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This is an interpretive study of the life of the Prophet Muhammad as it is artistically depicted in the repertoire (especially the narrative ballads) of fifty-one contemporary Egyptian maddahin (singers of eulogies in honour of the Prophet Muhammad, sing. maddah). The elements of this repertoire, as diverse as narrative ballads, classical odes, Qur'an chanting, and the melodies of the secular songs of well-known Egyptian singers, do not exist as discrete units but rather as a lively tawlifa (blend)--to use a common term in Colloquial Egyptian Arabic (CEA). This study is about blends where discrete units lose their borderlines and leak into one another, about phenomena which are "betwixt and between" the perceived scholarly categories which confidently delineate boundaries between elite and popular Islam, the historical and the legendary Muhammad, the sacred and the profane, orality and writing, standard and colloquial Arabic. / In order to understand the process which marks the making of the people's Muhammad, the study deals with the sources and the contents of the repertoire of the Egyptian maddahin. The performance of these singers as well as their interaction with the audience are also considered. The "legendary" material in this repertoire is attested as historical by many authoritative and well-recognized "orthodox" authors of the past. Classical Arabic, classical poetic forms, philosophical notions, long believed to be the exclusive possessions of the learned, are freely utilized in the ballads and popular songs under study. The people's Muhammad appears as both a commanding figure, empowered by the supernatural, and a touchingly vulnerable human being; God's ascetic messenger and a man who savours life's lawful pleasures; an eloquent speaker who utters Qur'an-like terse Arabic and a lovingly familiar figure who also uses local patois. Bipolarity, beloved of many scholars, is seriously challenged by the art of the Egyptian maddahin. A renewed effort has to be made to discover more valid categories which will take into account the intermediary combinations (Mischbildungen) characteristic of that art.

Modern scholars have suggested various approaches to the analysis of the pretonal repertory. However, if we consider the question of how the individual voice parts interact in a Renaissance polyphonic composition to create coherence for the movement as a whole, we find that there are no tools available to undertake such a task. We may be able to speak generally of the arrival of certain moments as relatively accented or unaccented; we may even be able to dissect a complete melodic line with some segmentation process to highlight motivic structure, phrase development or contour-articulated pitch events. But there are no analytic strategies available yet which are capable of disclosing the structures of independent voice parts and their interaction as timepoint-accenting elements capable of creating formal, rhythmic and pitch-class patterns. This study outlines a methodology that has been developed to deal with these specific issues. The analytic strategy is based on the perception of accents in individual voices of polyphonic works. The types of accents germane to Renaissance polyphony include durational, leap, contour, cadential and beginning-accents. The study proposes a simple, bipartite classification of accentual strength—strong or weak. Each voice part in a work is then analyzed, with every pitch attack represented as strongly or weakly accented through special notation developed for the analysis. The methodology affords a picture of the most strongly- accented timepoints in the individual melodies of three- and four-voice cantus firmus masses of the mid- to late fifteenth century. The relative strengths of these accents, along with their synchronization in the multi-voice aggregate, are disclosed through the notation. After renotating scores with this special notational symbology, we extract points of coincident strong accents in three or more voices to create accent profiles for each section of a movement. We then compare profiles of same-texted works by different composers in order to disclose normative formal and pitch-class procedures in some Renaissance compositions.

Kagok is a genre of highly refined, traditional, Korean, vocal music, which is now endangered and marginalized in contemporary Korean culture. Female kagok signers (kisaeng) have also been ignored in Korean music society. The aim of this study is to preserve and revitalize kagok, in order to conserve its true nature in a contemporary context, and for the future. This thesis is twofold. The first part shows how the aesthetics of the Chosŏn dynasty are fundamental to kagok's history, and female kagok singers' education. Furthermore, existing kagok scores, written in traditional chŏngganbo notation or in Western staff notation, are examined in this part, and they reveal the need for the creation of a new kagok notation. The second part of the thesis concerns the creation and testing of the New Integrative Kagok Notation (NIKN), which combines the essentials of chŏngganbo and Western staff notation, and provides a more effective vehicle for the transmission, transcription and recording of this art form, particularly for inexperienced, contemporary students.

Although Halsey Stevens is a distinguished American composer whose works are widely accepted, and although he has forty-one published works for various choral combinations to his credit, of which four are conceived for combined choral and instrumental forces, there is at present no survey of this choral literature in existence. Since this music receives wide acceptance, the author has felt the need to provide a survey in the hope that the discussions and descriptions will enable choral conductors to discover a source of beautiful music, and to choose works pertinent to their own needs from this body of literature.Chapter I consists of a review of literature pertinent to Stevens and his style.Chapter II is an overview of analysis, including a discussion of analysis in relation to choral music.Chapter III presents a summary of stylistic characteristics as found in Stevens’ choral music. A discussion of the author’s conclusions ends the chapter.The survey is presented in chapters IV and V. Chapter IV deals with the short works. Those which are longer in duration, principally comprising combinations of choral and orchestral forces, constitute chapter V. Campion Suite, for a cappella choir, has been included with this section of longer works, since it is the author’s opinion that it is best performed as an entity.A brief data summary precedes discussion of each work. This summary includes publication information, date of composition, place of composition, any dedicatory information, voicings and instrumentations, sources of text, vocal ranges, and timings. The discussion of the work following the summary is intended to provide a succinct description, sufficient to enable a prospective director to decide whether the work is suitable to his performance needs. Musical examples are included to illustrate various aspects of Stevens’ style as well as to show unusual and interesting features of his music.Appendix I contains the musical examples referred to in the survey, while appendix II lists the published choral music in chronological order.

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Dissertation (Ph.D)-- Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Jeffrery Kite-Powell, Florida State University, College of Music. Includes biographical sketch. Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-245).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. Music Theory, College of Music, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on March 30, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-158). Also issued in print.

Thesis (D.W.S.)--Institute for Worship Studies, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.