I have enjoyed this year, writing pieces that are special to me because they relate to experiences during 2008. I've written for orchestra, choir and an ensemble of xylophones and saxophone. Each piece has extended my skills and creativity in different ways from previous compositions. Prelude to the Unspoken This work is for symphony orchestra. Last year, it was rehearsed and recorded by the NZSO as part of the NZSO/Todd Young Composers Awards 2008. The pieces were recorded in the Michael Fowler Centre and conducted by Hamish McKeich. It was exciting to hear the piece come alive and watch the orchestra rehearse. Now I have heard the recording in a calmer state and know what it actually sounds like, I have been able to evaluate some decisions and whether or not they worked. As long as I have played instruments, I have played in orchestras. I can draw on these experiences when composing because as a clarinettist, you sit in the middle of the orchestra, and can hear the different sections playing and how their parts/notes relate to the rest of the orchestra. As a percussionist, hearing the orchestra from the back (when counting rests!) also reveals a different point of view. This year I chose to compose a slower, more contemplative piece. Last year, my compositions were dense and busy, so writing this piece required me to use space and texture in new ways. The title Prelude to the Unspoken alludes to something being stated but stopping before anything is revealed. A Schulwerk Orffering I was inspired to compose for the forces used in this piece because of an Orff- Schulwerk teacher training course I attended in 2008. As part of the Masters of Music degree, I completed a Level 1 workshop and on-line component - Orff Music Education-Theory and Practice 1, and more recently, completed the Level 2 workshop. Orff-Schulwerk education is a holistic, hands-on approach that explores music physically and through different instruments such as body percussion and approachable instruments (for children) such as recorders, mallet instruments and small percussion. One activity during the course was playing a tune from the Orff-Schulwerk volumes, where everyone was playing a mallet instrument - xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, from soprano to bass, while the teacher improvised a tune on the recorder, over the top of this moving carpet of sound we were making with our ostinatos and drones. This was just like being in the middle of the orchestra. While playing my ostinato, I was in the centre of all of this sound, hearing how each simple ostinato made an interesting accompaniment. I was also influenced by Philip GIass' Fascades, where the cross rhythms of the accompaniment create a carpet of sound, while the simple saxophone melody floats over top. I wanted to create something similar with tenor saxophone and the educational xylophones. I chose to write for two alto and two bass xylophones (small, educational instruments with no chromatic notes). These instruments were available at the course and I was able to have these with me while I composed. Because I do not usually play a mallet instrument, I composed ostinatos that I was able to play. All the techniques are those explored in Orff-Schulwerk - ostinato, drone, sound carpet, imitation. The saxophone sits quite high in the first movement, holding long notes, while in the second movement, the saxophone is active with a wide range of notes. I recently had an item about this piece in the Orff New Zealand Aotearoa newsletter 'Sounding Orff'. I hope to get a recording/performance of this piece from a response to the newsletter. Missa Brevis I sing in the Hamilton Civic Choir and have sung many Masses so was interested in writing a Missa Brevis. The movements Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei are for SATB with some movements scored for divisi voices. The style of this piece is approachable for many choirs because of traditional harmonic and musical organisation, while including modern arrangements of the text and approach to the music. Some choir members queried the fact that sometimes their part does not say a whole word, for example, just singing 'Dom', not 'Domine'. The words were deliberately set like this because when using block writing, as opposed to polyphony, I felt the extra syllables would change the desired musical and rhythmic texture. I wrote this piece with the Hamilton Civic Choir in mind because I know their capabilities. For example, I know the second basses can reach a low D. For the very low notes, I've added an octave option for the first basses or all basses if another choir cannot reach them. This recording by members of the choir was not up to the choir's usual standard because of time restrictions. The piano is used in my recording but is for rehearsal use only. The Gloria will be performed in the Choir's first 2009 concert in March.

<p>Dette studiet undersøkte om det finnes en positiv relasjon mellom korsang og det subjektive velbefinnendet. I undersøkelsen deltok 84 sangere fra 5 kor på både avansert og amatørnivå. Deltagerne fylte i et Mood Adjective Checklist-skjema (MACL: L. Sjöberg, E. Svensson & L.-O. Persson, 1979) før og etter korøvelsen på to forskjellige korøvelser. Resultatene indikerte at korsang påvirket deltagerne signifikant i form av økt velbefinnende, og at sangere mellom 32 og 51 år hadde den største økningen i grad av velbefinnende før og etter korøvelse. Det fantes derimot ingen signifikant forskjell i velbefinnende mellom amatørkor og avansert kor. Resultatene står som et bidrag til tidligere forskning innenfor området, men kan på grunn av det lave deltagerantallet ikke anses være generaliserbart.</p>

