Thesis (D.M.A.)--Boston University / Western art songs written on Japanese poems, Tanka, appeared in the early twentieth century as a late manifestation of Japonisme, the Japanese influence on Western art and music. The songs discussed in this dissertation include Japanisches Regenlied (1909) by Joseph Marx, Three Japanese Lyrics (1912-13) by Igor Stravinsky, Petits Poi!mes Japonais (1919) by Francesco Santoliquido, and Romances on Texts by Japanese Poets (1928-32) by Dmitri Shostakovich. Japonisme emerged as a significant movement in late-nineteenth-century Western art when Japanese artworks were first exported to Europe. Under the influence of these works, Western painters soon adopted Japanese techniques especially from traditional wood-block prints (Ukiyo-e). The appreciation of Japanese art and culture eventually emerged in Western music as a part of Orientalism and exoticism, first in opera, then in Debussy's music, and lastly in art songs. The Japanese poems used in Western art songs examined here are most commonly referred to as Tanka (a short poem), a genre that flourished between the third and tenth centuries. Because of the unique characteristics of the Japanese language, translating Japanese poems into European languages requires a certain imagination. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the relationship between the original Japanese poems and their translations into European languages, and to discuss their transformation. The introduction provides a brief overview of Japonisme in Western art in the late nineteenth century. Chapter One focuses on the basic elements of Japanese poetry in order to outline the characteristics unique to the Japanese language. Considering Japanese influence within the category of "Orientalism" and "Exoticism" in music, Chapter Two explores the evidence for Oriental and exotic influences on Western music. Chapter Three focuses more specifically on Japanese influences in Western music. A detailed study of poems and translations, and their relationship to music is the core focus of Chapter Four. Chapter Five concludes that Tanka vanished from Western art songs soon after the songs under consideration were composed.

abstract: The close relationship between mathematics and music has been well documented in Western cultures since at least the time of the ancient Greeks. While many connections have been made between math and music over the centuries, it seems that many modern researchers have attempted to create interdisciplinary bridges between these disciplines by using mathematical principles to explain several essential aspects of music: harmony, melody, form, and rhythm. Using these established connections, in addition to several of my own, I have created an undergraduate level survey of Western music course for a population of mathematically inclined students. This approach makes music history comprehensible, relevant, and engaging to my target demographic. The course is organized into three units. The first unit begins with the music of Ancient Greece and Early Christianity and concludes with music of the Renaissance (roughly 1300-1600). The second unit will cover what classical musicians call the “common practice period” (roughly 1600-1900). This span of time covers three musical eras – Baroque, Classical, and Romantic. The final unit will cover the 20th century up to the present. During this course, I introduce the students to Western music using examples, concepts, terminology, and methodology derived from the world of mathematics. These include Pythagorean mathematics, geometry, simple algebra and fractions, the golden mean, the Fibonacci sequence, matrices, set theory, and many more. I have written the chapters as scripts for an online version of the class. The writing style in the chapters is therefore informal and contrasts with the tone of the other parts of the thesis. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Music 2019

Music travels across the past in the form of composers borrowing from each other. Such musical borrowings and quotations involve not only the use of melodic materials but also musical structures, texts, symbolism and other types of inspiration. The pre-existing musical idea being used is linked to a specific memory of a particular composer and time. The artistic allusions of composers connect the present and the past. Music also travels across the present and into the future. The outcome of contemporary composers borrowing from each other influences the present period and affects later composers' musical inspiration, i.e., it affects future composers, and therefore, the future. Composers frequently refer to melodies or musical idea from contemporaries and reinterpret them in their own compositions. This is largely because composers do not write in isolation and have been inspired and influenced by contemporary musicians and cultural contexts. However, these musical borrowings sometimes raise questions about the composers' creativity and authenticity. This is largely due to the nature of inspiration and imagination, which determines who or what is original. With this in mind, why do composers still borrow musical ideas despite the risks involved? In what ways do they overcome criticism and demonstrate the excellence of their own compositions while referring to the work of others? In what ways do artistic allusions influence new compositions? In this dissertation, I attempt to examine these questions and address the reasons for and the effects of musical quotations and allusions.

No description available.

Rhythm in early Western polyphonic music.

Thesis (M. A.) -- University of Limpopo, 2008 / Refer to the document

No description available.

