The composition is scored for the following instruments: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons and a large percussion section requiring 7 performers. Beneath the Dancing Moon is a programmatic piece in one movement form composed of 5 continuous sections. It depicts a night scene when the elves begin to dance beneath the moon. Later, the moaning ghosts from the dark forest and the witches with brooms come to join them. They dance furiously until the moon disappears, the sea stops dead and all the dancers suddenly vanish. The approximate performance time is 17 minutes.

Many musicians are forced to scale down or even abandon their profession due to injuries caused by playing and practicing their instruments for long hours in unnatural body positions; also, the competition and the high standard expected of performers in the industry causes anxiety and tension in their lives. Increasingly, music schools, conservatories and colleges attempt to cater for these problems by including classes in the Alexander Technique. But young learners can also fall prey to these problems. Performance anxiety is potentially a threat to any musician’s career and can be experienced at all levels of expertise. In the light of this the following research question was tested: Is it possible to substantially reduce performance anxiety (stage fright) in instrumental playing by implementing Alexander Technique principles? The study included a group of twelve school-going children who had been identified as being prone to performance anxiety. They were divided into two groups of six each, one being the experimental group and the other the control group. The experimental group consisted of six flute students who were exposed to selected Alexander Technique principles in their lessons, while the control group consisted of six flute students that were taught by different teachers, who provided no exposure. Both groups were tested at the beginning of the research, before they played an examination, to ascertain the level of performance anxiety they experienced. Eighteen months later, after the experimental group had been exposed to Alexander principles, both groups played another examination and were then tested again to ascertain whether or not the experimental group’s levels of anxiety had been significantly reduced, compared to the control group. The control groups’ second testing was very similar to their first testing and performance anxiety was still a big drawback to their musical performance. Not only was performance anxiety markedly reduced in the experimental group, but their self-esteem and self-confidence were increased as well. As a result it was deduced that young learners can benefit tremendously from learning and applying Alexander Technique principles to the playing of a musical instrument. Copyright / Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Music / unrestricted

abstract: The purpose of this research is to create a new piano reduction of Carl Nielsen’s Flute Concerto. Danish composer Carl Nielsen was born in 1865 and died in 1931. His compositional focus on orchestral writing made him renowned for his symphonies and concerti for flute and clarinet. Today his concerti are often performed by both professional musicians and students. The first published piano reduction of the Flute Concerto was issued in 1952 by the composer’s son-in law, Emil Telmányi, who was a Hungarian violinist and conductor. This reduction was published by Samfundet til Udgivelse af Dansk Musik. In 2003, as part of The Carl Nielsen Edition, Edition Wilhelm Hansen published a new revised edition of the concerto. The piano reduction of this edition was written by Danish pianist Per Salo, and is the most frequently used by pianists today. This edition contains much information pertaining to the orchestration, but this often causes the piano part to become challenging or unplayable in many passages. For collaborative pianists, playing concerti requires both the ability to imitate the orchestral sound, and to understand and show the main ideas of each passage. However, as this concerto is often performed in universities by flutists and pianists of different skill levels, creating a simplified version of the piano reduction will support many pianists by helping them to learn this music in a more approachable and easily performable context. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2019

The Pulitzer Prize in Music has been associated with excellence in American composition since 1943, when it first honored William Schuman for his Secular Cantata No. 2: A Free Song. In the years that followed, this award has recognized America's most eminent composers, placing many of their works in the standard orchestral, chamber and solo repertoire. Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Walter Piston and Elliott Carter are but a few of the composers who have been honored by this most prestigious award. Several of these Pulitzer Prize-winning composers have made significant contributions to the solo and chamber music repertories of the bassoon, an instrument that had a limited repertoire until the beginning of the twentieth century. The purpose of this project is to draw attention to the fact that America's most honored composers have enlarged and enriched the repertoire of the solo bassoon and bassoon quartet. The works that will be discussed in this document include: Quartettino for Four Bassoons (1939) - William Schuman, Three Inventions for Solo Bassoon (1962) - George Perle, Canzonetta (1962) - John Harbison, Metamorphoses for Bassoon Solo (1991) - Leslie Bassett and “How like pellucid statues, Daddy. Or like a . . . an engine” (1994) - John Corigliano. Each chapter will include a brief biography of the composer, a historical perspective of where that composition lies in relation to their other works, background information about the work, a formal analysis and suggestions for performance.

