Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of Maryland, College Park, 2007. / Compact discs. Includes bibliographical references.

Franz Liszt, who was the greatest virtuoso pianist in the nineteenth-century, was also a productive composer. But his tremendous technique brought the misunderstanding that his compositions were just flashy and superficial, thus creating an obstacle for appreciating his music. The purpose of this study is to encourage an understanding of the value of Liszt's music, especially his Schubert Lieder transcriptions. The study starts with an introduction, which states the revival of the art of transcription, gives the muscial background of Liszt and describes the instruments that were available to him. Then follows a discussion about his experimentation with the conventional piano techniques and how he applied them to the song transcriptions. Two transcriptions "Hark, Hark, the Lark" and "Der Lindenbaum" are analyzed in detail to show the transcriptive procedure and the relation between the poetry and the musical expression. A conclusion summarizes the study.

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One of the most important compositional theories of Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977), Russian-American composer and pianist, is the Eurasian ideology, which was a result of the influence of Eastern culture. Inspired by this theory, Tcherepnin not only extricated himself from his own compositional techniques, but also intensified his search for musical folklore. In April, 1934, he began a world tour which was to include China, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Egypt, and Palestine, to search for "musical folklore." He became so fascinated with the culture of ancient China that he cancelled the rest of his arrangements, and, except for visits to Japan, he remained in China for three years, until the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in July, 1937. During his three-year stay in China, Tcherepnin was greatly attracted to Chinese culture, and as a result, Chinese culture influenced his music to a significant degree. This essay examines the manner in which Tcherepnin's music was influenced by his experiences in China. In order to precisely analyze the close affiliation between Chinese musical elements and Tcherepnin's "Chinese Mikrokosmos," many original Chinese sources proved indispensable in this study. These sources include Chinese folk music, theater music, instrumental music, religious music, and Chinese periodicals and newspapers that reported Tcherepnin's activities in China (1934-7). The organization of this dissertation as follows: Chapter I provides a brief biographical sketch of Tcherepnin, traces his activities in China, and introduces one of his greatest "Chinese" compositions, "Chinese Mikrokosmos," which represents the fruits of his labors to scrutinize and absorb Chinese musical language. Chapters II and III are devoted to exploring how Chinese folk and instrumental music inspired Tcherepnin's "Chinese Mikrokosmos." Chapter IV summarizes this study.

The purpose of this dissertation is to offer a pedagogical guide to Woodsprite and Waterbug Collection (1977) by Dan Beaty (1937-2002) through an analysis of its pedagogical values and teaching applications. This set consists of twelve short, intermediate-level pieces, featuring various contemporary idioms. Each piece is also pedagogically written to help intermediate students to refine specific pianistic techniques beyond the elementary level. In addition, Beaty's collection expands students' musical vision and musicianship for more advanced studies via the incorporation of contemporary music theory and techniques. These qualities make Woodsprite and Waterbug Collection a valuable tool for intermediate piano students. It is also useful for instructors searching for repertoire to introduce contemporary idioms. The author hopes that this study will encourage performers, teachers and scholars to consider this work and Beaty's other piano compositions. By studying Woodsprite and Waterbug Collection, students will be more appreciative of contemporary repertoire and will welcome learning similar pieces in the future.

This investigation sought to compare the transcription techniques of two pianist-composers, Godowsky and Liszt, using three Schubert lieder as examples. The lieder were "Das Wandern" from Die Schöne Müllerin, "Gute Nacht" from Winterreise, and "Liebesbotschaft" from Schwanengesang. They were compared using four criteria: tonality, counterpoint, timbral effects, and harmony. Liszt, following a practice common in the nineteenth century, was primarily concerned with bringing new music into the home of the domestic pianist. The piano transcription was the most widely used and successful medium for accomplishing this. Liszt also frequently transcribed pieces of a particular composer in order to promulgate them by featuring them in his recitals. The Schubert lieder fall into this category. Liszt did not drastically alter the original in these compositions. Indeed, in the cases of "Liebesbotschaft" and "Das Wandern," very little alteration beyond the incorporation of the melody into the piano accompaniment, occurs.Godowsky, in contrast, viewed the transcription as a vehicle for composing a new piece. He intended to improve upon the original by adding his own inspiration to it. Godowsky was particularly ingenious in adding counterpoint, often chromatic, to the original. Examples of Godowsky's use of counterpoint can be found in "Das Wandern" and "Gute Nacht." While Liszt strove to remain faithful to Schubert's intentions, Godowsky exercised his ingenuity at will, being only loosely concerned with the texture and atmosphere of the lieder. "Gute Nacht" and "Liebesbotschaft" are two examples that show how far afield Godowsky could stray from the original by the addition of chromatic voicing and counterpoint. Godowsky*s compositions can be viewed as perhaps the final statement on the possibilities of piano writing in the traditional sense. As such these works deserve to be investigated and performed.

The preludes as a whole do not conform to any specific formal mold, but offer a variety of form: binary, ternary, one-part, and five-part. As such, no new formal structures have been introduced by this "first" of the nineteenth century and twentieth century "disconnected" preludes. On the other hand, they are a heterogenous collection of styles, moods, and forms--a precedent that was followed by Debussy, Rachmoninoff, and various others. To determine the degree to which Chopin was harmonically advanced would require comparative analyses of works by his contemporaries and later nineteenth-century composers. Suffice it to say that one would be hard put to locate a collection of compositions of similar length and scope, written in the 1820's, that contains the wealth of harmonic innovations found within Opus 28.

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During his lifetime, Johann Christian Bach (1739--1782) was considered the most famous musician of the Bach family throughout England and Europe. Although his music was highly regarded in the eighteenth century, little scholarly work has been undertaken on the historical and analytical aspects of his compositions. His keyboard compositions are valuable in tracing his musical development since this was the only genre that he wrote throughout his career in Berlin, Milan and London. Previous analyses of Bach's keyboard music have mainly focused on stylistic development, thus neglecting the importance of phrase and larger formal functions. / I adopt William Caplin's theory of formal functions to analyze Bach's solo keyboard sonatas: the Solo in A minor from Berlin (1750--55), three sonatas from the Milan collection (1755), six sonatas from London Op. 5 (1767), and six sonatas from London Op. 17 (1773--4). I demonstrate that Bach gradually refines phrase and thematic functions of the exposition of first-movement sonatas. I examine Bach's use of core technique and subordinate theme-like units in development sections and discuss the reasoning behind different recapitulation strategies. I also compare the sonata forms of the first movement to the second and third movements, and discuss other types of large-scale formal design (theme and variations, minuet and trio, and rondo). / Many sources indicate that Mozart was greatly influenced by Bach, but they remain vague in describing the type and extent of this influence. Building on previous melodic, motivic and stylistic studies, I draw important phrase-structural connections between the music of Bach and Mozart. I discuss the construction of Mozart's early piano pieces (KV 6 through K 284) and demonstrate that he adopts particular phrase-structural and thematic designs similar to pieces from Bach's Op. 5 and 17 collections. Through form functional analysis, I illustrate Bach's development of phrase and thematic structures and provide important phrase-structural evidence of his influence on the music of Mozart.