abstract: Armenian music has a rich history. It started as independent, monodic song, and succeeded in keeping its uniqueness from the influences of other countries' musical traditions. During the nineteenth century the great Armenian musicologist and composer Komitas started to travel and write down these songs from Armenian villages. Komitas, who had higher education in Western classical music, was one of the first composers to harmonize Armenian songs and sacred music using Western classical techniques. This was a milestone in the development of Armenian music. Arno Babajanian was a Soviet Armenian composer who, like Komitas, was interested in the combinations of Armenian folk and Western classical traditions. This document provides a formal and harmonic analysis of his Piano Trio in F-Sharp Minor, written in 1952. By identifying Armenian folk tunes used in his trio, I will demonstrate that Babajanian achieved interesting results by inserting exotic Armenian folk melodies, harmonies, and other elements into the Western classical sonata form. This document also points out the influence of other composers of the Soviet era on Babajanian's music. By combining Armenian folk and western classical elements in his Piano Trio, Babajanian created a piece that resonates with native Armenians and classical music lovers and deserves a place in the violin repertoire. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2016

abstract: Contemporary Chinese composers have a rich palette from which to draw inspirations of the distinctive timbres of ancient instruments, the diverse musical types, and the development of musical instruments. Zhou Long, an internationally recognized Chinese-American composer, has created a compositional style that transfers the sounds and techniques of ancient Chinese musical traditions to modern Western instruments. An examination of Zhou Long’s compositions Secluded Orchid and Spirit of Chimes demonstrates his synthesis of Chinese and Western techniques as well as cross-cultural integration. To gain a better understanding of the compositional process of these two piano trios, the author conducted a personal interview with Zhou Long on October 21, 2016, during which he provided unique insight into the influences and inspirations of these pieces. This document describes how the history of ancient Chinese music, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, as well as Zhou Long’s life and education, influenced Seclude Orchid and Spirit of Chimes. The inspirations, formal structures, harmonic language, and compositional techniques that are presented in these works are also discussed. Finally, other repertoires of Zhou Long that share similar ideas or inspirations are explored. / Dissertation/Thesis / Secluded Orchid / Spirit of Chimes / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2017

The purpose of this study is to provide scholastic research on Robert Muczynski's Second Piano Trio (1975) by presenting his biographical background, discussing influences and his musical style, and analyzing the work. Robert Muczynski (b.1929), a composer-pianist of Polish descent, studied with Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977). From traditional forms and techniques, he fashioned his own unique and innovative compositional style. The second piano trio, in particular, was deeper and more complex in its conception and affect than previous compositions. The first movement Andante molto opening leads to an allegro section, and the somber second movement builds to a heavy climax. The third movement is highly rhythmic and dramatically driven. Chapter I outlines the purpose of the study and the composer's biography. Chapter II describes Muczynski's compositional influences and the evolution of his musical language. Emphasis in this respect will be placed on the pedagogical role of Alexander Therepnin, as well as the important connections between Prokofiev, Tcherepnin and Muczynski. An exploration of other elements that have informed Muczynski's style is offered. Chapter III details the circumstances, general characteristics, and compositional technique of the Second Piano Trio. Detailed analysis of all three movements will be provided, with particular attention paid to aspects of theme, form, harmony, rhythm, meter, tempo, articulation, texture, and dynamic. The theoretical analysis is the main portion of this document, and after a discussion of treatment of the piano, concluding reflections are offered in Chapter IV.

