Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carnegie Mellon University, 2001. / "May 2001." Includes bibliographical references (p. 273-282).

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Accompanied by 4 recitals, recorded June 17, 2002, Oct. 6, 2003, Nov. 22, 2004, Apr. 5, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 68-69).

Thesis--Universität Hamburg. / Includes bibliographical references.

The dissertation focuses on Joe Lovano's utilization of thematic material in relation to "Misterioso" by Thelonius Monk. Thematicism is defined more broadly in this study to include reference to the form, phrase structure, and harmony of "Misterioso". Methodological models provided by Gary Potter, Henry Martin, and Paul Hindemith serve as points of departure for this study which focuses on four areas: 1) phrasing, 2) step progression, 3) motives and formulas, and 4) harmonic implications. Thematic relationships are discovered through the analysis of the transcription of Lovano's improvisation; the four levels of the analysis work together and also independent of one another to produce a kind of thematic counterpoint. This study also examines how Lovano creates an effective solo. The study will be of benefit to students, professional musicians, pedagogues, theorists, musicologists, and jazz aficionados.

The last decade of the twentieth century saw a proliferation of publications that use jazz as a metaphor for corporate management, arguing that in the contemporary knowledge economy, jazz is superior to the symphonic model that governed mid-century factory floors. As the literature on the jazz metaphor, and organizational improvisation more broadly, continued to develop into the twenty-first century, another managerial methodology became widely adopted by entrepreneurs: agile. While agile is yet to be fully theorized as an improvisatory practice, agile shares several core tenets with the models promoted by organizational improvisation scholars, including the use of small teams, an emphasis on feedback, and an openness to change. In this dissertation, I argue that agile methods, and the adjacent lean methodology, are inherently improvisatory and that understanding them as improvisatory offers opportunities not only for their deployment within growing businesses, but also for adoption at-scale in large corporations. I draw on an array of disciplinary perspectives, including management science, organizational studies, musicology, and critical improvisation studies, as well as a wide range of sources, from peer-reviewed journal publications to trade manuals. Each chapter builds upon the former: a substantial and critical review of the jazz metaphor literature is followed by a dissection of its main themes under a musicological lens; after securing the foundations of organizational improvisation, the next chapter reveals the improvisatory nature of agile and lean startup practices and links them to concepts discussed within the jazz metaphor literature. Drawing on insights from large-scale improvisatory musical practices, the final chapter reveals how improvisation, as a set of practices shared between corporate management and agile methodologies, provides avenues for agile to be scaled up as startups grow or for its widespread adoption within established companies.

This study compared the effects from the use of aural and notated exercises as pedagogical procedures for teaching harmonic accuracy to beginning jazz improvisation students. The methods of pedagogy were identified from published pedagogic and historical sources, the results of oral and written traditions of jazz pedagogy. The performance objective was produced from a review of the related literature as a recognized and measurable characteristic of jazz improvisation. The purpose of this study was to compare measurements of harmonic accuracy, following the use of notated and aural exercises as experimental procedures of jazz improvisation pedagogy. A lesson plan, materials, curriculum and outline were developed followed by student recruitment and participation. A total of 20 student volunteers participated in the methods of pedagogy (aural or notation). Data collection consisted of a musical background questionnaire and pre and posttest performance recordings. Student recordings were evaluated by six judges using the “experimental performance evaluation measure.” Statistical analyses were conducted, including comparisons of pre to posttest effects between, and among the methods of pedagogy. Although all student participants performed mostly from notated music prior to this study, students who received the aural method of pedagogy produced greater improvement for all measurement items. While the aural method produced no differences between grade level, the notation method produced significantly lower scores for 9th graders compared to 12th graders; no other significant grade level differences were noted. Conclusions were that although many sources of pedagogy do not include aural exercises as the predominate activity, beginning improvisers who have more experience reading music than playing by ear, learn better from aural, than notated exercises.

