas of J. S. Bach, BWV 910-916, present a formidable challenge of interpretation to the modern-day performer. These works contain some of the most unusual compositional techniques to be found in Bach’s output due to their use of an improvisatory, virtuosic style inherited from the seventeenth century. While pianists of today are trained to perform with perfect fidelity to the score, the treatises from the time of Bach point to a rhythmically free approach to the improvisatory features of these toccatas. The goal of this treatise is to explore how the historical tradition from which Bach’s toccatas emerged influenced their stylistic characteristics with the purpose of applying this information to create an informed performance by today’s interpreters. In this effort, this treatise focuses on several broad categories in the process of understanding the inspiration and, therefore, the interpretation of these works. These categories include the genesis of the toccata as a genre, the compositional techniques associated with the toccata, Bach's personal contribution to the genre, and the interpretation of Bach's toccatas specifically. / text

This dissertation provides comprehensive performance perspectives for the interpretation of the published keyboard toccatas by Michelangelo Rossi (ca.1602-1656) in his collection, Toccate e Correnti d'Intavolatura d'Organo e Cimbalo (c. 1634). This document consults the following sources on keyboard practice in the early-Baroque period: Girolamo Diruta's Il Transilvano Dialogo Sopra Il Vero Modo Di Sonar Organi, & Istromenti da penna (1593); Adriano Banchieri's Conclusioni nel Suono dell'Organo (1609); Costanzo Antegnati's L'Arte Organica (1608); and the prefaces to Girolamo Frescobaldi's publications Toccate e Partite d'Intavolature di Cembalo, Libro Primo (first version 1615; second version 1615, 1616, 1628; and third version 1637), and Fiori Musicali (1635). These sources provide information on most aspects of keyboard—and specifically organ—playing in the decades leading up to, and at the time of, the initial publication of Rossi's toccatas: including the toccata as genre, Italian organs from the late-Renaissance/early-Baroque, registration, tempo, pedaling, fingering, articulation, and ornamentation. In addition to the performance perspectives, this dissertation also provides a new modern edition of the ten toccatas by Michelangelo Rossi. This edition is based on the 1657 Bologna facsimile. The goal of this edition is two-fold. First to present an accurate text of the facsimile and second to adjust certain beam-groupings, spacing on the staves, and the use of accidentals in a more modern sense.