Det finns otaliga metoder att komponera musik på, och resultatet blir alltid annorlunda. Den föredragna metoden för många är gemensam komposition och andra tycker det finns mer kontroll och bekvämhet i att komponera ensam. Så är frågan vilka verktyg fungerar bäst för den ene kompositör. Det kan vara ett instrument, ett program eller en metod för att skapa musiken, och det val av verktyg som väljas har också en påverkan på kompositionsprocessen och de idéer som följer efter. Som kompositören gradvis börjar att utvecklar en bestämt stilar for att komponera, utvecklar kompositören också musiske mönster som blir ett kännemärke för kompositörens ljud. De mönstren kan omedvetet återanvändas till en senare komposition tillfälle och kan bli en barriär för att skapa ny musik. Om det är ett problem eller inte måste kompositören själv bestämma.   Uppgiften med detta examensarbete är att utforska 4 olika metoder för komposition med el-bas som verktyg och se om det är möjligt att undvika de vanliga kompositions rutiner och skapa musik som känns original och färsk. / <p>Vi gjorde en Live Session i Danmark i en studentlägenhet pga COVID-19 - Allt är spelat in med en iPad. </p>

Please note: this work is permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the lock icon and fill out the appropriate web form. / The Verdehr Trio has been one of the leading chamber ensemble groups in the world over the past half century, featuring clarinetist Elsa Ludwig-Verdehr, violinist Walter Verdehr, and pianist Silvia Roederer. Founded in 1972, the trio worked to broaden the violin, clarinet, and piano trio’s repertoire. Since 1976, through Making of a Medium project, the ensemble has commissioned over 210 pieces from more than 150 contemporary composers all over the world. Although there were already a handful of prominent works for this configuration by Bartók, Milhaud, Khachaturian, and a few others, this genre of musical composition was established and popularized by the Verdehr trio’s efforts and their commissioned works. Indeed, other ensemble groups are actively continuing the Verdehr Trio’s legacy through performing the Verdehr’s repertoire on stage and by adding new repertoire to their programs by commissioning and arranging pieces. The concept of developing a whole new repertoire for a certain group of instruments shows great promise for the possibility of new music for contemporary musicians. From the beginning of the Verdehr Trio’s existence, James Niblock has been one of the primary supporters for the ensemble, not only as a colleague at Michigan State University, but also as a composer who has provided more than 13 pieces ranging from arrangements of pre-existing works to double concertos, including trio-specific chamber compositions. Niblock’s trio compositions make a solid contribution to the violin, clarinet, and piano trio literature as valuable exemplars of American Neoclassical music, with many similarities with Roy Harris and Hindemith. Niblock maintains a classical aesthetic in his chamber music, pursuing pure sounds, refraining from emotional or scenic expressions, and employing the use of simple instrumental techniques, few dynamics, a narrow range in the piano, thin polyphonic textures, rhythmic clarity, and small motives. On the basis of traditional idioms, he added 20th century techniques and personal preferences for shifted rhythm, perfect 4th/5th intervals, use of pitch centers rather than traditionally defined key areas, repetition of small motives, and more. / 2031-01-01T00:00:00Z

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Este trabalho aborda analiticamente o Trio em fá sustenido menor (1916) do compositor brasileiro Alberto Nepomuceno, com objetivo de constituir um estudo de caso que permita um melhor posicionamento da obra do compositor no período de transição entre o romantismo e o modernismo brasileiros. Ele levanta dados do contexto ideológico-musical no qual se insere a obra, em especial das noções francesas de progresso e suas consequências musicais no início do século XX. A pesquisa apresenta também os fundamentos teóricos de uma proposta analítica que visa incorporar à análise estrutural os desdobramentos do significado musical. Ela procura unir, por meio do conceito de multivalência, os estudos das tópicas, dos esquemas, da narratividade e da intertextualidade. O trabalho apresenta quatro análises multivalentes, uma para cada movimento da obra. Os resultados apontam para uma obra que se constitui em uma rede de símbolos musicais introversivos e extroversivos, que faz um equilíbrio entre a tradição formal e expressiva e o uso de novos materiais sonoros. / This work analyzes the Piano Trio in F sharp minor by the Brazilian composer Alberto Nepomuceno, aiming to constitute a case study that allows a better positioning of the composer\'s work in the period of transition between Brazilian romanticism and modernism. It raises data from the ideological-musical context in which the work is inserted, especially the French notions of progress and its musical consequences in the early twentieth century. The research also presents the theoretical foundations of an analytical proposal that aims to incorporate into the structural analysis the unfolding of musical meaning. It seeks to unite, through the concept of multivalence, the studies of topics, schemata, narrativity and intertextuality. The work presents four multivalent analysis, one for each movement of the work. The results point to a work that constitutes a network of introversive and extroversive musical symbols, which makes a balance between formal and expressive tradition and the use of new sound materials.

