Jody Nagel completed his first piano concerto in 2005. I will discuss technical challenges within the piece and practice techniques to overcome these challenges so that one can perform the work successfully. I cover fingering, pedaling, texture, character, and harmonic issues. I also give performance advice to make the orchestral reduction more pianistic while still honoring the orchestra’s influence within the work.

Libby Larsen's Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra was commissioned by Daniel Culver and the Quad City Youth Orchestra, in celebration of its 30th anniversary. It was written in 1987 and premiered on May 8, 1988. Daniel Culver conducted the Quad City Youth Orchestra and David Greenhoe was the trumpet soloist. Despite Libby Larsen's ongoing success as a composer, the premiere performance is the only time the concerto has been performed and it has since remained virtually-unknown to the public. This project serves as a way in which to reintroduce Libby Larsen's Trumpet Concerto to the trumpet, orchestral and academic communities by way of providing an historical account of the commission project; showing insight into the composer's inspiration for the work; and providing a reduction of the orchestral score for trumpet and piano.

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My dissertation, In Violent Silence, takes its title from E.E. Cummings' sonnet "Notice the Convulsed Orange Inch of Moon". The piece musically reflects what I have found to be two unifying strings in the poem: the contrast of large and small, and the union of opposing ideas. To portray these elements, the nucleus of the piece is a pitch set that is harmonically rich and allows me to vacillate between tonal and non-tonal ideas. I also utilize the expansion and contraction of pitch register to reflect the dichotomy of large and small. The result is eighteen minutes of music with a clear and defined structure yet is in a state of constant change.

Beethoven wrote his earliest piano concerto, the Piano Concerto in E-Flat Major WoO 4, in 1784-85. The surviving manuscript copy contains the solo part complete and a piano reduction of all orchestral passages (Tutti) whenever the soloist is not playing. That manuscript also includes Beethoven's cues for an instrumentation consisting of strings, horns and flutes. Eminent Beethoven scholar Willy Hess completed his own reconstruction of the concerto in 1943. His version has been recorded three times, but only one is currently available on the Philips label (442580-2). The newest reconstruction of the concerto, created by Professor Jon Ceander Mitchell in 2003, is presented in this study in the form of a piano reduction (as a two-piano critical edition). This present edition, edited by Dr. Mitchell and the author of this essay, retains Beethoven's instrumentation and restores the endings of the second and third movements (which were changed by Willy Hess). This study also includes a piano cadenza for the first movement, which is a free composition by the author. It also discusses both available restorations of this work and some of the concerto's interpretative issues.

The cello concertos of Leopold Hofmann occupied an important position in Vienna between the 1760s-1780s. The total output of seven cello concertos that could be identified of his works were written for the Viennese public concerts. The audience often enjoyed listening to highly virtuosic and the newest works in the public concerts at the time. The purpose of the study will be the cello concertos of Leopold Hofmann and its relations to the Viennese public concerts. This research focuses on the detailed examination of the traits of the seven cello concertos. The thesis consists of three chapters, including the introduction and conclusion. The chapter one discusses Leopold Hofmann¡¦s life, his works and his style of composition. He was a popular composer during his time and his fame was known both in Vienna and other big cities. Chapter two focuses on the background of the Vienna in the second half of the eighteenth century, the emergence of the public concerts and the development of the cello concertos during the middle and late eighteenth century. Because of the development of the public concerts in Vienna during the second half of the eighteenth century, there were many opportunities for these concertos to be performed. Chapter three concentrates on the contents of Hofmann¡¦s cello concertos. His concertos show the mature concerto form of the Pre-classic period.

The compositional periods of Johann Christian Bach, the youngest son of J. S. Bach, include Berlin, Italy, and London, and the keyboard concertos were written in Berlin and London. The works written in Berlin period were influenced by his brother, C. P. E. Bach, and the styles of those concertos written in London were created under the musical atmosphere of London society. The thesis is a study of the relationship between the London musical society and keyboard concertos of J. C. Bach. The discussion includes three chapters, in addition to the introduction and conclusion. Chapter one is the general discussions about the composer, the development of solo concerto, and historical background of the keyboard concerto in London. The second chapter focuses on the musical society in London in the second half of the eighteenth century. The third chapter contains detailed discussions of the style differences of the keyboard concertos composed by J. C. Bach between the Berlin and London periods. J. C. Bach was the private music tutor of Queen Charlotte, while traveling in London during 1762 to 1782. At the same time, he also participated in teaching, composing, performing, and organizing public concerts very actively. He wrote three sets of keyboard concertos, opus 1, 7, and 13. Each set includes six concertos, and each of which mainly contains two movements. The style of keyboard works of J. C. Bach are characterized by the pre-classical styles of symmetry and balance of the phrases. The concertos were written mostly for amateurs, and in order to satisfy the necessity of the musical market and teaching, the skill of the solo part was not technical demanding, they were simple. The concertos were composed for both harpsichord and piano, but more intended for the piano instrument, especially opus 7 and 13. The wealth economy, the improvement of manufacture techniques of the keyboard instrument, the prevailing public concerts, and the musical needs for Royal family and amateur musicians in London were the important reasons that effected the stylistic changing of J. C. Bach¡¦s writing of keyboard concertos.

