Music for Flute and Piano is a determinate composition for these two instruments. The technique used consists of serial saturations of pitch and rhythm as a starting point; however, the end result departed from strict adherence to serial procedure toward an intuitive variation of an 'A' and 'B' theme. A Script for Violinist incorporates determinacy and indeterminacy into a score; it is an exploration of violin idioms made 'in the moment,' capturing the many possibilities of bowing, fingering, and timing that become individualized by the performer.

This dissertation proposes that the Sonatine broadly unfolds a kinetic structure that stems from the traditional tension-relief model and, consequently, its dependence on tradition proves much deeper than Boulez would acknowledge.

The Lecture Recital was given on July 28, 1981. Its subject, Carl Reinecke's "Undine" Sonata, is a major work written for flute during the nineteenth century. Reinecke was highly respected as a conductor and pianist; his great love for the classical style tempered his Romanticism and conditioned his approach to both performance and composition. The subtitle of the sonata suggests a program based on Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué's short novel, Undine. Although few flutists are familiar enough with this tale to recognize its application to the sonata, an exploration of the program implied by the subtitle adds materially to an understanding and appreciation of the work; to a large extent, the content of each movement is conceived in terms of the program. Further examination of Reinecke's life and philosophy reveals that both the choice of this particular literary subject and the uniting of Romantic pictorialism with classical form were entirely characteristic of his writing. Since Reinecke specified no program other than the subtitle, any relating of the music to specific events in the story is necessarily a subjective postulation. The musical content of the work makes it fairly easy to establish a broad correspondence between the movements of the sonata and the progress of the story, however, leaving details to the individual imagination. Within the paper, the pictorial aspects of the music are explored in the belief that they can not only assist in an appreciation of the work, but also provide a guide to the performer for its interpretation.

An examination of the compositional style illustrative of the anti-collectivist ideology as found in Edison Denisov's Quatre Pièces pour flûte et piano. Includes a short history of Denisov's formal training, history of the Soviet musical environment, an overview of his creative output, and discussion of the anti-collectivist characteristics in his works. Defines the anti-collectivist doctrine as individual reaction to the totalitarian collective of the Soviet communist state of the twentieth century. Identification of eclectic compositional techniques, and how they represent individual expression under a totalitarian regime. Listing of Denisov's works with the flute in a primary role, interviews with Aurèle Nicolet and Ekaterina Denisov, correspondence from Denisov to Nicolet, and the manuscript score to Quatre Pièces pour flûte et piano follow as appendices.

The music of Jean Francaix is well known to those familiar with woodwind chamber literature. His long, successful career began in the 1930s when French composers rejected the excessively chromatic harmonies, intense emotionalism and grandiose proportions of late Romantic music. Embracing the concepts of neoclassicism, economy of means, clarity and objectivity, and a return to diatonicism and formal structures, the new "Classical" music contained the added spice of twentieth-century harmonic techniques including bitonality, modality, and quartal and quintal harmonies. Francaix has written many concertos and solos for woodwind instruments, but his enduring popularity resides in his chamber music for various combinations. His publisher for the last six decades has been B. Schott's Sohne who commissioned Francaix to write several chamber works in honor of his eightieth birthday. Two of his works for flute, Divertimento pour flute et piano and Suite pour flute seule, are known to professional flutists but not considered standards in the flute repertoire. The purpose of this paper is to call attention to the wide variety of Francaix's repertoire which is eminently suitable for concert and recital programming. The identification of formal and tonal elements in Francaix's two works for flute helps to place his prodigious output within the context of the prevailing musical and philosophical aesthetic in France of the 1920s through 1940s. An annotated list of Francaix's works with flute in a primary role is included as an appendix.

Substantial contributions to flute literature of the twentieth century were made by the Dutch composers Willem Pijper (1894-1947) and Henk Badings (b. 1907) in the Sonata per Flauto e Pianoforte (1925) and the Concerto for Flute and Wind Symphony Orchestra (1963), respectively. This paper is an examination of the compositional devices employed by Pijper and Badings in these two selected works, with a discussion of the elements of form, tonal language, rhythm, motivic usage, orchestration, and innovative flute techniques. Emphasis on Pijper as teacher and mentor to a generation of Dutch composers, including Badings, gives the basis for a comparison of the Sonata and the Concerto.

No description available.

The purpose of this study is to explore the literature for textless voice and woodwind instruments. The primary focus concerns the timbral and ensemble possibilities exploited in three twentieth-century works in which the voice is treated as an instrument i.e., without the usual preoccupation with textual meaning. An historical overview of vocal works with obbligato woodwinds and concerted works for textless voice serves as an introductory chapter. The variables of voice and instrument acoustical makeup, vocal vowel formation and instrumental voicings, volume, vibrato, resultant tones, range, and extended techniques (fluttertongue, special vibrato demands, non-vibrato, etc.) are the focus of the performance considerations for this study. Over thirty twentieth-century textless works for voice and at least one woodwind instrument were located. The three, chosen for this study represent different periods in the century, and present contrasting styles and musical merit: Aria (1931) by Jacques Ibert, Three Vocalises (1958) by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Duos I (1976) by Nancy Chance. A style and performance analysis of these works with pertinent research on the composers is presented. Appendices include an annotated bibliography of selected works for the medium, a written interview with Nancy Chance, and performance notes provided by the composer, concerning Duos I.