Considering the cultural importance of country-western music in the United States, especially in places such as Texas, the exclusion of country-western music from the musical offerings of public schools and universities (Bates, 2019; Bates, Gossett, & Stimeling, 2020) could be seen as problematic. Furthermore, the absence of the country-western style from formal music education has led to the concomitant exclusion of an an entire musical instrument from formal music study: the pedal steel guitar. The purpose of this inquiry was to engage in the lived experience of becoming a pedal steel guitarist in order to ascertain how I, as a learner of an instrument primarily used in country-western music, could interact with others within both the country-western and pedal steel guitar communities of practice as I gained competence as a pedal steel guitarist. Using communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) and landscapes of practice (Wenger-Trayner & Wenger-Trayner 2014) as a theoretical framework, I employed autoethnographic methods to document the lived experiences contained within an 18-month period in which I progressed from a nascent pedal steel guitarist, to performing professional gigs at various dance halls and honky-tonk bars. Data collection methods included journal entries, interviews with accomplished pedal steel guitarists, and the creation of artifacts such as tablature transcriptions and recordings. I created a short ethnodrama (Saldaña, 2011) to elucidate the conflict I felt between various aspects of my musical identity as my previous musical experiences both enabled and inhibited my new learning project. After analyzing my pedal steel learning project using language from Wenger’s (1998) framework of communities of practice, I concluded that Wenger’s interlocking concepts of participation and reification respectively served as the propulsion and rudder that allowed me to traverse my learning trajectory. In addition, I discussed impications of my research for music teachers, such as destigmatizing the role of mistakes (such as wrong notes) in the learning process; music teacher educators, such as the importance of facilitating boundary experiences for preservice teachers in order to broaden knowledgeability; and music learners¬, such as the benefits that can come from—to quote my pedal steel mentor Bobby Flores—“diving into that cold river with no inhibitions” when it comes to learning a new instrument.

The purpose of this study was to examine pedagogical practices of an Indian music professor, or guru, who teaches an Indian music ensemble in a United States institution of higher learning. The role of the world music professor has been refined and redefined over the last decade. The guru-shishya paramparā system of teaching has reached a crossroad; new conditions challenge this approach. The focus of this study was to investigate, through the lens of the guru, tensions that exist between Indian pedagogy and Western pedagogy. The research design was a single-case ethnographic study that utilized participant observation in an Indian music ensemble class. I expanded Schippers’s (2009) Twelve Continuum Transmission Framework by adding aesthetics to the continuum of the framework. I used this framework as a tool to examine Indian music transmission, through a distinct pedagogical viewpoint of a guru leading a non-Western music ensemble. In this study I noted factors that influence world music transmission in Indian music education at the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music at The New School. Information regarding attitudes and the reasons for certain pedagogical practices in Indian music education can provide insight to ensemble instructors and to administrators interested in building Indian music programs. This research has implications outside of Indian music education and for music department directors interested in expanding music programs.

The prejudice that guitar players do not know how to read traditional western music notation has been around for a long time. That seems to also have had its affect on guitar education. For many guitarists the obvious choice is instead tablature. This study examines the attitude towards sheet music among guitar teachers at the Swedish kulturskola. The subject has been chosen primarily for the fact that the Swedish municipal music school does not have any guidelines regarding whether or not to use sheet music in the education. The purpose of this study is to examine how six guitar teachers view the use of traditional western music notation versus tablature in kulturskolan. The study is based on interviews with the teachers. The analysis has been made with a phenomenographic approach. The result reveal that all the participants prefer tablature due to it is more direct and quick implementation. Using tablature is a pedagogic strategy to keep the studentes interests in their instrument rather than an act of choice. Even if some of the teachers themselves would like to be using traditional western music notation to a greater extent they mean that it’s not possible. / Länge har fördomen funnits att gitarrister inte kan läsa noter, något som också tyckts påverka gitarrundervisningen. För många gitarrister är istället det vedertagna verktyget tabulatur. Den här studien undersöker attityden till notläsningsmetoder hos gitarrlärare på kulturskolan, just eftersom kulturskolan inte har några styrdokument. Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka hur sex stycken gitarrlärare uppfattar att det fungerar att arbeta med notläsning respektive tabulatur i kulturskolan. Undersökningen har genomförts med kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer kring gitarrlärarnas användning av notläsningsmetoder i den egna undervisningen. Analysarbetet har utgått från en fenomenografisk ansats. Resultatet visar att lärarna föredrar tabulatur för den direkta och snabba implementeringen. Att använda sig av tabulatur är en pedagogisk strategi för att få eleverna att hålla fast vid sitt instrument, snarare än ett aktivt val. Även om lärarna själva i vissa fall hade velat använda sig av notläsning i större utsträckning så uppfattar de av olika anledningar att det inte är möjligt.