abstract: Until the second half of the 20th century, publications on breathing techniques for woodwinds have been scarce and often failed to adequately address this aspect of performance and pedagogy. It is through various sensory experiences and because of recent technological advances that academics recognize a gap in the existing literature and have since included studies using various methods, as well as modern technical devices and experiments into the woodwind literature and teaching. These studies have proven to be of great importance to confirm ideas and hypotheses on the matter. The aim of this project is to collect woodwind journal publications into a meta-analysis, focusing specifically on the breathing techniques for woodwind instruments and provide a comprehensive annotated bibliography on the topic and its application. The project is limited to journal articles on breathing techniques applied for woodwinds only, and will not review literature discussing breathing from other perspectives or in a broader sense. Major findings show that misconceptions and contradictions on the subject still exist. At the same time, they also highlight unique approaches used to help the learner overcome general and specific challenges while mastering the art of breathing. The project highlights areas where future research on breathing would be encouraged and should be complemented by measured data. Such studies might include a woodwind specific examination of the relationship between the tongue and the soft palate, or analysis of how tension in the torso muscles influences the movement of the diaphragm, or how rhythmical breathing affects breath control and capacity, and finally a discussion on how larynx influences the air stream. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2019

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published_or_final_version / Music / Master / Master of Philosophy

PLAYING SAXOPHONE AND ITS POTENTIAL HEALTH RISKS Objectives: Main purpose of this study is to provide comprehensive review of health issues related to saxophone playing. The aim of this study is to collect available resources focused on saxophone players teaching methods, analyse them and compare them with existing findings of medical science. Also to try to find answers to asked research questions and to verify or disprove stated hypotheses, on the basis of acquired datas and principles eventually trying to arrange some possible outlines to complement teaching methods or preventative-compensational excercises for saxophone players. Methods: Method of this thesis is literature research using available Czech and foreign literary resources. For this purpose there have been used electronic archives as Pubmed, Ebsco, Springer, Wiley and Science Direct, monographic publications and scholarly papers from periodicals. This work is divided into few main parts. Introductional part contains basic review of health issues related to instrumental musicians, methodics contained in saxophone schools written in the Czech language, aims and methods of this thesis. Theoretical part is more widely focused on methodics, principles and mechanics of saxophone players' education. The main part is dedicated to possible...

This thesis ventures into the world of twentieth century chamber music, specifically the trios written for flute, cello and piano. The first chapter discusses the history of the trio, tracing its development from the trio sonata of the Baroque Period to the accompanied sonatas and specifically the sonatas with flute and cello obbligato. Following the unpopularity of the genre throughout the Romantic period, its greater prominence in the Twentieth century is discussed, mentioning specific groups through whom the repertoire has been extended. Forty trios are grouped according to compositional styles. Six trios, each representing an example of a specific style period, have been selected for more detailed discussion, with particular reference to the various ways in which a sense of unity is achieved in each trio. The English composer Eugene Goossens uses impressionistic images, whole tone and chromatic scale patterns and other motifs to unify his trio: "Five Impressions of a Holiday". Nikolay Iosifovich Sil'vansky's "The Hedgehog and the Nightingale" is based on a Russian tale by Juri Jarmicha and uses a narrator. The three characters are represented by specific motivic and / or thematic material which is used throughout the trio. Günter Raphael's Trio-Suite op 44 is the only cyclic work unifying the two outer movements, without repeating any additional motivic material. Jean-Michel Damase condenses some of the material introduced in the opening Prelude in both the two Largo's and the two Arias in his "Sonate en Concert" of 1950. Karl Julius Marx builds his entire "Trio op 61" on a flexible six-note motif. Various movements in the trio" Vox Ba1aenae" by the American George Crumb are 1inked through the use of motives and characteristic instrumental colour. A comprehensive list of 180 twentieth century trios has been compiled, including details of dedications, commissions and first performances. 163 composers from twenty countries, are represented.