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This portfolio of compositions and exegesis submitted for the degree of Master of Music in Composition, at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, comprises original creative works supported by a detailed commentary. The creative investigation has focused on ‘Composing for a Choral Spectrum.’ This was investigated through practical experiments in choral composition, designed to test the compositional limitations of the choral spectrum, and resulted in a portfolio of choral works. The portfolio includes: simple choral works for young children in one part; choral works for children in two parts; choral works for children in three parts; a choral work for teenage treble voices; a multimedia choral work for boys with changing voices with a moving image DVD; a choral work for male voices; choral works for adult female voices; a complex choral work for adult choirs of a professional standard; and a larger scale choral and orchestral work. The exegesis provides a commentary on the genesis, composition processes, limitations and solutions, for each original work included in the portfolio. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1345050 / Thesis (M.Mus.) -- University of Adelaide, Elder Conservatorium of Music, 2008

Though Poulenc marks choral compositions with metronomic indications, there are problems concerning tempo. The purpose of this paper is to determine guidelines for dealing with choral tempo. Chapter II relates biographical information pertinent to the study. Style Is examined In Chapter III, determining aspects that call tempo marks into question and influence tempo determination. In Chapter IV, the manner in which Poulenc uses tempo indications in the choral works is analysed and the relationship between form and tempo examined. Chapter V records Information bearing upon tempo from Poulenc's collaboration with conductors, as well as examining recordings of Poulenc's music in which he played or with which he expressed approval. Guidelines for determining tempo are stated in Chapter VI.

Kent Alan Newbury is an American composer who was born in Chicago in 1925, and currently resides in Scottsdale, Arizona. He has composed over 550 works and has had 282 choral works published. His first published piece was Psalm 150 (1955) and his latest publication was Praise the Lord, All Ye People (2013). Thirty-nine of his published choral pieces are still in print. At this time, the unpublished manuscripts include 204 choral pieces, four solo works, four instrumental works for dance, thirty-seven brass or band works, six woodwind pieces, and nineteen string or orchestra works. Newbury's complete catalog is included as Appendix B. During his Initial Period (1955-1965), Newbury had eighteen pieces published. In his Developmental Period (1966-1985), 247 pieces were published. That is an average of twelve pieces published per year. During his Mature Period (1986-present), he has had seventeen pieces published. This is the first published work documenting Newbury's life and music. It is hoped this study will introduce more choral directors to Newbury's music and encourage the performance of his music by more college, church, and school choirs. Analysis of Newbury's published choral works reveals the consistent inclusion of four stylistic traits: syncopation, text painting, parallelism, and textural layering. This study demonstrates how the use of these stylistic traits develops through his compositional career, both in terms of the frequency of usage and the progression of the technique. Syncopation is plentiful throughout Newbury's three periods. Syncopation and rhythmic displacement are found in 37% of published pieces in his Developmental Period and in 100% of published pieces in his Mature Period. The syncopation ranges from simple to complex, and it is sewn into the inner fabric of his compositional style. Text painting is used a great deal in Newbury's Initial Period, but the frequency diminishes in his later periods. Instead, he approaches his composition as he is inspired by the text, and the music reflects the text, in its totality if not in detail. Parallelism is a favored stylistic trait. Newbury composes with parallel fifths and fourths, and parallel chords moving in similar motion (planing) as well as contrary motion (the omnibus progression). Despite his teachers' objections to the use of parallel fifths, this is a consistent element throughout his career. Textural layering is a technique in which notes are added or repeated to call attention to the text or to build harmonic structures. As with text painting, the frequency of usage is most prevalent in his earlier periods.

Richard Wagner was appointed Hofkapellmeister to the Dresden Court in 1841. In conjunction with the duties of his office, he composed four works for male chorus, categorized by him as "occasional works". These works written during the first year-and-a-half of his Dresden tenure demonstrate Wagner's early assimilation of his artistic and philosophical ideals that would culminate in the composition of the opera-cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen. Wagner's association with the male-voice choral unions of Dresden allowed him opportunity to express and define his compositional goals in his constant quest for a true and pure German art form. The "occasional works" influenced and affected his use of male chorus in the operas Lohengrin, Tannhauser and Die Meistersinger. Wagner, forced to flee Dresden after the May 1849 uprising, no longer had access to the Dresden male-voice choral unions. Consequently, the frequency of male choruses in his operas composed after this time diminishes assuming a different position, both musically and dramatically than in those operas composed prior to and during his Dresden tenure. The "occasional works" demonstrate more than a servial obligation, rather, they encapsulate the very essence of Wagner's compositional thought in a highly condensed and intensely focused form.