This thesis begins with the origin and development of cadenza. Then the structure of W.A.Mozart¡¦s cadenza is discussed. Mozart¡¦s Piano Concerto K.V.453 first movement is used as an example to explain the ritornello form and the cadenza structure. Finally, those of other composers, such as Johannes Brahms (1833-97), Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924), Ernst von Dohnányi (1877-1961) and Edwin Fischer (1886-1960), their cadenzas for K.V.453 first movement will also be analyzed and compared. Most of Mozart¡¦s cadenzas can be analyses as three-part form: The first part starts either themes from the concerto movement or virtuoso runs which appeared in the movement before or newly invented. The second part usually over a sustained bass note or chord continually develops sequences of an important theme or motive from the concerto movement. This will leads into the third part with a number of virtuoso runs, passages in thirds, etc., until the close of the cadenza which usually ends with a long trill. During the 19th and 20th centuries, performers performed Mozart Piano Concerto, seldom adopted the cadenza of Mozart's. Rather, they would replace Mozart's cadenza with those written by themselves. Those cadenzas according to the treatises and Mozart¡¦s own cadenzas usually did not have the so-called ¡§Mozart's style¡¨. Because the authenticity movement of performing early music in the late 20th, when a performer decides to perform Mozart Piano Concerto, it becomes very important for him to figure out how to choose or create the proper cadenza for himself to perform. Yet, the change of time with different personality and style will influence the result of creating and performing a cadenza. Maybe this is one the main reason that make the cadenza so very and interesting always.

This paper is a study of the relationship between piano and orchestra in Mozart¡¦s piano concerto, K.467. The paper includes an introduction followed by three sections and a conclusion. The introduction briefly reviews the origins of the solo concerto. The following section discusses the changing nature of the relationship between tutti and soloist as the solo concerto evolved up until the time of Mozart. The next section is an analysis, with diagrams, of the form of K.467, the first movement being in concerto-sonata form, the second movement in three-stanza song form, and the third movement in rondo form. This is followed by the most important section of the paper which categorizes and discusses four types of solo-tutti relationships used by Mozart in K.467, showing examples from the score. These four types, suggested by Girdlestone in his book Mozart and His Piano Concertos, include: first, the orchestra as accompaniment supporting the soloist; second, the soloist as accompaniment to the orchestra; third, orchestra and soloist cooperating or competing on an equal basis; and fourth, orchestra and soloist entering in turn, answering one another.

Tyzen Hsiao(1938-), one of the most important Taiwanese composers in modern time, whose main contribution is to blend Taiwanese folk music into the western music, promoting and introducing it to the international stage. His compositional style is not only influenced by S. V. Rachmaninoff(1873-1943), F. Chopin(1810-1849), and B. Bartók(1881-1945), it is also strongly marked by native Taiwanese folk music. His works are numerous and his composing realm, being various and wide, includes many forms of works. The thesis discusses and analyzes different kinds of Hsiao¡¦s piano works, focusing on the melody, harmony, folkloric music material, and composing techniques, so to categorize the composing style and language of his piano works. This study includes the analysis of his representative work¡ÐPiano Concerto in C Minor, Op.53, and the related discussion of the performing skills and interpretation. This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one describes the motivation, means and realm of the study. Chapter two presents Hsiao¡¦s life and music works and the important factors that have influenced the formation of his music style, including his life, his Christian belief, education, the background of his study of western music, and the ideal of blending eastern and western music. Chapter three focuses on a practical analysis of his piano composition style. It is categorized into four music characters: Romanticism, Taiwanese folkloric music material, the composition method of the 20th century music and the poetic music expression. Chapter four discusses his most important piano work¡ÐPiano Concerto in C Minor, Op.53. In addition, the author has met with the composer himself in order to understand the thought of his composition and receive valuable comments that have helped analyzing the entire work and the characteristics of this work. Also through the commands of critics, the author discusses the related questions of the performing skills and interpretation of this piece, so to present specific explanation and recommendation. Chapter five concludes Hsiao¡¦s piano work style, and the value and influences of his works.