Este trabalho aborda analiticamente o Trio em fá sustenido menor (1916) do compositor brasileiro Alberto Nepomuceno, com objetivo de constituir um estudo de caso que permita um melhor posicionamento da obra do compositor no período de transição entre o romantismo e o modernismo brasileiros. Ele levanta dados do contexto ideológico-musical no qual se insere a obra, em especial das noções francesas de progresso e suas consequências musicais no início do século XX. A pesquisa apresenta também os fundamentos teóricos de uma proposta analítica que visa incorporar à análise estrutural os desdobramentos do significado musical. Ela procura unir, por meio do conceito de multivalência, os estudos das tópicas, dos esquemas, da narratividade e da intertextualidade. O trabalho apresenta quatro análises multivalentes, uma para cada movimento da obra. Os resultados apontam para uma obra que se constitui em uma rede de símbolos musicais introversivos e extroversivos, que faz um equilíbrio entre a tradição formal e expressiva e o uso de novos materiais sonoros. / This work analyzes the Piano Trio in F sharp minor by the Brazilian composer Alberto Nepomuceno, aiming to constitute a case study that allows a better positioning of the composer\'s work in the period of transition between Brazilian romanticism and modernism. It raises data from the ideological-musical context in which the work is inserted, especially the French notions of progress and its musical consequences in the early twentieth century. The research also presents the theoretical foundations of an analytical proposal that aims to incorporate into the structural analysis the unfolding of musical meaning. It seeks to unite, through the concept of multivalence, the studies of topics, schemata, narrativity and intertextuality. The work presents four multivalent analysis, one for each movement of the work. The results point to a work that constitutes a network of introversive and extroversive musical symbols, which makes a balance between formal and expressive tradition and the use of new sound materials.

This diploma work aims to map to some depth the history of piano trio, to introduce the reader to individual pieces for this arrangement, to present the origins and fortunes of the leading Czech and international ensembles, and to compare their way of interpretation. In the first part of this document we will take a look at the absolute beginnings of chamber music and later development of this musical segment. We will concentrate on the history of the trio, developed from trio sonata that become the principal chamber type during baroque. At the turn of 18th and 19th century we can see its present form. It became one of the most popular musical forms, taking an important place in the work of all four "Viennese classics". We can find some occasional piano trios from Haydn and Mozart, composed primarily for the purpose of private conduction of music. Piano trios of L. v. Beethoven and F. Schubert however present a decisive step in the direction of artistic originality. Mature work of these authors represents zenith of the genre, successfully maintained later on by Schumann, Brahms, Dvořák, Smetana and other romantic representatives, who were using the form as ideal means to convey the most internal of their feelings. Meeting of three completely different instruments allows the composers to merge...

Max Reger was a prolific composer on the threshold of modernism. The style of his extensive musical output was polarizing among his contemporaries. A criticism of Reger's music is its complex and dense musical structure. Despite writing tonal music, Reger often pushes the boundaries of tonality so far that all sense of formal organization is seemingly imperceptible. In this dissertation, I offer what I observed to be a new way of discerning Reger's motivic relationships and formal structures within and between movements. There are three primary tools and methods I incorporated to make these observations: Schoenberg's developing variation; melodic contour analysis as discussed by Elizabeth West-Marvin and Diana Deutsch; and Janet Schmalfeldt's motivic cyclicism stemming from internal themes. In this dissertation I examine five different musical works by Reger: D minor Piano Quartet, Clarinet Quintet, Piano Concerto, String Quartet, op. 121 and E minor Piano Trio, op. 102. My analysis shows how Reger relies on melodic contours of his motives to connect musical moments across entire movements and entire works with multiple movements. These motives are developed and often mark structurally significant moments providing the organization often perceived as missing in Reger's music.