Many twentieth-century American composers have written works for chorus with brass accompaniment. This study focuses on the compositional techniques Daniel Moe applies to his brass and choral works and the musical and religious influences that aided in the development of Moe's composition language. Eight of Daniel Moe's works for brass and chorus are analyzed to determine the influences and techniques employed in his style of composition. The analysis reveals: the choir and brass remain independent and never dominate each other, the brass consistently play at their loudest dynamic levels while the choir is not singing, the heights of the choral phrases are unaccompanied, and final cadences are voiced with the highest pitches in the choral writing which allows an equality of forces. As a conductor, Moe has encountered many Venetian and contemporary works for brass and chorus that had a direct result on the techniques he applied to his brass and choral works. The evidence suggests that Daniel Moe's choral works with brass accompaniment involve a combination of twentieth-century harmonies and rhythms, Biblical and liturgical texts influenced by his strong Lutheran heritage, and a style of transparent scoring which carefully integrates the brass instruments into the overall texture of his compositions.

The contributions made by American composers to the repertoire for women's chorus have increased significantly since 1940. This study was undertaken because previous investigations are international in scope and do not give an adequate view of the broad range of American works now available. Criteria established for works to be included in the study were as follows: (1) original compositions by American composers; (2) at least six minutes in duration; (3) available to the public from a publisher, composer, or repository of American works; (4) publication or composition date after 1940 and before 1980. The study includes both secular and sacred works. Qualitative comments were avoided because they were not consistent with the object of the study. Since numerous works are out of print and are almost impossible to obtain, the 91 works annotated in the study represent but a portion of the total output of American composers. Each annotation includes composer name; composer dates (when available); title of composition; date of publication or composition; text source; voicing; ranges of individual parts; level of difficulty; duration; accompaniment medium; and publisher and catalog information. A descriptive paragraph on the work in toto and on each movement or set piece briefly discusses text content, harmonic background, melody, rhythm, tessitura, meter, texture, form, role of accompaniment, and/or other salient features.

The Italian madrigal comedy experienced a relatively short, but exceedingly popular life during the late Renaissance. The works that may be called madrigal comedies, numbering less than two dozen in total, represent a type of musical entertainment that delighted audiences at courts and within the cultural academies of Renaissance Italy. The small subset of works within the genre, designated in this research project as "theatrical" madrigal comedies, showed an increasing focus on dramatic representation of text with music. These works, the plots of which derive from the commedia dell'arte tradition, may be seen as early forms of musical comedy and musical theater. Arguments concerning the manner in which the works were performed have centered on a debate for and against the staging of them.Because madrigal comedies have been largely neglected as concert and theatrical literature, there is little published to assist a director in finding the repertoire or to offer a guide to performance. The research project on which this document is based, along with the associated lecture-recital, resulted in the compilation of means to a successful madrigal comedy production. This was done by advocating historically informed performance decisions that are given a practical spin. In this manner, a director may put together a madrigal comedy production that is accessible to professionals and non-professionals, as well as secondary- and higher-education communities.

Although much has been written on the subject of conducting, it is generally recognized that a great deal can be learned through discussion with and observation of successful conductors. Direct contact with master conductors is an excellent learning tool, but seldom do high school or college choral conductors have the opportunity for direct individual study of the experts in their normal situations. This study provided the opportunity for one practitioner to work with two expert choral conductors. The report was written with the hope that other practitioners might also benefit from the results of the investigation. The purpose of this study was to identify and compare preparations and experiences, philosophies of music, and observable choral concepts which may have contributed to the superior choral achievements of B. R. Henson and Lloyd Pfautsch.

American composer Andrew Rindfleisch (b. 1963) has contributed twenty-one pieces to the repertoire of contemporary choral literature to date. His works have been commissioned, premiered, and recorded by notable choral ensembles and performed in significant venues around the country. Influenced by his own early choral singing experience in his native Wisconsin, much of Rindfleisch’s choral music is infused with influences of the music of earlier composers and choral idioms. With these works, Rindfleisch participates in a long-standing trend in choral composition of looking to the musical past for inspiration and procedure while writing in a contemporary harmonic vocabulary, and his efforts can be evaluated through the lens of a study of musical borrowing. Through a case study of five of Rindfleisch’s choral works – “In manus tuas,” “Mille regretz,” “Psalm,” “Anthem,” and “Graue Liebesschlangen” – this document identifies common characteristics of Rindfleisch’s choral music and demonstrates his uses of musical borrowing and allusion. The influence of Renaissance polyphony, Debussy, Brahms, and German expressionism is revealed.