Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Music. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 169-172).

The works in this portfolio of original compositions cover a wide spectrum of genres, styles, approaches, and musical techniques. The aim was to demonstrate mastery of the various musical languages and techniques characteristic of each genre. The calculatedly low-fi 'alt.rock meets computer games' approach of the concept album They No Longer Sleep Alone is of folk-like simplicity, deliberately eschewing the various polishing processes available to producers now in the digital mastering situation. The intention was to preserve a naturalness of sound and song making. On the other hand, live electronic effects are utilized to expand the sonorities and textures obtained from a solo bassoon in The Effect of Bundled Sticks on Sounds. Today is the Tomorrow takes this idea further, being a completely electronic work mixing live musical performance (turntables) with pre-recorded sounds, these interacting with live video and prepared animation. De Feo, inspired by graffiti artists, was written for a virtuoso pair of performers in the unusual combination of alto saxophone and viola, with no electronics being required. The Big Fat Jazz Bastard Theme Song and Espacio were written for particular performers and approaches to music making, while Saturday Afternoon and Late Night Specials are film scores. Swamp Treasures and Bungamucka - the Alarmist were commissioned for theatrical productions and thus were designed to fulfil specific functions determined by the stage directors. By way of contrast, ...seconds unwind...generated noise...racecar... is an abstract work that utilizes the sophistication and subtleties of timbre, rhythm and texture available from a professional chamber orchestra.

Igor Stravinskys collaborations with contemporaries including Picasso, Nijinsky, and Cocteau are well documented. Less familiar, however, are the anachronistic collaborations suggested in one short movement Stravinsky wrote in 1918, and involving the Germans Luther and Bach, the Swiss Ramuz, the Russian Stravinsky, and the American Kurt Vonnegut Jr.<p> Grand Choral, the penultimate movement of Stravinskys lHistoire du Soldatwritten in 1918provides a key to unlocking the mysteries of construction, ideology, and by extension, performance of the work. Grand Choral parodies J.S. Bachs Cantata 80 (1715) which, in its turn, is based on Martin Luthers 1529 hymn, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott. C.F. Ramuz, Stravinskys original collaborator on lHistoire du Soldat, based his libretto on a Russian folk tale, but in 1993, Vonnegut wrote a new text to accompany Stravinskys music, a text inspired by the true story of Private Eddie Slovik, the last American soldier executed for desertion. In essence, Vonnegut collaborates with Stravinsky in a posthumous sense, as Stravinsky does with Bach and Bach with Luther. Vonnegut and Stravinsky each write themselves into an existing work, giving it contemporary meaning and a new poignancy.<p> The principal aim of my paper is to document the process by which I studied and conducted lHistoire du Soldat with one libretto by Ramuz and another by Vonnegut. In the paper, I will first examine the historical context in which each of the collaborators contributed to lHistoire du Soldat. I will also present an analysis of Grand Choral with regard to the source material by Luther and Bach. Finally, I will document the process and findings of my study, rehearsal, and performance of each of the two versions of lHistoire du Soldat which I conducted on March 31, 2009 in Quance Theatre, on the campus of the University of Saskatchewan with a full cast of musicians, dancers and actors.

In meinem Beitrag möchte ich die charakteristischen Züge des musikalischen Schuldramas und seinen Rang in der Geschichte des Theaters in Mähren erwähnen. Wenn sich auch diesem Bereich eine ganze Reihe von Forschern widmete, so bleiben hier immer wieder weiße Stellen, weil manche der Notenmaterialien unwiederbringlich verloren gingen.

Thesis Abstract This diploma thesis analyses theatre music in three productions of Naši furianti and one film - the production by Josef Šmaha at the National Theatre in 1887, the production of opera Naši furianti at the State Opera Ostrava in 1949, the production by Vítězslav Vejražka in 1970 at the National Theatre and film Naši furianti by Vladislav Vančura a Václav Kubásek at the year 1937. This thesis correlates with my Semestral work which deal with an analysis of Miroslav Macháček's production of Naši furianti in 1979 at the National theatre and bachelor's thesis which deal with an analysis of the production by Petr Lébl at the theatre Na Zábradlí in 1994, the production by Jan Antotnín Pitinský in 2004 in the National Theatre and the production by Jan Born in 2011 at Divadlo v Dlouhé. This thesis is aiming to describe transformation od Czech theatre music in history and to analyse various functions of tgeatre music. Key words: Naši furianti, theatre music, Josef Šmaha, Vítězslav Vejražka, Vladislav Vančura, opera Naši furianti