The purpose of this collaborative inquiry (CI) dissertation study was to examine pedagogical strategies designed to open Western classical music to improvisation. Piano teacher-participants formed a collaborative inquiry cohort as co-researchers to design and implement pedagogical strategies for use with their piano students, ages 8 to 10. Improvisation appears to occupy a limited role in practices commonly associated with Western classical music. Since the body of evidence found in Western music history and performance practice reveals traditions that encompassed improvisation, this study was designed to challenge existing pedagogical models associated with Western classical music through experimentation and improvisation. The prior attitudes and practices of the three participants were assessed through introductory interviews, as well as the collection of videos of teaching practices and preliminary survey data. Three two-hour in-person sessions of the cohort took place, interspersed with interviews and the sharing of video excerpts and co-researcher memos and blogs in an online forum on Canvas. During in-person sessions of the cohort, pedagogical strategies were designed and revisited through reflection following participants’ teaching experiences in their piano studios. Participants explored musical improvisation within a creative community by investigating the processes and experiences of treating Western classical music as an impetus to creative thought and improvisatory realization by their students. Findings illuminate patterns of interaction that illustrate the function of strategies for musical creativity and the applicability to pedagogical practices. Several overarching themes, addressing the purpose of the study, emerged through my analysis of data, pertaining to the dynamic nature of music, call and response as formative, and knowledge and novelty as means and ends. Participants demonstrated distinct operational definitions of improvisation, each of which appeared to connect to a model of awareness and responsiveness through the expression of interrelated themes. Whether spontaneously generated or chosen intentionally, limitations promoted improvisation as the exploration of novelty, advancing and emanating from a knowledge base. By revealing pedagogical practices that demonstrate heuristic models for experimentation through variability practices, this study illuminates patterns of interaction that open works of musical art to the sociocultural activity of improvisation, through which a multiplicity of meanings can take form.

The purpose of the study was to develop and evaluate a comprehensive first semester college jazz improvisation curriculum. Specific problems concerning the evaluation of the curriculum were, (a) to assess achievement in music theory fundamentals, (b) to assess achievement in jazz listening, (c) to assess improvement in jazz improvisation performance, (d) to assess student attitudes toward jazz improvisation and the curriculum. Based on the findings, the conclusions were as follows students benefited from the study of jazz improvisation, utilizing the developed curriculum, in the areas of, (1) knowledge of music fundamentals, namely, chord spelling, scale spelling and harmonic analysis; (2) identification of jazz tunes, composers, musical forms and prominent jazz performers; (3) improvisation performance in a jazz style, and (4) positive attitude toward improvement in jazz improvisation.

No description available.

On Monday August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Southeast Louisiana bringing with it destruction to much of the Gulf Coast. While New Orleans, one of America's most culturally and artistically significant cities, was spared a direct hit, the subsequent flood devastated much of the city, home to many musicians. The devastation and stress from the storm established a situation and a motivator for creative response, and this dissertation illustrates that the music these musicians produce is a manifestation and continuation of New Orleans' cultural atmosphere. The city's historical allowance and celebration of freedom of expression permits New Orleans' current musicians to be innovative and responsive to the events surrounding the disaster. This project, designed as a qualitative research study, identifies four professional musicians who are established in the musical environment of New Orleans. To illustrate the depth of tradition and experimentation that their music evokes, the music of post- Katrina New Orleans is given historical contextualization and set in comparison to music that was inspired by a past catastrophe, the 1927 flood. Through the holistic exploration of the present circumstances of these four musicians, it becomes clear that New Orleans remains a place that is extremely open to change and that experimental music flourishes at the same time that traditional jazz lives on through new performers, who walk in the footsteps of legends. From interviews conducted with these four individuals, as well as other on-site observations, the emotional, physical, and financial effects of Hurricane Katrina are identified and recorded. / Central to this study is the author's own knowledge of music and experience in musical dialogue - it is through the interaction of the author and the subjects that important events and characteristics, which could be documented, actually emerged.This project reveals the influence that the storm has had on the individual musician and it demonstrates that while all four musicians are caught up in the whirlwind of recovery in New Orleans, their music remains rooted in the fundamental characteristic that is associated historically with New Orleans' music, improvisation. By the same token, it also shows that while each person may have had to suffer the same conditions, the musical response from each musician was unique. / by David Bethea. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.