No description available.

Although the topoi and elements of what has been described as the “Venerable Style” (V.S.) are found in many places in Mozart’s solo keyboard sonatas, the obsessive juxtaposition of these elements against brilliant, concerted, Empfindsamer Stil, and Sturm und Drang topoi can be shown to define the first and third movements of his minor key piano sonatas K.310 and K.457. This thesis will investigate using the theoretical tools developed by a range of Topic Theory authors such as Ratner (1980,) Allanbrook (1983,) Hatten (2004,) and Monelle (2000, 2006,) a newly developed analytical concept known as topical expansion, and the structural framework provided by Hepokoski and Darcy (2006) to prove that the venerable topoi are not purely referential gestures, but are also vital parts of the structural content of each of the sonatas and their respective single movements. In line with Caplin (2005)’s warning that the venerable and learned styles are some of the only historically developed and generally accepted topoi with formal (structural) ramifications, this thesis will argue that K.310 and K.457’s surface content is built largely upon the application, troping, and expansion of V.S. topoi in the key formal regions given in Hepokoski and Darcy (2006). As a result of comparative analysis, a further topical level of unity and compositional organization will be shown to be present in the works justifying Kinderman (2006) and Irving (2010)’s conception of the works’ stylistic affect as avant-garde and romantic in execution. Additionally, analysis of the works’ strictly controlled topoi will show each work to be in opposition to Allanbrook’s conception of Mozart’s music as a “miniature theater of gestures,” suggesting that their austere affect is programmed at the topical level in addition to their tonal and formal content (Allanbrook 1992, 130).

The interactive nature of video games offers players unique playthroughs of the same game. Choices made during gameplay, despite going through the same narrative story, create a journey that differs from other players. Music can help support a player's connection to the game's characters and narrative while also providing information to the player to guide their decisions. Ludomusicological studies in the past have shown how music can support a game's narrative, while also serving to inform players of changes in game states. The usability function of music, while crucial in this overall sonic experience, is not the sole purpose that music can fulfill. An area in ludomusicological research that's less explored is understanding how a composer's intent for their music is not indicative of the player experience but rather influences the way players play the game and how they are emotionally impacted by the music. Combat scenarios are an effective area that showcases the usability aspects of music as well as its impact on player presence, which will be demonstrated through the game Xenoblade Chronicles. By combining the principles of presence, immersion, engagement, topic theory, and adapting the dual semiotic approach of Iain Hart, this thesis seeks to analyze the composer's intent behind musical choices and how it shapes the overall player experience.

Though many philosophers and music theorists have admitted the signification of the sublime in music as a possibility, the nature and mechanism of that signification has not yet been treated at length with a methodology familiar to musicians or native to music theory. Within this dissertation I have conducted a survey of the philosophy of the sublime as understood by Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797), Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804), Friedrich Schiller (1759 – 1805), and Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860), with references to other contemporary philosophers and writers. The broader influence of the sublime in regards to German-speaking regions and certain musical composers was also considered. I then gathered from the above philosophers’ categories and definitions of the sublime a constellation of objects, qualities, and emotional states associated with the sublime. These functioned as signs or signifiers of the sublime, whose paths of signification were considered or determined with use of semiotics and topic theory, with reference to the work of Danuta Mirka, Raymond Monelle, and Leonard Ratner. Making reference to score examples listed in the list of figures, I implemented these techniques in analyses of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109 and Sonata No. 32 in C, Op. 111 as well as Franz Liszt’s “Mazeppa,” from the Études d’exécution transcendante, “Funerailles” from Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses III, S. 173, and “Marche funèbre, En mémoire de Maximilian I, Empereur du Mexique” in from Années de pèlerinage III, S.163. / Music Performance

This dissertation pursues the following three objectives: (1) a comprehensive formal analysis of Franz Liszt’s sonata in B minor that combines adequate analytical models; (2) various hermeneutic approaches to the sonata that trace thematic and expressive transformations and deviational elements from sonata conventions; and (3) a comprehensive interpretation of the sonata analysis and the hermeneutic analyses based on historical, religious, and political contexts around Liszt and the sonata, which will differentiate this dissertation from preceding research on the sonata and other sonata genres in the nineteenth century. Chapter 1 begins with a literature review, focusing on (1) the sonata’s formal analyses and (2) programmatic approaches. Considering the formal boundaries of the sonata are still disputable in former research, I argue that the sonata strongly demands appropriate analytical methodologies in order to uncover its exceptional form. These methodologies include James Hepokoski’s and Waren Darcy’s sonata theory (2006), Leonard Meyer’s “secondary parameters” (1989), and Peter Smith’s “dimensional counterpoint” (2005), which will be discussed in Chapter 2. Hepokoski’s and Darcy’s sonata theory reveals the conventions of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century sonatas and suggests hermeneutic interpretations that result from deviations from these conventions. Secondary parameters and dimensional counterpoint are critical in shaping musical processes and form. I provide a three-step sonata analysis based on the analytical ground that combines these methodologies. My analysis offers a comprehensive view of the entire sonata as a one-movement sonata form, including structural, motivic, and narrative analyses. Chapter 1 also describes several programmatic approaches that Liszt scholars have developed. However, an obsession with the good/evil dichotomy in former research narrows narratives of the sonata. Considering that the sonata presents five motto themes, interpretations of the sonata may be more extensive and complex than previous research has found. I develop various and distinctive hermeneutic readings of the sonata in Chapter 3, which includes the following three sub-sections: 1) Topical approach; 2) Narrative approach; and 3) Lacanian approach. The topical approach investigates how different topical significations are manifested in Liszt’s sonata in nineteenth-century historical and cultural contexts. The narrative approach concentrates on five mottos presented in the sonata and their motivic and expressive transformations. The Lacanian approach concentrates on a lack of strong cadences in the sonata, relating to Lacan’s famous concept, objet petit a, an unattainable object of desire. Then, I continue to use the Lacanian viewpoint to interpret an unresolved fully-diminished seventh harmony as a Sinthome, a symptom that can never be healed. In Chapter 4, I relate Liszt’s religious convictions and various struggles to bring about another hermeneutic reading in the political, religious, and theological contexts around Liszt and the sonata, by revisiting my interpretations in Chapter 3. / Music Theory