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The music for cello duets was first composed in the Baroque period, later it was named the cello choir. Thus, these beginnings of cello choir compositions were primarily relegated to Baroque, with only a few pieces composed until the Romantic period. It was at this point in history that we find that musicians and composers began to develop interest in the unique sound of the cello choir. Since then, a great amount of operas and other musicals have been composed with the featuring of cello choir as a part their soundtrack. As a result, the music of the cello choir has moved forward to a new colorful era, with the nuances of the music branching into various types of associations with various professional playing techniques. Heitor Villa-Lobos is one of the most famous 20th century composers of the Brazil. During his maturation period, his works integrated the Brazilian style as a central theme of his music. The Bachianas Brasileiras, composed in the 1930¡¦s, had great profitable combination of the new-age national music with more traditional forms. In addition, this new trend of music successfully represented both educational and patriotic movements, as it required the uniqueness associated with the profound techniques that established the importance of cello choir in the piece. This study is proposed to discover the valuable information in playing the cello choir music based on analyzing the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1. The study begins by describing the composer¡¦s life experiences and the background of the period in the 1930¡¦s. The research will emphasize how the Brazilian music has been amalgamated and how to interpret it in order to enhance performance.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 50 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to review and summarize selected choral music education research published between 1996-2002. Four major research surveys in this area were previously published by Gonzo (1973), Hylton (1983), Phillips (1992), and Grant and Norris (1998). Each of these authors stressed a need for research in all areas of choral music education beyond the dissertation level and called for research that mimicked "real-world" experiences that would benefit choral music educators. This study investigated the following: (a) whether research studies in choral music education have increased beyond doctoral dissertation studies; (b) whether previous research studies have been replicated and/or expanded; and (c) whether current research attempted to solve real-world problems in choral music education. After reviewing the selected literature, the author categorized it into the following broad areas: (a) vocal technique/pedagogy, (b) descriptive studies, and (c) assessment/evaluation. The literature was identified in reviews of American, professional peer-reviewed journals by way of computer database searches in ERIC, Education Abstracts, Humanities Abstracts, International Index to Music Periodicals, RILM Music Abstracts, and Wilson Select Plus. Due to the nature and scope of the study, the literature excluded doctoral dissertations unless they were later published in American, peer-reviewed journals. Notable findings in this literature review include: (a) a current trend toward more choral music education research in general, both at the doctoral level and beyond, (b) continued studies on vocal pedagogy and rehearsal/conducting techniques, (c) increased studies on curriculum and assessment, and (d) increased numbers of experimental studies. Though the research has shifted from primarily dissertation studies, most of these were preliminary in nature and need to be expanded and/or replicated. In addition, a larger variety of research methods are needed, especially longitudinal and qualitative studies. Although choral music education studies are more organized and systematic than in the past, many areas are yet unexplored and many questions remain unanswered. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Dette studiet undersøkte om det finnes en positiv relasjon mellom korsang og det subjektive velbefinnendet. I undersøkelsen deltok 84 sangere fra 5 kor på både avansert og amatørnivå. Deltagerne fylte i et Mood Adjective Checklist-skjema (MACL: L. Sjöberg, E. Svensson &amp; L.-O. Persson, 1979) før og etter korøvelsen på to forskjellige korøvelser. Resultatene indikerte at korsang påvirket deltagerne signifikant i form av økt velbefinnende, og at sangere mellom 32 og 51 år hadde den største økningen i grad av velbefinnende før og etter korøvelse. Det fantes derimot ingen signifikant forskjell i velbefinnende mellom amatørkor og avansert kor. Resultatene står som et bidrag til tidligere forskning innenfor området, men kan på grunn av det lave deltagerantallet ikke anses være generaliserbart.

When Lithuania became the competent member of the European Union, the goals of the perfection of the society became extremely topical. The activity, creativity and self-expression of an individual are important factors of the development of the democratic society, and personality. Because of the information, which is becoming more complicated and plentiful, the necessity of the constant training arises, which makes up the prerequisite for the development of the human values. The value of the artistic training becomes eminently important while creating the intellectual, competent and creative society of information. Therefore, the informal artistic training of the adults tends to be much more widespread form of education in modern society, and that helps to individual to enlarge his cultural interests, to form his creative power, and to become the active citizen of the democratic society. The choral singing, as the individual value, becomes apparent in the particular cultural context and becomes the way of the appeasement of self-expression. Therefore, it is very important to make its behaviour become live and significant to the society and individual. While analysing the purpose of the choir in the context of musical self-expression of an individual, it becomes apparent that we have to consider the level of the musical culture of the chanters, their musical capability and needs, to plan the repertoire of the choir, which corresponds vocal-technical capabilities and... [to full text]

The subject of this Master‘s Thesis - „The Role of Choir in Formation of Ethno-Cultural Attitude of Students“.Globalisation is associated with the positive and the negative at the same time. It manifests itself in danger for traditional culture of people, its variety and, especially, the spiritual component of culture, including traditional humanistic virtues. As the activity of choir makes great influence on the formation of ethno-cultural attitude of students, strengthening of ethno-cultural attitude in the activity of mixed choir and choir of schoolchildren from the 1st to the 4th grades is an urgent pedagogical problem. The purpose of this study is to investigate possibilities of formation of ethno-cultural attitude of students sustaining and developing national traditions in the choir of schoolchildren from the 1st to the 4th grades and mixed choir. The object of the study is the attitude of choir members and other students to ethno-culture.Having analysed studies on the influence of the processes of globalisation on the national consciousness and having studied pedagogical and psychological literature associated with the subject of the research, threat for survival of national traditions and, furthermore, importance of national education of young generation can be clearly observed.With the help of questionnaire survey, ethno-cultural attitudes of students were determined and conclusions were made. Conditions as good as possible for expression of various forms of... [to full text]

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Rochester, 1938. / Typewritten. Bibliography: l. 157-161. Digitized version available online via the Sibley Music Library, Eastman School of Music http://hdl.handle.net/1802/6856

Inaug.-diss.--Bonn. / Vita.