Henry Cowell (1897-1965), American composer in 20th century, is the first who proposed the concept of tone clusters and placed many new techniques in his piano music. Innovative music theories and unique thoughts were displayed in his compositions and critiques. For developing both new visual and audio effects of piano music, Cowell played tone clusters with arms, palms, and fists, and also played strings inside piano to give new gesture and timbre of piano. This thesis is divided into three parts besides introduction and conclusion. The first part describes the origin and development of new piano techniques in the 20th century. The second part investigates Cowell¡¦s compositional career, compositional methods and thoughts for piano music. The third part analyzes ways of performing tone clusters and strings in Cowell¡¦s solo piano pieces with new techniques. Through analyzing these particular techniques, the compositional methods and uniqueness of Cowell¡¦s piano music could be understood. In the meanwhile, the performers will pay more attention to avoid performing injuries and damaging pianos.

Tone pairs constructed with the frequencies of the overtones moving in opposition to the missing fundamental frequencies they imply, produce expertise differences in the tracking of pitch direction. One interpretation of this result is that it arises as a function of rudimentary differences in the perceptual systems of musicians and non-musicians. Several experiments suggest instead a more embodied source of expertise to be found in vocal mediation such that the effect of musical experience in these tasks is the result of the most salient action of musicians: making sound. / x, 87 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm

Leo Ornstein's most significant piano oeuvre, the Seventeen Waltzes, stand out as a unique example of a pianism as a foundation for the composer's musical thoughts. The purpose of this document is to provide musical and technical suggestions based on Ornstein's pianistic patterns, which will help pianists understand the composer's complex writing and form a coherent interpretation. The guide covers the main avant-garde musical devices used by Ornstein such as tone clusters, polymeter, and polyrhythm. A comparison process within the collection will help performers to address Ornstein's unmarked waltzes by underlining the composer's similar ideas and traits.