Thesis (M.M.)--University of Michigan, 1940.

Thesis (M.M.)--University of Michigan, 1940.

It has been said (although sadly I have no source) that music is one of the most useful yet useless phenomena known to mankind. Useless in that it has, apparently, no tangible or immediately practical function in our lives, but extremely useful in that it is a truly universal language between human beings, which transcends boundaries and allows us to express ourselves and experience emotions in rather profound ways. For the majority of us, music exists to be listened to, appreciated, admired (sometimes reviled) but generally as some sort of stimulus for our auditory senses. Some of us feel the need to produce music, perhaps simply for our own creative enjoyment, or maybe because we crave the power it lends us to be able to inspire feelings in others. For those of us who love to know “the reason why” or “how things work” and wish to discover the secrets of music, arguably the greatest of all the arts, there can surely be no doubt that a fascinating world of mathematics, harmony and beauty awaits us. Perhaps the reason why music is able to convey such strong emotions in us is because we are (for whatever strange evolutionary reason or purpose) designed to be innately pattern pursuing, sequence searching and harmony hungry creatures. Music, as we shall discover in this research, is chock-a-block full of the most incredible patterns, which are just waiting to be deciphered. / Thesis (M.Sc) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

This thesis examines selections from Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods. It begins with an investigation of meaning (both musical and not) and Lacanian psychoanalysis, before moving on to analyses of four songs from the musical: “I Know Things Now”; “Any Moment (Part I)”; “Any Moment (Part II)”; and “Moments in the Woods.” In each of these analyses, this thesis brings musical theater to the interpretive process by continually zooming in; it begins with the drama and moves to the lyrics, providing a clear picture of the narrative to interpret from a Lacanian perspective. It then, as its goal, turns to the music to find this Lacanian narrative reflected in the music. The analysis of “I Know Things Now” explores the concept of the Lacanian symptom, and the effect that a symptom has on the subject. The analysis of the remaining three songs treats them as a group, analyzing a secondary story arch between two characters. The analysis of the trio of songs explores the Lacanian concept of the objet petit a and the associated circuit of desire, and how each of the two characters in the trio interacts with these concepts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis is an attempt to unite two distinct and dissimilar musical genres, the music of the Colombian Andes and modem jazz. The compositions to be analyzed in this thesis are meant to function as parts of a whole. Thus, they will be linked by thematic and rhythmic material. In their entirety the pieces will form a suite of dances not unlike those of Baroque composers, with titles that denote the name of the particular air being employed by the composer, who is also the author of this thesis. These individual dances are orchestrated for a jazz ensemble consisting of piano, string bass, drums, alto saxophone, and guitar. The rhythmic underpinning of this work is inspired by the folk music of Colombia and the harmonic content will be derived from the jazz idiom. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate the possible product of the fusion of musical disciplines that are on the surface in no way related. This thesis will also attempt to show an example of how cultures can meld socio-artistically.

Robert Hatten’s theory of virtual agency acknowledges the presence of characters in a musical texture portraying human actions and emotions. Through identifying an agent, we are able to understand its role and trajectory in the portrayal of musical narrative or drama. This theory implies human qualities present in the music and the texture having its own form of thought and development. The application of this theory has potential in being used to understand an individual composer’s style, in this case, the music of Claude Debussy. In this thesis, I will be exploring some of Debussy’s keyboard works in addition to one of his late instrumental works, Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, identifying the agential properties and narratives present in the music. Debussy stages varying actor roles for interpretation when addressing an agent and its trajectory in its virtual environment. This study will depict a variety of gestures and energies inferring agential presence and whether or not to interpret these gestures as part of a single agent, or additional agents pursuing a single narrative. This interpretive analysis has potential in awakening new findings and understandings in the music in which a conventional analysis would not accomplish in showing us.

The srdc is a four-part phrase pattern in popular music consisting of four formal functions: statement (s), restatement (r), departure (d), and conclusion (c). In recent scholarship, the applicability and scope of the four-part pattern has been vigorously debated. The question of whether entire song forms, such as the AABA and verse–prechorus–chorus song forms, can be interpreted as large-scale SRDC patterns has become a primary topic of interest among popular music scholars. In this thesis, I seek to further the argument for the large-scale SRDC reading of the AABA song form by demonstrating the recursive potential of srdc structures in Golden Age musical theater songs. To do so, I survey the characteristic properties of 8- and 16- bar srdc patterns and 32- and 64-bar AABA song forms as they were observed in a corpus study of 89 songs. By highlighting the similar ways in which the srdc’s formal functions are expressed at multiple levels of structure within the surveyed 32- and 64-bar AABA song forms, I demonstrate why these song forms can be interpreted as large-scale SRDC patterns. Chapter 1 introduces this thesis’s primary research question and surveys the relevant literature on the srdc and other related topics. Chapter 2 outlines the steps taken to assemble the corpus of 89 songs and assesses the srdc patterns and AABA song forms contained therein. Chapter 3 then discusses the results of the corpus study. Chapter 4 examines the structural correspondences between the surveyed srdc patterns and AABA song forms, using a model AABA song form that contains three nested srdc patterns. To conclude this thesis, Chapter 4 closes by discussing some avenues for future research.

Thesis--Indiana University. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 441-446).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale University, 1980. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (v. 1, leaves 175-179).