Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of North Texas, 2007. / System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Accompanied by 3 recitals, recorded Nov. 17, 2005, Apr. 2, 2006, and May 14, 2006. Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-53).

Thesis--Cornell University. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis is an attempt to define and compare the styles of two English composers active early in the fifteenth century - John Dunstable and Leonel Power. The two are commonly confused in the surviving manuscript sources of their music and to date there has been no reliable method for the determination of authorship in cases of conflicting attribution. Part One of the investigation consists of an analysis of works which bear uncontradicted ascriptions. The information is used to set up a database for each of the composers. The analysis is largely computer-aided and covers aspects of form, pitch, range, chord structure, melodic structure, speed, text setting and cadence progressions. Part Two compares a variety of uncertain works against the databases and in each case employs the statistical method of Discriminant Analysis to calculate which of the two composers is more likely to be responsible for the composition. In all of the six pieces with ascriptions to both men, the results indicate the likely author to a probability of over 1.00. The data are also used to assess many anonymous pieces and mass pairs.

This thesis uses the study of Henry Purcell"s vocal music to establish the vocal characteristics of the singers and voice types for whom the composer wrote in London in the seventeenth century. This process is begun in the first chapter by discussing 'The Counter-Tenor Debate' in order to establish the method(s) of vocal production used by Purcell's counter-tenors. This in turn addresses the issue of whether the counter-tenor was a completely different voice type from the tenor, or if they were simply high and low subdivisions of the same voice type. Chapter Two discusses the bass voice, in particular the influence of individual singers in creating voice-type subdivisions, and the dramatic and musical stereotyping of this voice type in Purcell's works. The third chapter takes as its subject Purcell's sopranos and trebles, focussing in detail on the individual singers in his works for the London stage, their vocal characteristics, dramatic stereotyping, and musical influence on the composer. Chapter Four uses the characteristics of each voice type identified in previous chapters to reassign the 'lost" voice types of Purcell's chamber songs and, in conjunction with research into actresses, literature and theatrical convention of the period, provides a first performance voice-type cast list for the opera Dido and Aeneas, as well as offering insight into the possible individuals for whom the work may have been intended. Finally, all the above information gathered is combined with knowledge of seventeenth-century singing techniques gleaned from contemporary sources and the work of modem day scholars to offer advice on the modem performance of Purcell's vocal works in a 'historically- informed' manner.

"Thesis prepared for the examination of Music III of the University of Adelaide." / "Thesis prepared for the examination of Music III of the University of Adelaide." Includes bibliographical references (p. 39).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Hamburg.

Thesis--City University of New York. / Includes bibliographical references (v. 1, 285-296).

Inaug.-diss.--Leipzig. / Lebenslauf. Includes bibliographical references (p. [5]-7).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 1963. / Bibliography: ?. 465-484.

William and Philip Hayes, father and son, between them occupied the Heather Chair of Music at Oxford for over half a century (1741-97). They were two of the most important provincial musicians of their age, who as composers contributed to all the main genres of the time except opera. The Hayeses' musical style reflects both a reverence for Handel (particularly in their choral works) and also an awareness of the insurgent galant idiom (clearly apparent in their sonatas). William Hayes was also active as a writer on music, publishing three substantial pamphlets between 1751 and 1768. He is perhaps best remembered today for his Remarks on Mr. Avison's Essay on Musical Expression (1753), in which he not only championed Handel against the apparent attacks of Avison, but also outlined his own musical aesthetic. The Hayeses were both ardent Handelians, and William was probably the single most active conductor of Handel's oratorios and choral works outside London during the composer's lifetime. Father and son were also important and knowledgeable collectors and copyists whose activities are well documented and whose unusually catholic tastes may be gathered from the surviving sale catalogue of their library. The fortunate survival of most of their autograph scores and many complete sets of performing parts considerably increases our knowledge of eighteenth-century performance practice. Their wide-ranging activities in all these fields are considered in two biographical chapters and six appendices. The thesis includes a complete descriptive catalogue of their works (with music incipits for instrumental items), and provides detailed consideration of their achievements in five major areas: sacred vocal music; cantatas, songs and convivial vocal music; concerti grossi and keyboard concertos; trio and accompanied sonatas; and large-scale vocal works (oratorios, odes and masques).