abstract: Piano Quintet> is a three movement piece, inspired by music of Eastern Europe. Sunrise in Hungary starts with a legato song in the first violin unfolding over slow moving sustained harmonics in the rest of the strings. This is contrasted with a lively Hungarian dance which starts in the piano and jumps throughout all of the voices. Armenian Lament introduces a mournful melody performed over a subtly shifting pedal tone in the cello. The rest of the voices are slowly introduced until the movement builds into a canonic threnody. Evening in Bulgaria borrows from the vast repertoire of Bulgarian dances, including rhythms from the horo and rachenitsa. Each time that the movement returns to the primary theme, it incorporates aspects of the dance that directly preceded it. The final return is the crux of the piece, with the first violin playing a virtuosic ornaments run on the melody. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.M. Composition 2014

¡§Transcription¡¨ was a common compositional technique used by composers during the nineteenth century. Composers arranged pieces in order to obtain various acoustic effects or fulfill different requests for performers; this type of arrangement is referred to as a ¡§transcription.¡¨ During that time, because the broadcast had not yet been created, the phonograph was uncommon; however, music became popular, pianos gradually owned by the bourgeoisie and polite societies. Composers often arranged pieces of music for the solo piano or small ensembles in order to help audiences easily understand the large musical work. This also contributed to an increased demand for piano works in the music publishing market. Most of Brahms¡¦s transcriptions are transcribed from his original pieces. In the transcriptions of his original works, Brahms often changes the instrumentation, with the piano being the most important instrument in many of his transcriptions. Sonata for Two Pianos, Op. 34b which this paper discusses as being the first composed for the string quintet, was altered in its instrumentation by Brahms to create two different versions, including Sonata for Two Pianos, Op. 34b and String Quintet, Op. 34. The contents of this thesis are divided into three parts besides introduction and conclusion. The first part describes various transcriptions and the features of these works. The contents first discuss the compositional techniques of transcription in the nineteenth century, and then investigate the characteristics of transcription in the works of Brahms. The second part is the motives behind Brahms¡¦s choice of instrumentation in his transcription. The last part describes the historical context of Sonata for Two Pianos, Op. 34b. This part discusses Brahms¡¦s procedures in his transcription of Sonata for Two Pianos, Op. 34b, and discusses the influence of Schubert¡¦s String Quintet, Op. 163 on Brahms¡¦s Sonata for Two Pianos, Op. 34b.

Primarily the writer was interested in the relationship between technique and interpretation in the concept of pianism, especially in the music of Brahms, because of the technical difficulties thereof. In this study the truism that technique = interpretation is the focus point. After giving many different opinions about this, the writer brings it into context with Brahmsian pianism specifically. It is made clear how Brahms used certain techniques for certain soundworlds that he wanted to create, in order to reach a certain interpretation, and that there are recurring technical procedures in opus 34, 35, 56b and the 51 exercises. As an interface to these Brahmsian techniques, the writer selects a mixture of generic technical aspects from a wide scope of other musical minds. There is a definite inter-reaction between all these generic aspects and those of Brahms. The background and history of opus 34 is explained, plus a short section about Brahms aesthetics/ambiguity, and some philosophical opinions about the dimension of emotions and feelings in interpretation. However, the writer explains that this dimension is outside the scope of this thesis. A summary of schools of thought on technique and theories of interpretation is given to establish the links between them. Using available literature on quintets, ensembles, pianism, idiomaticism and timbre, the piano quintet specifically was explored for the uniqueness of its features. Brahms’s individualistic approach to pianism, as exemplified by his chamber music and his unique contributions to virtuoso technical routines, is examined against the background of sonorities of the piano and underpinned by appropriate technical skills. Against a template of pianistic criteria, appropriate examples, rich in context, are analysed both technically (objectively) and interpretatively (subjectively) to educe outcomes that establish that the two approaches have a holistic relationship and are ultimately inseparable and interdependent. The score examples show how technical difficulties escalate in combinations of complex movements in the “marriage” of technique and interpretation, and how interpretation relies primarily and fundamentally on the craft of technique, which is also an art in itself. / Thesis (DMus)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Music / unrestricted

The first movement of the Piano Quintet, Op. 16 of Ludwig van Beethoven works out three significant motivic "topics": a chromatically filled-in second, appearing first as 5 - #5 - 6 (Bb - B - C in Eb major); the emphasis om the submediant, both as vi in Eb major and as the tonal region of C minor; and the melodic interval of the sixth, which, when inverted to become a descending third, determines the structure of tonal regions at crucial points in the movement. These three motivic topics are introduced in the opening measures of the piece and are subsequently unfolded throughout the movement; the focus of the thesis will be to trace the unfolding of these three topics.

This paper examines the Quintet in A Minor for Piano and Strings by Florence B. Price (1887-1953). One of Price's latest compositions (with final revisions dated January 21, 1952), the Quintet is a masterful example of what is possible when using a multicultural lens to approach the making of American music. This paper exposes the insufficiency of examining (and assessing) multicultural composers and their works only with traditional Western European analytical views, when an expanded approach is needed to explain many of the non-European musical influences and phenomena. While more complex and challenging, this expanded analytical approach sheds added light and understanding on all compositional techniques used within this work. This analysis of the Quintet in A Minor shows that Price often self-quotes from some of her own earlier works; specifically works from her organ, art song, and symphonic oeuvres. The findings also show that Price's understanding of both Western Classical traditions and African-American musical traditions enabled her to intertwine multiple cultures, creating novel forms that are authentic to the American experience she lived. Price created what she referred to as a "very beautiful and very American" sound.