Com a mudança no cenário musicológico internacional no final do século XX, o desenvolvimento da teoria das tópicas musicais encontrou terreno fértil nas análises sobre expressividade e significação do discurso musical. Apesar de seu principal objeto de estudo se pautar nas obras de compositores dos séculos XVIII e XIX, as tópicas musicais têm sido utilizadas como ferramentas de análise em obras de diversos períodos da música brasileira. Entretanto, pouco se tem pesquisado sobre a sua influência nas obras luso-brasileiras do período colonial. Nesta mesma senda, sabe-se que a obra religiosa de Marcos Portugal, importante compositor da Casa Real Portuguesa durante o reinado do príncipe regente D. João VI, também carece de atenção no âmbito das investigações musicológicas. Assim, diante destas duas carências, este trabalho pretende, como objetivo geral, observar as recorrências tópicas na Missa de Réquiem em Mi bemol maior de Marcos Portugal. O contexto fúnebre em que as Missas de Réquiem são compostas possibilita a ocorrência de jogos semânticos e simbólicos entre a música, a religião e a morte. Dessa forma, observamos como as tópicas de marcha fúnebre, ombra e tempesta são apresentadas no Réquiem de Marcos Portugal e como contribuem para a construção da expressividade e sentimentos comuns diante da morte: o temor pela condenação eterna e a esperança de salvação. / The transition of the international musicology context in the late twentieth-century has made it possible for the development of Topic Theory to find a breeding ground for the analysis about musical discourse expressivity and signification. While its main object of research is based on works from eighteenth and nineteenth-century composers, musical topics have been used as analysis tools in musical works from several Brazilian music periods. Nevertheless, very little has been researched about its influences in Luso-Brazilian colonial musical works. Similarly, it is known that the religious works of Marcos Portugal, a relevant composer of the Royal House during the reign of the Regent Prince D. João VI, also requires further attention as far as musicological investigations are concerned. Thus, given these two shortcomings, the aim of this study is to look for topical recurrences in Marcos Portugal Requiem Mass in E flat major. The funeral context in which Requiem Masses are composed makes the occurrence of semantic and symbolic games between music, religion and death, possible. In this way, we have noticed how funeral march, ombra and tempesta topics are employed in Marcos Portugal Requiem and how these topics contribute to the construction of expressivity and common feelings before death: awe of the eternal damnation and hope of salvation.

Com a mudança no cenário musicológico internacional no final do século XX, o desenvolvimento da teoria das tópicas musicais encontrou terreno fértil nas análises sobre expressividade e significação do discurso musical. Apesar de seu principal objeto de estudo se pautar nas obras de compositores dos séculos XVIII e XIX, as tópicas musicais têm sido utilizadas como ferramentas de análise em obras de diversos períodos da música brasileira. Entretanto, pouco se tem pesquisado sobre a sua influência nas obras luso-brasileiras do período colonial. Nesta mesma senda, sabe-se que a obra religiosa de Marcos Portugal, importante compositor da Casa Real Portuguesa durante o reinado do príncipe regente D. João VI, também carece de atenção no âmbito das investigações musicológicas. Assim, diante destas duas carências, este trabalho pretende, como objetivo geral, observar as recorrências tópicas na Missa de Réquiem em Mi bemol maior de Marcos Portugal. O contexto fúnebre em que as Missas de Réquiem são compostas possibilita a ocorrência de jogos semânticos e simbólicos entre a música, a religião e a morte. Dessa forma, observamos como as tópicas de marcha fúnebre, ombra e tempesta são apresentadas no Réquiem de Marcos Portugal e como contribuem para a construção da expressividade e sentimentos comuns diante da morte: o temor pela condenação eterna e a esperança de salvação. / The transition of the international musicology context in the late twentieth-century has made it possible for the development of Topic Theory to find a breeding ground for the analysis about musical discourse expressivity and signification. While its main object of research is based on works from eighteenth and nineteenth-century composers, musical topics have been used as analysis tools in musical works from several Brazilian music periods. Nevertheless, very little has been researched about its influences in Luso-Brazilian colonial musical works. Similarly, it is known that the religious works of Marcos Portugal, a relevant composer of the Royal House during the reign of the Regent Prince D. João VI, also requires further attention as far as musicological investigations are concerned. Thus, given these two shortcomings, the aim of this study is to look for topical recurrences in Marcos Portugal Requiem Mass in E flat major. The funeral context in which Requiem Masses are composed makes the occurrence of semantic and symbolic games between music, religion and death, possible. In this way, we have noticed how funeral march, ombra and tempesta topics are employed in Marcos Portugal Requiem and how these topics contribute to the construction of expressivity and common feelings before death: awe of the eternal damnation and hope of salvation.

No description available.

No description available.